The Essex Alliance is sharing this on behalf of the Making It Count Project, a partnership between Essex County Council and the University of Essex.
In speaking with many community and voluntary sector organisations, a key challenge they face is evidencing the impact of their work. Many have told us that the issue is not counting activities, but demonstrating outcomes such as:
Increased confidence
Reduced isolation
Sense of belonging
Improved wellbeing
Long-term change
These outcomes matter deeply, but they can be difficult to measure consistently and meaningfully.
Addressing this challenge is at the heart of the Making It Count project– a partnership between the University of Essex and Essex County Council. This project aims to support Voluntary, community and social enterprises (VCSE) organisations by creating a simple, practical toolkit to help them measure their impact. We are looking for VCSE organisations and community stakeholders in ESSEX to join us in developing this toolkit together.
There will be opportunities to contribute through:
Workshops
Feedback sessions
Reviewing draft approaches
Sharing challenges and priorities from practice
Whether you work in a food bank, community organisation, wellbeing service, social prescribing programme, volunteer-led project, or another community setting, your experience could help shape the future toolkit.
Are you delivering services in Essex and interested in getting involved? Contact us below.
The Essex Alliance is sharing this news on behalf of Essex County Council.
The Community Exchange is a FREE of charge platform connecting commercial businesses with voluntary services, social enterprises and community groups.
It acts a notice board for organisations to exchange:
volunteering time
materials or equipment
work placements
training and apprenticeship opportunities
careers support
Check out our Suppliers’ Offers to see what is on offer. Simply use the email address provided next to what you are interested in.
Or if you can’t find what you’re looking for, add what you need help with to our Wishing Wall. Just submit your answers to the below questions to Craig.Johnson@essex.gov.uk.
The Essex Alliance is sharing this opportunity on behalf of the University of Essex and Essex County Council.
We are inviting people to join the Making It Count Steering Group, a project run by Essex County Council and the University of Essex.
The project aims to develop a practical toolkit to help community organisations, charities, commissioners, and public health teams understand and show the difference their work makes.
We would like to hear from:
• Local residents who have completed feedback forms or surveys about services they have used (such as community groups, food banks, or wellbeing activities)
• People who work or volunteer in organisations that provide these types of services
If you are interested, please take a look at the attached flyer for more information about the role, support available, and payment for taking part.
The Essex Alliance is sharing this survey on behalf of Essex County Council.
Community Micro‑Enterprises (CME) are very small, local businesses—typically with eight or less staff—that provide highly personalised care and support. They offer a wide range of services such as personal care, cleaning, activities, trade services, therapies and wellbeing support. Focused on enhancing independence and wellbeing, they deliver flexible, tailored help and are often run by local people for their own communities, offering an alternative to larger organisations and care agencies.
Thurrock and Essex Councils are running CME projects to make sure people who receive Direct Payments or pay for their own care have enough local, personalised services to choose from. We have agreed to work together so that our CME projects run in the same way across both Councils. To achieve this, we want to work with people – rather than making decisions alone – to develop a shared approach for how we welcome and set up new micro‑enterprises. Our aim is to make sure the process and requirements for joining our programmes are proportionate, practical, and based on what people who use these services truly need and want.
We are asking for feedback from people who use CMEs, Direct Payments recipients, family carers, micro-enterprise owners, and social care professionals. We would really appreciate if you could take a few minutes to complete our online survey. You don’t need any prior knowledge of micro‑enterprises to take part—we want to hear from as many different perspectives as possible.
To access the online survey you can follow the link below:
Clear the Air is an Essex County Council campaign supporting parents and carers to talk with children aged 10-12 about vaping. Before misinformation or social pressure becomes established.
Parents can explore information via an AI-powered chat tool or by scrolling animated key facts: Clear the air about vaping.
The campaign focuses on:
challenging common myths children hear about vaping
addressing how seeing vaping online or among other young people can make it seem normal, even though most children do not vape
supporting early, calm conversations at home
helping children feel confident, not confused
How can organisations support?
sharing campaign materials with parents via newsletters, apps or websites
displaying posters or digital assets
signposting parents to the Clear the Air website
encouraging parents and carers to have a conversation with their child about vaping
The Government has now launched its public consultation on proposals for Local Government Reorganisation (LGR)across Greater Essex. This represents a significant opportunity for organisations, community groups, businesses, and residents to help shape what the future of local government could look like in our county.
Announced on 19 November 2025, the consultation covers all four unitary proposals submitted by councils across Essex, Southend-on-Sea, and Thurrock. It will run until 11 January 2026, giving organisations across the voluntary and community sector vital time to feed back their views.
These proposals aim to simplify how local councils work, strengthen local decision-making, and improve the way services are delivered. This includes ensuring councils reflect local identity, operate efficiently, and deliver high-quality public services.
This is a unique opportunity for the VCS to influence decisions that will affect communities for years to come.
Why this matters to Essex Alliance members
Local Government Reorganisation has the potential to reshape:
how services are delivered
how local priorities are set
how communities engage with decision-making
the future structure and scale of local authorities across Greater Essex
Your insight—as organisations working closely with communities—is key to ensuring these proposals reflect local needs.
All the councils in Essex are working together to propose changes to how they are run. Each council – whether district, borough, city or county councils – might have their own ideas to share with the government.
These proposals are based on:
making sure decision making is as close to communities as possible
delivering value for money and efficient local services
what’s good for local businesses and voluntary sector organisations
Some ideas will be the same, but some will be different.
You can read the four proposals that councils in Greater Essex have sent to government HERE.
Essex County Council is conducting important research into youth vaping and is seeking views from parents and carers of children aged 9–14 in Essex.
Your insight will help shape future support and a new county-wide campaign to help families have non-judgemental conversations about the risks of vaping for young people.
The survey is anonymous, takes 10 minutes, and is open to all parents and carers—whether or not your child vapes.
Your feedback will directly support future work to protect the health and wellbeing of young people in Essex.
This survey aims to understand your attitudes to youth vaping, talking about it with your child, and what resources might be helpful to support this.
The findings will be summarised in a report which will be used by Essex County Council to inform services and materials to support parents, schools and young people around vaping. The report will be kept indefinitely and may be shared in the public domain on the Essex Open Data Platform (Essex Youth Vaping | Essex Open Data). Insight may be taken from the report and used for other relevant projects and shared with other partners.
Essex County Council is developing a new All-Age Carers Strategy — and we want to hear from you.
As part of our commitment to supporting carers of all ages, this strategy will set out a shared vision and priorities for how carers are supported now and in the future. To make sure it truly reflects the real experiences and needs of carers, we’re inviting unpaid carers to share their views through a public consultation.
A carer is anyone who provides unpaid help, care, or support to a relative, friend, or neighbour who couldn’t manage everyday life without them. We know that caring can be deeply rewarding but also brings challenges — and your insight is vital to shaping how we move forward.
By taking part in the short online survey, carers can help us:
Shape services that reflect carers’ real needs
Improve support for carers across all ages
Raise awareness of the vital role carers play
Influence decisions on policy and funding
Ensure carers’ voices are heard
The consultation is open until 4th November, and every response will help build a more supportive and inclusive system for carers in Essex.
We’d be very grateful if you could share this consultation link across your networks — with staff, community groups, and carers you work with — as well as through newsletters, websites, and social media. The more carers we hear from, the more meaningful and representative the strategy will be.
Together, we can make sure carers’ experiences shape a better future for all.
Following the 2024-25 Healthier Habits Hubs that took place across the County, Essex County Council (ECC) have changed the structure based on feedback from both residents and providers.
From 3rd November 2025, this is your opportunity to get creative.
Do you have an idea for a project? Does your hub have the creativity to run a successful health related project?
If your hub has what it takes, now is your chance. Applications open from 3rd November 2025 for hubs to apply for up to £2,500 (£5,000 if partnering with another) to run a project that aligns to one or more of the outcomes in our Essex County Council Wellbeing, Public Health and Communities Business Plan 2025-2028 (Wellbeing, public health and communities business plan):
Healthy Weight
Smokefree 2030
Children and Young People
Housing and Health
Physical Activity
Inclusive Growth, work and health
NHS 10 Year plan
Healthy Communities
Vulnerable groups
ECC recognise the importance of communities being able to organise events of health importance as well as events that promote community cohesion and integration. Therefore, funding has been made available for communities in Essex to lead and organise events. These can be Health promotion, events that raise awareness of issues that affect the community and or events that bring communities together for collective reflection.
The Healthier Habits Fund will offer financial support to organisations to help deliver new events/projects in the County of Essex.
The fund can be used to book a space or pay for other associated event costs. For each event, a maximum of £2,500 will be made available, or for collaboration between organisations, grants of up to £5,000 will be made available.
ECC are keen to develop an interesting and successful year-round events calendar and would like to encourage new community leaders and groups to come forward. As part of this ambition, we are keen to see new events that will complement existing offers.
Applicants must agree that if my application is successful the money received will be used ONLY towards the project set out in this application and that I will supply evidence as required to the HHH project team in the form of photos and/or feedback from users of the project to demonstrate our impact and appropriate use of ECC funds.
Who can apply?
Registered charities and CICs with sound governance and accountability structures
Individuals affiliated to a registered group that supports Essex can apply where no other registered charity of CIC can be found
Profit companies, constituted groups or religious organisations
How to apply.
Applications for the Healthier Habits Hubs fund 2025/26 will open on Monday 3rd November 2025 and close on Sunday 30th November 2025.
*Please be aware we reserve the right to close the application form early on the basis the funds have been allocated to projects on a first come first served basis ahead of the closing date*
Your application will be reviewed by the Healthier Habits Hubs projects team within 1 week (7 working days) of receiving your application and a response will be sent to you within 14 days of receiving your application.
Essex County Council has published its Proposal for Greater Essex, setting out a bold and evidence-based vision for the future of local government in our county.
This proposal represents the most significant change to local government in Essex in over 50 years. It outlines the creation of three new, all-purpose unitary councils, covering North, Mid, and South Essex – bringing decision-making closer to residents and ensuring services are joined-up and efficient.
Councillor Kevin Bentley, Leader of Essex County Council, said:
“Our proposal is about creating a better future for the people we serve. By bringing services under three new councils, we can deliver better outcomes, simplify governance, and make the most of every pound we spend. This is about unlocking the potential of Essex and ensuring our communities have the local government they deserve.”
The proposal will be considered at Essex County Council’s Cabinet and Full Council meetings on 18 September before being submitted to Government on 26 September. The Government will then decide which proposal(s) will go forward to public consultation later this autumn.
While there are alternative proposals from other councils, what unites all of Greater Essex is the shared ambition to create a local government system that works better for residents, businesses, and communities.
