The vision behind Healthy Communities Together (HCT) Gloucestershire is that everyone in Gloucestershire has the same opportunities to enjoy wellbeing and health.

HCT is a new alliance that has come together to champion this change. HCT has secured start-up funding from the Kings Fund and National Lottery Community Foundation, which they are using to grow a wide and diverse community of people and organisations who share the HCT vision and want to work collaboratively to make it happen.

A stewardship group, made up of representatives from Health, Local Government, the VCSE sector and funders holds the grant and the collective responsibility for learning, and for sharing learning to inform the way our system works together for equity and justice.

Gloucestershire VCSE Alliance is part of the stewardship group and you can find out more on the Healthy Communities Together website.

Join us

Our members work together to make lasting, positive change within local communities. Membership is free for VCSE and statutory organisations delivering services in Gloucestershire. By joining us, local organisations become part of a wider community and are able to access a range of enhanced benefits above and beyond our usual fully-funded support. You can find out more on our membership page. 

Work with us

We're always looking for new ways to collaborate and work in partnership with colleagues from the VCSE and statutory sectors, as well as local business. If you're interested in working with us and would like to explore this in more detail, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We also provide a range of hosting services for local groups & organisations that may need some 'back office' support. You can find out more about this support on our hosted projects page. 

Unitemps is the University of Gloucestershire’s recruitment service connecting students and recent graduates with a wide range of job opportunities in the local area.

Our partnership aims to link local groups and organisations with the creative thinking and fresh perspectives of the University’s students and graduates.

About Unitemps Gloucestershire

Unitemps specialises in placing candidates in various roles, including full-time, part-time, temporary, permanent positions, and internships.  Their comprehensive recruitment service covers everything from advertising and managing applications, processing timesheets, support with budget monitoring and processing workers’ payments.

Any revenue generated through Unitemps is reinvested into the University of Gloucestershire to enhance the student experience, which makes them a different proposition to a commercial, for-profit recruitment agency.

Unitemps offer to VCSE organisations  

Working with Unitemps can take pressure off your organisation by streamlining your recruitment process. Unitemps offers:

Compliance: Unitemps will manage all candidate Right to Work checks and ensure compliance with legislative requirements and risk mitigation.

Expert recruitment: vibrancy and connection with your local University.

  • Full recruitment service (360 Recruitment): the Unitemps team of trained consultants will manage the entire recruitment process on your behalf, including advertising, shortlisting, pre-screening, and arranging interviews. They will work alongside your group/organisation, providing support at every stage.
  • Finding new talent: this can be challenging for any group/organisation. Many of the Unitemps students have creative talents and ideas that would be ideal for VCSE groups/organisations who are thinking outside of the box when it comes to recruitment.  These skills can be costly and hard to find, whereas Unitemps can assist you to take steps to fill this need.

Efficient payroll management: 

  • Unitemps is an ethical agency belonging to the University of Gloucestershire.  They can work around your budget to provide a fair and competitive rate in comparison to other commercial agencies.
  • Students and workers submit timesheets online, which are then easily authorised by hiring managers via the Unitemps online portal.
  • They manage the payroll, issuing monthly invoices to cover all associated costs.
  • Hiring managers can generate their own reports to track budgets. Your Unitemps contact is available to discuss further to tailor reports to supply your needs.

Corporate Social Responsibility: by choosing Unitemps, your group/organisation supports local students and graduates in overcoming cost-of-living challenges and achieving better long-term employment outcomes.  You will ease your recruitment challenges, bringing new talent in and, at the same time, your investment will give a student or graduate a helping hand into the world of work.

How to get started 

If you’re interested in working with Unitemps, all you need to do to get started is:

  1. Meet with a member of the Unitemps team to discuss your specific needs.
  2. Discuss your budget with a member of the Unitemps team.
  3. Await the written quote from Unitemps (this will be provided to your group/organisation for consideration/approval).
  4. Complete a booking form and send it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The person completing the form in your group/organisation must have authorisation to process the job from their budget and provide key contacts for invoicing purposes. The form includes sections where you can add the job description, person specifications, and required skills.

The Unitemps process 

Please download the following file to find out more about the Unitemps Process: Unitemps Gloucestershire Recruitment Process.pdf

How much does this service cost? 

As the employer, your group/organisation will set the hourly rate for each position. Workers are paid an hourly rate plus holiday pay. Additional costs, including National Insurance, pension contributions, and the Unitemps service fee of 15.5%, are also covered in the charge to clients.

Example Rates for the First 12 Weeks: 

Hourly Rate of Pay

Holiday Pay

Worker Hourly Take Home

Hourly Charge to your group/organisation

£11.44

£1.38

£12.82

£17.29

£11.51

£1.39

£12.90

£17.41

Please note: the above figures are based on the current National Insurance and Minimum Wage rates. Therefore, they are accurate as of January 2025. Don’t forget that before entering into a formal agreement with Unitemps, you will be sent a written quote for you to consider and approve.

What does these costs include? 

Workers are paid an hourly rate plus holiday pay. Additional costs, including National Insurance, pension contributions, and the Unitemps service fee are also covered.

The Agency Worker Regulations were introduced to ensure that temporary workers are treated fairly in comparison to permanent members of staff. From day one, an agency worker will be entitled to access the same facilities and information on internal job vacancies as comparable permanent employees (e.g. staff canteen, car parking and childcare facilities).

After 12 weeks - the temporary agency worker is entitled to the same employment conditions as that of a comparable employee in certain areas. These are:

  1. Rate of pay;
  2. Commissions, bonuses and over time rates;
  3. Annual leave;
  4. Night work;
  5. Rest periods and breaks; and
  6. Stamps and vouchers that have a monetary value.

Find out more 

For more information, or to begin your recruitment journey with Unitemps, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Please note: The information above is for general informational purposes only and should not be construed as an endorsement, recommendation, or promotion of any specific service, product, or provider. The Gloucestershire VCSE Alliance does not receive any financial or other benefit from promoting this partnership, opportunity or service. We encourage groups & organisations to conduct independent research and due diligence before making employment-related decisions.

Join us

Our members work together to make lasting, positive change within local communities. Membership is free for VCSE and statutory organisations delivering services in Gloucestershire. By joining us, local organisations become part of a wider community and are able to access a range of enhanced benefits above and beyond our usual fully-funded support. You can find out more on our membership page. 

Work with us

We're always looking for new ways to collaborate and work in partnership with colleagues from the VCSE and statutory sectors, as well as local business. If you're interested in working with us and would like to explore this in more detail, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We also provide a range of hosting services for local groups & organisations that may need some 'back office' support. You can find out more about this support on our hosted projects page. 

We're working in partnership with the Barnwood Trust and Gloucestershire County Council to enhance inclusive short breaks for local families of disabled children and young people.

The initiative will run until April 2027, and will see the partners working together to co-fund short breaks in Gloucester, the North Cotswolds and Tewkesbury. It also provides a tremendous opportunity to explore innovative ways of offering short breaks, building on the insights gained from children, young people, their families, and local providers.

Background Information

Our partnership is part of Gloucestershire County Council’s plans to provide families across the county with more choice of inclusive and engaging short breaks for disabled children and young people. It will complement the council’s existing county-wide offer and boost support for families.

Barnwood Trust will also extend to April 2027, its funding for six projects which have been delivering inclusive short breaks across the county since 2023. This is through the Short Breaks Fund, as part of the Trust’s Short Breaks change programme. Barnwood Trust will invest a further £1.2 million in time-limited grant funding for the county-wide projects.

Gloucestershire County Council will use the outcomes of the learning from this partnership to inform the re-procurement in 2026 of short breaks services across the county. 

Useful Links

Questions and answers about this partnership are available on the Barnwood Trust website. You can also access the Short Breaks Fund information page on the Barnwood Trust website. We will publish updates about this project on this webpage and on our news pages. Current updates include:

If you would like to find out more about the Short Breaks work please get in touch with:

  • Dan Jacques, Social Change Manager at Barnwood Trust: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • Hannah Chesters Senior Commissioning Manager at Gloucestershire County Council: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • Rob Fountain, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Gloucestershire VCSE Alliance: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Join us

Our members work together to make lasting, positive change within local communities. Membership is free for VCSE and statutory organisations delivering services in Gloucestershire. By joining us, local organisations become part of a wider community and are able to access a range of enhanced benefits above and beyond our usual fully-funded support. You can find out more on our membership page. 

Work with us

We're always looking for new ways to collaborate and work in partnership with colleagues from the VCSE and statutory sectors, as well as local business. If you're interested in working with us and would like to explore this in more detail, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We also provide a range of hosting services for local groups & organisations that may need some 'back office' support. You can find out more about this support on our hosted projects page. 

The Connected Gloucestershire Alliance is a movement that promotes coordinated action to foster strong connections and reduce the pain of loneliness in Gloucestershire.

This project is currently hosted by Gloucestershire VCSE Alliance, but it is very much a partnership project with the VCSE sector, statutory organisations, funders and local communities.

Background information

In September 2023, 40 community and voluntary sector leaders came together at a summit, hosted by Age UK Gloucestershire, to consider the issue of loneliness in the county. Those who attended proposed the setting up of an ‘Ending Loneliness in Gloucestershire’ Alliance as a campaign action group, hosted by Gloucestershire VCSE Alliance. In September 2024, we invited representatives from local VCSE sector groups/organisations, statutory organisations, funders and communities to our launch event in September 2024.

Ahead of the event, we drafted an aspirational vision statement to be explored in more detail:

“That no one in Gloucestershire experiences the pain and damage of loneliness because we set our communities up well both to promote healthy relationships between citizens and to support those who have less social contact than they want”

And suggested the potential mission that the Connected Gloucestershire Alliance will work to achieve is:   

  1. That the fundamental importance of human connections are better understood and recognised in Gloucestershire as a vital part of the health and wellbeing of our citizens.  
  2. That there is a co-ordinated approach to the measures that our communities, VCSE organisations and statutory bodies are taking to address and prevent loneliness.   

 After the event, we created a document to concisely summarise where those conversations have been landing and to steer us towards the actions we can take as a county to do something about prioritising connection. The paper was collated by Gloucestershire VCSE Alliance who are holding this space for now.

Much of the talking has been driven by VCSE organisations, and our sector is already highly active in seeking to provide support to those who are suffering from the impact of disconnection. More than just provide a record of conversations held, this document brings to the forefront the suggested actions and ideas. So whilst there is a lot of information in the appendices, the main proposals are in the initial 8 pages. These include ideas and draft campaigns that are not intended to be finalised, but to give us a starting point to refine. 

This document was and continues to be circulated to maintain momentum around this issue and as part of continuing to see this as essentially a wicked problem that needs wide collaborative endeavour to shift. You can download the Paper below:

Join us

Our members work together to make lasting, positive change within local communities. Membership is free for VCSE and statutory organisations delivering services in Gloucestershire. By joining us, local organisations become part of a wider community and are able to access a range of enhanced benefits above and beyond our usual fully-funded support. You can find out more on our membership page. 

Work with us

We're always looking for new ways to collaborate and work in partnership with colleagues from the VCSE and statutory sectors, as well as local business. If you're interested in working with us and would like to explore this in more detail, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We also provide a range of hosting services for local groups & organisations that may need some 'back office' support. You can find out more about this support on our hosted projects page. 

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Registered office address

Suite 4, Abbey Terrace, Winchcombe,
Gloucestershire, GL54 5LL

Tel: 01242 858947

Registered Charity Number: 1153760