Our Chief Executive talking on BBC to lobby for the best interests of our clients and colleagues

We are proud of our reputation to act as an effective strategic partner, where our expert experience, business acumen and personal candour is recognised and helps the wider system development and transformation.

As well as our Chief Executive, Neil Blanchard (pictured above) and senior leaders engaging as sector representatives in local and national forums and networks, we encourage and support other colleagues to take an active interest and participate in activities outside of Southdown.

Through all of our wider engagement, we are confident that we have an acute awareness and appreciation of the issues and themes that impact on the sectors we operate in. Even though we face multiple and complex challenges, it is this depth of knowledge that enables us to take immediate actions and plan effectively for the future.

Aligned to our Business Strategy and our value to be a ‘force for good’, over the coming months and years we will build on our networking and lobbying activities to affect change for the best interests of the local communities we operate in across Sussex.

Current focus areas

1. Fair funding for fair pay

Information on the disparity of pay for support workers versus NHS counterparts is highlighted starkly in the Unfair to Care report. The report also provides a first of its kind, in-depth analysis which debunks the myth of social care as a ‘low skilled’ profession.

Since 2020, we have been lobbying Sussex-based local authority commissioners of services for fair funding so we can pay our staff fairly for the amazing work that they do. As part of this, we work in collaboration with other providers and Chair the Sussex Learning Disability VCSE CEO Group.

Keep an eye on our news section of our website for updates on our lobbying efforts in this area.

Collaborating to Secure Greater Funding for Learning Disability Services

The Sussex Learning Disability VCSE CEO Group has urged local councillors and NHS and local authority commissioners to grant a minimum 8% fee uplift for learning disability residential services across Sussex to ensure their continued viability and sustainability.

Sussex VCSE Mental Health Strategic Leadership Group – latest update

The Sussex VCSE Mental Health Strategic Leadership Group shares an open letter it has sent to the NHS Sussex Integrated Care Board aligned to recent financial challenges facing the VCSE sector.

2. Development of community mental health services across Sussex

Neil Blanchard, our Chief Executive, is an elected representative supporting delivery of the Sussex Health and Care Partnership (Sussex’s Integrated Care System) Mental Health Community Transformation Programme. The Programme aims to radically transform and improve primary and specialist community services, moving away from siloed, hard-to-reach services towards joined-up care and whole population approaches. Through this role, Neil, and other Southdown senior colleagues, represent the Voluntary Community & Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector in Sussex wide (System) and local (Place) governance structures and task and finish groups.

Neil is also a founding member of the East Sussex VCSE Alliance where he acts as a Mental Health Strategic Rep. In addition, he is chair for the Sussex Mental Health VCSE Strategic Leadership Group. This group is formed of all the VCSE mental health representative across Sussex, aiming to promote and expand the role of the VCSE in helping shape and deliver non-clinical mental health services across Sussex.

“I passionately believe that through such involvement, together, we can ensure that services for our clients and wider communities will improve.”

Neil Blanchard, our Chief Executive

Southdown also host the Brighton and Hove and East Sussex VCSE Mental Health Transformation Lead role (Martin Dominy) who coordinates new VCSE Mental Health Networks for Brighton and Hove and East Sussex.

Community Mental Health Transformation

Watch this video by the NHS explaining the Community Mental Health Transformation.

3. Protecting future funding for supported housing

Southdown plays an active role to support the work of the National Housing Federation with Jim Aspdin, our Director of Housing and Assets, chairing the South East Supported Housing Group.

East Sussex Centre of Excellence for VCSE Commissioning

Neil Blanchard, our Chief Executive, has taken on a lead role on the East Sussex VCSE Commissioning Excellence Programme, where he is a member of the Steering Group. The aim of the group is to develop East Sussex as a centre of excellence for Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) commissioning.

Working together

In support of the best interest of our clients and local communities across Sussex, we’re committed to working in partnership with NHS partners, local authorities, councillors, MPs and providers across the region.

Please get in touch if you would like to discuss how we can work together on mutual areas of interest.