What is the Sheffield Health Compact?
The Health Compact is an agreement between the Voluntary and Community (VCS) and NHS sectors in Sheffield about how they work together. It is made up of a set of principles, which both parties have signed up to and has developed codes of good practice around funding, participation and consultation, and partnership working.
For more information about the good practice protocols go to the documents page
Aims of the Sheffield Health Compact
The Compact aims to build a strong and effective partnership between the VCS and NHS sectors in Sheffield which will contibute to developing and delivering good health and well-being for its communities.
This will bring benefits:
For the VCS through:
- Involvement in partnership working in tackling health inequalities
- Support for development of sectors capacity and infrastructure
- Avoiding duplication of services and better use of resources
For the NHS sector through:
- Greater knowledge of the VCS
- Access to a wider range of services, skills and innovation
- Avoiding duplication of services and better use of resources
Our vision for the Health Compact in Sheffield is to have a strong and innovative partnership which maximises the potential of the relationship between the VCS and the NHS in developing and delivering good health and well-being for all its communities.
The key values of the Sheffield Health Compact are:
- To ensure the partnership is mutually benefical and constructive
- To enable the best use of resources, skills and expertise across the sectors
- To facilitate learning and innovation across sectors
- To ensure wide engagement of all stakeholders from across the City
- To respect the different roles which the VCS and NHS sector play, including the independance of the VCS and national obligations of the NHS
What is the National context for a Compact?
The Compact is a Government initiative to set out guidelines and codes of conduct for dealings between Government and the VCS. The Government published the national Compact in 1998 and has produced 5 codes of Godes Practice underpinning it in relation to volunteering, working with community groups, working with black and minority ethnic groups, funding and procurement, and consultation and policy apprasial. The Governement is encouraging local statuory agencies to work more closely with the VCS and encourages the development of local Compacts.
For more information contact:
Sue Herrick s.herrick@vas.org.uk Tel: 0114 2536643
Sheffield Health Compact, VAS, The Circle, 33 Rockingham Lane Sheffield S1 4FW