Strategic Partnership Guide: VCSE organisations working with Integrated Care Systems

This guide provides voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations with a framework for positioning volunteering as a strategic priority that delivers measurable value across health and care agendas.

For VCSE organisations, strategic engagement with Integrated Care Systems enables the opportunity to:

• Amplify impact: Access larger or more targeted populations and more resources to deliver community-based support#
• Secure sustainable funding and organisational resilience: Position volunteering within core health budgets and part of long-term partnerships to provide stability in an uncertain funding environment and reduce reliance on short-term grants
• Shape system design: Influence how health services are delivered in communities, ensuring they reflect local needs and utilise local assets
• Demonstrate sector value: Elevate the VCSE sector's role as an essential partner improving the population health, not just a service provider

ICSs are mandated to work with VCSE partners and recognise that achieving their strategic objectives, particularly around prevention, health inequalities, and community-based care—requires collaboration with organisations that already have trust, reach, and expertise in local communities.

We hope you will find this guide useful.

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• Community Partners: Taking the first steps - tips and advice from Helpforce Network members