Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership (HNY HCP) are celebrating the role of the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise sector (VCSE) ahead of the NHS 75th birthday on the 5 July 2023. This magnificent milestone is being celebrated by launching a new VCSE Yorkshire and Humber report, produced by Professor Tony Chapman, St Chads College, Durham University, which demonstrates the tremendous work of the sector as well as the challenges faced.
The report highlights that the VCSE remain a valued NHS partner in the delivery of health and care services across the United Kingdom.
In Humber and North Yorkshire there are an estimated:
- 13,790 VCSE sector organisations (registered and unregistered)
- 20,527 full time equivalent employees delivering 34.8 million working hours a year
- 121,721 volunteers giving at least 8.7 million hours of work valued at between £86 million and £122 million a year
- An economic value of £1.5 billon and estimated value of £3.5 billion when considering added and social value.
The report outlines how the local VCSE, continue to provide a lifeline to people and communities at a grassroots level. Approximately a third of VCSE organisations deliver support in local neighbourhoods or villages with 70% working across their local authority area. Distribution of VCSE organisations is not equal across Humber and North Yorkshire with many organisations supporting our most deprived areas and more than a quarter supporting ‘community wellbeing’. They are connected and trusted yet remain financially challenged.
In 1948, when the NHS was established, charities received funding from hospital savings schemes and local authority grants etc. Hospitals were the focus for local charitable effort, run by leaders in local society and doctors’ wives.
Today, many continue to be self-financing through trading arms, fundraising, or receiving funding from local councils, national grants and/or NHS contracts.
The HNY HCP is committed to working with the VCSE sector and continues to do this through our VCSE Collaborative, recognising the skills and experience the sector holds and a genuine desire to build equal partnerships to develop a strong and sustainable VCSE sector.
Jason Stamp, Senior Responsible Officer for the Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership’s VCSE Collaborative, said: ‘This research highlights the great strength of the work of VCSE organisations across Humber and North Yorkshire. The diversity of these groups and organisations and the range of services they deliver continue to have a significant impact on our local communities. We are committed to maximising the opportunities we have to recognise the VCSE as a strong and sustainable partner in designing and delivering integrated services that help improve outcomes for our local populations in areas of greatest need. At a time when our health and care system is facing its greatest challenges, there has never been more need to celebrate and support the work of the VCSE.”
Professor Tony Chapman and Dr Jonathan Wistow of Durham University, said: “The geography of Humber and North Yorkshire is varied. This means that charities delivering health-related services often face different challenges. In urban areas, they provide highly focused local support for communities facing deep deprivation. But there are enclaves of social exclusion in rural areas and coastal towns too. This can mean that the complexities and expense of delivering services can be different. Either way, VCSE organisations are well placed to tackle issues due to their local focus, agility and commitment to provide specialist support. This report shows that they provided almost £3.5 billion of social benefit through their efforts in 2022.”
Stephen Eames CBE, Chief Executive for Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership, said: ‘Our VCSE partners continue to support our health and care system and over the last year we have met with many organisations that are delivering innovative health and wellbeing support for our population supporting them to Start Well, Live Well, Age Well and Die Well. This report demonstrates the sheer size and scale of our VCSE sector, the thousands of organisations and people that make up the sector and value that has in preventing ill health, tackling health inequalities and building strong resilient communities that can shape people’s life expectancy, health and wellbeing.
You can read the full report or a summary on the Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership website.