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12 Sept 2005 : Column 2655W—continued
Victims
Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many government-funded victim support schemes are operating, broken down by (a) location and (b) type of scheme. [12700]
Fiona Mactaggart [holding answer 18 July 2005]: Victim Support is the Government's principal provider of support services to victims and witnesses of crime. The Office for Criminal Justice Reform (OCJR) provides them with grant in aid funding. This funding has nearly trebled from £11.7 million at the start of the financial year 1997–98 to £30 million in 2005–06.
OCJR's funding of Victim Support enables them to provide services to those affected by crime across the whole of England and Wales. Victim Support have an area-based structure, which is broadly similar to the Criminal Justice Areas.
(i) support services, planned on an area basis, to victims of crime (including arson, burglary, crimes against children and young people, domestic violence, hate crimes, murder or manslaughter, racist crimes, rape and sexual assault, robbery, violent crime), their relatives and friends on the basis of referrals from police forces, self referral and referral from other sources;
(ii) support services, planned on an area basis, to prosecution and defence witnesses, their families and friends in the Crown court and magistrates courts; and
(iii) a centrally-based telephone helpline offering support to victims, witnesses, their families and friends.
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will place in the Library a copy of the Witness and Victim Experience Survey circulated to local criminal justice boards. [11953]
Fiona Mactaggart: A copy of the questionnaire for the Witness and Victim Experience Survey will be placed in the Library. The first results for the Witness and Victim Experience Survey will be published in spring 2006 and copies of this report will also be available in the Library.
Violent Crime Reduction Bill
Mr. Crabb: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will publish the Regulatory Impact Assessment for the Violent Crime Reduction Bill. [13501]
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Hazel Blears [holding answer 19 July 2005]: An overarching Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) for the Violent Crime Reduction Bill was published upon introduction on 8 June. The 13 more detailed individual RIAs, produced in relation to individual measures within the Bill, are currently available on the Home Office website.
Voluntary Work
Mr. Hood: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will estimate how many people undertook voluntary work in (a) the UK and (b)Scotland in each year between 1997 and 2005; and if she will make a statement. [15485]
Paul Goggins: Volunteering is a devolved issue. The Secretary of State for the Home Department has responsibility in England. The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has responsibility in Northern Ireland. The Scottish Executive and the National Assembly Government have responsibility in Scotland and Wales respectively.
Consequentially there are no centrally collected statistics on the levels of volunteering in the UK as a whole. The 2003 Home Office Citizenship Survey (Home Office Research Study 289) showed that in 2003 around 17.9 million (or 42 per cent.) of people in England and Wales undertook formal volunteering at least once in the 12 months preceding the survey (through groups, clubs, organisations). This was up from 16.3 million (or 39 per cent.) in 2001, the first year of the survey.
Volunteering
Mr. Andrew Turner:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost was to public funds, including lottery funding, in the last five years of (a) Volunteering England, (b) the Institute of Volunteering Research, (c) Future Builders, (d) ChangeUp, (e) the Active Community Unit, (f) Community Service Volunteers, (g) the Experience Corps, (h) the Youth Action Network, (i) Millennium Volunteers and (j) Corporate Challenge; what targets or outcomes have been set as
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a condition of funding in each case; and what information he has collected on their progress in meeting those targets. [8501]
Mr. Charles Clarke [holding answer 30 June 2005]: The information is as follows.
(a) Volunteering England (includes funding to the Institute of Volunteering Research)
Volunteering England was formed in April 2004 and received £5.9 million from the Home Office in 2004–05.
This funding relates to a number of Volunteering England projects and each of these contribute to Volunteering England's strategic growth and support the organisations development of a national infrastructure to support volunteering. Volunteering England is still a relatively new organisation but early indications are that the organisation is performing well.
Volunteering England has received £10.8 million from the Department of Health under the Departments Section 64 and Opportunities for Volunteering grant rounds.
In the case of Section 64 this funding has been allocated to six projects volunteering projects run by Volunteering England.
In the case of Opportunities for Volunteering, Volunteering England act as national agent for the Department for Health, allocating funding to local projects subject to suitable business cases being made.
There are a number of targets associated to this funding, specific details of each of these targets, for each year of funding are unavailable without expending disproportionate effort.
Department of Health officials state that the performance of Volunteering England has been good and that they continue to have good relationships with the organisation.
The Futurebuilders initiative began in 2003. Latest figures (30 April 2005) show that to date investments have been made totalling 24 million. The Home Office is Futurebuilders sole funder.
Futurebuilders has a target to invest in up to 250 schemes, with a minimum of 225, operating in or across the five public service delivery areas of health and social
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care, crime, community cohesion, education and learning and support for children and young people. Latest figures (30 April 2005) show that 51 organisations have been funded.
The ChangeUp programme began in 2003 and 10 million was spent on the programme between 2003–04 and 2004–05. The Home Office is ChangeUp's sole funder.
ChangeUp investment is focused on achieving the high level outcomes of the ChangeUp framework:
a highly skilled workforce, performance improvement, more effective use of ICT, strengthened governance, improved volunteer support and more diverse and effective income generation within the voluntary and community sector (VCS)
support for frontline organisations which is available nationwide, structured for maximum efficiency, offering excellent provision which is accessible to all while reflecting and promoting diversity, and is sustainable funded
Partnerships of VCS organisations have been successfully developed at local, regional and national level to implement ChangeUp and investment is beginning to be made at all these levels in line with achieving the objectives. It is too early for a full evaluation of this activity.
Between 2000–01 and 2004–05 £336 million has been spent by the Home Office Active Community Unit. It is important to note that this figure includes funding to Volunteering England, the Institute of Volunteering Research, Futurebuilders, ChangeUp, Community Service Volunteers, the Experience Corps and the Youth Action Network. It should also be noted that the Active Community Unit is now part of the wider Home Office Active Communities Directorate, which also includes the Charities Unit and the Volunteering and Charitable Giving Unit.
Targets and progress: SR2002 PSA8
The Active Communities Directorate is responsible for the Government's Public Service Agreement target, agreed as part of Spending Review 2002, to increase voluntary and community sector activity, including increasing community participation, by 5 per cent. by 2006. Achievement of this PSA target is dependent on the measurement of two activities: (i) community participation and (ii) voluntary and community sector activity.
Community participation" is measured by the Home Office Citizenship Survey and is defined as involvement in civic participation, informal or formal volunteering at least once a month in the last 12 months.
The 5 per cent. PSA target would require an increase of 0.9 million people on the 2001 baseline figure of 18.8 million by 2006. The Home Office Citizenship Survey 2003 shows that between 2001 and 2003, the percentage of people in England who had participated at least once a month in one or more of the three core activities increased from 48 per cent. to 51 per cent. In
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numerical terms, this represents an increase of more than 1.5 million, well in excess of the 0.9 million target for 2006.
Voluntary and community sector activity", specifically the contribution of the voluntary and community sector to the delivery of public services, is measured by the State of the Sector Panel Survey. The Panel consists of more than 5000 members that together reflect the diversity of the voluntary and community sector in England.
Baseline information was collected for financial year 2002–03 and progress towards the PSA target will be measured between this year and 2005/06 by the Voluntary and Community Sector Activity Index. The survey for the baseline year has been completed and revised data will be available in April 2005. The survey for 2003–04 is currently in the field and data will be available in late autumn 2005.
Targets and progress: SR2004 PSA6
The Active Communities Directorate is also responsible for the Government's Public Service Agreement target, agreed as part of Spending Review 2004, to increase voluntary and community engagement, especially amongst those at risk of social exclusion. The target has two elements: (i) increasing voluntary activity by individuals at risk of social exclusion and (ii) increasing the capacity and contribution of the voluntary and community sector to deliver more public services.
Voluntary activity by individuals at risk of social exclusion" is measured by the Home Office Citizenship Survey and is defined as involvement in informal or formal volunteering at least once a month in the last 12 months by people with no qualifications, people from black and minority ethnic communities and people with disabilities or limiting long-term illnesses.
'The capacity and contribution of the voluntary and community sector to deliver more public services' is measured in the same way that voluntary and community sector activity" is for SR2002 PSA8.
(f) Community Service Volunteers
Community Service Volunteers (CSV) has received £5.74 million from the Home Office between 2000–01 to 2004–05.
This funding relates to a number of CSV projects each of which contribute to CSV's strategic work as one of the UK's largest and oldest volunteering organisations. Targets for these projects vary from year to year and are formally agreed with CSV via the submission of workplans and budgets. Specific details of each of these targets for each year are unavailable without expending disproportionate effort. To date CSV's progress has been good.
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CSV has received £1.7 million from the Department of Health under the Departments Section 64 and Opportunities for Volunteering grant rounds.
In the case of Section 64 this funding is for three projects run by CSV.
In the case of Opportunity for Volunteers CSV act as national agents for the Department of Health allocating funding to local projects subject to suitable business cases being made.
Targets and outcomes for this funding are set on a yearly basis, specific details of each of these targets is unavailable without expending disproportionate effort.
Department of Health officials state that the performance of CSV has been good and that they continue to have good relationships with the organisation.
Department for Education and Skills
CSV has received £2.06 million from the Department for Education and Skills. This funding has been directed at CSV's management of the neighbourhood support fund and funding to develop a range of resource materials to support the teaching of citizenship education.
Targets and outcomes for this funding are set on a yearly basis, specific details of each of these targets is unavailable without expending disproportionate effort.
CSV has received £5.1 million from lottery funds.
These funds have been allocated to 40 CSV projects with a range of targets. Details of targets and progress for each of these projects are unavailable without disproportionate effort.
The Experience Corps was established as a company limited by guarantee, funded by but separate from the Home Office in 2001. The Home Office provided approximately £20 million (£5.5 million/£7.2 million/£7.2 million) between 2001–02 to 2003–04.
The organisations key target was to recruit 250,000 new volunteers in the three years of their funding. As at December 2003 the organisation stated that they had recruited over 153,000 volunteers, an evaluation in March 2003 revealed concerns surrounding the Experience Corps volunteer recruitment figures, specifically how many of these volunteers became actively engaged in volunteering activities.
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(h) Youth Action Network Funding
Youth Action Network received £100, 000 in 2004–05.
Targets associated with this funding were:
To promote and develop the youth action approach to volunteering and facilitate the promotion of volunteering to wider audiences of young people
To provide policy level representation for local, regional and national youth volunteering—to Government, the voluntary and statutory sector and other bodies with a stake in the development of young people and participation
To promote and disseminate good practice relating to youth volunteering and improve the quality of youth volunteering
Youth Action Network has been very active in its awareness raising activities and has been involved in or led a number of initiatives to promote volunteering to a wider audience of young people. The organisation has been particularly active in increasing Youth Action Network's influence and representation within Government and statutory bodies and has developed a good practice library that can be accessed by partners via their website.
Youth Action Network has received £282,901 from lottery funds.
This funding is for the production of a research project on young people and social inclusion, defining what factors contribute to successful youth engagement.
This project began in December 2004, it is therefore too early to assess progress.
Department for Education and Skills
Youth Action Network has been funded under the National Voluntary Youth Organisation Grant scheme and between 2002–03 to 2004–05 received £139,427.
Youth Action also received funding under the Transforming Youth Work Development fund, between 2002–03 to 2003–04 the organisation received £22, 240.
Targets and outcomes for this funding are set on a yearly basis, specific details of each of these targets is unavailable without expending disproportionate effort.
Between 2000–01 and 2004–05 Millennium Volunteers has received £72.66 million. The Department for Education and Skills is Millennium Volunteers sole funder. This amount includes funding from DfES to CSV (£7.21 million) to deliver Millennium Volunteers projects. It also includes funding to the Institute of Volunteering Research (£170,000) to evaluate Millennium Volunteers.
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The published target for the programme was 100,000 young volunteers by December 2003. The target was achieved six months earlier than planned and it is expected that 200,000 young people will have volunteered under Millennium Volunteers by July 2005.
To date no public money has been spent on supporting the Corporate Challenge.
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost to public funds of the Experience Corps has been to date; what targets were set for it in return for Government funding; and how it has performed against those targets. [8711]
Paul Goggins [holding answer 4 July 2005]: The Experience Corps (TEC) was established in 2001 and received approximately £20 million from the Home Office between 2001–02 and 2003–04 as part of a £300 million injection of funding into the voluntary sector under the Government's Active Community Initiative.
TEC's key target was to recruit 250,000 new volunteers over the age of 50. As at December 2003 TEC reported that it had recruited over 153,000 volunteers although an evaluation earlier that year raised concerns about the organisation's recruitment figures.
TEC currently has over 493,000 opportunities and 230,000 members, including 60,000 from ethnic minority communities. Its team of dedicated animators" covers every region of England and has formed relationships with over 1,000 organisations across the country.
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