Cutswatch LeicesterShire Survey – interim results
In the summer Voluntary Action LeicesterShire began a research project to examine the current issues facing the voluntary and community sector, the extent of funding cuts and the changes that are resulting from them. The interim results are now available and we would like to thank all those groups who contributed to it.
A summary of the results can be seen by clicking below.
Voluntary Action LeicesterShire have conducted research to discover the characteristics of the VCS sector in Leicester and Leicestershire, the changing funding regime for VCS organisations and likely impacts for people who rely on the services that the VCS supply.
The main results were:
- The estimated value of volunteering in Leicester City is £39 million. The figure for the County is estimated at £76 million. These figures are calculated using the national minimum wage and so the true value is likely to be considerably higher.
- The value of the sector in the City is £113 million per year. This is 3 and a half times the initial public investment. The value of the sector in the County (estimated through the same nationally recognised method) is nearly £190 million per year. Both these estimates use the value of volunteering based on the minimum wage, so the true value is likely to be higher.
- Nearly three-quarters of respondents noted that there was less money available to support their work.
- Nearly half of respondents who received funding had experienced a cut and 19% more were expecting to be cut shortly.
- Groups are working extremely hard to ensure that their beneficiaries do not feel the effects of cuts. The research shows the ability of many VCS groups to adapt to changing circumstances: this has included dramatic changes to the form of the organisation including mergers; changing organisational priorities; and staff restructuring to ensure a consistent service for the most vulnerable beneficiaries.
- However, for many groups cuts have resulted in redundancies, and remaining staff and volunteers working at unsustainable levels. With future cuts likely, several groups felt that it would be difficult for them to continue.
- Over one third of respondents had less than three months notice from their funder when receiving a funding cut.
- Uncertainty was major problem for VCS groups in terms of setting outcomes for services, programmes for service users and maintaining staff morale. Many groups
- noted the value of an extended period of open and transparent negotiation over changes to funding.
- VCS groups have developed services in partnership with funders, and some groups feel that their joint ownership of these services has been taken away from them. Some groups feel they have been treated as commissioned providers of services rather than co-producers.
- VCS groups are increasingly competing for contracts to secure income, and whilst this has enabled some groups to focus their operations, for others it has provided a diversion of staff and volunteer time away from service provision and towards procurement, and many groups are worried that they will not be able to compete with larger private or local authority organisations in the future. In some cases this has also affected the organisational focus, to move towards the goals outlined by commissioners, rather than the group.
- VCS groups in the City and County have developed according to local need and have unique insight into future need. The value of an independent VCS is that the sector can tell funders when, where and how to target services. If the VCS are reduced to simply providing services, then this insight is lost.
We are currently preparing the final report, and we would like to hear from you if you have any recommendations.
For more information:
Nick Mills (nick.m@valonline.org.uk) 0116 2575033
Jackie Woodhouse (jackie.w@valonline.org.uk) 0116 2575012