That was the week that was…

Do you have a week when somebody says to you what did you do this week and you automatically reply ‘oh not much really’ but then stop and think well I did this, and this, oh and then I went to see… 

Well last week one of our members emailed and asked for a bit of an update on where we have ‘touchpoints’ with the system at the minute. This is an important question to ask. With so much changing, and more potentially to come, within the ICB, hospitals trusts or local authorities it is perfectly reasonable to ask if our relationships are there, who are we talking to and about what. So here is a summary of current ‘touchpoints’ with the wider system based on things the team have been up to this past week or two that hopefully show how we are working to maintain existing relationships and to build new ones with colleagues in Local Authorities, the Integrated Care Board and the Hospitals Group. How we are continuing to influence, advocate and challenge.  

 For example: 

• We speak directly with colleagues in public health, including the Interim Director of Public Health and we have been asked to be the VCFSE representative (non voting) on the H&WB board and also to represent VCFSE organisations on a new Lincolnshire Health and Wellbeing Partnership established to provide strategic leadership, oversight and coordination for the delivery of the Lincolnshire Neighbourhood Health Plan and the Neighbourhood Transformation Programme. I have also been asked to sit on the interview panel for a new Public Health Consultant (replacement for Tony McGinty). 

• Went to a Health and Wellbeing Board development session on Strong and Vibrant Communities where I was very proud to see that the majority of the invited speakers talking about work that builds and maintains Strong and Vibrant communities were LVET members. It was also heartening to hear the phrase ‘natural neighbourhoods’ being used, something we pushed for as a way of describing neighbourhoods based on how people actually live their lives not on administrative boundaries or set population size. I think there is likely to be a significant role for LVET to drive the activity of the Strong and Vibrant Communities strand of work that the new Lincolnshire Health and Wellbeing Partnership will establish. 

• We have been pushing Public Health and other partners to bid for National Centre for Creative Health funding – it will create a role to coordinate and strategically develop creative activity linked to health and social care. There is lots going on across LVET members in this area and it is a good opportunity to bring partners together to develop this kind of work in a coordinated way. Fingers crossed we will get a proposal together for the March 2027 funding round. 

• We have been talking with various people in the ICB since the cluster arrangements were announced (and with our VCFSE colleagues in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire before the cluster arrangement was announced) including Clare Raybould, Tom Diamond and Charley Blyth (primarily around VCFSE contribution to the ICB priorities and a VCFSE commissioning framework) and I am due to talk with Nick Blake (currently Primary Care Programme Director) who has recently taken on the role of Deputy Director for Neighbourhood Commissioning for Lincolnshire – I was hoping to glean some key things to share with him from the session on Thursday but will be asking members for thoughts via email now. 

• Chairing a Carers Action Group focused on improving the wellbeing of carers, access to breaks and life after caring. We are also participating in a number of other action groups including Digital Inclusion for carers and will be looking to you, our members, to support the thinking and development of activities that will make a difference to carers. 

• Responded to the national consultation on proposed Multi-Neighbourhood Provider (MNP) and Single Neighbourhood Provider (SNP) contracting models to support neighbourhood health services highlighting how it is essential for any new contracting model to take into account the challenges faced by VCFSE organisations, and which you share with us, around the procurement and contracting related barriers you face to maintaining consistent support, with disproportionate requirements and compliance models based on clinical provision for non-clinical support. (You can read the full response here) 

• To date I think it is fair to say our relationships with the Hospital Trusts have been less strong but we are working on this and have made connections and contributions through commenting on plans for Neighbourhood Health Centres for example and connecting around their volunteers and their digital work. This is newer work for us though we feel we are making progress with a number of their Strategic Partnerships and Integration teams – and were invited to sit on a stakeholder panel for the recruitment of the Chief Medical Officer – though I am not sure what influence we had on the decision we now have some ‘hooks’ based on what was said in the panel session to approach them with.  

• We also often cross paths with colleagues from Primary Care and we need to do more to connect with them in a more purposeful way. Perhaps Neighbourhood Health will give us a hook to hang conversations on, in the same way as Social Prescribing did in the early days of building momentum around that. 

• LVET is also heavily involved in numerous conversations through working groups, boards, committees and we do our best to share key messages through these groups around VCFSE diversity, challenges related to capacity, funding and procurement and also to talk lots about the great work our members do supporting people to live well. For example last week I was in 

• an Age Friendly Lincs Working Group meeting about being physically active and was able to broaden the conversation to include nature based activity, horticulture activity, the informal stuff that happens in communities when people decide to meet up for a walk as well as all the activity that happens in village halls and also to question if our role in the working group is also to feedback and challenge ‘the system’ where we see systemic barriers to being physically active in everyday life. 

• a Research and Innovation Leaders Group where the role of LVET in ensuring VCFSE organisations are connected to clinical and academic research formed part of the conversation. The majority of the meeting ws focused on the new ICB structures and how the Lincs Research and Innovation strategy stays locally focussed, relevant and what the new structures will mean for the group as it will get a new chair – the ICB Director of Outcomes.

I had hoped to talk a bit about all of this in the context of Neighbourhood Health at the members Challenges and Opportunities session that was planned for last week (17th September 2026), but which was cancelled. It is sometimes hard to know for sure what the impact is of our presence in some working groups, boards and committees – perhaps much of it is a ‘slow burn’ though I do know we can also help statutory bodies connect quickly with LVET member organisations who have important experience and expertise to bring to the table. 

We know we need to get better at sharing what we are up to – not because we have a need to be ‘the big I am’ but because you need to know that you do have a voice, that we are championing the work you do, that we are challenging where appropriate or that we are trying to find ways to create new partnerships or build new support for your organisations or for the people you support and work with. And you need to know that when we ask for information – it is because we use it in those conversations.  

Over the next few months I think we will be asking for your thoughts on many things – I make no apology for this as we are a member led organisation. We exist to support our members, and our direction is very much set by you and also because we can only share with partners the VCFSE view on health and social care, and the challenges communities are facing in supporting people to live well, if we hear it from you. Please share what you can, when you can, this intelligence and insight is always useful for us and means we can tell your story to the right people. 

Part of the reason for this is because we need to make sure the VCFSE voice is heard in all the Neighbourhood Health planning and development but also because we are spending some time to make sure that our goals and direction meets the needs of our members and finally because we will be building an Induction and Influencing resource over the next few months. Thanks to funding from Assura, NAVCA and Alliance 42 over the next few months we will develop a resource that tells the story of VCFSE organisations in health and social care in Lincolnshire with the aim of helping elected members and statutory partner staff know what you all do, the size and diversity of VCFSE organisations and the impact you have on the lives of people in Lincolnshire. We hope it will also help you to tell the bigger story when you get a chance. As well as being available online we will be sending hard copies to the 360 councillors in Lincolnshire and the 600+ parish and town councils, our members and partners after the May 2027 elections. No longer will people be able to say they know nothing about VCFSE organisations in Lincolnshire or that they didn’t know who to get in touch with.