THE VOLUNTARY SECTOR IN NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE Newcastle Council for Voluntary Service: Support Services 2008
All the organisations who took part in the 2008 survey of the Voluntary and Community Sector in Newcastle were members of the Newcastle Council for Voluntary Service. We asked questions about whether organisations have used NCVS s services, and whether or not they found them useful. We also asked about other services that they would like to see NCVS offer, and about sources of advice on learning and development. Summary of findings NCVS services: Usage and Usefulness The NCVS services which were most used by organisations were the Funding Bulletin and Inform newsletters. 86% of the respondents to the survey had read the Funding Bulletin, and 83% had read the Inform newsletter. It was noticeable that newsletters were the most commonly used services. The re:gen (regeneration) and On the Hoof (health and community care) newsletters were also quite well used. 46% of organisations said that they read the re:gen newsletter, and 50% said they read the On the Hoof newsletter. Those which were least used were membership of the Advocacy Network, and the accountancy service. Only six organisations who replied to the survey (7% of all 92 respondents) had used these services. The most used advice-related service was having an advice session with funding officers. 35 organisations out of 92 had done this (38%). For other services, the most commonly used service was training courses. 38 organisations out of 92 had used this (41%). For particular areas of interest such as regeneration, advocacy, health and community care, and children and young people, reading newsletters were the most commonly used services (as noted above). Membership of forums, attending events, etc. were generally less well-used. For all the services, the majority of organisations who had used them said that they had found them useful. It was unusual for more than one or two organisations to say that they had not found a service useful. The only exception to this was reading the re:gen newsletter. Of the 42 organisations who had used this, 32 (84%) said that it was useful, and 6 said that it was not (the remaining four did not say whether they found it useful or not). Advice on Learning and Development 40% of all organisations who responded to the survey had used a source of advice other than NCVS to assist them with their learning and development in the past year (for example, Project North East), 36% had used NCVS as a source of such advice, and 20% had not sought advice on learning and development in the last year. Of the 39 other sources of advice used, Project North East and advice from the national organisation (for branches of national organisations) were the most commonly mentioned. Comments on NCVS services We asked organisations to comment on whether there were any other services they would like NCVS to offer. Suggestions included: act as a middleman with Newcastle 2
City Council for tendering for contracts, a HR advisory service and advice on developing policies. Other suggestions included 1:1 tailored advice [sessions] and more funding information, which suggests that it may be worth checking whether all organisations are fully aware of all the services NCVS offers. We also asked at the end of the questionnaire if there was anything else organisations wanted to tell us, and some made comments about the role of NCVS. Some of these comments were very positive, saying that they had found it of great help to their organisation. Others said that they had not found it to be much use. A theme here was that they did not feel that NCVS s services were of use to them because the type of organisation they are. For example, one respondent said that they did not feel that NCVS s services were orientated towards them because they are not a frontline organisation providing services to the public, but instead provide support to other third sector organisations. The tables starting on the next page provide full details of organisations responses to our questions about the usefulness of NCVS services, sources of learning and development, and their general comments on their usage of NCVS services. 3
NCVS Services: Usage and Usefulness (Question 24) NCVS Services No. of respondents who have used it % of respondents who have used it No. who found it useful % who found it useful+ General Information The Funding Bulletin newsletter 79 86 70 93 Inform, the NCVS newsletter 76 83 63 96 NCVS e-inform email bulletin 64 70 55 95 NCVS information sheets 51 55 49 98 NCVS Website 43 47 43 100 Advice Advice session with funding advice officers 35 38 32 97 Advice session with information officers 30 37 27 96 Constitution prepared / amended 28 30 25 96 Advice on charity law 21 23 21 -* Advice sessions with other staff 18 20 18 -* Advice on finance 12 13 12 -* Advice on employment matters 11 12 11 -* Advice in a crisis 7 8 7 -* Regeneration Reading re:gen newsletter 42 46 32 84 Membership of the Regeneration Forum 15 16 10 -* Attending Regeneration Forum events 14 15 13 -* Advocacy Reading Advocacy Newsletter 8 9 7 -* Membership of Advocacy Network 6 7 4 -* Health and Community Care Reading the On the Hoof newsletter 46 50 40 95 Membership of the Health and Community Care Forum 15 16 12 -* Children and Young People Reading the CHYP IN newsletter 24 26 21 -* Membership of the Voluntary Sector Youth Forum 16 17 14 -* Other services Training courses 38 41 33 94 Payroll service 14 15 13 -* Accountancy service 6 7 5 -* + These percentages are the valid percentages for this question. I.e. the responses from organisations who had used the service, and who answered the question about whether or not they had found it useful. Those who said they had used it, but did not answer the question about 4
whether it was useful, have been taken out of the calculations for these percentages. This is because it cannot be known whether they found the service useful or not or whether they simply did not have an opinion on whether it was useful so including them in the percentages distorts the figures. * Percentages have not been supplied for services where fewer than 25 organisations replied that they have used them (i.e. just over a quarter of those who replied to the survey), as the numbers involved are so small that percentages are not meaningful. Learning and Development (Question 25) Sources of learning and development advice* Frequency Percentage of organisations who took part in the survey% Another source (other than NCVS) 37 40 NCVS 33 36 Have not used any sources of learning and development * Organisations were asked to tick all that applied. 18 20 As can be seen from the table, 20% of the organisations who took part had not used any sources of learning and development advice in the past year. Of those who had, 36% had used NCVS as a source of this advice. 40% had used one or more of the other sources in the table on the next page. 5
Source of learning and development advice Advice from the national organisation (for organisations which are branches of national organisations) Number of organisations who said they used it Project North East 5 Business Link 3 ACAS (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) 2 Charity Commission 2 Local authority (i.e. Community Development Unit) 2 Mark Butcher Associates 2 Tyne & Wear Care Alliance 2 VODA funding service 2 VONNE (Voluntary Organisations Network North East) 2 ACF (Association of Charitable Foundations) 1 Architecture Centre Network 1 Arts Council England 1 Commercial sources 1 Community Foundation - Community Ventures programme 1 CSCR (Centre for the Study of Cities & Regions) 1 Dementia Care Partnership 1 Diocese of Newcastle 1 Early Years 1 Ellmac consultancy 1 FINE (Funding Information North East) 1 G&C 1 HRNET (free management mentoring sessions; governance information) ImpACT coalition 1 Internal training needs analysis 1 Internet 1 Investing in Volunteers 1 MBA Associates 1 Mental Health First Aid (run by CSIP Care Services Improvement Partnership) Millennium Volunteers 1 Museums, Libraries and Archives Council 1 Northern Rock MBA - training in management 1 North East England Investment Centre 1 Other charity organisations 1 Pentagon Partnership 1 Skills for People 1 Solicitors (used by the organisation) 1 Training with MBA consultancy 1 Universities 1 Total 56 5 1 1 6
The table on the previous page swhows the wide range of alternative sources of advice on learning and development used by voluntary and community sector organisations in Newcastle. Advice from the national organisation (for organisations which are branches of national organisations) and Project North East were mentioned most often (by five organisations each). Other services organisations would like to see NCVS offer, and general comments The following comments and suggestions were made by organisations who replied to our question about other services which they would like to see NCVS offer: Act as a middleman with Newcastle City Council for tendering for contracts. NCVS knows how to interface with the voluntary and community sector, especially small organisations. We don't have any real contact with NCVS apart from newssheets ([which are] mostly out of date for funding help) and constitutions. Free help / advice for smaller charities - what is on offer, how to secure funding and 1:1 tailored advice. A HR advisory service. I would like existing NCVS services to be safeguarded and resourced at an appropriate level. More funding information. Assistance with printing / stationery. Support and advice to develop policies - even some templates for this which can be amended. The services we currently (and in the past have received) are excellent. We are very anxious to reduce our carbon footprint and rocketing energy bills. The following comments were received on the topic of organisations general relationships with NCVS, in response to our question at the end of the survey about whether there was anything else they wanted to tell us. Positive comments I feel well supported by NCVS. NCVS have helped greatly. We were awarded 500 from the Sir James Knott Trust. As we are members, NCVS allowed us to have this cheque paid via their charity. This means a lot to us. We developed our Constitution with a member of NCVS s staff s help. This is such a useful, helpful service. On their work, NCVS offers a good service, so thanks. The NCVS is a fantastic organisation. We have had masses and masses of support over many different areas throughout my long years working for my organisation. Yet it is always in a precarious situation in respect of funding. Can this be looked at again? In particular the following issues could be very usefully addressed: the reduction in scale and 7
size of the Volunteer Bureau, and the recent reduction in policy officer posts in the regeneration team (effective from early next year). We have found this service invaluable and well worth the subscription. We have used the NCVS mailing service on a number of occasions, usually to circulate details of our Speakers Panel. NCVS is not orientated towards their type of organisation NCVS does not seem to be orientated towards an organisation such as ours [a small organisation working towards maintaining a local park]. NCVS provide valuable services, some for front-line voluntary and community sector organisations, but few directly of benefit to us [a large organisation providing IT technical, training, website and consultancy support to the third sector]. A willingness / ability to engage in partnership work across the sector would benefit our clients. Our organisation [a community partnership] is heavily involved in many activities across our area of the city, but our main and sometimes only liaison is with the ward co-ordinator. As they now have the wards to deal with, the load is heavy for them and we need resources addressed before things start to collapse. However, NCVS are not connected to area-based groups so are of no practical help. To get any reasonable standing assembly, the area-based groups will need to be resourced in order to contribute. We do not find membership of NCVS to be of any particular use to our organisation [a local branch of a large national organisation campaigning on health issues]. The funding offered usually does not apply, courses offered are not suitable and are too expensive. Negative comments I am at a loss to understand how NCVS can be asked to represent the views of the whole sector and get the lion s share of the money for doing so. How to achieve further improvements We could maybe benefit from a discussion with NCVS members, with our management committee. We meet once per month. We are struggling for funding [local youth services organisation]. 8