VCSE Sector Voice has a focus on influencing Healthy Minds, Healthy Communities, and Healthy Children and Families Priority Boards, as part of the Bradford District and Craven’s Health and Care Partnership’s priorities.
The VCS Alliance is leading this work within the Activation contract.
A large part of this work is around recruiting and supporting VCSE Sector Advocates. We ran an inclusive recruitment process in February 2025, resulting in the recruitment of 9 new advocates (three advocates per Priority Board as mentioned above). Read the full announcement and list of advocates on LinkedIn.
These advocates are currently embarking on a personal growth opportunity and will help the Priority Boards to understand the VCSE sector’s impact on improving services and alleviating pressure on the health and social care system. Advocates will be given support and training by the Alliance, and they will attend and provide feedback at relevant forums, boards, and health system meetings to ensure they are taking insight from a wide range of VCSE organisations and feeding back what they have learned and influenced to VCSE sector colleagues.
There will be a second recruitment round soon, particularly looking for members of the Mental Health Provider Forum to step forward as advocates in the Healthy Minds space.
The Young Lives Network has also been reinvigorated. Health system partners including the West Yorkshire ICB, the Children’s Trust, and Bradford Council, have asked that this network become the conduit for conversations between them and VCSE sector organisations working to support children, young people and families. The Alliance will support this process as part of VCSE Sector Voice. If you would like to join this forum, please contact Nadine Osuji via email – Nadine@thevcsallaince.org.uk
