In mid January, NHS Dorset contacted the Assembly to discuss the opportunity for us to work together on a collective bid for a new NHS England grant and partnership programme called Volunteering For Health.
I met with NHS Dorset to discuss how the VCS (Voluntary and Community Sector) could be represented, involved, and contribute to the programme alongside our other partners in the ICS (Integrated Care System).
The details of the programme can be read here: VFH Guidance Document.
The Starting Point
I have represented the VCSA on the Integrated Care Board (ICB) since 2022. ICB leadership wanted to grasp this opportunity to develop and deliver on a collective system way of working, and use this bid as our first full attempt to really engage as a partnership to write the application and establish the project design. NHS Dorset’s Inward Investment Team were given the task of managing the writing and submission of the bid, and working with the partners to agree the content, with a deadline of 23rd February 2024.
Initial Ideas
The initial proposals from NHS colleagues were to support volunteer opportunities in our acute hospitals in Dorset, and to improve recruitment opportunities for these services. There were also ideas proposed around supporting more volunteering for young people in hospitals, and setting up admin systems to share information about volunteers and make it easier for volunteers to move between different settings, some of which might require training or quality assurance. Ideas around a volunteer passport were included.
Context – Purpose
The fund, which has an upper limit of half a million pounds over 3 years, is expected to drive innovation, improve health outcomes through volunteer support, improve experiences for volunteers, and contribute to the wider health and wellbeing agenda of our new Integrated Care System. It should make a substantial impact on the experience of our residents, improving their life experiences through the work of volunteers, as well as supporting volunteering as something that offers health and wellbeing benefits.
There is also a focus on inequalities and using this project to look at the impact of volunteering for health on underserved, minority, and disadvantaged people and communities.
Working with Partners
The timescale for working through the application was incredibly short. The first meeting I attended was 17th January with five further meetings before the bid was submitted. The hour-long meetings needed to cover lots of ground and the conversations concerned both the high level strategic impact of the potential work, the involvement and engagement with partners, and the “on the ground” delivery opportunities.
Marie Waterman from Volunteer Centre Dorset, and a Governance Board member for the Assembly was briefed about the work, and added to the invitees along with Zoe Bradley, the Interim Chair of the VCSA. They each attended one of the meetings.
Contributing to the Bid
In my role as Interim Programme Director I led the VCS representation in this process. My starting point was that the vast majority of volunteering happens out in the community. The community is also the place where VCS support happens that can reduce ill health and improve wellbeing, which can then reduce demand on public sector services. I proposed that the bid should take a strengths-based approach and build on the great systems, organisations, groups, and individuals who are already contributing so much volunteer led and volunteer-supported goodness in our communities.
Other contributions that I introduced included considering diversity in volunteering. I shared insights into the informal and formal opportunities and ways of volunteering our support in communities. I shared work underway by our volunteer infrastructure providers (Community Action Network and Volunteer Centre Dorset) looking at new and varied volunteer options, training, support, and opportunities. I presented information about “passporting” and volunteer development offers in progress with other organisations across Dorset, including Dorset Youth Association, PramaLife, AgeUK, Stepping Into Nature, Artsreach and many, many others.
In all these I was able to show the alignment of community volunteering with the ICB Five Year Forward Plan, the ICP Strategy, and the 4 ICS Aims. These boil down to:
- working with communities to enable them to thrive,
- statutory and other partners working better together to build and deliver more equitable services and support,
- and trying to provide support to people sooner, so bigger problems can be avoided or reduced.
Engagement Challenges
During this time I spoke with many and various people and organisations across the VCS and with the VCSA Governance Board, to check and challenge my approach, and ensure it was representing the understanding I have gained of the VCS across Dorset. I also made sure that there would be a clear and transparent opportunity to do a wider engagement process as a first step in the project, if the bid is successful.
To give all our VCS colleagues, and our health volunteers and other partners the best chance to work out together how to deliver on this bid, I encouraged everyone to avoid getting specific about the delivery methods and details, and to focus on the needs and opportunities. The intention of this is to hold open the discussion, and provide an open space where we can have a transparent and fully inclusive debate about the detailed design and delivery of the project.
Developing a Theme
The other significant input I provided to the project was to suggest the overarching theme for the collective work that would be done within the project. I proposed that we could unify a vast array of approaches in a huge variety of settings under a social inclusion focus.
There are very strong health reasons for tackling loneliness and isolation as a focus on its own. Loneliness causes the same level of harm as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. However, that wasn’t the only reason for proposing this theme.
Firstly, just about every volunteering activity will have a positive impact on people’s social wellbeing. Whether they are a volunteer, or receiving support from a volunteer, there is a benefit to people’s social connections and therefore their health and wellbeing. This means we can look at a whole range of ways of working within this project that can be unified around this common feature of their work.
Secondly, the ICS’ work to prevent harm and ill health through helping people sooner is massively improved and supported by strong social networks. The more people know other people, the better their chances of hearing about and accessing support services at an early stage. They can then benefit from “a stitch in time” and potentially avoid more adverse consequences.
And thirdly, if there are strong social networks in our communities it is easier to link in other services through those existing connections. Current work on Family Hubs, Wellbeing Hubs, Integrated Neighbourhood Teams, Urgent and Emergency Care, Home From Hospital, and dozens of other programmes, all reference the need to connect into vibrant and thriving communities, and build links to people through their existing social networks.
Revisiting the Principles
This bid-writing process was challenging. There are differences of approach and different aspirations between some of the partners’ ways of working. It was therefore important to work to the most inclusive model we could develop. This meant regularly returning to the concept of strengths-based work; recognising that we need to build on a variety of options that serve the particular needs of particular situations; hospital models for hospitals; community models for communities. Most of all avoiding driving to a “one-size fits all” concept that, in reality, bends everyone out of shape.
Instead the bid that would build on the partners’ great work, would share learning, ideas, and opportunities, and improve the connectivity and understanding between different approaches.
We also kept bringing the conversation back again and again to making the best use of this project to deliver good things and good experiences for our residents and our communities. The outcomes had to be experienced by people, and not just be defined as technical or structural changes to our systems. It has to make a difference to people.
The Money Bit
Half a million pounds is a lot of money and also not a lot of money. Over three years that is just over £166,000 per year. If it was spread evenly between the partners in the bid it would amount to about between £27-30,000 per partner per year. This was not the approach that was agreed however.
Firstly, any decision around allocating any funding awarded would be rooted in a discovery and engagement phase which would identify what should be included in the project, and what resources would be needed. Questions of priorities and affordability, and value for money will be key discussion points in this phase. Equity and fairness will be central, as will legacy. The intention behind this programme is to create sustainable change, rather than create a hothouse for one-off projects that fold when the money runs out.
The details around the allocation of this financial resource, and the programme support that NHS England are going to be providing too, will be worked through and agreed in dialogue and through equitable engagement between partners and their constituents. This will give any VCS organisation, group, or individual a place to get involved and have a say in this debate around the planning work.
Hitting the Deadline
I spent much of the final week before submission supporting the crafting of the bid’s wording, and ensuring the key points and subtle contexts would make sense to the assessors. I took this back and forward to the Assembly Governance Board for comment. The Inward Investment Team’s patience and support was fantastic. There was also huge support from other ICB leaders who see this as a defining moment in how we express how we work together as an Integrated Care System, and how we actually work together in practice. The application has been submitted and we are waiting to hear the results.
It is going to be a highly competitive fund, and our numerical odds of success are low. However, apart from the obvious strength of a strong partnership proposition, we addressed all the bid criteria, and have a strong message around strategic alignment and innovation, which are highly prized in the fund’s purpose.
Outcomes and Learning
This has not been easy. I have been challenged for not being able to engage with everyone before the bid and for holding some of these positions. There are people hoping that this might assure their financial futures. I have also been entrusted with the hopes of many organisations and individuals who have supported this approach to the bid, choosing to contribute to our collective proposal, rather than put in a separate individual proposals for their organisations. I have felt the burden of this responsibility keenly.
However, I have held to the values of the Assembly, of fairness, trustworthiness, inclusion, equity, and more, and held the needs and hopes of the whole VCS in my mind and heart in working on this, to open this opportunity up to as many people as we can, and to strengthen not only our voice as a VCS, but also our relationships with each other and our ICS partners across Dorset.
As I approach the end of my work as Interim Programme Director, I hope this bid will be seen as a clear culmination and delivery on my personal commitment to creating the VCS Assembly, and holding faithfully to the founding principles, hopes, and intentions that I, and others, have nurtured and developed over the past three years.
If we are successful in winning this bid, we will have the opportunity to do great things, and (most importantly) to work them out together.
If we aren’t successful, we have learned so much about how we can work effectively together around these opportunities, and interact with partners to develop something that is full of opportunity, rooted in Dorset’s communities, and builds on the tremendous work that is happening everywhere to support the health and wellbeing of our residents, and inspires and enriches our thriving communities.
If you’d like to contact me, my email is jon.sloper@dorsetvcsa.co.uk.