Building bridges between primary care and VCFSE Sector
On Thursday, 19 June 2025, the first in a series of roundtables brought together Greater Manchester Primary Care and voluntary community faith and social enterprise (VCFSE) leaders.
From the VCFSE sector, senior figures from local infrastructure bodies such as 10GM, the Alternative Provider Collaborative, the Mental Health Leaders Group, GM=EqAl, and cornerstone Greater Manchester (GM) organisations including the LGBT Foundation, Caribbean & African Health Network, 42nd Street and Answer Cancer took part. On the primary care side, attendees included senior leaders from the Primary Care Provider Board (PCB) and Primary Care Collaborative.
Those attending the session at the Friends Meeting House Manchester explored the governance, scale and operational models of each other, and reflected on the strengths, challenges and achievements of each other.
Shared purpose and shared potential
A number of key themes emerged from the discussion:
A common purpose and vision for improving health and care for all communities across Greater Manchester
Opportunities to better align delivery models and infrastructure support
How we might, in partnership, shape future models of delivery in Greater Manchester.
Linking local to national
Discussion also picked up on Sir Jim Mackey’s recent call for stronger integration across health systems: “We need all parts of the system to be as strong as every other part” - Sir Jim Mackey, Health on the Line (10th June 2025). Participants acknowledged that power and influence within the NHS is often unevenly distributed between organisations.
Roundtable attendees also discussed how working together could help deliver national priorities set out by Health Secretary Wes Streeting at NHS ConfedExpo in Manchester: radically improving population health approaches, systematically tackling inequality and creating a better neighbourhood health system.
What happens next
There was a strong sense that primary care boards, working with primary care providers across the city region, and VCFSE leadership can bring collective expertise and strength to shared Greater Manchester priorities, from the Live Well programme and neighbourhood health to designing prevention-focused services and delivering care closer to communities.
The roundtable was co-chaired by Tracey Vell, Chief Officer of the GM PCB, and Warren Escadale, Chair of the GM VCFSE Leaders Group, and supported by Rob Bellingham Consulting. Further sessions are planned, aiming to turn shared ambition into practical collaboration that improves outcomes for communities across the region.
Reflections from NHS Confed Expo 2025
Duncan
VSNW Board Member and We Are Survivors Chief Executive, Duncan Craig OBE, attended this year’s NHS Confed Expo and has shared with us his reflections.
As you know, NHS Confed Expo has taken place over the last two days. Whilst it’s impossible to give you a complete breakdown of everything, I can give you my thoughts and summary (as a delegate) that may help you think about the direction of travel within your organisation in regard to health.
The NHS Confederation is the membership organisation that brings together, supports and speaks for the whole healthcare system in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Members include Hospitals, Trusts, NHS providers, and the VCFSE.
A powerful start
The opening of the Confed, by Lord Victor Adebowale, set the tone for the two days. Lord Adebowale uncomfortably acknowledged the pending change within NHS and NHS England and what that means for staff, which very much put a heaviness in the air.
“And let’s be really honest for a moment – with changes at NHS England and across services, we know some of you won’t be here next year. There might not be roles for you, despite our experience and dedication to our communities. And for that I’m sorry, so I want to thank you now whilst I have the chance, for all that you have done for the health and care of others. We don’t take it for granted.”
As Victor closed the welcome, he talked about valuing people, and all people. He gave a moving example of this in talking about a close family member who passed away at the age of 92 very recently and how she was a nurse for so many years but her passing was not the dignified death it should have been.
“She got a black service, not an NHS service. So I have to address the inequity that still exists within the NHS, in terms of the experiences that people who look like me continue to receive. It just hasn't got any better. It is not acceptable that someone who looks like me, on average waits 20 minutes longer in A&E than white patients. To achieve an inclusive, equitable NHS we need an inclusive equitable culture from top to bottom.”
He then went on to say “and when I say valuing people, I mean everyone. I stand with my trans colleagues, and our trans patients in these incredibly uncertain times. Trans and non-binary staff are facing more bullying, more discrimination from patients, more unwanted sexual behaviour, more physical violence from colleagues and more physical violence from patients than our cisgender and heterosexual staff. If you allow it to happen once, you allow it to happen everywhere. This is utterly unacceptable behaviour and does not belong anywhere, let alone in the NHS.”.
The welcome address set the tone for me, and many others I met throughout the day, about being brave and having honest conversations.
A focus on tech
There is no doubt in my mind that “how can tech help health and how can health engage tech” was the overwhelming theme of Confed, whether that was on purpose/by design or whether that is the direction of travel and so the expo is showing a natural growth, is debatable. But it certainly makes me reflect on how is the VCFSE part of this digital health revolution? Is the NHS asking the VCFSE where it’s up to? How can the two entities be equal partners in shaping a future health system that involves tech appropriately but also be daring together?
Standout sessions
There were some fascinating main stage sessions – highlights for me included:
Wes Streeting’s speech
And then the one that kind of everyone wanted to hear was Secretary of State for Health, Rt Hon Wes Streeting, who gave his keynote on day two. The key take-aways for me from what the Secretary of State had to say were:
He is wholly supportive and wants to encourage tech involvement and innovation in health and social care.
He 100% wants to assure us all that the NHS is always going to be a people business.
He wants us all to be cautious and take a considered tentative approach to private investment.
And he recognises the NHS has been built on the hard work and effort of people born outside of the UK (stating its not a coincidence that NHS was built when Windrush docked) and it will always continue to be a diverse organisation; but that we can’t keep taking staff from other countries (especially those on the WHO red list) as its not ethical or in the best interests of mankind and we have to invest in and build our own, citing the example of getting a large number of extra GPs in as there was plenty that were unemployed.
The missing piece
Talking to some other VCFSE Leaders from around England and Wales, we all had a consensus that it was disappointing that he didn’t really talk about the VCFSE despite talking about hospital to community; and there was not enough recognition of the breath of resource in the VCFSE.
Men’s health left out
The NHS 10 Year Plan is due out soon and so those of us working with victims of RASSO have to ensure that not only do we work hard with officials to make the criminal justice system a better place for victims/survivors; but that we reach out to NHS/DHSC and work out how we keep the HEALTH of victims/survivors as a high priority.
Personally, I was disappointed that the Secretary of State didn’t even make a comment on the men’s health strategy but, I also appreciate that there is always something left out – I just wonder why it always has to be that which is connected to be betterment of male survivors.
However, all is not lost and the changes in the health system and a new plan pending, it is our responsibility to help deliver on the plans and ensure male survivors are not forgotten about.
New letter makes the case for VCFSE sector as NHS local health and care functions are reviewed
Representatives from the 42 voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise (VCFSE) Alliances operating across England are working together to make the case for the sector in local health and care.
Ahead of formally launching later this year, the interim Alliance42 steering group, which VSNW’s Chief Executive sits on for the North West, has written to the new Chair of NHS England, Dr Penny Dash, and members of the national working group reviewing the functions of local Integrated Care Systems and Boards (ICBs). The review comes following the announcement last month of the abolition of NHS England and significant cuts to local ICBs.
Warren Escadale, VSNW Chief Executive, said:
“We understand our submission has been positively received. However, the proof will be in the updated functions of an ICB which are due out in the next few weeks. We hope that Alliance42, connecting to VCFSE groups in every local health system, can be a powerful voice for our sector’s role in health and care nationally. The aim is that the sector is recognised and invested in as a must-have full partner. It won’t be easy and this is just the first step.”
The Alliance42 steering group consists of agreed representatives from each NHS region, nominated by 42 VCFSE Alliances in England – partnerships of VCFSE organisations with the aim of strengthening the sector's voice, influence, and involvement by leveraging their strengths. They have written the letter ahead of Government publishing a new operating model for ICBs next month, asking that the convening power of VCFSE Alliances are fundamental to underpinning ICBs.
The letter calls for the revised ICB operating model to ensure the VCFSE sector is included as a full partner in shaping strategy, governance and in the delivery of that strategy, with ICBs continuing as a systems convenor. This means bringing together cross-sector partners and organisations.
Highlighted in the letter is the substantial contribution of local VCFSE groups and networks to healthy neighbourhoods, as well as the sector’s offer around supporting the work of the NHS, helping to tackle and prevent health inequality. It is vital that the sector is seen as a fundamental building block of medium- and long-term improvement to ensure people are best supported. Moreover, investment in the VCFSE sector presents a clear opportunity for strategic commissioning for the creation of social value.
Our sector’s passion, innovation and values-driven approaches need to be better embraced if we are going to create an effective, integrated, collective culture for improving health and care in all our communities.
Read the full letter here.
Integrated Care Board cuts: A message of support for our NHS colleagues
Last week, the Prime Minister announced that NHS England, the administrative body responsible for delivering health services, setting out funding and agreeing priorities for the NHS across the country, will be abolished.
Alongside this, and perhaps most relevant to our VCFSE organisations and NHS partners across the North West, Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) have been ordered to cut their running costs by 50 per cent in the next six months with provider trusts also told to cut their corporate service budgets back to pre-pandemic levels.
Citing a need to “liberate” NHS staff and leaders from over regulation and bureaucracy, these changes will see the NHS “taken back into direct government control” within the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). Keir Starmer, in his speech in East Yorkshire, was critical of the systematic duplication that has evolved since the establishment of NHS England, with the Government expecting around 50 per cent of jobs at both NHS England and DHSC to be cut in an attempt to streamline health and care planning and provision and redeploy savings to frontline services.
The Government are wasting no time with this latest announcement, with work beginning immediately to transfer functions to DHSC with an aim for the transition to be complete within a 2-year timeline. There is uncertainty around what this news means in terms of the recent publication of various policy announcements regarding NHS priorities and for the long awaited NHS 10 year plan. It is also unclear at this stage what 50 per cent cuts to ICB running costs will look like, particularly as many ICBs are already in financial deficit, with some concerns raised that reforming ways of working could impact on place-based teams and frontline services.
We understand that this is an extremely concerning and demoralising time for many health and care staff across the country, and here at VSNW we want to offer our solidarity and support to our NHS colleagues and partners across the North West.
It is easy to see these figures as that, just figures, but behind these numbers and percentages are hardworking and passionate people who are dedicated to delivering high quality care to our communities in the face of increasingly difficult circumstances. Communities in which their families, friends, colleagues and they themselves live and receive health care.
Whilst we wait to see the impact of these proposed cuts locally, and indeed on the VCFSE sector, we will continue to support our health and care partners across the North West to navigate this challenge to continue to provide high-quality services for our communities.
At VSNW we are committed to supporting improved, integrated, prevention-driven community and neighbourhood delivery concurrently with the three NHS shifts (hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention).
For further information on this announcement, NHS Confederation have produced a briefing which can be found here: https://www.nhsconfed.org/publications/abolishing-nhs-england-what-you-need-know
Help shape the future of health data research
The North West Research Secure Data Environment (SDE) Public Advisory and Accountability Group (PAAG) is seeking members of the public to provide input on the development of a secure digital system for health and public data research.
As part of NHS England’s digital strategy, this initiative aims to bring together currently separate data sources—spanning health, care, environment, and travel—into a secure, pseudonymised digital environment. Researchers will be able to apply to access de-identified data to support studies that could improve healthcare, public services, and policy making.
To ensure transparency and public trust, it is essential that local people are involved in shaping this system. The PAAG will play a key role in advising on the design, expectations, and safeguards around the use of health and social data for research.
Who can get involved?
The group is open to people of all ages and backgrounds, and no prior experience in health data, research, or advisory roles is required. The aim is to gather diverse perspectives to ensure the system meets public expectations and operates responsibly.
What to expect
Monthly online meetings (2 hours)
£50 payment per session
Opportunities to contribute to an important national initiative
This work is being led by teams from the Lancashire and South Cumbria, Cheshire and Merseyside, and Greater Manchester Integrated Care Systems.
For those interested in contributing to this critical development in secure health data research, this is an opportunity to have a direct impact on how data is used for public benefit.
To register, visit North West Secure Data Environment [forms.office.com] or contact Nichola.Verstraelen@lthtr.nhs.uk for more information.
From This to That: Changes in the NHS
Confused about the upcoming NHS reconfiguration? Too many acornyms?
VSNW have produced a resource to help extrapolate key information relevant to the sector in light of the upcoming changes as outlined in the Whitepaper.
Click on the image below.
Carers in the NHS workforce
VSNW is jointly hosting an event with Health & Care Partnership for Cheshire & Merseyside exploring Carers in the NHS Workforce. This event, which will be of interest to HR teams, Directors / Deputy Directors of nursing, carer support organisations and those with a responsibility for staff health and well-being and staff side colleagues, will take place on Tuesday 24th September at The Foundary, Widnes.
On the agenda will be several case studies from Carers and employers, whilst VSNW CEO, Warren Escadale, will present the findings of research carried out in Cheshire & Merseyside looking at the Informal Carer Workforce. This piece of work was undertaken in partnership with Leeds Beckett University Centre for Health Promotion Research and Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES).
For more information, including the full agenda, and to book your place, please visit here.
The Long-Term Plan for the NHS
Theresa May established a funding settlement for the English NHS in June of this year that will help to make plans for the next five years. For its part, the NHS has been tasked with devising a long term strategy for its future by the 2018 Autumn Budget around mid-November, announcing its improvement goals and how it will meet those goals for the duration of the settlement.
Theresa May outlined a funding settlement for the English NHS in June of this year: "increased funding of £20.5 billion per year by the end of five years."
Ahead of the Autumn Budget, the NHS is therefore reviewing sector involvement and investment models across the board, which includes: Prevention, Personal Responsibility and Health Inequalities; Healthy Childhood and Maternal Health; Integrated and Personalised Care for People with Long-Term Conditions and Older People with Frailty (including Dementia); Cancer; Cardiovascular and Respiratory; Learning Disability and Autism; Mental Health; Workforce, Training and Leadership; Digital and Technology; Primary Care; Research and Innovation; Clinical Review of Standards; System Architecture; and Engagement.
How Can the VCSE Sector Get Involved?
VSNW are co-hosting one of four regional workshops (1.30-4pm, September 12, Manchester) with NHS England (via the VCSE and participation teams) and NCVO, as part of a rapid national engagement exercise, in order to develop VCSE proposals and core messages that feed into the Autumn Budget statement. We are particularly keen to draw out lessons and messages drawn from local reality.
This is an important moment. To book: North West event in Manchester on September 12.