Our Partnership is made up of organisations working closely together to plan services and address the challenges facing health and care services across the area.
In this section you will find links to useful information and publications about our partnership.
We are committed to meaningful conversations with people, on the right issues at the right time. We believe this is an important part of the way we work.
Engagement gives people an opportunity to have their say on services. By gathering people's views, it helps us understand what matters to people.
In this section you will find all Freedom of Information (FOI) requests made to our Partnership. You can also ask a question of your own.
Book your place on this event via Eventbrite
This is the third in a series of webinars for Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise colleagues and other stakeholders from across West Yorkshire and Harrogate to talk about community resilience before, during COVID-19 and moving forward.
The webinar will be hosted by Rob Webster (our CEO Lead); and Hilary Thompson (Chairperson of Third Sector Leaders Kirklees and Lead for Harnessing the Power of Communities).
Guest speakers will include:
Join our chairs, guest speakers, colleagues and partners from all sectors and all communities across West Yorkshire and Harrogate to share learning.
Our new (November 2020) £100 000 Targeted Prevention Grant Fund for West Yorkshire and Harrogate aims to support targeted community level preventative interventions that will reduce harmful health behaviours, improve health outcomes and contribute to a reduction in inequalities for people who are likely to be disproportionately at risk or affected by COVID-19 and the indirect social implications of measures such as isolation and shielding.
The fund welcomes innovative ideas which deliver a partnership approach to reducing health inequalities by working across health and Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) partners.
We are looking for sustainable interventions that go beyond the immediate impacts of the pandemic and seek to address the medium to longer term impacts on inequalities and increase resilience of individuals and communities.
The fund will welcome applications that support winter wellbeing relating to food security, social isolation or winter warmth.
Partners will be invited to apply for eight grants of funding between £1,000 - £5,000 and four grants of funding of between £5,001 and £15,000.
We encourage smaller community organisations with an income under £20k to apply for funding.
We can offer support to review your application before submission on request. If you would like additional support please contact Emmerline Irving – emmerline.irving@nhs.net
Application Deadline:
The deadline for the application will be 5:00pm on Friday 4th December 2020.
Guidance and support for applicants is available.
Application Form
News release
Champions the work of local community, faith groups, voluntary organisations and social enterprises supporting communities most impacted by COVID19, working alongside social prescribing link workers. This programme will help you to share your learning, gain new ideas, access funding and develop partnerships across sectors. It is supported by our team of regional voluntary sector partners and national partners: Sport England, Money and Pensions Service, Natural England, NHS Charities Together, Arts Council England and NHS England and NHS Improvement. The new web hub includes information on:
To mark the launch of the Thriving Communities Fund application portal, National Academy for Social Prescribing, Arts Council England and NHS Charities Together will be holding a webinar on 23 November 2020 on the Thriving Communities Fund and NHS Charities Together Community Partnership Grants. This webinar is designed for VCFSE groups and organisations, to help them learn more about the two funds. The webinar will take place at 4-5pm on 23 November 2020.
Book your free place on the Thriving Communities Fund and Charities Together Community Partnership Grants webinar
West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership are delighted to allocate over £500,000 to thirteen voluntary and community organisations across the area. The funds will be used to support community organisations, working together with health partners, to support those that have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19. Following an assessment with input from a number of perspectives, including public health, community sector, and partnership colleagues, final decisions were reached.
Our vision is to establish a new relationship with our communities built around good work on the co-production of services and care.Our intention is to support people to greater self-care, prevent ill-health, and the implementation of the Five Year Forward View to join-up our community services.
In order to establish our Harnessing the Power of Communities leadership group, Terms of Reference (ToR) have been developed to describe the purpose, scope and governance of the group. The ToR is the roadmap to deliverying our strategy by identifying key partners, their roles and responsibilities and committment to the programme.
You can also read more in our ‘VCS2020’ strategy.
Working alongside our communities is an important part of our partnership - seeing the people we serve as assets. Working alongside local communities, ward councillors, council colleagues, voluntary community organisations and many others is essential if we are to fully understand the real value of early help and self-care.
There is a wealth of expertise across West Yorkshire and Harrogate and communities are better placed than us to know what they need and to make positive change happen. If we are to genuinely work alongside communities as equal partners, then we need to change our relationships and build trust. We have good leadership from the voluntary sector, and we are attracting support from Healthwatch, NHS England, Nurture Development and National Voices to help us to think about our next steps.
“The entire charity sector has stepped up as part of our national effort to tackle coronavirus – from helping our NHS heroes to ensuring the most vulnerable among us are cared for properly” Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock
This follow up survey and report follows on from the first resilience report published in July 2020 ‘Third Sector Resilience: Before and during COVID-19’ which highlighted the impact of the first wave of COVID-19 on the sector. The second survey conducted in September/October this year was completed by 215 Voluntary and Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector organisations delivering services in West Yorkshire and Harrogate.
To make sure our work adds the greatest value possible and supports existing projects and groups across the area we started with a number of design workshops in the summer of 2019. The aim of these were to agree a shared set of principles and a common understanding of what we mean by ‘communities doing more for themselves’, ‘co-production’, ‘asset based community development’, ‘co-design’ etc., and what the shared ambition for working with communities should be. This includes:
DIAL Leeds is led by people with lived-experience of long-term conditions who go that step further to sustain support and help people navigate the system, for example supporting families and individuals who are waiting for a tribunal hearing where waiting times currently stand at 49 weeks.
They are providing tailored, peer-led support for people with disabilities and/or long-term conditions who are relying on foodbanks in North Leeds and are an over-represented group among foodbank users.
Many people of the people they support are in crisis and coping with income shocks (benefits-related issues, Universal Credit and financial difficulties) which negatively impact on their health and wellbeing.
Support from the Harnessing Power of Communities Grants grant has enabled this weekly, trusted and valued peer-led support service to be re-established at the Moortown foodbank following a 7-month gap.
As a result of this grant, 33 people have been supported around their physical, emotional and financial health including 24 disabled adults, 1 disabled child and 2 carers.
This support has been life-changing for a number of their beneficiaries. For example, a man who had moved into an empty council flat with no furniture or household items, following the breakdown of his marriage, was supported by DIAL Leeds to obtain basic furniture (bed, sofa, dining table and chairs) by raising £20 to pay for a local furniture services’ admin and delivery fees.
This has improved his general and mental health allowing him to not get worked up and angry because “no-one was listening to him”.
The West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership's Harnessing the Power of Communities Programme have published their latest report, titled ‘Third Sector Resilience: Before and during COVID-19’.
Working closely with over 300 voluntary and community organisations across Bradford district and Craven; Calderdale, Harrogate, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield, the report sets out the impact of COVID-19 on the sector and the communities they support. A life line too many of the 2.7million people living across the area; community groups, charities and voluntary organisations have been delivering vital services for years, including the renewed focus in recent months to those in need of vital help, including the 111,000 people who are shielding.
Building on the long term work of the VCS across communities, the report highlights that for many charities and community organisations their future is now uncertain. Financially they are under pressure and for many digital capacity is a barrier to their work.
Over 300 VCS organisations employing over 7000 members of staff and thousands of volunteers, responded to the WY&H survey. Of these organisations 55% do not expect to be financially sustainable beyond the end of 2020. Many of the organisations who took part in the survey also cited digital exclusion as a challenge in their work, impacting on their ability to reach some of the most at risk and isolated communities. Positives highlighted in the report include the fast tracking and flexibility of service commissioning and delivery between health, local authorities and the VCS, meaning services can respond quickly and everyone works together to make things happen at greater pace.
The Partnership has also enabled its priority programmes of work to align funding for VCS provider collaboration, for example the new Grief and Loss Support Service and ‘Keeping people with a learning disability or autism connected to vital support during Covid-19’. £500,000 of funding has also been made available to voluntary and community organisations to help tackle the impact on people’s health affected by Covid-19, with funds being announced also to support Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority Communities.
West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership report: Third Sector Resilience - Before and during COVID-19
Calderdale VCSE resilience report
Information about previous events, plus the presentations, which you can watch back 'as live'.
West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership held an event on Tuesday 21st May 2019 at Kala Sangam in Bradford to discuss the impact of the NHS Long Term Plan on our communities and, specifically, how the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) can work in partnership with other parts of the system to support some key actions within the Long Term Plan around mental health, social prescribing, admission avoidance at A&E and VCS delivery as part of the primary care network model.
We will also be sharing the work from the Harnessing the Power of Communities workstream within the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership and how each of our 6 places (Bradford District and Craven, Calderdale, Harrogate, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield) have invested money in VCS-led activities. And an update on the peer support workforce development programme and the Building Health Partnerships projects taking place in Calderdale and Wakefield.
Read the final report from the event
Event agenda
View or download the presentations from the event
As the pandemic has progressed, it has become clear that in addition to some people experiencing the death of people they care about, or care for, in difficult and painful circumstances, many are feeling the impact of a loss of a way of life, normal contact opportunities, social and work interactions. Restrictions may also mean that the usual practical and emotional support people can physically get from family, friends, faith groups, community groups during difficult times may not be there.
The WY&H HCP Grief and Loss Service aims to bolster the local place offer by offering information and advice and, where appropriate, signposting into local place based services for specific counselling or other support.
The service is a free telephone helpline that operates 8am-8pm, 7 days a week and online chat facility.
More information about how to access the service.
Volunteering has always made a significant contribution to supporting peoples’ health and wellbeing – including their mental health. In recent weeks, we have seen clearly how volunteers have been an inherent part of the response to the covid pandemic.
Our report Investigating volunteering in mental health settings, based on research conducted just before the covid pandemic, highlights how volunteering benefits the health and wellbeing of both the volunteer and those receiving support, and looks at the things we can do differently to build on existing work as we move forward.
Read about how the community and voluntary sector is helping people in West Yorkshire and Harrogate during the covid pandemic - just look for the 'Community heroes' section on our Coronavirus information and resources page.
During this year's Volunteers' Week (1 to 7 June 2020), we celebrated the difference volunteers make. Read volunteers' own stories in this bulletin and on our volunteer stories page here.
