The vSPA (Voluntary Sector Single Point of Access) service provides referrals to health and social care voluntary services to help people receive support at home or in their local community. It covers three clinical commissioning groups in the UK. Professionals make referrals and vSPA staff discuss options with patients to identify services that meet their needs, such as visiting services or support groups. They coordinate arranging the agreed upon services and identify gaps where no options exist. Stakeholders report that vSPA saves them time, connects them to new services, and provides a valuable service.

1. Introducing the...
The aim of the vSPA (Voluntary Sector Single Point of Access) is to provide an effective referral
route into health and social care voluntary services and to support people to receive services at
home or as close to home as is possible. The service covers Erewash, Hardwick and North
Derbyshire Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) patient population.
How works:
• We take calls from both voluntary and statutory sector health & social care professionals
who tell us their professional opinion of what voluntary sector support a patient needs.
• With consent, we phone the patient and chat about this, finding out what they feel they need.
• We agree with the patient one or more options that would help them and liaise on their
behalf to put services in place. This could be anything from someone to pop in for a cuppa
once a week, to an introduction to a condition related support group and transport to get
there – often a number of things, whatever is needed.
• We also note the gaps where we are asked to arrange services where none exist or are not
suitable.
Why works:
• Being voluntary sector ourselves, we have a wide knowledge of who does what and where.
• Overwhelmingly, referrers say that VSPA has saved them time, highlighted services they
didn’t previously know about and has quickly become a valued service to them. 23% of
referrers would not have tried to find a voluntary sector service before VSPA started,
according to our survey.
• We are a professional and friendly non-medical team that creates a rapport with patients to
get to the heart of what they feel would help them best cope with their situation.
• We have real time data on where the gaps in services are and use this to micro-commission
services at a local community level.
To reach VSPA, call 0300 1000442 - choose option 2 for VSPA. Please note - this is not a
public facing service and this number should not be shared with the general public.
“Fantastic service. I don't know how we coped without it.” – Brain Injury Team
The rapid growth of the VSPA service can partly be attributed to development work, but largely to
the positive feedback the service has received and word of mouth recommendations.
“The service is fantastic, and saves me a vast amount of time.” – Care Coordinator,
Chesterfield
Pete Newby, Project Manager, (pete.vspa@ndva.org.uk, 07508 636242) would welcome the
chance to talk to your team about VSPA and how we can link you into the voluntary sector.