Creating greater collaboration between Primary Care Networks and the VCSE sector
Overview
This project has been carried out with NHS England and NHS Improvement, as part of our work on the VCSE Health and Wellbeing Alliance.
We’ve worked with Integrated Care Systems (ICSs), Primary Care Networks (PCNs), GPs, and VCSE organisations across England to understand the challenges and opportunities in this area. This has taken place through our Community of Practice, wider Community of Influence, and further-reaching stakeholder interviews.
Our recommendations for creating better collaboration include:
- ICSs and PCNs to adopt commissioning and procurement approaches that encourage collaboration and shared outcomes with the local VCSE sector
- Support the capacity of PCN leads/clinicians and VCSE organisations to meet and engage with each other
- Create space for all parties to understand and make a shared plan for the local health outcomes to be achieved
- Provide PCNs with NHS guidance setting out the value and impact of the VCSE sector
The briefing also includes case studies showcasing existing good practice in PCN-VCSE collaboration.
“There are considerable benefits to local health outcomes when the health system and local VCSE organisations work together.”
Locality, in consortium with Power to Change, is part of the VCSE Health and Wellbeing Alliance (HW Alliance). The report below is an initiative of the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England and NHS Improvement.
The HW Alliance exists to connect the voluntary, community, and social enterprise (VCSE) sector with the
health and care system to provide a voice for policy and improve health & wellbeing for all communities. As part of this effort, the HW Alliance are publishing the following learnings and recommendations for greater collaboration between Primary Care Networks and the VCSE sector.
The benefits of collaboration
There are considerable benefits to local health outcomes when the health system and local VCSE sector work together.
For example, most GPs believe that social prescribing programmes can help reduce their workload.
We also know from other HW Alliance partners that collaborating with the local VCSE sector can support people and communities faced with additional health inequalities.
VCSE organisations often have closer links to these marginalised communities and are therefore better able to support their health and wellbeing needs. To support the culture change needed for effective collaboration, Integrated Care Systems could support joint working at PCN level to reduce local pressures on the health system and provide better health outcomes for patients. There are challenges to this type of collaboration, but many local VCSE organisations and PCNs are developing good practice around collaborating in this way (see case studies on p4, 5, and 6 of the report).
The main opportunities and challenges fall into three categories: relationships, structures, and capacity and shared understanding.
