Strengthening the voice of the local voluntary and community sector

1. Strengthening the voice of the local voluntary and community sector Jake Abbas - Interim Director, Northern & Yorkshire Knowledge & Intelligence Team (NYKIT), Public Health England Prof. Mark Gamsu - Local Democracy and Health Ltd @markgamsu

2. What I will cover The Challenge The Project What we Did Key findings Discussion Thoughts on approach Other examples of work in this area Produced by Northern and Yorkshire Knowledge and Intelligence Team

3. The Challenge Importance of Voluntary sector contribution to health and wellbeing But generally poorly represented in local needs assessment processes Reliance on routine statutory data sources Contractors Range and diversity of VCS providers Capability, capacity, skills Solution - Develop a methodology to bring VCS experience to decision makers Strengthening the voice of the voluntary and community sector in local needs assessments

4. Principles Need little resource Led by VCS Capture the experience Focus on insights that VCS can bring (rather than making the case for VCS organisations specifically) Strengthening the voice of the voluntary and community sector in local needs assessments

5. The Project Wakefield - Pressured Parents Sheffield - Food Banks Strengthening the voice of the voluntary and community sector in local needs assessments

6. What we Did Strengthening the voice of the voluntary and community sector in local needs assessments

7. What we Did – ‘Hack Days’ Hard data how many people used the service? what issues did they present? what services were offered? who referred? Stories what were the lives of the people who used the service like? what context did they live in? what were their personal experiences and stories? Pathways how had people found their way to the service and why? what happened to them when they received a service? where did they go? Strengthening the voice of the voluntary and community sector in local needs assessments

8. Findings: Wakefield - Pressured Parents • Inequalities dimension • Alienation and exclusion • VCS contribution is important and insufficiently understood - lack of strategic relationships • Importance of informal and informal support services • Statutory Sector too often ‘wrong first time’ • Data collection insufficiently coherent • Potential to increase volunteering support Strengthening the voice of the voluntary and community sector in local needs assessments

9. Recommendations: Wakefield Pressured Parents • Stronger focus on services addressing social determinants of health and social isolation needed. • Refresh of disabled childrens data set could be helpful • Build capability of VCS to capture, analyse and share information • Review whether statutory services are working in a sufficiently joined up way Strengthening the voice of the voluntary and community sector in local needs assessments

10. Findings: Sheffield - Foodbanks • Food bank use is growing • Main driver is poverty • People are in crisis - users lack the skills, social connections, knowledge to access the support they are entitled to • Food banks connect with isolated people • Food banks lack resources to engage in strategic planning • Much advice given is adhoc Strengthening the voice of the voluntary and community sector in local needs assessments

11. Recommendations: Sheffield Foodbanks • Need for better co-ordination • Food banks are a rich source of information about some people who are very marginalised • Services such as welfare rights could be better targeted at food banks Strengthening the voice of the voluntary and community sector in local needs assessments

12. What they said The process worked well in Sheffield because it was identified, led and conducted by people external to the Council or Clinical Commissioning Group. It helped that relevant JSNA people were involved. I agree that the topic should come from the VCS” Public Health Intelligence Lead Strengthening the voice of the voluntary and community sector in local needs assessments

13. What they said “The Rapid Review has been used as evidence to support the development of an early years lottery bid.” “The details from the case studies in this review and its professional design help in particular in getting it noticed.” The learning has not just been about understanding the issue but also much of the learning has been about the approach to take and in really listening to the VCS leading the work and not taking over.” Public Health Consultant “The JSNA has given this type of qualitative process credibility which is often dismissed as anecdotal.” VCS Chief Executive Strengthening the voice of the voluntary and community sector in local needs assessments

14. What they said “The third sector led partnership approach gave the review real independence which enabled (critically) a voice to come from grass roots community groups to strategic decision makers rather than vica versa” VCS Manager Strengthening the voice of the voluntary and community sector in local needs assessments

15. What they said “The Rapid Review approach helps to address two critical areas regarding VCS input into the JSNA (and other strategic planning processes). The first is the tendency by planners and strategists to see service delivery purely in statutory terms. I regularly sit around tables where I am the lone voice reminding partners that many ‘public services’ are delivered by the VCS – but they are off the radar as they are not delivered or commissioned via statutory agencies and therefore somehow don’t register as part of the ecosystem of service delivery. It is difficult to reconcile the structure and approach of the VCS (hundreds of small, independent organisations with no overall lead) with that of statutory agencies (single, large entities managed by a CX and senior team), and this difficulty means it is easier to concentrate on larger, visible services that have contractual links to councils, CCGs etc. Strengthening the voice of the voluntary and community sector in local needs assessments

16. What they said The second point is the data that VCS organisations gather. This ranges from stories about clients, recounted with passion and verve, to quantitative data sets gathered for funders and commissioners. However, we are regularly reminded that the sector is very poor at gathering data and evidence (usually by well-funded think tanks in London), and much hand-wringing ensues. The Rapid Review approach offers a simple way of synthesising all sorts of information from time & resource-poor VCS organisations into a pithy document that addresses very specific issues, which can then be fed into broader strategic documents and planning processes.” VCS Chief Executive Strengthening the voice of the voluntary and community sector in local needs assessments

17. Key Learning Points Topic selection Co-production Independence Sectoral leadership Accountability Skills Below the radar Strengthening the voice of the voluntary and community sector in local needs assessments

18. Conclusions • We need to agree a refreshed view of what a JSNA process is. • We need a more inclusive view of “evidence” Where to get the rapid reviews - www.localdemocracyandhealth.com Contact - Professor Mark Gamsu - markgamsu@btinternet.com Strengthening the voice of the voluntary and community sector in local needs assessments