Institute for Voluntary Action Research (IVAR), November 2025 – Link to full report can be found here.
Listening to what really matters report explores how community-led insights especially from people with lived experience can shape better health and wellbeing outcomes across local areas. The report reflects on the Connecting Health Communities programme (2023–25), a partnership between IVAR, the National Lottery Community Fund and voluntary, community and statutory organisations in four areas: St Helens, Dudley, Cheshire East and Wandsworth.
Key points from the report included:
Partnerships change culture: The programme shows that when voluntary sector groups, residents and statutory partners work as equals, systems start to shift. Professionals learn to move away from transactional practice towards relational, inclusive approaches grounded in trust and dignity.
Approaches based on lived experience drive better outcomes: Each area focused on a different local challenge from loneliness and social isolation to preventative health screening demonstrating that local, community-led insight helps shape responses that are rooted in real need rather than assumptions about needs.
Increasing Cervical Screening Uptake: In Wandsworth, the programme focused on understanding why cervical screening rates were lower in parts of the borough, especially in areas with higher deprivation. By listening deeply to people’s experiences and barriers, partners were able to identify culturally-relevant, community-led responses that can support better access to preventative health checks.
Wandsworth Care Alliance’s Role
Wandsworth Care Alliance was proud to play a participating partner in this project supporting community insight gathering, helping facilitate local conversations and ensuring voices from across Wandsworth were part of the learning process. Through our work with local voluntary organisations, residents and health partners, we contributed to the collective commitment to change how local health and care systems listen and respond.
Our involvement helped:
- Amplify community voices especially from groups under-represented in health conversations
- Share insights with statutory partners to shape more responsive, culturally-aware practice
- Build local capacity for community-led engagement and co-design of health services
This report shows that:
– Health and care systems work best when they are informed by lived experience
– Real partnership between community organisations, statutory partners and residents leads to more equitable outcomes
– Listening, not just consulting is essential for designing services that people trust and use
At Wandsworth Care Alliance, this approach reflects our ongoing commitment to amplifying local voices, deepening community engagement and championing partnerships that help shape better health, wellbeing and inclusion for everyone in the borough.
You can read the full report by IVAR here.