VCSE Strategy approved | News and events

Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Integrated Care System (ICS) has welcomed the new Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) Strategy – Working together for a better future - for our area. 

The Strategy sets out how the VCSE works as part of the ICS to work together for healthier futures for our local people. As a key partner delivering a range of services and support options for local people and communities across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, the Strategy sets out the positive impact the VCSE partners has on the health and wellbeing of local people. Underpinning the Strategy is a Memorandum of Agreement that sets out how the VCSE and other ICS partners will work together.  

Julie Farrow, Chair of the VCSE CEOs Network and Chief Executive of Hunts Forum, said: 

“The voluntary, community and social enterprise community across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough is vibrant, flexible and innovative. We support hundreds of thousands of local people every year, empowering individuals, supporting families and individuals, and strengthening communities. 

“This strategy sets out our vision and ambitions for partnership working and how we’ll achieve our goal of embedding the VCSE sector fully within the ICS. 

“The work we have undertaken as a partnership has paved the way ahead for stronger partnership working and a real shift change in how health and care providers, in particular the NHS and local authorities, want to work with different organisations to improve the health and wellbeing of local people and communities throughout their lives.” 

The Strategy was co-produced by the ICS, including VCSE partners, and led by the National Association for Voluntary and Community Action (NAVCA). 

Kit Connick, Chief Officer of Strategy & Partnerships at Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Integrated Care System, added: 

“We understand and appreciate the significant role that our voluntary, community and social enterprise partners play in supporting the health and wellbeing of our local people and communities. This Strategy and Memorandum of Understanding solidifies our approach to working together to create healthier futures for our communities and is the result of significant partnership working from a wide range of organisations over the summer. 

“I would like to thank everyone who have been involved in the development of this strategy, in particular the VCSE CEO Network and NAVCA. Their continued commitment to working together to develop a new and more defined way of collaborating with each other marks a new era of increased collaboration. I’m excited about working with our VCSE colleagues to transforming this strategy into real and tangible actions.”