Northamptonshire Suicide Prevention Strategy

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The all-age, county-wide Northamptonshire Suicide Prevention Strategy and Action Plan 2022-2025 is due to come to an end this December 2025. There will be the development of new West Northamptonshire Council’s (WNC) and North Northamptonshire Council’s (NNC) Suicide Prevention and Self-Harm Strategies and Action Plans, with a proposed launch in April 2026.

 

These Strategies and Action Plans will underpin the county-wide Northamptonshire Suicide Prevention Steering Group.

 

To support the development of these new documents, a county-wide approach is being taken, led jointly by WNC and NNC Public Health Teams.

 

During November and December 2025, there will be 4 online workshops (2 hours each), with each workshop focussing on 2 of the national suicide prevention priorities.

 

The online workshops will allow time to reflect on what has been achieved locally for these priority areas to date and discussion time to explore potential objectives and actions to address future areas of focus. These discussions will need to be aligned with current resource and system to ensure the development of achievable action plans.

 

The below table highlights the priorities each workshop will focus on:

 

Workshop  Priorities 
1  Priority 1: Improving data and evidence to ensure that effective, evidence-informed, and timely interventions continue to be developed and adapted.
Priority 3: Addressing common risk factors linked to suicide at a population level to provide early intervention and tailored support.
2  Priority 2: Tailored, targeted support to priority groups, including those at higher risk, to ensure there is bespoke action and that interventions are effective and accessible for everyone.
Priority 5: Providing effective crisis support access sectors for those who reach crisis point.
3  Priority 4: Promoting online safety and responsible media content to reduce harms, improve support and signposting, and provide helpful messages about suicide and self-harm.
Priority 6: Reducing access to means and methods of suicide where this is appropriate and necessary as an intervention to prevent suicides.
4  Priority 7: Providing effective bereavement support to those affected by suicide.
Priority 8: Making suicide everybody’s business so that we can maximise our collective impact and support to prevent suicides.

 

If you are interested in attending any of the online 4 workshops, please respond to this email by COP Wednesday 15th October 2025 with your name, email address, and the workshops of interest.

 

You will then be sent the relevant workshop meeting invitations.

 

Please note that a pre-reading document will be shared ahead of the workshops with essential and recommended reading. This is to ensure attendees have a good understanding of the work area and to help maximise discussion time within the workshops.

 

Health Inequalities Funding – Lottery Community Fund

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The National Lottery Community Fund will be releasing their Health Inequalities Funding on the 15th of October 2025.

In this first year of their Programme, it is important to emphasise that they are looking to award only an initial 10 awards working with up to 10 partners. There are also some very specific criteria for awards in this first year, which will be explained on the website and at the webinars they will be delivering. More information on the fund can be found here: Health Inequities: Structural Racism and Discrimination Partnership | The National Lottery Community Fund

For those organisations in West Northamptonshire who are interested in applying but are unable to provide the wrap around Project Management Support please contact russell.rolph@voluntaryimpact.org.uk

Funding Symposium 2025

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SAWN held its first Funding Symposium on the 25th of September 2025 at Waterside Connect, the home of SCCYC.

Over 40 delegates attended, and heard presentations on Gift Fundraising, Financial Resilience, and Partnership working.

There was also an update on the merger between SNVB and Daventry Volunteers, followed by a round table world café.

You can view the slides here and here

Russell Rolph, the CEO of VIN states:

It’s always good to get the VCFSE in a room, not least for the networking but also to check how they are feeling. It’s a tough and challenging environment out there in a County of much transformation. We hope we can grow these SAWN yearly events for the future and are happy to take ideas from people about what they should include.

Upcoming dates for your diary:

VCFSE Engagement Group of West Northamptonshire Tickets, Wed, Oct 22, 2025 at 11:00 AM | Eventbrite

CEO Network of West Northamptonshire Tickets, Wed, Oct 29, 2025 at 11:30 AM | Eventbrite

 

 

 

 

An Update on Connect to Work

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Following a Market Supplier Engagement Event last week regarding the Connect to Work programme, please find attached the slides from the session which can be accessed here.

Every VCFSE organisation should examine the contents of the presentation and decide whether or not it fits your ability to deliver.

Notable concerns are:

Volunteering is not seen as an output. For many VCFSE organisations who work with vulnerable cohorts Volunteering is often seen as an important first contribution in building a CV.

Timelines: These are tight and therefore it’s aimed at those who are immediately ready for work without barriers or obstacles.

Funding: The funding amounts to 2100.00 per individual and that support is a balance of pre and post-employment.

The Procurement Process is shown as content within the Presentation.

VIN held a Focus Group last week of a select number of VCFSE organisations form West Northamptonshire tag work around the subject area of Worklessness or Economic Inactivity. For many, the programme is seen as challenging given the type of individuals they work with, some of whom are the most displaced from the employment market.

Further updates will be provided on the VIN website so visit regularly to ensure you do not miss out on vital information regarding this fund.

BBC Radio Northamptonshire ‘Make a Difference’ award- Winners!

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We are so happy that Northampton Volunteer Car Scheme has been recognised in the BBC Radio Northamptonshire ‘Make a Difference’ awards, alongside individual recognition for our long-standing volunteer, Paul Hardwick.

Paul is an extremely dedicated individual and volunteers 5 days a week to help elderly and disabled people get to their medical appointments. He has done over 1000 journeys for the scheme in that time and is instrumental in training up new volunteers to be drivers. He is a vital part of the Northampton Volunteer Car Scheme.

All of us here at Voluntary Impact Northamptonshire are immensely proud of the Car Scheme and everything it does for the community.  We cannot thank our volunteer drivers enough for the time and commitment they give, going above and beyond in the efforts they put in to making sure people in Northampton can attend their vital medical appointments.

Thank you again to all of our volunteers and to our staff team, without whose dedication this service could not exist.

Northampton Volunteer Car Scheme takes elderly and/ or disabled people who live in postcodes NN1 to NN5 to medical appointments. All journeys are done by volunteers in their own cars or we do have a Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle (WAV) which volunteers are able to drive.

If you are interested in becoming a volunteer driver or joining the scheme as a member, please contact on carscheme@voluntaryimpact.org.uk or call 01604 628234.

 

 

 

 

NHS transformation – Briefing Summer 2025

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Overview

Proposed changes to Integrated Care Board (ICB) functions and geography are being discussed as part of a wider NHS reform programme, to reduce management costs and focus more money on the front line.

All ICBs in England are being asked to significantly reduce running costs and shift to a more strategic role with different responsibilities for them and other parts of the health and care system.

This involves some ICBs working more closely with other ICBs in a cluster.

Clustering means that, although individual ICBs will continue to exist, they will work as one – with a single Board, leadership team, and staffing structure.

NHS England and government ministers approved a new cluster for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland ICB and the Northamptonshire ICB. This would be one of 26 clusters across England.

 

National context

 

The proposal is part of a wider reform of the NHS operating model across England, which will involve the integration of the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England, and a changed role for NHS regions, ICBs and providers.

As part of this, NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care are aiming to create a new, leaner, and simpler way of working in which each part of the NHS is clear on its purpose, what it is accountable for, and to whom.

The aim also is to lay the foundations for longer-term reform to shift resources into prevention, wellbeing, and care closer to people’s homes, as part of the Government’s ambitious 10-Year Health Plan, launched last month.

The plan sets out its vision to guarantee the NHS will be there for all who need it for generations to come.

It has been shaped by the experiences and expectations of members of the public, patients, partners and the health and care workforce across the country, reflecting the changes that people wanted to see.

Through the three shifts from hospital to community, from analogue to digital, and from treatment to prevention you can read the plan on the Government’s website: 10 Year Health Plan for England: fit for the future – GOV.UK

 

Local Priorities

 

The absolute priority for the NHS this year is to continue providing high-quality patient care while reducing waits whether that is waits for surgery, ambulances, Emergency Department, or hospital discharge.

A key part of this is boosting neighbourhood health services supporting the national shift towards a more preventative, community-based NHS.

Bringing care closer to people’s homes through integrated neighbourhood teams recognise the complex and interconnected challenges that many patients face.

 

ICB cluster design

 

A process is currently underway to design how the new ICB Cluster could work to best meet the needs of the local population within a mandated reduction in organisational running costs.

Draft NHS England guidance on ICBs’ future role and purpose outlines the need for ICBs to build strong strategic commissioning skills to improve population health and reduce inequalities.

Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland ICB and Northamptonshire ICB are currently looking at what functions should be kept, grown, or reduced – and what might need to transfer elsewhere or to stop altogether.

Design discussions have considered a range of considerations such as population size and needs, patient flows, the need to discharge statutory duties, partnership arrangements and the imperative for maintaining strong ‘place-based’ geography to support development of neighbourhood health in the future.

The priority remains to serve the populations in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland and Northamptonshire in the best possible way, working closely with, and remaining accountable to, all local health and care partners.

 

Re-Imagining Planned Care

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Re-imagining Planned Care is a programme running across both West and North Northamptonshire. Both Northampton and Kettering General Hospitals are involved in the Programme, and more can be found here:

Re-imagining Planned Care together

The Programme aims to tackle the following challenges:

  1. Long waits with patient’s conditions deteriorating during delays.
  1. Care not always delivered in a local or convenient location for patients.
  1. Limited coordination of care, meaning multiple appointments that patients may struggle to make, often with more than one service involved.
  1. Patients not feeling like they understand or getting what they need from some of the appointments they attend.
  1. Inequalities in access, experience, and outcomes.

Organisations and individuals can help assist the onboarding process by completing or circulating 2 surveys, both of which should take between 5 and 7 minutes to complete.

The Patient survey can be found here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SWKGSG8

The Self-Referral Service Survey can be found here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FS2G788

Roles and Responsibilities of Trustees – on demand video

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This 35-minute on-demand video takes you through the 6 duties of Trustees as outlined in the Charity Commission’s Essential Trustee: what you need to know and what you need to do, which they state all Trustees should read.

Volunteer Coordinator’s Network

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SAWN is excited to be offering a Volunteer Coordinator’s Network.

This network is for anyone who manages, supports, and coordinates volunteers. It’s a place for learning, peer-to-peer support, sharing information, asking questions, and helping each other support the many people who have come forward to volunteer in West Northants. We all have knowledge and experience to share with one another, and this network is the space to do so.

The meetings will alternate between face-to-face and online.

You can book your FREE place here

Joint VCFSE Statement on the NHS Long Term Plan

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The VCSFE Engagement Group of West Northamptonshire, SAWN (the West Northamptonshire Infrastructure Partnership) and the Northamptonshire VCSE Assembly have come together to draft a joint statement on the NHS Long Term Plan.

The Statement can be found here

Russell Rolph, the VIN CEO states:

We want to work collaboratively with the ICB in the operation of the new NHS Long Term Plan. The VCFSE is coming together to show a united and collective approach to both the system challenges and opportunities we all face. The VCFSE is rooted in local communities and in Neighbourhoods, and in many cases can assist in the process of delivering great people care. I would like to thank my ICB colleagues for entering the dialogue in a positive and constructive manner. We all want to see excellent preventative care delivered across the county, and opening conduits and frameworks for discussion will help us to achieve this.

The next VCFSE Engagement Group in the West takes place on the 23rd of September 2025 between 10.00AM and 11.30AM with a debate on shared values led by David Smart of Action for Happiness.

Check out the What’s New Section of the VIN website for further details in due course, where the virtual link will be posted.