Online fundraising in rural communities: learn and share

Join us on 10^th Dec 6pm to 7.30pm to look at alternatives to grant funding particularly for rural groups and communities.

This event will include a presentation by Naomh Campbell (Co-op member pioneer coordinator for the Eastern Region) who, with her team is looking to work with more local causes offering support and advise.  We will also have interviews from two successful community fundraisers with one running  a crowdfunding campaign and another putting their community fundraising events online. 

We will touch on social investment and community share schemes to assess the level of interest for a future more in depth session on these topics.

To book your place http://www.cambridgecvs.org.uk/training-events/view/375

One month into the New Year and I have been to a LOT of meetings

January is over, I have already failed on most of my New Year Resolutions and I have been to a lot of meetings. These meetings are important and as a CVS it is our role to go and represent the sector, but I do wonder what would happen if we were not there. Would the world stop turning – NO; would you stop providing services – NO; would the statutory organisations who generally call these meetings stop having them – NO; would the sector get forgotten about or marginalise – MAYBE; would the sector be misrepresented and misunderstood – MAYBE; would the sector be assumed to be able to do ‘stuff’ for ‘nothing’ – YOU BETCHA’

This is not the first time that this thought about the value of meetings has made me think What would happen differently if these meetings did not exist? It is important that we keep evaluating what it is we do and why; here at CCVS we are currently in the beginning stages of looking at what our strategy will be in the future, so once again I questioned why so much of my time is spent sitting in meetings with lots of important people talking about stuff.

For info the meetings I have attended in January include

• The Fenland Health and Wellbeing Partnership
• A County Council Communications and Project Board Meeting
• The South Cambridgeshire Local Health Partnership
• The Fenland Community safety Partnership
• A City Council Prevent meeting
• The City Council Local Health Partnership

At all these meetings the work that voluntary sector groups do is integral to the work, priorities and targets of the statutory partners; sometimes this work is recognised and the groups involved are obvious, hardly ever are the efforts of the groups rewarded with funding and support. Often the work of many groups is not thought to be contributing when it is, both directly and indirectly – and that is a big part of my job. I am there to remind people of all the wonderful and diverse work that the sector does; to point out that this work needs to be resourced; and to highlight the fact that just because a lunch club does not see itself as providing health benefits it is doing so in many ways – by reducing isolation and loneliness, by serving nutritious food and by noticing when someone unexpectedly misses a session and popping round to check they are OK.

I am good at getting the sectors profile raised; I have learnt how to sound a little less like a stuck record when reminding people that we do need money; I have helped some people who did not understand the sector understand it better. This is all good but in the long run in this time of austerity will it bring in more funding and more support and better opportunities for you to engage? A recent blog by Joe Saxton for NFP synergy railed against voluntary groups spending time lobbying politicians, my response to that was that at a local level we were not and that we are continuing to get on with helping people and doing our thing. I do however believe that we are affected by the things that happen in politics both nationally and locally. We have to make people aware of:

• the work we do,
• the impact of their decisions on those that we work with and support
• the issues that are affecting the lives of people in their constituency/district

I will continue to speak up for the sector but you need to as well. I will continue to attend meetings so that you do not have to and can get on with your important work. But at the same time CCVS relies on your input to give us a bird’s eye view of what is happening on the ground. So my challenge to you is to let me have your insights and stories, what is great about what you have done? What are the burning issues? What ways can we join up with strategies that are in place and what ways can we ensure we drive agendas in the future?

As an incentive I will donate £5 of my own money to my new favorite campaign,

Harrisons Fund for the first five VCS organisations in Cambridge, South Cambs and Fenland that get back to me with their stories and ideas of how we can drive change and show statutory partners the difference we make.

What the Health is going on?

Hands up – it has been a while since any reports on attendance at health meetings, so this blog is designed to rectify that and to draw together some general thoughts on health related issues and the voluntary sector.

So what is going on – the big news is that the new provider for adult services has been announced. UnitingCare Partnership, which is a consortium of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust with Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, are the lucky winners. They will have a duty to work with voluntary sector providers and we will need to keep a close eye on how the sector can get involved and especially how smaller local providers can be supported.

Another big announcement saw the publication of the Public Health Annual Report This can be viewed here. This report sets out the different health issues facing the county broken down by district. The report will inform much of the future work across the council and CCG and should be regarded as a source of information for VCS organisations.

Other big health news includes

• The Better Care Fund which is a government plan for allowing local areas to reform health care. It looks to move funding from acute to community health provision. The County Council are responsible for this and have put in their initial plans to government. This has been a long and difficult process and the sector have been involved to some part, but expressions of interest for projects have not been taken forward despite the time and effort put into preparing them. More information can be found in the papers from the latest Health and Wellbeing Board here.
• The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group CCG have been developing a Five Year Plan. More information can be found on the CCG website. There is ongoing discussion as to the role of the VCS in this and it is important that we keep an eye on how providers can get involved. The fact that this area is one of the countries ‘financially challenged health authorities’ probably precludes lots of money for grants to support projects, this does not mean that some funding should not flow into the sector.

These notes follow attendance at the following meetings (if papers are available follow the links)

• Cambridge Local Health Partnership on 3^rd July
• South Cambs Local Health Partnership on 15^th July
• Health and Wellbeing Stakeholder Event 17^th July
• Fenland Health and Wellbeing partnership 23^rd July
• The CCVS CEO Forum of 10^th September focused on health issues
• South Cambs Local Health Partnership on 16^th September

So what does all this tell us about health and what the voluntary sector can do?

There seem to a whole raft of positives for the sector in all these new initiatives. Firstly everyone is expressing their love for the work that we do to ensure healthier communities; secondly there is a real narrative that services have to move to a more preventative nature, this is great for the sector because as a rule it is where the bulk of our work is situated. Thirdly there is a move to a more person centred, local style of service, again right up the sectors street. There are undoubtedly going to be opportunities for sector providers to play a role in the new ways of working but things are not all rosy – given that there are severe financial constraints, given that commissioning does not generally favour the small, localised and specialist services that a lot of CCVS members provide, and given that acute services can not be stopped and will continue to demand greater funding despite the desire to work more preventively.

Finally we must recognise that change brings about a certain amount of introspection and this has been evident in those organisations responsible for funding health and wellbeing; hopefully, although there are still changes happening, both the CCG and the County Council are looking out more and more. I believe that it is important that as they start looking out they see a confident and professional VCS waiting to take up the opportunities that arise. There needs to be more joined up thinking about how the sector delivers and this is starting to happen, and there needs to be projects that clearly align with the priorities that have been articulated.

Mental health is more than just a health issue

As Mental Health Awareness Week draws to a close it seems fitting to highlight how this topic is rising up the agenda of a number of the community safety and crime partnerships CCVS attend.

Having recently attended the Community Safety Partnerships for both Cambridge and Fenland, and the Police and Crime Partnership meeting I am struck by the increasing issues raised around mental health and how it affects victims and perpetrators of crime. More and more the Police and other partners have recognised that the mental health of those that they are coming into contact with is a contributory factor to the committing of crimes and something that affects many victims.

There is a real desire to examine this issue and work out what can be done to prevent crime and to support victims and perpetrators to address any mental health issues. The new Cambridge City Community Safety Plan has a strategic objective to

“To understand the impact of mental health, alcohol and drug misuse on violent crime and antisocial behaviour”

The growing recognition that mental health is an issue and that reducing offending means looking at, and addressing, the underlying issues that people have has been recognised and the partnership recognises that it needs to find out more about this to develop effective strategies can only be welcomed.

In Fenland whilst there is no mention of mental health directly there is a strong focus on Anti-Social Behaviour and problems caused by alcohol. It is recognised that mental health problems have an impact on both these areas and that they need to be addressed.

Significantly the Police and Crime Commissioner has identified Mental Health as a priority area and will be bringing his influence to bear to look at how the system of dealing with mental health across the county can be improved with a view to reducing offending. The county has effective partnership structures in place around domestic violence that involve many agencies working together, this is overseen by a Domestic Violence Board who can ensure parity of service across the county and ensure that organisations are working together. The need for a similar board for mental health, along with the funding and partnerships to make a real difference seems to be paramount. So over to Sir Graham to make it happen!

As far as the voluntary sector goes there are numerous organisations working with and supporting those with mental health issues, reductions in funding to the NHS and increasing thresholds to get people into the clinical mental health system are putting pressure on many services. It is vitally important that everyone gets the support, treatment and information they need in an appropriate way. It is only a truly person centred and joined up system that will bring about real change for the individuals affected directly and indirectly by mental health issues; by doing this we will be able to reduce offending and create safer communities.

If you work in the mental health field please let us know your thoughts, we are looking at what we as a sector need to do in order to start influencing the agenda and providing services that work towards a common goal.

The search for someone to provide Older Peoples services continues

The consultation on the Older People’s Programme dominated the latest meeting of the Fenland Health and Wellbeing Partnership. And so it should it my opinion.

This is the biggest change in the way that health services are delivered in the county for a long time, and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough CCG are leading the way nationally in commissioning such a big piece of work. So the first thing to say is – have your say – check out the consultation website and encourage all those you work with to do the same. Spoiler alert – this page is quite long as is the consultation so it is not particularly user-friendly.

I guess for me there are three questions about this.

The first is what will the impact of the consultation be, especially the first question that asks

“On page 11 of the consultation document, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) explains the reasons behind these changes. Please can you rate on the scale below how supportive you are of these reasons for changes?”

If everyone strongly disagrees will they not go ahead with the process? There was a hint at the meeting that this project could still be stopped if the prospective suppliers did not meet standards etc. So could people power really make a difference?

The second question I have is how this all adds up for services, for those using them and for those proving them. In effect the contractors are being asked to provide comparable services for less money. I am sure that there are efficiencies to be made in the current system that contractors could exploit to drive costs down, but introducing an extra layer of monitoring and a whole new infrastructure will surely cost so will services remain the same, will standards really improve and can we be assured that those delivering services on the ground continue to have the same salaries and benefits as they currently have. As those that know me will attest I am not a financial genius but I cannot see how these companies can deliver the same services for less money, and that overall that this way of working will save the NHS and us significant amounts of money.

My third question is where do the Voluntary and Community sector sit in this process? The consultation document talks a lot about community services and even has a section on the voluntary sector that states

“We believe that the use of the voluntary sector is very important in supporting independence and healthy living. One of the questions the CCG is asking bidders is how they will work with the voluntary sector. For bidders to answer this, we would expect them to make contact with voluntary organisations and to develop an understanding of what benefits the voluntary organisations can deliver to our patients.

As part of the procurement process a number of events have been held to provide an opportunity for voluntary sector organisations to meet with bidders to showcase the services they provide.

Bidders will be asked to explain how they will work with and fund services offered by the voluntary sector.”

So there you have it we should be expecting to receive funding – grants as well as commissions I hope. That said I don’t think that any of the shortlisted providers have been knocking on the door of CCVS to find out what the sector is doing and what they might like to do. If you have met with the shortlisted providers do let me know I would be interested to hear your experiences. CCVS will continue to push for a greater dialogue with all parties on the sectors role. We feel that it is essential that some guarantees are built into the contracts.

Getting back to the wider Fenland Health and Wellbeing Partnership I am pleased to say that future minutes and agendas will be published on the FDC website. I will post a link once they become available.

There continues to be a real feel of joined up working across some of the key priorities that the partnership have identified. Despite not getting funding to become a Local Alcohol Action Area the council are looking at how to reduce issues caused by alcohol both around health and crime and will be looking at the impact of a super strength campaign similar to the one underway in Ipswich. Similarly there is some great work underway about reducing Coronary Heart Disease and encouraging people to get a health test. More info on the FDC website.

Update the latest newsletter about the Older People’s Service is available here