Dear Colleagues,
It’s been a busy few weeks,
There is always a packed agenda at the Health and Wellbeing Together Board which meets quarterly and the meeting this week was no exception.
Nationally, Health and Wellbeing Boards (HWBs) were established in 2013 and set up to drive forward joined up working locally. New arrangements regarding the health and care system, came into place with the Health and Care Act 2022 which established Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) and Integrated Care Partnerships (ICPs) as part of the whole Integrated Care System (ICS). Within this landscape, HWBs continue to play an important statutory role regarding joint working across health and care organisations and setting the strategic direction to improve the health and wellbeing of local people.
The ICS involves the NHS, Local Authority, the Voluntary, Community, Social Enterprise and Faith sector and others, working together to create better services based on local need and to improve health and care services, with a focus on prevention, better outcomes and reducing health inequalities.
HWBs continue to be responsible for assessing the health and wellbeing needs of their population and publishing a joint strategic needs assessment (JSNA): https://insight.wolverhampton.gov.uk/JSNA
At the HWB, the agenda included updates on the following:
- Health and Wellbeing Together: Getting Wolverhampton Moving More
- City of Wolverhampton Housing Strategy – Post Consultation
- Integrated Care Partnership
Going forward, we would like to invite partners who are leading on these important pieces of work to present to the VCSEF Alliance, speaking of which, the next VCSEF Alliance meeting takes place from 10.30-12.30 (registration 10.15) on Thursday 3rd October at the Bob Jones Community Centre.
We will be joined by Health and City Council colleagues who will provide an update on One Wolverhampton Board and its work. We will also be hearing from the City Council’s Fostering Service and their wish to make better use of voluntary and community groups to support foster parents, especially kinship foster parents.
➡️ Please book your place here
In other news, last week, we ran back-to-back workshops with the Heart of England Community Fund who presented information on their many and varied funds, followed by a bid writing workshop focusing on how to write a good application and what funders really want to know. We know how important this is for the sector.
If you weren’t able to attend, you can find the slides from the workshop here.
On a final note, we will be joined online by the local Funding Officer for the National Lottery Community Fund at 1.30pm on 4th December 2024, please save the date.
Going forward we are planning a full calendar of events for 2025. Please check our website, newsletter and social media for the latest information.
Thank you,
Sharon Nanan-Sen
Chief Executive Officer