The VCS Alliance

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The VCS Alliance

The VCS Alliance is a registered charity that works to build capacity in and support the voluntary and community sector.

21/10/2026

You’ve not missed out!

We’ve extended the deadline for our Director of Culture role. 💡

If you're passionate about creating environments where people feel valued, included, and able to thrive, we'd love to hear from you.

The Director of Culture role will join our Senior Leadership Team to help shape a supportive, inclusive, and high-performing culture across VCS Alliance, and our wider network of VCSE partners.

This role will also lead on our People and Culture strategy and support the embedding of our Anti-Racist principles, as part of our strategic aim to become a genuinely Anti-Racist and intersectional organisation

⏰ The deadline for applications is now Midnight evening of 8 November.

Apply on our website:
https://www.thevcsalliance.org.uk/vacancy-listings/

And please help us find the right people to make an impact in our sector!

20/10/2026

Is this you?

If you:

- Want to work somewhere that works in partnership to transform health and social care

- Want to lead the VCSE sector to ensure work is founded on good insight, and that the impact and learning is understood

- Have significant experience of designing, developing, and managing insight and impact systems

Then, the Data Insight and Learning Manager role may be for you!

Hours: 35 Hours

Salary: £42,000

Location: Working hybrid but based at Perkin House, Bradford.

The closing date for applications is Midnight on the evening of Sunday 1 November. ⚠️

Read more about and apply on our website now, link in comments 🔗

19/10/2026

NEXT WEEK is your next monthly Drop-in with Sam Keighley, VCSE System Lead for Health and Care in Bradford District and Craven!

As part of the Activation Partnership's work to support Sector Voice, Sam is hosting online drop-ins for VCSE colleagues. This is a space for open discussions; to ask questions, to share insight about pressures and challenges in your organisations, and for Sam to provide updates from across the Health and Care System.

About our last Drop-in, Sam wrote:

"We spoke about many things including unfunded demand and referral pressures, funding sustainability, support for grassroots organisations, demonstrating VCSE impact, and more.

This session wasn’t only an exchange of information between sector colleagues and me. What I loved seeing was the generosity shown in the room by colleagues to each other".

Join us on Monday 26th October, 15:30 to 16:30* PLEASE NOTE THE UPDATED TIME

🔗Link to book: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/vcse-system-lead-drop-in-for-bradford-district-and-craven-health-and-care-tickets-2002507376469?aff=oddtdtcreator&keep_tld=true

Community Action Bradford & District Participate Projects CNet Bradford

13/10/2026

IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO JOIN! ⏳

The ICB (West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership) has organised training on Impact Measurement and Evaluation which is FREE, open to the VCSE Sector, and developed with four of our local Universities.

The training covers:

Health Economics, Return on Investment and Cost Effectiveness

Theories of change, Logic models, Process and Implementation

Data and data visualisation

Patient Experience measures and patient outcome measures

Although the training has started, it's not too late to sign up for any sessions you find interesting.

See what they say about it below 👇

NHS West Yorkshire ICB is using expertise from universities across West Yorkshire and working with the VCSE have been developing a consistent approach to evaluating impact across the sector.

We all recognise that evaluating impact is a challenge for all staff and services for a range of historic reasons, so we have developed a training offer to help with this issue as we seek to embed a consistent approach across the patch. This training aims to remove some of the disadvantages you may have when describing the great work you do and the impact that has on individuals and communities health and wellbeing as well as the wider system.

This series is open to all however, it may be particularly useful if your organisation is delivering health related activity, working with NHS or local authority commissioners, developing your approach to demonstrating impact, or looking to strengthen your evidence for future commissioning opportunities

In addition to that work, earlier in the summer we organised some face to face training around evaluation techniques to assist those in the community that are looking to evaluate their work. This training has now been set up as a series of 12 lunch time webinars/learning events in October and November.

Anyone can sign up for these at the following link below:

https://wyhcp.tractivity.co.uk/Events/bcfea350-a462-474c-944c-cfb53c11b6c3

If people want to sign up to part of the programme they need to register interest here:

https://re-url.uk/WG5Q

08/10/2026

We're looking for someone to lead insight and impact of the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector across Bradford District and Craven.

This role is vital to the development of a shared set of metrics to measure the impact of the sector’s work, helping the Alliance and our partners inform, advocate, influence and inspire within the Health and Care System.

If you have experience working with insight and impact systems and want your work to make a real difference, we'd love to hear from you.

📍Hybrid work with 2 days in our Bradford office each week

🗓 Full-time at 35 hours per week

💷 £42,000

⚠️ Closing date: Midnight evening of Sunday 1 November

Find out more and apply on our website now -- link in comments!

07/10/2026

Sam Keighley has written some reflections about the first VCSE Sector Lead Drop-in for Briefing Bradford, which went out today. ✍

The first session started strong and we spoke about many things including unfunded demand and referral pressures, funding sustainability, support for grassroots organisations, demonstrating VCSE impact, and more.

You can access her full reflections through Community Action Bradford & District's website, where Briefing Bradford is hosted: https://cabad.org.uk/briefing-bradford/

Reading the full reflections, you can also get information on how to share your stories with Sam or gain access to support! 💬

The next drop-in will be online on Monday 26 October from 2pm to 3pm and you can book to attend via Eventbrite now: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/2002507376469?aff=oddtdtcreator

30/09/2026

If you work in the VCSE sector, you'll know the feeling of wanting to help, support and solve every challenge facing the people and communities you care about.

This free interactive webinar, funded by the West Yorkshire Leadership Programme, will explore how we can stay committed to creating change without feeling personally responsible for fixing everything.

Using a simple Control, Influence, Accept & Adapt framework, we'll look at where our energy can make the biggest difference, what we can realistically influence, and how to let go of the things that sit beyond our control.

✅ Free to attend
✅ Open to anyone working in a VCSE organisation in West Yorkshire or Craven
📅 21 October 2026, from 10am to 12pm
📍 Online on Teams

Sign up on Eventbrite now for one of the limited places -- link in comments!

Because caring deeply doesn't have to mean carrying everything on your shoulders.

Our WY Leadership partners are Nova Wakefield District, TSL Kirklees Supporting Communities, VAC - Improving Local Lives, and Forum Central

24/09/2026

The Wellbeing Network is proud to have been shortlisted for two 2026 National Charity Today Awards™: the Community Impact Award and the Partnership of the Year Award! 👏 👏

Since the Wellbeing Network was founded in 2022, it has supported more than 15,000 people. This has included helping people at risk of su***de find new purpose, supporting people experiencing loneliness and isolation to rebuild social connections and become more involved in their communities, and aiding households to improve their finances through money-management and benefits advice. So far, more than 5,000 people have accessed additional benefits with the Wellbeing Network, worth approximately £6 million in total. The Network has also supported more than 200 people to return to employment, generating over £2.4 million in additional income.

As well as making a significant financial impact, the Network’s support is equally making a substantial difference to wellbeing and resilience. 98% of participants report feeling better able to handle challenges after receiving help from the Wellbeing Network. This impact is particularly significant because more than half of the people supported live in neighbourhoods within the most deprived 20% of the Index of Multiple Deprivation, facing multiple complex challenges.

We’re also extremely proud that the Wellbeing Network is funded by the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership (Integrated Care Board) to improve health outcomes across Bradford District and Craven by connecting people with timely, appropriate support in their communities. Critically, our evaluation data indicates that the Network has been diverting individuals from clinical services where community care is suitable. Over 24 months, we found that 3,574 people would have visited their GP or A&E for non-clinical issues without Wellbeing Network support.

Together, these results have helped us get shortlisted for the 2026 National Charity Today Awards – and we hope they demonstrate the importance of the Wellbeing Network’s impact for both our Health System and the local people we work with.

We’re looking forward to the Awards Ceremony in October and can’t wait to hear from our fellow entrants about the amazing work they’re doing too.

Find out more about our services or make a referral through our website today: https://wellbeingnetwork.org.uk/

Our amazing Wellbeing Network delivery partners are Equality Together, The Sutton Centre, Bradford, Inspired Neighbourhoods, Bridge. Well done, all!!

23/09/2026

LAST FEW DAYS TO APPLY ⚠️

The VCS Alliance is looking for two new team members to help us make an impact across the VCSE sector, supporting our VCS Alliance team and also working with our VCSE sector partners!

Director of Culture ❤️

Join our Senior Leadership Team to help shape a supportive, inclusive and high-performing culture across VCS Alliance and our wider network.

This role will lead on our People and Culture strategy and support the embedding of our Anti-Racist principles.

Project Officer 📝

An entry-level role supporting the delivery of programmes across VCS Alliance through administration and coordination; supporting communications, events, reporting and more. Full support and training will be provided.

Deadline for applications: Midnight evening of 27 September.

Apply on our website now, link in comments!

22/09/2026

Today we put on a 'Show and Tell' event for Healthy Working Life Year 2 deliver partners 👀

The aim of the event was to help our partners build relationships and get a better understanding of what different services are on offer... Because we know that finding time to connect can be difficult, but so important!

We're really pleased that the event went well, with lots conversations, relationship building, increased service awareness, and time to look to the future! Thank you everyone that joined us 💙

(Healthy Working Life is the joint programme of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and the NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB): https://www.wypartnership.co.uk/our-priorities/healthy-working-life)

HWL Partners: Inspired Neighbourhoods, Keighley Healthy Living, The Cellar Trust, Airedale Hospital NHSFT, Bradford Care Alliance

Address

82 Grattan Road
Openshaw
BD12LU

Telephone

+441274306624

Website

https://www.thevcsalliance.org.uk/

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