Lincolnshire’s Voluntary Sector Portal has been developed by a partnership of charitable organisations in Lincolnshire in order to form a strategic and joined up response to plans being developed by the Lincolnshire Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP)

The origins of this initiative are in a 2018 project supported by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) and NHS England, which came via the STP Stakeholder Board focused on how to increase the footprint of Voluntary and Community Sector organisations in health and care.

Three workshops were held in Manchester in 2017/18 and the Lincolnshire participant group has met a few times since then – calling itself VET: the Voluntary Executive Team. Some additional support has been made available from NHS England to support the project and the VET team further, to explore how it can get involved in health systems and the long term plan:

• How does the third sector have a strategic impact in Lincolnshire? 
• How is the VCS voice heard through the county? 
• How can we create something tangible, real and have a voice going forward?

Background and Context

Reconciling the different agendas within the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector means the statutory sector can find it difficult to work with us. This is a joint journey with the VCSE and statutory sectors.

VET will be developing a plan over the next few months and this depends on a wider VCS constituency. We are aiming to identify:

• How can we work with the statutory sector?
• What does success look like?
• How can we move from existing procurement relationships with the statutory sector to a more joint commissioning approach?

Aims

• To collectively promote, support and develop the voice/s and identity of the third sector and its various networks, within the broader Lincolnshire system  

• To participate at a strategic level and facilitate meaningful dialogue between system/sector, to support, inform and influence system intentions  

• Enable the sector to operate in a strategic way

• Provide a platform/ route/(forum) for coordination/collective approach/coproduction build cross-sector relationships that help to develop a positive environment  

• To support and enable the integration of health, care and support