Focused discussion | Let’s talk about community partnerships: taking the first steps

2 April 2025

Top Tips and questions to consider

• Clarity of purpose for reaching out. Consider who it is in the community that you want to engage with and why you want to engage with them. How is that going to support what you are doing or are going to do?
• Identify the partnerships you would need by using data to find the issues that need resolving.
• Have a coordinated approach if there is more than one person from your organisation trying to reach out.
• Consider data sharing at an early point and have a data sharing agreement in place before starting a project.
• Create a robust partnership agreement.
• Building a good relationship with a partner takes time. Manage expectations around what good relationships look like. They can start off clunky but over time strengthen. Positive long-term relationships had been built by some guests at the discussion, but they had taken up to three years to get to that point.
• Consider any volunteer supervision requirements. For example, volunteers making contact calls from an office situation will require a supervisor sitting with them to allow escalation if required and reflective conversation after calls. In situations where the volunteer callers have lived experience it helps to keep the conversation about the person they are calling and not themselves.
• Consider collaborative training for volunteers.
• Volunteers from VCSE organisations supporting clinical departments in NHS trusts may need additional training to ensure that role boundaries are understood and that conversations are person-centred.