Trust and Health Creation Partnership

The South East London Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise (SEL VCSE) Strategic Alliance, King’s Health Partners, and SEL Integrated Care Board (ICB) are looking to partner with five grassroots ‘By and For’ VCSE organisations based in south east London (Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark) to co-create a prevention and health-creation collaborative that will build trust, foster equity, and promote wellness within communities who experience the greatest health inequalities.

Explore the project Read FAQs

15th January 2025

An informal Q&A webinar held

Watch video

3rd February
2025

Expressions of Interest (EOI) closing date

7th February
2025

Shortlisted VCSEs to be notified

12th & 13th
February 2025

Visits and face-to-face meerings with shortlisted VCSEs

17th February
2025

Selected VCSEs to be notified

Phase One:
Finding our partners

Community-driven health

This is a genuine effort by the south east London healthcare system to partner with 'By and For' VCSEs, building a long term and equitable partnership. There is a real commitment to working together to develop ways to reduce health inequalities, starting with supporting SEL integrated Care System (ICS) to re-imagine prevention and health creation, with a focus on being more community-led, and built on trust. Our vision is to increase local people's trust and confidence in the preventative care our system provides by fostering wellness through community-powered support and transforming health-led prevention services.

A colourful illustration of a group of work colleagues pointing to different parts of a vertical project planner with a number of key milestones represented by large icons.

Read Invitation for Collaboration Read FAQs

About the partnership

1) The opportunity:

‍

3 years (initially) partnership opportunity, for five ‘By and For’ VCSEs, with South East London Integrated Care System (SEL ICS) to co-develop ways to reduce health inequalities by supporting the ICS partners to re-imagine prevention and health creation in a way that is community-led and built on trust.

‍

2) What communities we are focusing on:

‍

• Black, African, and Caribbean adults

• LGBTQ+ communities

• People with learning disabilities

• Children and young people (age 0-18)

‍

3) Who can apply:

‍

Specialist ‘By and For’ VCSEs who are:

• Strongly embedded in and hold trusted relationship with any of the identified communities (listed above).

• Based in and already provide holistic support services within south east London (Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark) for these communities (services don’t need to be health-specific and can be based in one or more of our six boroughs).

• Provide services which hold commitment to health and social equity as their core ethos and have in-depth lived and working understanding of the diverse needs of the communities they are embedded within.

• Are interested in a cross-borough/ SEL level collaboration and have the capacity and will to participate in ongoing co-learning and co-production efforts across SEL for the next three years (and beyond).

• Are a registered charity/ CIC/ CIO who have been operating for at least 3 years

‍

4) Funding available:

‍

£50,000 per year for three years for each organisation who is part of the partnership

‍

5) Commitment required:

‍

• The funding is to ensure your organisation has the capacity and resources to be involved in this ongoing partnership and development work for the next three years.

• If you choose to be part of the partnership, your organisation will be expected to be an active leader of this work, and take an ongoing active role in the development, testing, delivery and learning over the three years period.

• We envisage the initial phase of the partnership to require a lot of co-development and so expect that it will require a lot of dedicated capacity and time from your organisation (including taking part in co-creation meetings, shared workshops and development sessions).

• The partnership will have regular co-development sessions throughout the three years and all partners are expected to regularly attend and contribute to those.

• Your organisation will be trialing the ideas we will develop together as a partnership so you will be expected to test and embed whatever we agree as a partnership within your existing service provision.

• The partnership will be developing and capturing outcomes and impact- your organisation will be expected to actively collate and share the required insight (this will be co-developed and agreed by the partnership)

‍

6) Timeline and key dates:

‍

• Online Q&A session-15th January 2025 1:30-2:30pm (see webinar recording below)

• Expression of Interest submission deadline- 5pm on 3rd February 2025 (Either via completion of the EOI online form or by submitting a completed EOI word document form/ video application to info@selalliance.org.uk. Please use WeTransfer to send videos, if you would like support with this, email info@selalliance.org.uk).

• Shortlisted VCSEs notified- By EOP 7th February 2025

• Visit to/ face to face meeting with shortlisted VCSEs – 12th OR 13th of February 2025 (exact timings and details will be agreed)

• Notification of selected VCSEs- By 17th February 2025

Still have questions?

Read FAQ Contact us

Q&A webinar

This Q&A webinar, hosted on 15th January 2025, covers a range of important topics, including the context and rationale behind the initiative, the core principles of genuine co-creation and community leadership, the specific target communities and health focus areas, and the application process and eligibility criteria. Presenters from the core development group, including representatives from the voluntary sector and South East London's Integrated Care System (ICS), emphasised the importance of building trust, addressing health inequalities, and developing a framework that can drive systemic change in how preventative services are designed and delivered across south east London. Participants were able to gain valuable insights into the time commitments, funding structure, and potential for cross-borough collaboration within the partnership.

Watch Q&A webinar Download slides Read FAQ

FAQs

Interested VCSE organisations were encouraged to submit their questions before and during the Q&A webinar. Browse a selection of the FAQ below or click the button below to read all submitted questions and answers.

Read all questions and answers

Featured questions

What is meant by 'by and for', what will your criteria be in assessing this?

'By and for' VCSEs (Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise organisations) are organisations that are led, designed, and delivered by and for the communities they aim to serve. This means that the people who run these organisations come from the same minoritised and marginalised communities they support. They understand the unique challenges and needs of these communities because they are part of them. This approach ensures that the services and support provided are relevant, culturally sensitive and truly beneficial to the people they are meant to help.

Will there be one partner per borough?

We are not prescriptive about having one partner per borough. The selection of partners will be based on the strength of the organisations' ability to demonstrate their deep roots and connections within the targeted communities, regardless of their geographic coverage. It is is possible we could end up with multiple partners from the same borough or no partners from certain boroughs.

Will you consider a consortia?

We will consider consortia applications. They will need to clearly explain which community of focus each partner is embeded in and the nature of their trusted relationship with their community. We will expect all consortia partners to then be part of the partnership and take active leadership role in the co-creation process. Consideration would need to be given about how the budget would cover the work of 2 or more organisations in the consortia. Please be mindful that the allocation of funding is £50K per year per community of focus (2 organisations for children and young people), so if your consortia applies to work with only one community the allocation of funding (if successful) would be £50K only - which will need to be shared between consortia partners. This is not a favourable option, as this is not likely to be a sufficient level of funding when split across organisations and therefore not likely to generate the required capacity for this partnership. If you are putting a consortia bid in, please ensure you include a breakdown of allocated roles and responsibilities within the consortia, and a breakdown of how the budget will be spent.

Are sole traders eligible for this opportunity?

For this opportunity we are looking to partner with VCSE organisations. We are happy for organisations which meet the requirements (as detailed in the EOI) to partner with other organisations who do not meet the requirement/with sole traders and submit a consortia/partnership EOI. However, you will need to be clear on the reason for this, what added value, specialism and insight the partner organisation will bring, and what exactly would the funding will be used for within partner organisation.

Who will be making the decisions about which organisations are chosen? And will the VCSE be involved in making these decisions?

The decisions about which organisations are selected will be made collaboratively by the core development group, which includes representatives from the SEL VCSE Strategic Alliance, SEL ICS Director of Voluntary Sector Collaboration and Partnerships and representatives from the ICB/KHP. VCSE reps and their expertise will be central to the decision-making process, ensuring an equitable and inclusive approach.

Will there be targets on the number of individuals from a particular community to be reached? (or is it more about quality than quantity)

This will be up to the partnership to develop and agree together. This work is less about the quantity of people we reach and more about quality, community-led creation.

When will successful partners be expected to start the work?

We are hoping to have partners on board by end of February 2025 and will be looking to have the first partnership co-creation 'kick off' meeting by end of March 2025.

How many days per week/month should applicants set aside to attend meetings and do the development work with you?

This will be a three-year partnership with a significant time commitment, requiring dedicated capacity within the selected organisations. We will work with the selected partners to establish the necessary time and resource commitments as part of the initial stages of the partnership development. We envisage the first year of the partnership being quite intense and require a lot of time and capacity (estimate at at least 1-2 days a week).

Read all questions and answers

A unique collaboration

The seven specialist VCSEs and their communities took a wide range of approaches to the co-creation process and have spent a period of six months jointly designing and delivering unique collaboration with target communities. All experts taking part in this project have been paid fairly for their time and expertise, and several people have taken on further paid strategic influencing opportunities.