Archive for category: News

The Department of Culture, Media and Sports has just completed a 12-month research project on Local Infrastructure across the UK.

The headline themes are detailed here:

• Across the UK there was considered no agreed definition of Infrastructure. Infrastructure and its role appear to be agreed locally, against local priorities and needs.
• Infrastructure was identified to have five functions: facilitating funding, organisational development, advocacy, volunteering, and community participation, and convening or representation.
• The most direct benefits from Infrastructure accrue to frontline VCSE organisations; with benefits to local communities through stronger frontline organisations and increased volunteering activities; and statutory bodies gain a greater insight of local needs, improvements in commissioning processes and local policy decisions. The most important factor in the quality of Infrastructure provision is being knowledgeable about the local area.
• Infrastructure organisations were seen as an effective bridge that can support open and honest communication between the VCS and public bodies especially in context of funding or commissioning relationships. Infrastructure activities led to three broad outcome pathways of: better targeted resources, improved policy making, and increased community trust, empowerment and belonging.
• There are no simple or straightforward answers to the question of how best to organise, support and strengthen local Infrastructure. Infrastructure works best when there is a close relationship with the public sector. This is easiest to achieve when decision-makers in local government and health systems take a strategic interest in Infrastructure that comes from a recognition of its value and its ability to contribute to their own priorities.
• Strengthening Infrastructure will almost certainly continue to rest on taking a local first approach and on ensuring that any reform is delivered with patience, sufficient resource and recognition of local concern and sensitivities. Enabling strong Infrastructure is based on a combination of factors: funding, local knowledge, effective relationships, and support.

SAWN’s comments:

There is nothing new about these headline themes. Most worrying is that after many decades of having Infrastructure across the UK the DCMS have not worked with local organisations to arrive at a definition. The very fact that there isn’t one nationally is a weakness and detracts against the fantastic work that Infrastructure organisations do across the UK. SAWN is clear about the essential aspects of its work: Supporting Community organisations to survive and thrive: Delivering volunteering initiatives: Advocating for the sector (never more needed in these challenging times): Representing the sector as honest brokers and proffering the VCS as a solution to some of the issues the Local Authority and out Health colleagues face. Infrastructure needs support though: It needs support from the rest of the VCS so we can stand together and exert pressure on our systems to examine us in closer detail and use us as agents of service delivery. It also needs funding appropriately. You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, and as more of the VCS is required to prop communities, Infrastructure needs to be there to provide that wrap around support.

The Plan sets out an agenda to address the continuing crisis in the NHS, rebuild public trust in its services and secure some form of sustainability.

Within it, there is an aspiration to reform which is delivery focussed, but the plan also seems to suggest a new relationship with the VCSE which is driven by individual systems and not from Central Government.

In addition, the abolition of Healthwatch provides a further concern about the presence of an independent patient and community voice.

There are three core shifts:

From Hospital to Community

• Establish a Neighbourhood Health Service: More care delivered locally and in homes.
• New Neighbourhood Health Centres (NHCs) in every community. These will act as local one-stop hubs, co-locating GPs, community services, diagnostics, and mental health support, open 12 hours a day, 6 days a week to improve access and ease hospital pressure.
• Enhanced GP access, including same-day appointments and expanded multidisciplinary teams.
• Expanded personal health budgets and care planning.
• Integrated services with VCSE, social care, and Local Authorities.
• End corridor care, reduce outpatient reliance and shift funding away from hospitals.

From Analogue to Digital

• A digitally accessible NHS powered by the NHS App as a Doctor in your Pocket.
• Patients manage appointments, feedback, care plans, and medications digitally.
• A Single Patient Record will underpin integrated, predictive, and personalised care.
• Use of AI scribes to reduce administration and wearables for real-time monitoring.

From Sickness to Prevention

·        Public health reforms: tobacco control, obesity strategy, food policy reform.

• Investment in young people’s health, school meals, and mental health support.
• New genomics-based population health service and early disease screening.

The plan also suggests a raft of systemic reforms including a diverse and devolved NHS, shifting from Whitehall to Local ICB’s and their providers. Transparency and quality will be key and poor patient care will not be accepted: both workforce and financial transformation (which could include the issuing of  Multi-Year Contract awards or Incentivization by Results) will ensure an NHS fit for the future.

VINs view:

From a local VCSE perspective, there is a need to explore the implications of multi-year contracts and payment-by-results models in greater depth. Multi-year funding could offer much-needed stability, enabling longer-term planning, workforce retention, and more sustainable service delivery. However, any move toward a Pay-for-Performance Culture must be approached with caution. While outcomes-based funding can incentivise impact, it risks disadvantaging smaller VCSE organisations that work with the most marginalised communities, where progress is complex, non-linear, and harder to quantify. To be effective, these models must reflect the relational nature of VCSE work, avoid excessive bureaucracy, and include flexibility to respond to local needs.

The full report can be found here:  Fit for the future: 10 Year Health Plan for England

VINs Volunteer Car Scheme has been nominated in the Community category in this year’s Award.

The scheme provides community transport for elderly and disabled people, living in Northampton (Postcodes NN1 – NN5).

It enables registered members to travel with ease, convenience, and peace of mind, allowing them to maintain their independence for longer and helping to prevent social isolation.

Last year our volunteer drivers took passengers to 10,000 medically related appointments. They averaged 930 voluntary hours of journeys per month.

Russell Rolph states:

It’s fantastic that the team have been nominated for this award. Just to be nominated demonstrates the commitment, hard work and skill required in delivering such a project. I would like to personally thank all the team and volunteers that perform this vital work and support our communities.

More on our Car Scheme can be found here: Volunteer Car Scheme | Voluntary Impact Northampton

More on the Make a Difference Awards can be found here: BBC – Make a Difference Awards

As part of the upcoming NHS 10 Year Plan Healthwatch England is to be abolished.

It is understood that local Healthwatch CEOs and Chairs were contacted on Friday 27^th June 2025.

The Healthwatch England Team have issued a response on LinkedIn, which recognises the enormous value of the work undertaken by  staff and volunteers over the past 12 years.

VIN understands that around 150 local Healthwatch branches will also be closed, with functions expected to move to ICBs and Local Authorities.

For hard pressed Infrastructure organisations that have diversified into this arena to stave off disinvestment, its a bitter blow.

The VIN CEO states:

I am deeply concerned over the potential risk of losing the  independence, local presence, and statutory footing that have made Healthwatch effective. Without its statutory footing, we fear this function could be defunded or deprioritised, weakening the power and agency of communities to influence the systems that serve them. 

Return to our What’s New section to find out how this story develops over the coming months.

June the 23^rd to June 30^th is widely recognised as Small Charities Week in the UK. It’s an opportunity to celebrate the great work that small charities undertake, often unseen, which benefits our local communities. Whilst the definition of a small charity is probably up for debate, most people view it as organisations with a turnover of less than 250K. It’s widely recognised that of the 164,000 charities which operate in the UK, 97% are deemed small. In Northamptonshire, 96% of our charities are seen as small or even micro. Life can be tough as a small charity, so if you’ve survived or even thrived up to this point take a deep breath and give yourself a huge round of applause. That’s not an easy task, especially given the complex nature of our operating environment.

The Cranfield Trust have just issued a report calling on more support for small charities. Its called Championing our national asset and it can be viewed here:

Call for action to safeguard the future of small charities | Cranfield Trust

One of the headline themes is this: They quote:

The report highlights the need for investment in leadership and management ensuring charity managers have the skills and support to strengthen governance, strategic planning, and operational resilience. Additionally, it stresses the importance of strengthening governance through diverse and strategically recruited boards and calls on policymakers to simplify funding applications and reporting requirements.

 They also state:

 Crucially, in line with the Voluntary Sector Covenant, the report urges the government to recognise small charities as a key partner and national asset and to use their knowledge more strategically. Small charities need urgent investment through multi-year commitments, as, without meaningful change, many organisations may struggle to survive, leaving vulnerable communities without essential support.

 However, and like so many things in life, its only missed when its gone. The answers are where they always been:

• Good Leadership.
• Strong Governance.
• Robust Business Planning.
• Funder understanding.
• Financial resilience.
• Collaboration.

The last point is critical. Many argue that there are too many charities within our marketplace, competing for too few resources and fighting over territory. Its an old chestnut but probably true. The only way that some charities will survive is by working together and skill pooling.

I hope to see many more Small Charities Weeks in the years ahead, but every CEO or leader now must think about the best way to achieve that. We know for certain that our funding landscape is changing inextricably and possibly forever. Small charities like any other business must change what they do to meet new aspirations or funder preferences.

NCVO have compiled some resources for Small Charities Week which can be viewed here: Downloadable assets | Small Charity Week

Use Small Charities Week as an opportunity to raise your profile and begin conversations with others. You never know where it might take you…..