Voluntary sector will play leading role in Cheshire and Merseyside STP
VSNW convened a roundtable last week with the head of the Sustainability and Transformation Plan, Louise Shepherd, and VCSE sector representatives from across the region. The STP is the strategic plan for health and social care across the whole of Merseyside, Cheshire and Warrington from 2017 to 2021, building on NHS England’s Five Year Forward View. The plan aims to develop out of hospital care and improve prevention, increase the quality of hospital care, reduce costs and improve partnership working to deliver transformation.
It was clear at the roundtable that there are several ways that the sector can offer answers to improving health and wellbeing, including leadership and co-design opportunities, educating people about the depth and breadth of VCFSE expertise, effecting cultural change, and supporting sector involvement in the Integrated Care Partnership. Warren Escadale attended the inaugural meeting of the System Leadership Board.
“Closer engagement with the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise (VCFSE) sector is positive in itself and could have broader benefits. This is an opportunity for the VCFSE sector and the local health and social care system to develop answers that improve outcomes.
If we’re going to transform our health system, we need a new working relationship with communities and residents and the sector offers an important means to make this happen.”
VS6 Chair Ellen Loudon appointed VCFSE advisor to LCR Mayor
VS6 Chair Rev Cannon Dr Ellen Loudon has been appointed as a non-voting member of Liverpool City Region's combined authority board. Ellen will be an advisor for the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sector to Mayor Steve Rotheram.
The appointment of Mayoral advisers is about utilising independent strategic advice from talent across the Liverpool City Region who will support the programme and vision of the Metro Mayor.
This follows much of the work done by VSNW and VS6 in promoting the interests of the voluntary and community sector in Liverpool City Region.
Ellen's Profile
Background
Cultural/ academic background, having studied for two BAs (Drama with English, and Theology), one MA (Popular Music), and a PHD again in Music. Ellen also taught Drama at Edge Hill University between 1995 and 2006. Ellen read both her PHD in Music and BA in Theology at the University of Liverpool, and has lived in Liverpool since she was 18.
Work
After being involved with theatre, both at the Blah Blah Blah! Leeds Theatre company, and then teaching performance and popular theatre at Edge Hill University at Birmingham, Ellen has been in roles at the Liverpool Diocese since 2008. Since May 2017, she has been Director for Social Justice for Liverpool Diocese and Canon Chancellor for Liverpool Cathedral. Ellen has been Vicar for St Luke the Evangelist Walton Church since 2012.
Interests
Ellen is still involved with music and the arts, e.g. co-ordinating Liverpool’s ‘River Arts’ network for Christians involved with creative work, and speaking on her PHD which studied 19th century music hall in Liverpool.
Ellen says that her belief that all are deserving of equal opportunities has led her to the most marginalised in society, for whom she is often called upon to be an advocate to those who struggle to find justice. Ellen’s church is a foodbank collection point and she regularly tweets about poverty, inequality, and women’s issues in Liverpool.
Ellen is involved with the community through the Walton Youth Project and being Vice Chair of Governors at Gwladys St School. Ellen has an online presence via her twitter.
More information on VS6's work can be found here.
VS6 is a partnership of 14 organisations working with the 8,600 VCFSE groups operating across the Liverpool City Region.
2017 General Election: What can the next Government do to support charities?
The next government has a big role to play in supporting the VCSE sector, volunteers, and catalysing wider change in the country. NCVO have published a manifesto with five key asks from the next Government. They are:
Making it easier and more rewarding for people to volunteer
- Allowing employers time off work for volunteering
- Providing a support fund to address barriers to volunteering for people with disabilities.
- Recognise the difference that volunteers make to their communities
- Strengthening volunteer development and management
Supporting local communities for a generation to come
- Create income-generating endowment funds
- Put more assets in community ownership
Facilitating charities and volunteers to support our public services
- Services such as the NHS should be asked to set targets for the management and development of volunteering
- Senior public service leaders should be asked to become volunteering champions - raising greater awareness
Enabling people to develop their skills and employment opportunities
- Replace European Union programmes that help people get back to work
- Make it easier for unemployed people looking for work to volunteer
Giving everybody a stake in post-Brexit Britain
- Ensure the right to stay of EU national is resolved without delay
- Simple and effective visa requirements should be put in place to enable people from overseas.
- In the voluntary sector alone, around 5% of staff are non-UK EEA nationals, with this proportion increasing at a higher rate in recent years than the private or public sectors
““Over the next few weeks, people across our country will be talking about their vision of what a good society looks like, what a more social economy looks like, and what post-Brexit Britain looks like. Our message to candidates from all political parties is that this is a good time to think about how we can support and encourage the people and charities who want to help in their communities.””
These five areas all draw upon the idea of the next government acting as an enabler for the sector to develop and flourish even further. Charities and volunteers across the country and in all communities are already making a difference to people’s lives and changing things for the better. With the right support and opportunities, they can do even more.
For further details, NCVO's full manifesto is available here.
VSNW are recruiting - Treasurer
VSNW is currently searching for a candidate to fulfill the role of Treasurer.
This role requires a candidate to:
- Oversee the financial affairs of the organisation and ensure they are legal, constitutional and within accepted accounting practice.
- Ensure proper records are kept and that effective financial procedures are in place.
- Monitor and report on the financial health of the organisation.
- Work with the Trustee Board’s Resources Group in order to oversee the production of necessary financial reports/returns, accounts and audits.
Activities
- Liaise via, and chair, the Resources Group (comprised of one trustee, Chief Executive and VSNW’s finance associate) to ensure the financial viability of the organisation.
- Make fellow trustees aware of their financial obligations and take a lead in interpreting financial data to them.
- Regularly report the financial position at trustee board meetings (balance sheet, cash flow, fundraising performance, etc).
- Oversee the production of an annual budget and propose its adoption at the last meeting of the previous financial year.
- Ensure proper records are kept and that effective financial procedures and controls are in place
- Appraising the financial viability of plans, proposals and feasibility studies.
- Lead on appointing and liaising with auditors/an independent examiner.
Person Specification
Essential Experience
- Knowledge of financial management.
- Good financial analysis skills.
- Ability to communicate clearly.
Desired Experience
- Knowledge and experience of current and fundraising finance practice relevant to voluntary and community organisations.
- Appreciation of the nature of membership based organisations
Personal Characteristics
- Belief in the value and role of voluntary and community activity
- Passion for positive social change
- Personal alignment with the purpose and values of VSNW
Full details for this role can be found here.
To apply (closing date: 18th August 2017)
To express your interest for this role, please send your CV and a letter of application outlining your suitibality.
Please send CV and application letter to Warren Escadale, Chief Executive: VSNW, St Thomas Centre, Ardwick Green North, Manchester, M12 6FZ or email: warren.escadale@vsnw.org.uk. Potential applicants are welcome to contact current trustees and the Chief Executive; please contact Warren in the first instance: 07753 147664.
Shortlisted applicants will be invited to meet the current board on 15th June, St Thomas Centre, between 12.30 and 3.30pm.
Social Purpose Learning in Action Award Winner
Black Toffee Productions – 'Fantastic' – A One Act Play (Bolton)
Peter Carruthers and Laura Lindsay
'Fantastic' is a seventy minute one-act play- which explores themes of mental health, forced treatment, the clinicalisation of human experience and the pressure placed on people to conform to a notion of normal. Set in a dystopian view of the not-too-distant future a new ‘miracle cure’ has been discovered. Simply called, ‘The Implant’, the treatment promises to cure any psychological disorder by electronically ‘normalising’ brain activity. The implant promises a happier life, free from distress and a reassurance of finally fitting in. Aisling (who is a voice hearer) and her brother Joseph (who has Aspergers and is a synesthete), are potential recipients of the new treatment. ‘Fantastic’ depicts their battle to work out if the implant is the scientific advancement they’ve been waiting for, or if it poses a threat to the very thing that makes them human.
This project stemmed from an extensive period of research and interviews with ‘experts by experience’ and clinicians. Rehearsed readings were presented to an invited audience of health professionals, students and those with lived experience. Audience feedback was deemed absolutely fundamental to the play’s development. A full production of 'Fantastic' will run for two weeks in Manchester during November. Ongoing open rehearsals will further support creative engagement and development. A series of post-show Q&As with expert panels will also open up discussion, and a cross-discipline symposium between the arts and health sectors entitled ‘Change of mind: alternative perspectives on mental health and disorders’ is planned.
Nominated by Peter Carruthers
Social Purpose Learning Champion Award Winner
Peter McGarry (Tameside)
Eye Witness Theatre
Pete epitomises social purpose learning in action. He says,’ As I hurtle towards my seventies I feel an ever increasing ambition to write something of value. Although I have had TV, radio and theatre success I am still wrenched towards using my writing to enhance the quality of life for others – rather than gaining recognition in insubstantial, and transitory, conventions of the mainstream.’ Since qualifying as a social worker in 1977 Pete’s career has been underpinned by a series of opportunities that have served as an innovative platform both for development in writing and in the provision of health and social care awareness and training.
His writing has been bound up with his social work practice as a child protection specialist and he has been deeply attracted to the idea of using performance as a theatrical tool for training and learning in child protection/safeguarding arenas. He formed Eye Witness Theatre Company to support the production of theatre based training modules and over the last twenty five years such modules – both as theatre production and film - have been delivered to multiagency professionals not only in the UK and Ireland but also in Australia, US/Canada and across Europe. More recently he adds, ‘Chronological inevitability is directing my ambition, to further develop scripts, scenarios and plays with inter-active workshops not only for training and awareness for professionals but for older people too. Such modules have, so far, been instrumental in engendering dialogue between professionals in adult social care and older people’.
Nominated by Nell Corrin
Digital Innovation in Health Care Award Winner
Validate Your Care (V-Care) - Library and E-Learning Service
The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust
Validate Your Care (V-Care) is a powerful knowledge assurance tool for those working in adult acute care, facilitating a flexible approach to learning and development. It aims to provide an evidence-based, one stop, user friendly on-line learning portal to support busy nurses; to assess, develop and assure themselves of their knowledge across core areas of fundamental nursing care. It has provided an opportunity to assure the public and other stakeholders that its nursing workforce is up-to-date, and practising caring and compassionate evidence based care. It is accessible at any time in or out of the trust, on any device. Completion of the programme takes between 2–10 hours and it is structured around three modules:
- Recognition and management of the deteriorating adult
- Care of older people in health care settings
- Evidence based acute medical and surgical nursing care
The V-Care team developed core resources in conjunction with a leading professor of nursing, who worked closely with subject matter experts, working in the trust to develop subject specific content that was up to date, and relevant to current training practices within the trust. Verification was sought by scoping local and national policy directives and through a survey of senior nurses across Greater Manchester. The resulting programme engenders the 6 C’s, reduces duplication of the requirements of some mandatory training, uses the best available evidence and supports nurses to prepare for the professional revalidation requirements from the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). The team now hope to roll V-Care out to other clinical areas and other NHS organisations.
Nominated by John Bramwell
Asset Based Approaches to Community Development Award Winner
Community Links (Lancashire)
Rossendale Enterprise Anchor Limited (REAL)
REAL (Rossendale Enterprise Anchor Limited) is an exemplary model of asset based approaches in community development. REAL works with and for the communities of the Rossendale Valley by supporting and increasing the capacity of the voluntary, community and faith sectors (VCFS), by further developing partnerships within public and private sectors in order to help make Rossendale a better place to live, work and visit. The trustees are all social entrepreneurs who are passionate about the area. Founding member Dorothy Mitchell says there are a number of aspects of REAL work which adds to the community impact:
Community Links is a highly accessible, central repository of resources to promote wellbeing which highlights the role of social prescribing opportunity (non-medical interventions). It uses ‘fun, food and friendship with a health benefit’ to support ‘doing things which can become a good habit’. Encompassing over 400 organisations it provides ‘simple cost effective solutions’ which improve wellbeing and drive up community resilience.
REAL Involvement helps groups and individuals take part in their community. This includes practical information sessions, share and tell events, a weekly news bulletin, befriending services and a community minibus. The team supports consultation processes so that the people in Rossendale have a voice in what happens to them. They help start up groups, find funds and share information. They advise small groups wanting to start up social enterprises or to form a charity. REAL Involvement is run by older people voluntarily sharing their learning experience to help Rossendale thrive.
Nominated by Dorothy Mitchell
Joint Asset Based Community Development Runners Up
Hyde Community Action – Women Supporting Women
Court Thorn Surgery PPG – Transforming Lives through Community Health Seminars.
This Award was sponsored by VSNW.
Widening Participation in Health and Care Project Award Winner
Traineeship Programme (Merseyside)
NHS Liverpool Clinical Laboratories
Liverpool Clinical Laboratories (LCL) is a multidisciplinary NHS pathology service, jointly owned by the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals and University Hospitals Aintree, developed to provide high quality diagnostic and autopsy services as well as specialist pathology services. They welcomed their first traineeship students in 2017 as part of a bid to use NHS leverage to promote social mobility and to create a sustainable workforce for the future, whilst getting young people interested in careers in healthcare science. A thirteen week course delivered in partnership with Wirral Met College, combines classroom based learning and on the job training, with the aim of enhancing students CV’s and furthering their career options after school or college. Students are taught how to receive and check blood and tissue samples and perform laboratory reception duties, giving them the skills and experience which could help them go on to apply for a job as a healthcare science assistant.
Dave Eccleston, Head of Modernising Scientific Careers at LCL says,’ The course is an opportunity to not only show young people the range of rewarding and valued careers in the NHS, but to give them skills and experience to make their CV stand out from the crowd. By offering a high quality work experience placement at the end of the training, students boost their chances of getting paid employment and improve their career prospects, whether that’s with us or with other NHS organisations.’ The project has evolved to ensure it is fully inclusive of the local community.
Nominated by Nicholas Fowler-Johnson
Widening Participation in Health and Care Project Runner-up
Widening Participation and CSR – Salford Royal Foundation Trust