VCSE Health and Wellbeing Alliance
We are a member of the VCSE Health and Wellbeing Alliance (HWAlliance) which is a partnership between the voluntary sector and the health and care system to provide a voice and improve the health and wellbeing of all communities.
It has been established to:
- Facilitate integrated working between the voluntary and statutory sectors
- Support a two way flow of information between communities, the VCSE sector and policy leads
- Amplify the voice of the VCSE sector and people with lived experience to inform national policy
- Facilitate co-produced solutions to promote equality and reduce health inequalities
Every year, members of the HWAlliance come together to work on in-depth projects which aim to make a change in a specific area of policy or practice. So far we have:
- Developed guidance on tackling maternal health inequalities in Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities. View extended report or summary report.
- Led the development of an Inclusion Health Audit Tool for the voluntary sector, in partnership with Homeless Link.
- Contributed to Hospice UK's report 'Care Committed to Me: Delivering high quality, personalised palliative and end of life care for Gypsies and Travellers, LGBT people and people experiencing homelessness.' - view here.
- Contributed to Maternity Action's research report 'Exploring experiences of maternity and health in low income women and children from diverse ethnic backgrounds' - view here.
- Supported the 'Dementia and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Communities' project, led by Race Equality Foundation - view here.
- Contributed to Clink's research report 'Whole prison, whole person: How a holistic approach can support good mental health in prison' - view here.
- Contributed to Young Peoples' Health Partnership research report 'Closing the employment gap for young people: A toolkit for those supporting 16–25 year olds experiencing common mental health problems to gain and stay in work.' View scoping review (Appendix 2 focussed on Gypsies and Travellers) and report.
We are currently involved in a number of projects related to mental health, premature frailty, Primary Care Networks and much more. We will share more information on these as soon as they are ready.
As part of our role on the HWAlliance, we also participate in the following groups:
- Inclusion Health Sub Group of the HWAlliance
- Working Group on the Menu of Evidence Based Interventions to Tackle Health Inequalities (NHS Long Term Plan)
Voluntary sector organisations - we want to hear from you!
If you have an inspiring project, particular concern or piece of research which you think policy makers need to hear about, we want to hear about it. If you want to keep up-to-date with news and developments from the health and social care system, we can help you. You can get involved by:
- Joining the conversation with the #HWAlliance hashtag on Twitter.
- Emailing Rosie Hollinshead (rosie.hollinshead@gypsy-traveller.org) for more information.
