A massive thank you to all those who attended our event last week around Resilient Communities and local funding. A special thank you Hennah and Gemma from Mitcham Lane Baptist Church for having us, to Ian from Groundwork, to Pat from Merton Connected, and to our Children / Young people  and Older People Alliance members!

The slides to the presentation can be found here.
The links and discussion are also below (please read and feedback on the community notes as we want to make sure we’ve noted down all your important points.

Relevant emails:

1. ravi@wandcareall.org.uk (Wandsworth Care Alliance)
2. jessica@wandcareall.org.uk  (Wandsworth Care Alliance)
3. beau@mertonconnected.co.uk (Merton Connected)
4. londonresilience@groundwork.org.uk (Groundwork)

Upcoming events to sign up to (open to all organisations from anywhere):

1. Tuesday, 21st October, 10am to 12:30pm (online): How to market your volunteering roles better (discussion) 
   1. A discussion and training on making your volunteering roles stand out to potential candidates and recruiting the right person for the role (open to all organisations anywhere in London)
2. Thursday, 13^th November, 5:30pm to 7:30pm (Alton Arts Hub): How to show your work is making a difference to your community
3. Learn from our expert, Alison, on how to create a ‘Theory of Change’ for projects and your organisation that can best showcase your work and impact on your community for yourselves and for potential funders. A chance to learn, ask questions, and network in person!
4. Tuesday, 18^th November, 10am to 11:30am (online): Volunteer Involving Organisations Network Meeting
5. Our quarterly meeting where we invite organisations with volunteers or needing volunteers to network and discuss key areas. This time, we will be inviting an expert volunteer recruiter, who will open to floor for you to ask any questions related to volunteering.
6. Tuesday, 18^th November, 2pm to 3pm (online): Wandsworth Health and Wellbeing Board Engagement Group Meeting
7. Our quarterly meetup before Wandsworth Council and local key stakeholders meet to discuss their Health & Welbeing plans. Papers will be released earlier for you to read and share your thoughts and input at this meeting, before the relevant teams meet.
8. Thursday, 20th November, 6pm to 8pm (Tooting):  Healthwatch Wandsworth Assembly
9. Join us for our bi-annual Healthwatch Assembly, where our focus will be ‘use your voice to better your care’ on how people can raise concerns, including changes to Healthwatch so that all voices are heard equally and with intent. Feel free to also invite your community members to attend and have their say!

Links to be shared:

1. Wandsworth Lived Experience Survey: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/LR6FOR/
2. Wandsworth Vaccine Hesitancy Research project survey: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/GMOXJS/
3. Wandsworth & Merton Women’s Health Fund application: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=i9wEh43LkkWuUb66zissj5X345ijeBxHoFYoEScLq89UQ0ZCRVIyR0g1REM3Mlo3RU5GOFU0NjgzTy4u
4. London-wide London Resilient Communities project website: https://www.groundwork.org.uk/london/all-london-projects/london-resilient-communities/
5. Sign up to our monthly funding bulletin & newsletter: https://wandsworthcarealliance.us4.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=54bb067bde3187c298d9c089e&id=40c61c5428
6. Work from the new VSCS hub in Wandsworth Town Hall: Voluntary and Community Sector Hub – Wandsworth Borough Council
7. Please vote for when you would like our next Alliance meeting (and if you would like to share something there for the network):

Poll: Are you part of the Older People’s Alliance or Children / Young People Alliance?

Discussion:

1. Neighbourhood Health Services (Wandsworth) – The ICB is changing how they group areas to bring communities together for health and wellbeing (slides attached). Please email me if you have any questions / feedback on this new grouping
   1. Some points already mentioned:
      1. Why is the Tooting & Balham group so disproportionately larger than the other areas, especially when the ratio of population vs people registered with a GP is low?
      2. Where can we see the consultation process and wider impact of these new groups?
2. Lived Experience Survey (Wandsworth)

2. The council’s adult care services and WCA want to develop our Co-Production and Partnerships Group 
3. They want to ensure more people are joining and steering the group for real issues affecting communities
4. If you can join, please email jessica@wandcareall.org.uk, if you can’t join but have feedback on what can be improved / why you can’t or don’t want to join, please fill out this survey here: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/LR6FOR/
5. Please also share this with your communities! We want a diverse set of responses that reflect the borough’s demographics
6. Participants can win shopping vouchers
7. Question from community leader: Who wants to get this feedback and how is it coproduced?
8. Answer: The council run the adult social care co-production group, and they want people to join who can share ideas on feedback on any new projects the council are planning to run, so residents are able to participate in the development of new projects.
9. Vaccine Hesitancy Within Immunosuppressed Cohorts (Wandsworth)

3. The ICB want to understand people’s hesitancy towards vaccines. Especially those who are immunosuppressed (e.g. sickle cell, diabetes, HIV, rheumatoid arthritis, etc).
4. It is not a call to get people vaccinated. It is gathering real feedback from people who may be hesitant.
5. We want to come to you. If you are hosting events or can host an event with your community, we are happy to cover the cost for this (up to £500) , and we can supply you with a clinician, if you think it will be useful.
6. We also ask if community leaders are interesting in being part of a focus group to please speak to Jessica.
7. Please speak to Jessica@wandcareall.org.uk if interested in hosting, or directly get your communities to fill out the survey here: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/GMOXJS/
8. Women’s Health Fund (Merton & Wandsworth) – Deadline: Monday 20th October

4. Grants of up to £2,000 for projects to improve awareness, education and self-management of women’s health (particularly in areas such as menopause, urogynaecology and menstrual health).
5. You can apply to deliver at least one of the following:

4. Targeted and culturally specific workshops/activities
5. One large-scale, expert-led online or in person learning event attended by up to 250-300 people and/or a series of learning vents that reach 250-300 people in total
6. School-based menstrual health education programmes
7. We will provide: 

4. Patient information leaflets
5. Links to reputable resources and power point presentations
6. List of NHS clinicians (requests must be sent at least 5 weeks in advance, please include £100 in your budget for this)
7. Training session for successful organisations and their champions need to attend (20th November)

4. Please apply to the fund here: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=i9wEh43LkkWuUb66zissj5X345ijeBxHoFYoEScLq89UQ0ZCRVIyR0g1REM3Mlo3RU5GOFU0NjgzTy4u
5. (Jessica from WCA and Beau from Merton Connected are able to answer any questions you have about this fund)
6. London Resilient Communities – Groundwork – Deadline: Monday 1^st December

5. A pilot project to improve community awareness and venues to be best prepared for crises (e.g. floods, fires, blackouts, etc.)
6. What is a community (examples):

5. A WhatsApp group on an estate
6. An organisation that supports a cultural or diaspora group
7. A local volunteer centre
8. A pan-London LGBTQ+ support group that meets online
9. Worshippers at a mosque, church, temple or other place of worship
10. A community garden group
11. Parents and carers of children with additional needs

5. It is to learn and build on the GLA’s London Community Resilience Toolkit
6. They want communities to create their bespoke emergency plans & venue spaces to become Community Resilience Hubs
7. Groundwork will offer small grants for winning organisations:

5. £500 to participate in the Community Toolkit
6. £1K to become a Community Resilience Hub
7. Both grants are paid once the project is completed, and after a short monitoring period

5. You can take a look at the existing community toolkit here: https://www.communitiesprepared.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/London-Community-Resilience-Toolkit-2025.pdf
6. Grant opens on Monday, 3^rd November here: https://www.groundwork.org.uk/london/all-london-projects/london-resilient-communities/
7. Community leaders feedback:

5. Why is the money being at the end of the project? How do we resource the work without any money?
   1. We’re not expecting people to buy anything, it is an extension of what communities are already doing
6. We are still spending time on this, stakeholder engagement and training. Why should we work for free?
7. A lot of organisations are already doing a lot of the work, and they step up during times of crisis. The focus of this isn’t the grant itself, but to provide resources to help organisations and local communities.
8. How do you expect to do that, when there’s a significant amount of work and emotional leverage in coordinating this – a lot of money already goes into creating these projects, then why not to the communities that are experts at times like these? Why not come to us and build the project around us? £1.5K isn’t enough when you have people with neurodiverse and emotional needs that means the work is significantly more taxing. We don’t need ideas or free resources, we know what we’re doing. We need money. To say the money comes at the end of the project nor is it the primary aim of the project isn’t what the community need.
9. Some organisations may have capacity and have responded already, but it could be useful for those who haven’t responded to urgent situations so far and could benefit from this project.

5. This would be an ongoing project, a one-off payment is not enough, that isn’t how working with the community works
6. You could review and alter the programme before it is launched based on this feedback, as it would make a difference to the community.
7. We will take this back. We have done some research already, but happy to take back this feedback.
8. A venue space has been taken over by the council, and they have taken back their funding. Before, they would book directly but after the council takeover they cannot book anyone in without the council’s booking, they have nobody coming in, and they still have to pay their upkeep bills
9. Ravi to speak to them about this.
10. What is the purpose behind this project? What do you want?
11. It’s the recognition that there is an increase in emergencies in the city, and a recognition that local spaces and organisations often use their services to provide support. We want to try and support them so they are better prepared for these situations.
12. So, you’re concerned that community spaces step up to tackle this, and you want to help support them. Then why don’t you pay the money upfront?
13. The programme isn’t centred on the fund; the fund is a contribution and appreciation towards those communities along with free resources that communities can download and use for their areas. Monetary resources are limited.

5. Well, if you were really concerned about the community, then help them. We understand that you have limited monetary resources (and £500 is very limited), but to then also pay it at the end doesn’t make sense. It’s not a fair acknowledgement of the hard work and endurance communities have put in and would put in for this project.
6. Some other training funds are also funds that are paid once the training resources have been used, so is this fund similar in that the payment is to cover the cost of the resources being utilised? As in, we create the resources and once they been made and used, we then get the money.
7. In a way yes, so once the resources have been used and people have been trained, we can provide the money to appreciate the time and input
8. So that seems to be the problem as we would need to build the resources and prove that we’ve used the resources before anyone gets any money. So, if we already have the resources and are doing what we’re doing anyway, this Toolkit is just going to enhance it further. We’re already at the forefront of resiliency and understanding our communities. We don’t need more ideas, techniques, or toolkits to tell how to do our work. What we need is for people to be more humane and to work better. The frustration is that we aren’t heard. There hasn’t been any conversation or consultation about what we do and how to support us as human beings. We aren’t being heard. We know what we need to do for resiliency or anything else, but you aren’t coming to us as humans to hear what we need as a community. We’d probably be more forthcoming if you hadn’t put a monetary value on it altogether as it could be useful in the future, you might as well keep your money. It seems like you want people to create a Toolkit, give it to you for free, get what you want out of it, and if you like the idea then give £1.5K. Why waste their time?
9. The thrust of it is the project itself, the grant is a contribution to the hard work people are doing but it’s a good point to take back to team
10. Is the £500 and £1K across London or just here?
11. Its pan-London.
12. So, what is your budget it terms of how many organisations you can fund across the city?
13. Up to 20 organisations for the hubs and around 30-40 for the community toolkit
    1. This should’ve been made clear at the start as London is very big city and 20 isn’t a lot in contrast.
14. How quickly do your team respond? And how often can you apply?
15. It is a one-year programme for now. The resources will be there indefinitely. The grant programme will begin applications in November, with assessment in December. It isn’t a rolling programme.
16. What if there aren’t enough people who can use the toolkit and resources?
17. We don’t know if there’ll be another round of applications and the thrust is to get the resources out there for the community
18. So, is this a trial to see how many people and how effective the toolkit and resources are? Because it is frustrating to be given yet another toolkit and resource when people are working so hard – they just want to be paid for the work they are doing. 
19. This is the first time the project has been done although it is a continuation of the other aforementioned toolkits.
20. If it is a pilot study, then it needs to be highlighted at the start, as people would react to it in a different way.
21. Older People / Children & Young People Alliances + Capacity Building clinics

6. If you are an organisation in Wandsworth that works with older people and/or children and young people, we run two alliances for these two groups where we meet (relatively informally) to discuss relevant funds, invite key community speakers (which could be you!), and essentially network to understand how organisations can best work together to fully support our residents.
7. We are also hoping to restart our capacity building clinics, where we invite organisations to come to us with any questions and help they need (whether it’s how to set up a charity, writing a fund, governance, or HR & Finance queries) . It is a group setting where people ask questions to our experts and learn from them and from one another (we can facilitate a private room if it is something confidential). The clinic is open to all!
8. If you are interested in any of these, please email me on ravi@wandcareall.org.uk

As a whole, the main community ask is for funders and statutory bodies to actually come to the community and collaborate with them; to learn and understand the pains and barriers that prevent them from growing and supporting their communities in the way the communities want. It doesn’t necessarily have to be monetary support (although this is a huge barrier for most community groups) but just talking and consulting with them before plans are made from up top around what community groups need and what would be beneficial to them. Solutions around community problems will come from the community if the voices are heard and respected as equal partners in tackling the issues and not as the final piece in the puzzle that can simply transmit the message. There is a huge ask for people to come to the communities and see eye to eye with them in their environment, so they feel comfortable and safe to speak about the real issues that they face in a more candid and truthful way.

We are so thankful to those who were able to attend Wandsworth Care Alliance’s (WCA) Annual General Meeting (AGM) on the 29^th of September at Tooting Works.  

We had over 40 attendees come to hear about the great work we have been doing over the last year. 

Our CEO Jason Edgington began proceedings by welcoming attendees before handing over to our Chair Donna Covey. Donna provided some highlights from our 2024-2025 Statement of Impact Report including the 84 newsletters and funding e-bulletins we published, the 1,350 voices we captured to help shape health and care services.   

You can read more about all the work we have done here in our full Statement of Impact Report. 

Attendees then also heard directly from some of the organisations we have helped support including The Strength Project, Ruils and S.T.O.R.M. We also heard from representatives from the NHS South West London Integrated Care Board and Wandsworth Council about projects WCA has been involved in. 

Our Deputy Director Sarah Cook also drew attention to the theme of Power in Partnership speaking about how WCA came into existence and our focus on supporting small organisations to grow and support the communities they serve. 

The presentation can be found here

To do this we recognise that we have to work collaboratively and build systems that empower small organisations to drive health, wellbeing and social change. 

As a result, we facilitated discussions with our attendees to understand what we need to put in place to ensure collaboration works in Wandsworth. From these discussions we have identified 8 key actions Wandsworth Care Alliance and the voluntary sector can take to enable effective collaboration. These are: 

1. Create and maintain a shared service directory  

2. Develop a communications charter and code of conduct  

3. Facilitate networking opportunities  

4. Align collaboration at neighbourhood level  

5. Support inclusive collaboration practices  

6. Build mechanisms for equity and accountability  

7. End competition for funding where possible  

8. Ensure succession planning and sustainability  

We look forward to working closely alongside other organisations and the community in order to achieve this and will provide updates as we develop our action plan. 

Thank you again to all those who attended and we hope to see you at our other events in the near future! You can stay up to date with our work and be informed of future events by signing up to our newsletter.