Alliance members will work together with the aim of supporting services and funding to remain local, ensuring that any existing or emerging services are informed, driven and motivated by local need.

Be a conduit to support the NHSE ask to integrate Swindon based Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector into strategic planning and operational delivery of mental health support across Swindon.  We will work with our NHS partners – AWP and GWH, Local Authority Partner Swindon Borough Council, the ICB, Primary Care Networks (PCNs) and people accessing services and carers, to support integration, locally informed, co-designed and joined up pathways between services.

The Alliance has developed a Charter of collaborative working, which outlines the shared values, shared responsibilities, and principles of collaborative working that partners sign up to.

Shared Values – Alliance partners commit to a values-led approach to collaborative working.  The core values of the Alliance are:

Listening, valuing difference, respect, honesty, reciprocity; ensuring all voices are heard, being aspirational but not competitive.

Shared Responsibility – Alliance partners commit to equal and shared responsibility for the discharge of Alliance business activity and are jointly and equally accountable for the delivery of output and outcomes, progressing opportunities, and accountable for our behaviours and actions as a values-led alliance.

1. We will actively seek to be inclusive and representative of the diverse communities of Swindon.

2. We promise to be accessible and learn how to enable culturally appropriate support to all people.

3. We will work collaboratively and transparently on partnership opportunities that benefit local need, providing growth and development of Swindon Mental Health Alliance services.

4. We will actively seek the views of people accessing services, carers and those with relevant lived experience, but not currently accessing services, to inform the Swindon Mental Health Alliance. We will do this through relevant networks and partnerships. This may involve:
a. current or past people accessing services and those experiencing barriers to accessing services to directly design projects,
b. lived experience data being recorded through Alliance partner services,
c. seeking information on specific topics and/or from certain communities,
d. using existing relevant research, and
e. any other creative ways to ensure voices are heard.

5. We believe that lived experience needs to shape and drive how services are designed and delivered. We will actively seek a range of data to co-produce and co-design in partnership with people accessing services, lived experience and carers to inform, shape and drive any new opportunities that benefit local need. This learning can also be used to support local strategic priorities to help really understand local needs and help address the root causes of mental health issues.

6. We will seek to positively influence whole communities around mental health by using the breadth of community intelligence available to create a broad understanding of needs. This is gathered in a variety of ways, including Alliance partner data, direct co-production and co-design with service users and carers, actively seeking intelligence and using existing research.

Swindon Wellbeing Group

(Led by VAS)

The Swindon Wellbeing Group is a community-wide collaboration platform for the VCSE (Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise) sector. It shapes priorities based on lived experience and local needs. The group also creates task-and-finish subgroups (for example, focusing on young people, crisis alternatives, or neurodivergence) to directly address Swindon’s Integrated Care Alliance (ICA) priority areas.

Swindon Mental Health Partnership

(Co-led by VAS and Swindon & Gloucestershire Mind)

This partnership acts as a strategic bridge between the wider VCSE sector and the mental health-specific alliance. It ensures coordination, avoids duplication, and amplifies community voices across Swindon’s mental health landscape. By aligning local insights with system-level goals, the partnership makes sure Swindon communities – including underserved groups – are embedded in ICB (Integrated Care Board) planning and programme delivery.

Swindon Mental Health Alliance

(Led by Swindon & Gloucestershire Mind)

The Alliance is the delivery arm of the Mental Health Partnership, coordinating VCSE activity, intelligence, and actions to drive local transformation. It feeds into several key system boards and groups, including the Mental Health Delivery Oversight Group, Community Mental Health Programme Delivery Board, Integrated Access Model Project Board, Core Community Project Board (via elected representation), and Specialist Pathways & Intervention QI Groups. This ensures Swindon-based innovations, lived experience, and identified needs directly influence programme design and delivery across BSW (Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon, and Wiltshire).

Swindon Health Inequalities Task Group

(Led by Swindon Borough Council)

The Health Inequalities Task Group analyses data, identifies inequality hotspots, and co-designs interventions with affected communities. It plays a vital role in shaping ICA responses and contributes directly to Core20PLUS5 priorities and ICB health equity plans, ensuring that no community is left behind.