Building stronger partnerships for neighbourhood health

By Ellie Orton OBE, CEO of NHS Charities Together

Neighbourhood health will depend on strong partnerships.

For people to be at the heart of neighbourhood health, organisations need to build stronger relationships with each other and with the communities they serve. So, if neighbourhood health is going to succeed, we need to better understand what helps partnerships succeed.

That’s why the learning emerging from the Volunteering for Health programme feels so relevant. What’s striking is that we’re learning as much about effective partnership working as we are about volunteering itself. And for me, three lessons stand out.

Start with relationships.

Health and care systems often focus on governance, reporting lines and programme plans. These things matter, but partnerships rarely succeed because of a governance chart.

Many of the Volunteering for Health partnerships have invested significant time in stakeholder engagement, relationship building and creating space for organisations to understand one another before trying to deliver together.

The result has been stronger peer networks, better connections between organisations and a greater understanding of what each partner brings.

Find the shared purpose.

Partners don't need identical priorities to work together successfully.

NHS organisations may be focused on demand, workforce pressures or access to services. VCSE organisations may be focused on community empowerment, prevention or reducing inequalities.

The most successful partnerships don't try to remove those differences. They find the common goal that unites them: improving outcomes for people and communities.

For example, our Lancashire and South Cumbria partnership is navigating a complex landscape across Lancashire, Blackburn, Blackpool, and South Cumbria. But by moving away from a single, generic plan, they’ve successfully launched localised Visions for Volunteering that address specific community needs.

Move from conversation to action.

Across Volunteering for Health, we're seeing that partnerships become stronger when organisations work on something tangible together.

Whether that's developing shared resources, running events, testing new approaches or creating opportunities to learn from one another, taking action helps turn good intentions into lasting collaboration.

Take our Cornwall Partnership who has developed a Threshold Agreement that allows volunteers to remain affiliated with their voluntary organisation while operating on hospital wards. It's described as a clear 'road' that everyone knows how to get on and follow.

Small pieces of delivery create momentum. Momentum builds confidence. Confidence strengthens relationships.

These lessons matter because the shift towards neighbourhood health isn't just a service redesign. It's a culture change.

The left shift towards prevention and community-based care will only work if we're willing to make a real attitudinal shift too: listening to communities; treating patients and families as partners; and recognising that people want to contribute their time, skills and experience.

Volunteering is one expression of that contribution.

Across Volunteering for Health, we're seeing how volunteering can help connect services and communities, strengthen partnerships and support more personalised, community-led approaches to health and care.

In challenging times, partnership working may be harder than ever.

But as healthcare continues its shift towards neighbourhood-based, preventative and people-centred models, partnership working becomes essential.

Find out more about Volunteering for Health:

Email: volunteering@anhsc.org.uk

Website: https://www.cwplus.org.uk/volunteering-for-health/