Health & Social Care

The voluntary sector has representatives who attend the following meetings regarding health & wellbeing.  By clicking on each heading you will find more information about the group, its role, agenda and minutes:

• North Yorkshire and York Health and Wellbeing Boards
• North Yorkshire Overview and Scrutiny Panel for Care and Independence
• North Yorkshire Adult Safeguarding Board

Community Mental Health Transformation Programme

Using funding from the NHS, there is a plan in action to revamp health care for those in north Yorkshire with serious mental illnesses, click here to read more.

How the voluntary and community sector fits with health and social care

We have launched a new monthly briefing to fill you in on how the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector (VCSE) fits in with health and social care. You can download these below:

• Briefing 11: May 2021, an update on the work of the VCSE Leaders Group and the Humber, Coast and Vale integrated Care System.
• Briefing 10: March 2021, a special edition focusing on the challenges, opportunities and future of social prescribing in the run up to Social Prescribing Day on the 18 March.
• Briefing 9: February 2021 reflecting on the work of the VCSE through the early days of the pandemic and consider how to make the most of the changes that have been brought about by a crisis, noting that there is a recognition that there will not be a return to business as usual.
• Briefing 8: January 2021 looking at the next steps to building strong and effective integrated care systems (ICSs) across England and the response from Community First Yorkshire.
• Briefing 7: December 2020 focusing on Digital Transformation in the health and care system and information on Connect at Christmas with lots of resources and ideas to connect people.
• Briefing 6: November 2020 updating us on the Climate Change Virtual Summit held in October, convened by West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health Care Partnership, which questioned how all sectors involved in health and social care can be more involved and conscious of actions to help reduce the effects of climate change.
• Briefing 5: October 2020 in this issue get an international flavour of community resilience, take a look at workforce wellbeing, discover a webinar with The Kings Fund and be reassured about the important role of GP practices during Covid-19
• Briefing 4: September 2020 highlighting the aspiration of the NHS Confederation to work more closely with the VCSE sector through the Reset programme, and details on the VCSE Leadership Programme Steering Group
• Briefing 3: August 2020 on the importance of developing a shared language, and NHS Harnessing the Power of Communities in Harrogate
• Briefing 2: July 2020 summarising the NHS Integrated Care System (ICS) Leadership Training for the VCSE
• Briefing 1: June 2020 explaining the changing health and social care environment in North Yorkshire

Community First Yorkshire, alongside other voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector infrastructure partners in the area, including: York CVS, Two Ridings Community Foundation, HEY Smile Foundation, Forum and Humber and Wolds Rural Action, are part of the NHS VCSE Leaders Programme. The Programme aims to facilitate better partnership working between Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STP) / Intergrated Care Systems (ICS) and the VCSE sector to enhance the role of the sector in strategy development and the design and delivery of integrated care in communities. You can find out more about this and download the programme briefings on the York CVS website.

Useful resources

Social Prescribing

Social prescribing is not new, for many years voluntary and community groups have been providing activities and services which improve people’s overall health and wellbeing, and connect them to their local communities.  Our new Social Prescribing Guide provides an overview and checklist for organisations to make sure they have everything in place to provide support to people and take referrals from GP Social Prescribing Link Workers. Download an editable version here.

Wellbeing at Work 

Harrogate district’s Harnessing the Power of Communities (HPoC) group have published research and resources for promoting positive action for the wellbeing of the VCSE sector workforce. You can download it here.

With us, by us, for us in North Yorkshire

With us, by us, for us in North Yorkshire: developing co-produced community mental health solutions through lived experience, is a study undertaken by us to inform conversations as part of the York and North Yorkshire Leadership Board for Transforming Community Mental Health Services and beyond. Download the report to find out about the challenges and proposed solutions to transforming community mental health provision.

To talk about voluntary sector representation please contact Caroline O’Neill, Policy & Partnerships Officer at Community First Yorkshire on caroline.o’neill@communityfirstyorkshire.org.uk  t: 01904 704 177.