Health and Wellbeing Service Under Threat
For 40 years Volunteer Edinburgh’s Health and Wellbeing Service has supported people to improve their health and participate positively in their communities but it is currently under threat.
It is one of a number of contracts with the Third Sector that are being considered for possible reduction or complete disinvestment by the Edinburgh Integrated Joint Board (IJB).
This groundbreaking project, which has been replicated across the world and is held up as an exemplar, faces being cut as part of Edinburgh Health & Social Care Partnership’s savings plan.
What will happen if this service goes?
The removal of funding from Volunteer Edinburgh’s Health and Wellbeing Service will jeopardise proven, cost-effective benefits to peoples’ health and will damage efforts to create inclusive, supportive communities. Evidence shows that volunteering is a powerful vehicle for improving health, resilience, and equality. It is a valuable resource that, once lost, will add long-term costs to public services and be difficult and expensive to rebuild.
| A wide range of evidence highlights how volunteering promotes health, prevents illness and builds skills, confidence and resilience: | ||
|---|---|---|
| Enhanced mental health and wellbeing | ||
| Improved physical health outcomes | ||
| Social connection and reduced isolation | ||
| Empowerment and personal growth | ||
| Pathway to skills, confidence, and employment | ||
| Tackling health inequalities | ||
| Preventative and cost-effective | ||
View our Background Briefing document for more detail on this vital service. | ||
How can I help?
We are busy lobbying both collectively, with other affected organisations, and individually against these potential cuts but we need your help to spread the word. To this end we have prepared two documents which will support our lobbying. The first is a brief and to the point Campaign Briefing and the second is a more in-depth Background Briefing. These can be used independently or together depending on the audience. You can also share the short url https://voled.in/brief to link to the Capaign Brief which has a link in the header to the Background Briefing.
We will be circulating these briefings widely over the next few days but please feel free to share this page and these documents yourself with as many people as possible. Thank you for your help.
For further information
If you would like to get in touch you can reach us by email at paul.wilson@volunteeredinburgh.org.uk or marion.findlay@volunteeredinburgh.org.uk.
click background to close