Developing quality across the third sector

Juliet Mountford, Deputy Director

02 July 2008

What is the third sector?

Organisations in the sector share common characteristics:

non-governmental value-driven principally reinvest any financial surpluses

to further social, environmental or cultural objectives.

Voluntary and community organisations, charities, social enterprises, cooperatives and mutuals both large and small

Complex and diverse (1)

Community owned, working across all sectors Aim – improve health inequity and wellbeing

through social, medical and community activities Space for groups to use, café, radio station,

recording studio, gardening Peter Holbrook – SE Ambassador

Sunlight Trust – social enterprise

Complex and diverse (2)

Works inside schools to support and nurture children 1:1 counselling and group sessions, drop in service Provide safe place for children to explore their

problems enabling them to cope Support parents, carers, teachers and other school

staff working with children Currently working with 128 schools with child

population of 40,000

The Place2Be - charity

Quality in the third sector

Do we need to measure quality?

What do we mean by quality?

Measure how well money spent?

New Philanthropy Capital argument- If getting public money should show what

outcomes producing with it- Need a new body to monitor how effective

TSOs are- Individuals and funders can then make

informed decisions about where money goes

Oxfam – 10p in every £1 on support and running costs

More complex than this

Can all outcomes be measured?

e.g. : PETAL (People Experiencing Trauma and

Loss); Mothers against Guns

Heard in consultation

Third Sector Review consultation – heard many of these issues

Particular problems in quality:- Much of the evidence is in grey literature

(e.g. NPC, NEF, CES)- No single repository for evidence- Lots of different methods being used- No cross learning

OTS driving this forward

Commitment to invest in improving the evidence base- Centre for Third Sector Research (with ESRC and

Barrow Cadbury Trust)- Centre for Charitable Giving and Philanthropy

(ESRC, Carnegie, Scot Exec)- 2 indicators in Local Government Performance

Framework (NI6 and NI7)- National Survey of Third Sector Organisations- SROI project/social clause pilots- ONS ISB project – Quality Measurement Framework- NAO vfm considerations

Centre for Third Sector Research

OTS/ESRC/Barrow Cadbury Trust

£10.25 million over 5 years

Single centre

Emphasis on the effectiveness of the sector

Plus mapping its size and dynamics

A Centre for the Whole sector

Multidisciplinary (inc. business)

Supporting Capacity Building Clusters will bring forward the next generation of researchers and engage the sector in research

Conclusions

Third Sector is diverse – is it too diverse? Evidence base is weak at present, but a

number of initiatives in place to increase it Effectiveness and quality are central to the

sector – finding ways to properly measure this vital so the contribution the third sector makes to society can continue to grow