Written evidence from National Association
for Voluntary and Community Action (NAVCA)
NAVCA (National Association for Voluntary and
Community Action) is the national voice of local voluntary &
community sector support and development organisations in England.
We aim to ensure communities are well served by the local voluntary
and community sector by supporting our members and their work
with over 160,000 local groups and organisations. NAVCA believes
that local voluntary and community action is vital for healthy
and inclusive communities.
NAVCA's work is guided by the values of equality
of opportunity, participation, co-operation and democratic involvement.
In supporting the local voluntary and community sector we help
to combat poverty, disadvantage and discrimination, and improve
the quality of life for communities, groups and individuals.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
NAVCA welcomes the opportunity to submit evidence
to this inquiry by the Business, Innovation and Skills Select
Committee into Local Enterprise Partnerships.
We endorse the broad decentralisation policy
agenda pursued by the Government, affirming the view that local
challenges vary greatly from place to place and that local people
know best how to address local issues. We also welcome the opportunities
presented by the government's invitation to local areas to develop
proposals for Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs).
We are concerned, however, that the original
invitation from the Secretaries of State for Business, Innovation
and Skills and for Communities and Local Government was addressed
to local authorities and their private sector partners, omitting
local voluntary & community sector (VCS) partners. Whilst
it may be argued that this does not preclude the local VCS from
engaging with the proposed LEPs, experience of Local Strategic
Partnerships suggests that the sector is not fully engaged unless
it has a strategic presence on the partnership.
The VCS can contribute to the work of LEPs in
a variety of ways, which, we believe are of relevance to the Committee's
inquiry:
— Many voluntary & community organisations
are SMEs, and contribute to the economy in the same ways as private
sector SMEs.
— The voluntary sector contributes to economic
growth in a range of quite distinctive ways.
— The voluntary sector is becoming, and
will be required to continue to become, increasingly enterprising
in terms of generating income through trading in the marketplace.
— In an environment with significantly
less money around, it is vital to consider creative partnerships
which foster economic growth. Voluntary organisations have something
significant to offer private industry in this sense.
— The VCS is a major employer.
— The VCS helps people remain economically
active and "job ready".
— The VCS would enable LEPs to engage communities
in a meaningful debate about priorities.
— Local community organisations provide
a means of greater accountability through their community engagement
activity.
— That use is made of voluntary sector
support organisations, such as NAVCA's members, who can help organise
the sector in a meaningful way to assist with engagement with
the LEP.
THE VCS CONTRIBUTION
TO THE
ECONOMY
We would urge the Committee to bear in mind
the VCS contribution when it considers how the proposed new structure
will work. With this in mind, we believe it is crucial that the
Committee establishes the Government's view in the light of the
recent comment by a senior Communities and Local Government official
that the omission of the VCS was "an oversight".
The local VCS makes a significant contribution
to local economy in every area of England. Local VCS organisations
have a fundamental role to play in local economic regeneration
in relation to delivering value for money, increasing local decision-makers'
accountability to local people and communities, and ensuring that
those most at risk of exclusion both participate in and benefit
from regeneration.
Many local VCS organisations are small or medium-sized
enterprises contributing to the economy in the same ways as private
sector SMEs; albeit, they may require distinctive types of support
to fundraise and to explore innovative business models. Many others
trade either as social enterprises or as charities with trading
arms.
The evidence for the significance of local VCS
organisations to their local economies is overwhelming and LEPs
would be selling their communities short if the social and economic
value of the VCS was marginalised in the development of LEPs.
The following figures, gleaned from a cross-section of our members,
are indicative of the contribution made by the VCS to local economies
across the country:
— In Birmingham, it is "conservatively"
estimated that volunteering is worth £200 million a year
to the local economy.
(Source: Brian Carr, Chief Executive, Birmingham
Voluntary Services Council)
— Hertfordshire has 3,238 registered charities,
2,016 other constituted groups and up to 6,000 informal groups,
with an annual turnover of £481 million. Hertfordshire's
VCS employs 19,642 people full-time or part-time and 333,000 volunteers.
(Source: Value and Volume: an introduction to
the voluntary and community sector in Hertfordshire, Hertfordshire
Infrastructure Consortium 2007)
— Lincolnshire has 2,800 VCS organisations
with a turnover of £364 million and a total direct economic
impact of £410 million. These employ 7,095 full-time staff,
and their 26,000 volunteers contribute 41 million hours' work
a year or the equivalent of £24-£37 million at minimum-to-average
wage rate.
(Source: The Economic Significance of the Third
Sector in Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire County Council, March
2010)
— Norfolk has at least 3,994 VCS organisations
employing 3.9% of the workforce. 91,470 volunteers contribute
5.5 million hours annually, equating to £28 million at the
minimum wage of £5.05 an hour.
(Source: The Sector Counts: researching the impact
of Norfolk's voluntary and community sector for the Local Area
Agreement, October 2006)
— In North Staffordshire, there are over
2,200 VCS organisations with an annual turnover of more than £100
million and over 6,800 paid staff. They also employ over 17,000
volunteers contributing the equivalent of over £55 million
to the local economy at minimum wage rate.
(Source: Sajid Hashmi MBE, Chief Executive, Voluntary
Action Stoke-on-Trent)
— Nottingham's VCS employs 649 full-time
staff and has an annual turnover of at least £227 million.
The estimated value of its 1,104,457 volunteer/hours is over £14
million at minimum wage rate.
(Source: 227 million reasons to celebrate the
third sector in Nottingham, Nottingham Community and Voluntary
Service, June 2010)
Local VCS organisations are major employers
of both paid and volunteer staff, providing jobs, training and
skills and making a major contribution to the social and economic
well-being of local people and communities. They generally employ
local people, many of whom are current or former service users,
who often find entry to the wider labour market hard and who would
otherwise be considered "economically inactive". They
frequently offer additional support—for instance with issues
around debt, mental health or substance misuse—that can
help VCS employees and volunteers overcome challenges, liberate
skills and talents, and progress towards employment in other sectors.
In an environment with significantly less money
around, it is vital to consider creative partnerships which foster
economic growth. Voluntary organisations have something significant
to offer private industry in this sense. It could be extremely
cost-effective, for example, if arrangements were in place to
enable a voluntary organisation employing only those people who
had been long-term unemployed to help them find work with other
employers, including private sector businesses. Many voluntary
organisations do just this type of work, helping vulnerable people
to overcome difficulties and unleash their skills and talents;
not only helping people into employment, but also supporting them
as they dealt with debt, mental health barriers, substance misuse
issues, so helping to build a sense of personal wellbeing and
value. A clear role for those organisations within LEP structures
could give them the kind of links to private businesses which
could make that kind of employment partnership a reality, and
a boost to our economy.
VALUE FOR
MONEY
The challenges associated with economic sustainability
are not new to VCS organisations, innovative and imaginative methods
of fundraising and maximising the value obtained from the available
resources have always characterised voluntary action. More recently,
VCS organisations have risen to the reporting challenges of an
increasing emphasis on accountability for public funding, through
the measurement of outcomes and social value (in both monetised
and non-monetised terms).
Local VCS organisations have unparalleled track-record
in delivering value for money because of their uniquely values-led
commitment and flexibility in assessing and meeting the needs
of people in local communities. While local VCS activities contribute
directly or indirectly to social mobility and wealth creation,
their community focus means they also add further value, helping
to support disadvantaged individuals and groups, raise aspirations
and where possible help, support and encourage people—not
least those long-term unemployed—back into work.
The present economic climate focuses these aspects
of our work, but they do not require a radical paradigm shift
on the part of the sector.
LOCAL ACCOUNTABILITY
The VCS has always been flexible and innovative,
adopting an approach of active engagement to social changes. They
are often among the first to identify and address new challenges,
and bring them to the attention of public authorities. Many if
not most local VCS organisations have been established precisely
in response to the identification of local need, rather than as
a result of a top-down policy-based approach. The current economic
climate increases the importance and potential of harnessing these
qualities.
The identification of local needs and the design,
delivery and assessment of local public services is most efficient
and effective when resourced by the knowledge, experience and
expertise of local people and communities. This ensures that local
economic regeneration reflects and is targeted towards the aspirations
of local communities and individuals. They are repositories of
local intelligence and evidence of need, and enjoy a high level
of trust both from their service users and from their wider communities.
NAVCA actively promotes community engagement
and empowerment, resourcing our member organisations in their
dual role of developing appropriate local representative and participatory
structures, and helping them build their capacity to engage with
public bodies as full and equal partners at strategic and delivery
levels. We believe that local VCS support and development organisations
merit support from local authorities and local partnerships, because
they are uniquely placed to ensure that local representation is
authentic, accountable and effective. Their involvement would
enhance accountability facilitating effective community engagement
so that local communities are able to influence LEPs' priorities
and programmes. The VCS is also adept at building social capital
in order to increase the confidence and ability of individuals
and groups to develop their own solutions.
ECONOMIC INCLUSION
VCS organisations are often in close contact
with excluded and vulnerable members of society. Many of these
find it very difficult to influence effectively the local decision-making
processes that impact on their lives and well-being, for reasons
ranging from learning difficulties or inadequate social skills
to chronic ill health or financial exclusion.
We welcome the government's commitment to ensuring
that public funding decisions are implemented in a fair way. Fairness,
however, must not be understood crudely as `the same for everyone'
but relate to equality of opportunity according to need and capacity.
We urge that the development of LEPs take full account of the
interests of groups and minorities who find it most difficult
to voice their concerns in ways that can be heard by elected members
and other local decision makers.
We are committed to supporting our members'
work with and on behalf of these most disadvantaged people in
our society. We urge local authorities and their partners to ensure
that local VCS organisations are fully represented throughout
the development and work of LEPs, to ensure that the needs and
priorities of the most vulnerable are addressed in the partnerships'
work.
13 August 2010
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