“I’ll meet you at our bench”: adaptation, innovation and resilience among VCSE organisations who supported marginalised and minoritised communities during the Covid-19 pandemic in Northern England – a qualitative focus group study

Scott, Steph, McGowan, Victoria, Wildman, Josephine, Bidmead, Elaine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0166-4506 , Hartley, Jane, Matthews, Claire, James, Becky, Sullivan, Claire, Bambra, Clare and Sowden, Sarah (2024) “I’ll meet you at our bench”: adaptation, innovation and resilience among VCSE organisations who supported marginalised and minoritised communities during the Covid-19 pandemic in Northern England – a qualitative focus group study. BMC Health Services Research, 24 . p. 7.

Preview

PDF - Published Version Available under License CC BY Download (933kB) | Preview

Abstract

Background: The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing inequalities and increased adversity and challenges for vulnerable and marginalised communities worldwide. In the UK, the Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector play a vital role in supporting the health and wellbeing of people who are marginalised or experiencing multiple complex needs. However, only a small number of studies have focused on the impact that Covid-19 had on the VCSE sector.

Methods: As part of a Health Inequalities Impact Assessment (HIIA), we conducted qualitative focus groups with staff and volunteers from five organisations to examine short, medium and longer-term impacts of Covid-19 upon the VCSE sector in Northern England. Nine online focus groups were conducted between March and July 2021.

Findings: Focus group transcripts were analysed using Framework Analysis and yielded three central themes: (1) exacerbation of pre-existing inequalities, adversity and challenges for vulnerable and marginalised populations; (2) the ‘price’ of being flexible, innovative and agile for VCSE staff and volunteers; and (3) the voluntary sector as a ‘lifeline’ - organisational pride and resilience.

Conclusions: While the voluntary sector ‘adapted at pace’ to provide support during Covid-19 and in its continued aftermath, this resilience has potentially come at the cost of workforce and volunteer wellbeing, compounded by political obstacles and chronic shortage in funding and support. The VCSE sector has a vital role to play in the post-lockdown ‘levelling up’ agenda. The expertise, capacity and resilience of VCSE organisations, and their ability to respond to Covid-19, should be celebrated, recognised and supported adequately to maintain its resilience. To not do so threatens the sector’s sustainability and risks jeopardising attempts to involve the sector in addressing the social determinants of health.

Item Type:	Article
Journal / Publication Title:	BMC Health Services Research
Publisher:	BMC
ISSN:	1472-6963
Departments:	Centre for Research in Health and Society (CRIHS) Institute of Health > Social Work, Children and Families
Data access:	The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Additional Information:	This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.
Depositing User:	Elaine Bidmead
Date Deposited:	05 Jan 2024 16:45
Last Modified:	29 Jan 2024 11:54
URI:	https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/7511

Downloads