A National Perspective

Alison Adams, Local Intelligence Team, Office for Civil Society

Apr 21, 20232

This Government values the economic and social contribution of Britain’s charities, social enterprises and voluntary organisations, and the extraordinary

work individual people do to improve the lives of others and of the most disadvantaged.

Nick Hurd MP, Minister for Civil Society, May 2010

A vibrant civil society contributes to wider Government goals

Apr 21, 20233

£11.7 BILLION

The voluntary sector contribution to UK Gross value

added (GVA), a measure of production or output similar to

GDP:

The value of unpaid work done by volunteers

measured at the national median wage is worth:

£23.1 BILLION...this is

0.8% of total UK

GVA

An estimated 765,000 people work in voluntary sector organisations... 2.7% of UK

workforce. £5.45

The amount general charities raise for every £1 spent on generating funds

£8.33

The potential GVA created for every £1

invested by the public sector into social

enterprises

£24 BILLION

The estimated contribution of social enterprises to Gross

Value Added.

An estimated 800,000 people work in social enterprises...

There is overlap

between the two

Source: NCVO Almanac 2013

The operating environment – challenges and opportunities

Deficit reduction – changing patterns of public spending

Changing patterns of giving – people looking to give time and money in different ways

Technology – opening up new ways of working

Demographic changes – affecting demands on the sector

Public expectations – trust, transparency

Apr 21, 20234

The Role of the Office for Civil Society

The Office for Civil Society (OCS), part of the Cabinet Office, works across government departments and leads on a number of key Government programmes for the civil society sector.

Around 70-80 staff Reports to Nick Hurd MP, Minister for Civil Society Local Intelligence Team- eyes and ears of OCS at a local level

Apr 21, 20235

Helping the sector in challenging times – priorities for OCS

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Social investment, helping to find alternative sources of capital to support the social sector. Social ventures need access to finance. This means increasing the supply of capital into the market, and supporting demand for it, as well as getting rid of a range of legal and financial barriers faced by social organisations

Creating the conditions to make it easier to set up and run a voluntary, community or social enterprise organisation; get more resources into the sector; and make it easier for those organisations to do business with the public sector.

Social action, encouraging the giving of time and money; and enabling community-led solutions to the challenges communities face.

Creating the environment for a strong sector

Some examples:

£107m Transition Fund to support over 1,000 VCSE organisations delivering public services.

Transforming Local Infrastructure - £30m of investment to transform support to frontline civil society organisation; and around £50m to help not-for-profit advice providers to adapt to the new funding environment .

Supported the passage of the Public Services (Social Value) Act

Creation of Commissioning Academy; working across Government on the design of major public service contracts.

Review of the Charities Act 2006 and Red Tape Review to remove unnecessary bureaucracy facing VCSE groups; introduction of the Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) legal form.

Supported an independent review of sector skills and leadership.

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Promoting social action through the giving of time and money

Some examples:

Social Action Fund - £20m – grant funding to expand proven models of social action.

Innovation in Giving - £10m – supporting innovative ideas with the potential to create a step change in giving.

Centre for Social Action - £36m – building on the above initiatives to build programmes, campaigns and infrastructure to drive social action in support of public service delivery.

Recruited and trained 346 Senior Community Organisers and 1,536 Volunteer Community Organisers.

Supporting the redevelopment of the Do-it volunteering website.

Apr 21, 20238

National Citizen Service (NCS)

Launched in 2011, NCS is one of the Coalition Government’s flagship initiatives for building a bigger, stronger society. It gives young people the chance to learn new skills and get involved in their communities.

NCS gives young people aged 16 and 17 the chance to undertake a programme of personal and social development and community action that will promote:

a more cohesive society by mixing participants of different backgrounds a more responsible society by supporting the transition into adulthood for young people a more engaged society by enabling young people to work together to create social action projects in their local

communities

The NCS programme involves two weeks of residential activities.

In 2012 over 26,000 young people took part, and over 30,000 so far in 2013. Ambitions to expand significantly in future years.

Apr 21, 20239

Growing the social economy and increasing social investment

Some examples:

Launched £600m Big Society Capital (BSC) – a world-first social investment institution

Launched a comprehensive £20m Investment & Contract Readiness Programme to help social ventures to reach scale

Accelerating the number of social impact bonds, through a dedicated centre of excellence and £20m Outcomes Fund

Progress on securing an effective tax and regulatory environment, and promoting the UK as a global hub for social investment

Apr 21, 202310

Effective, responsive local support is vital in a time of challenges and rapid change

Transforming Local Infrastructure Programme Outcomes:

Frontline civil society organisations can access a wider range of high-quality support, networking and volunteering brokerage opportunities and value them more highly.

There is stronger local leadership for civil society organisations which contributes to better partnerships with local businesses and the local statutory sector.

Infrastructure organisations, including volunteering infrastructure, are transformed so that they are more efficient, effective and are able to learn and grow with less dependence on state funding.

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Examples of TLI impact from across England

Mergers: eg. in Suffolk ten local organisations have merged to form Community Action Suffolk – a single infrastructure organisation for the county. Customers already seeing benefits.

Collaboration: eg. North Somerset, Derby have developed shared databases for improved customer communications and knowledge-sharing (Leeds too); collaborative purchasing in Wolverhampton.

Charging models: eg. Nottingham, where a new HR and Financial Services consultancy service has been established.

Links to business and public sector: eg. Tameside where the Tameside4Good model is helping to connect local businesses with good causes; Merton in London where TLI funded a post at the Chamber of Commerce to establish strong links between the sectors.

Innovation in service delivery: eg. Birmingham increasing use of online and peer support.

New sources of income: eg. Tameside agreeing a deal to use dormant local trust funds.

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Source: Navca

Building on success and sharing the lessons

Creating a national resource base to consolidate and share learning and good practice from TLI projects

Planning a series of events to share deeper understanding of successful approaches

Continuing to work with Big Lottery Fund and Navca to build on TLI impact, including areas that did not receive TLI funding

Maintaining momentum locally through ongoing engagement and events like this

Other initiatives ongoing: Big Assist; Innovation in Giving Volunteer Centre programme (including Leeds)

Apr 21, 202313

Alison Adams, Office for Civil Society

Mobile 07825 715802

alison.adams@cabinet-office. gsi.gov.uk