WorkWell West wins regional award

Collaborative Working Award Winners

The WorkWell West Partnership — the WorkWell West VCSE Network, BNSSG Integrated Care Board and Bristol City Council.

Tonight, we are proud to honour a partnership that shows what true collaboration can achieve — a team that brings together health, employment, and community support to transform lives. The WorkWell West Project is an outstanding example of organisations working as one system, united by a shared purpose: helping people move toward meaningful activity, volunteering, and employment through personalised, compassionate support.

WorkWell West is powered by a unique and ambitious partnership between BNSSG ICB, Bristol City Council, and an exceptional network of 16 VCSE organisations. What makes this model remarkable is its brokerage approach: VCSE partners deliver tailored, community-rooted interventions, while NHS and local authority teams provide clinical expertise and strategic oversight. This is cross-sector working at its very best — not theoretical, but practical, relational, and built on deep trust.

Over the past year, WorkWell West has expanded significantly across Bristol, North Somerset, and South Gloucestershire. What began in South Bristol and the Inner City now reaches communities in Woodspring, Weston, Worle Villages, and South Gloucestershire. This growth has been made possible by strengthened partnerships with Primary Care, Job Centre Plus, Health Pathways, and a VCSE sector whose contribution is unmatched across the national pilot sites.

The results are exceptional. Participant numbers continue to rise each quarter. Satisfaction scores remain above 92% and the Department for Work and Pensions has recognised WorkWell West as a national “test and learn” exemplar — ambitious, innovative, and generating insight that is shaping future models across the country.

But beyond the data are the people: hundreds supported to build confidence, reconnect with community, and move into volunteering and employment. WorkWell West is not just helping people live well; it is helping them work well — with dignity, agency, and hope.