The South West London Voluntary and Community Sector Alliance has been working hard across four key areas 

Our expanded Leadership Group

The Leadership group of the Alliance is now made up of 12 voluntary sector experts:

• the CEOs of the 6 local infrastructure organisations and
• the CEOs of 6 local charities, each representing one borough and one area of expertise amongst the main Health priorities in South West London (mental health, children & young people, older/frail people. Long term conditions, workforce development).

Leadership group members sit on/lead a range of local VCSE networks and forums and can bring the VCSE’s voice into the Alliance’s plans.

They are represented by the Alliance Director, Sara Milocco, at the Integrated Care Board (ICB) and Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) NHS meetings, where she champions and advocates for the voluntary sector. View recordings of previous meetings here for the ICP and here for the ICB.

Making sure the voluntary sector has a say in South West London

We nominated 9 voluntary sector representatives to sit on the Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) delivery workstreams:

Please email sara.milocco@cvalive.org.uk if you are interested in a specific area of work and want to make contact with any of our representatives.

Mental Health in South West London

When it comes to improving mental health care, the NHS can learn a lot from the voluntary and community sector. We know how closer working with the sector can bring mental health services right to the people the NHS needs to reach as well as taking pressure off A&E and other parts of the NHS front line. On the 8th of March 2024, the Alliance hosted our first major event on mental health. Attended by over 60 community organisations, we brought together the voluntary sector with key NHS representatives, heard about the NHS Integrated Care Partnership Mental Health Strategy for 2023 – 2028 and discussed what opportunities there are for real collaboration.

Read more about what the sector had to say at https://www.southwestlondonics.org.uk/news/what-can-mental-health-services-learn-from-the-voluntary-sector/?dm_i=790E,NP9Q,2OSLBI,34AQ4,1

Read here how we fed this back to the SWL Mental Health Partnership Delivery group

Watch a short video explaining how the voluntary sector and the NHS collaborate in South West London.

An update on Funding

The Alliance was heavily involved in publicising the ICP Priorities Fund and Health Inequalities Fund last winter. We are delighted that several VCSE organisations were awarded under the Health Inequalities Fund and that some new collaborations with the sector were forged under the ICP Priorities Fund. Here is the list of successful bids from the voluntary sector, which will be delivering until March 2025:

ICP Priorities Fund (2023-25):

1. Brite Box have scaled up their provision of a weekly healthy and balanced meal kit to families in need from Kingston and Richmond to Croydon and Wandsworth. Under the Children and young people priority.
2. Jigsaw4u; their Little Hands service provides Play Therapy packages for traumatised children aged 5 to 9 years old who have experienced Domestic Abuse (DA) across SW London. Parents will also receive therapeutic support. Under the Mental Wellbeing priority.
3. Aesop Arts and Society Ltd; Dance to Health (D2H) uses creative dance to address the major health challenge of older people’s falls. Postural Stability Instruction (PSI)-qualified Dance Artists (DAs) will embed PSI into creative dance. In Croydon and Wandsworth. Under the Older people priority.
4. ICSS are delivering a training programme to support carers in SWL, including young carers, to enhance skills and confidence in caring for others and themselves. 13 courses delivered in collaboration with local Carer Centres, mixture of face-to-face and online. Under the Older people priority.
5. ICSS; This scheme aims to create a pathway into work for those from vulnerable backgrounds like women, young carers, people who have been in care. It will deliver online sessions covering: SWL health & social care landscape, where to apply, volunteer and work experience opportunities, Communication, Time Management, Medical Terminology, Unconscious Bias, Health Literacy, Mental Health First Aid, Care Certificate Awareness, Interview Preparation, Team working. In collaboration with Kingston Voluntary Action, Merton Connected, Asian Resource Centre Croydon and more. Under the Workforce Development priority.
6. Healthwatch South West London is speaking to people and their carers to understand how well GP practices are meeting their communication and information needs, in line with the Accessible Information Standard. Under the Championing equality, diversity and inclusion priority.
7. Croydon BME Forum are conducting a comprehensive assessment of the neurodevelopmental needs within the Black communities in Croydon and develop recommendations for culturally sensitive interventions. Delivered in partnership with South London and the Maudsley NHS Trust. Under the Elevating the patient, carer and community voice priority.

Health Inequalities Fund (2023-25):

Small grants

The Alliance managed, on behalf of NHS South West London and other health partners, the following small grant programmes:

• Winter Engagement Fund, which distributed £45,000 through £500 small grants to 90 VCSE organisations in the six boroughs
• Community Cancer Awareness Fund, which distributed £30,500 through £500 small grants to 59 VCSE organisations and 2 NHS projects in the six boroughs.
• Childhood immunisation Fund, which distributed £22,000 through £500 small grants to 44 organisations.
• GetUBetter small grants programme through Superhighways, which distributed 6 £550 grants for a total of £3,300.

We also supported 4 VCSE organisations to receive £4k each to run Mental Health Research cafes in their communities, as part of a wider NHS diversity in research project.

Workforce Development

 Leadership

• We promoted leadership opportunities to the sector (such as the Digital fellowship by Health Innovation Network – 10 spaces secured for VCSE)

Promote collaboration with the VCSE sector

• We promoted being hosted by a local voluntary sector organisation to Primary Care GPs doing a Fellowship programme
• We are involved in the NHS Apprenticeship Hub programme, funded through the ICP Priorities Fund
• We are promoting a funded work placement programme, also part of the ICP Priorities Fund, and encouraging VCSE groups to host employees
• We regularly present on VCSE sector at inductions on the Integrated Care System for new GPs and other health staff.

Everything digital & data

Our VCSE representative, Kate from Kingston Voluntary Action (Superhighways - katewhite@superhighways.org.uk), has been raising awareness of the sector, including the digital inclusion support we provide, at the SWL Digital Board.

• Along with Healthwatch, she is inputting into the ICS Digital Inclusion Approach & Principles and a new toolkit being developed
• She's helped secure 10 spaces for the voluntary sector on an NHS funded free Digital Pioneer Fellowship programme. Have you got an idea for a new health/wellbeing project which could involve some digital delivery methods (e.g. apps or online intervention)? Does your community group work in health and social care and has plans to become more effective through some kind of digital transformation (e.g. implementing new digital ways of working)? Find out more about the programme and apply by 14th July!
• She has co-ordinated a partnership project working with SWL ICS Long term conditions Digital lead to trial roll out of the getUBetter app via a small grants programme for local charities and community groups in a position to support members install and use it. 
• Other areas of work coming up include digital workforce development and data access and sharing including information governance

Useful data

Healthy weight is a priority within health inequalities for the South West London NHS, but what are the most recent figures on it?

Read more on this topic here (from page 73 onwards).

Giving birth in South West London has been on the agenda of the Integrated Care Board lately; with maternity services being delivered at four local hospitals, the maternity health profile changes in different boroughs. Read all the latest statistics here (from page 22).