The pandemic has confirmed the importance of partnerships between health charities and the NHS according to a new study by Dr Tony Hockley from the LSE and Professor Alison Leary from London South Bank University.
Commissioned by the National Garden Scheme, which provides funding for nursing and health charities, the report argues that these partnerships have been put in peril as strategic engagement with the charities by health policy makers has declined in recent years and that substantial benefits for the health service as a whole would come with a reaffirmation of this partnership.
The report focuses on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK and shows how, during the first wave, the charities stepped up with speed and expertise to provide services, innovation and expertise on the frontline.
The authors state: “The pandemic of 2020 accelerated the onset of the health and social care system’s biggest challenges. It was a wake-up call about coping with rising daily deaths – a trend that is set to continue as our population ages.
“The report reminds policymakers how much the nation’s health and care relies upon health charities and shares inspirational stories from these charities about their agility in keeping services going during the pandemic. They have done this despite a fundraising crisis, infection controls and weak planning around their involvement by health policymakers.
“Given what lies ahead, a much stronger partnership between the NHS and these major charities is imperative.”
Supporting partnership-working
The King’s Fund and the National Lottery Community Fund (TNLCF) have joined forces to support genuine partnership-working in local areas between the voluntary and community sector, the NHS and local authorities to improve the health and wellbeing of local communities.
The Healthy communities together programme offers up to £3 million of grant funding and £850,000-worth of leadership development support to place-based partnerships. Six partnerships are participating in phase one of this programme, which will run for nine months from February developing plans and testing approaches. These plans will be implemented in phase two, aiming to transform the way communities, voluntary organisations, the NHS and local authorities work together. This phase will last for three years, from 2022 to 2024.
As the programme progresses, The King’s Fund and TNLCF will also work with the Health communities together partnership to identify and disseminate learning from their experience.
The six partnerships
Grapevine Coventry and Warwickshire and partners wants to “un-stick” health inequalities by bringing the whole system together focusing on people experiencing mental health issues.
One Croydon Alliance is working to empower local people and communities and to develop a new way of commissioning that brings budgets together under a leadership that involves all sectors and statutory bodies.
Gloucestershire Enabling Active Communities wants to completely change partnership-working across the system within the county to ensure all voices are heard, discovering new and different ways to improve lives.
Solidarity Network and partners in Leeds plans to create a model that could work for a range of marginalised groups and then make a paradigm shift to support it, moving from transactional to mutual relationships.
Well Newham seeks to engage residents from ethnic minority groups and faith communities to co-produce prototypes for interventions to improve diet and weight management, which will involve addressing the underlying needs around finance, employment and housing.
Plymouth Octopus Project and partners aims to build connected communities to counter issues of social connection and isolation that are strongly linked to health inequalities.
