Voluntary Sector Forums – Strategic Thinking Drives Local Action

When Neighbourhood Partnerships were set up in 2007 the membership included the statutory agencies, local community representation and representation from local voluntary organisations. EVOC was tasked with developing local Voluntary Sector Forums (VSFs) to:

• Nominate a representative to serve on each Neighbourhood Partnership;
• Identify and agree the key issues affecting the sector, so as to feed in to local Community Planning;
• Agree a collective response to local and strategic policy developments; and
• Provide a sounding board for and support to the representative on the Neighbourhood Partnership.

In addition to the above role, VSFs provided opportunities for information sharing, networking and identifying opportunities for shared training and co-operative working. Local organisations have identified these additional benefits as an important role of local forums.

Despite evidence of good practice, there are sometimes barriers to effective engagement with Neighbourhood Partnerships.

Forums are more successful in some community planning areas than in others. In areas with a history of strong voluntary activity and the structures in place to allow the contribution of a range of organisations, e.g. in Forth, Liberton & Gilmerton, Portobello & Craigmillar and South West the forums have flourished and supported the work of their local partnerships both via their involvement in partnership action groups and through direct representation on the Neighbourhood Partnership.

Local organisations engage more easily with action groups where there is a clear and relevant agenda derived from people’s priorities for the area. Full partnership meetings have broader agendas which though important are not always relevant to the sector. Our focus should be on enabling and supporting engagement. Having notice of such meetings well in advance will allow the Third Sector and also local people to engage with the NP meetings and Action Groups.

Ensure the Third Sector is Heard

Strengthening the VSFs representation on the Neighbourhood Partnership Board and on Action Groups is imperative to ensure the Third Sector voice is being heard. 

The Neighbourhood Partnership review highlights the need to strengthen relationships with local voluntary organisations. This will require work and commitment from both the Neighbourhood Partnerships and the local Voluntary Sector Forums to build on relationships already evident, and to create space to identify and nurture the additional relationships required to ensure the best interests of the local community are kept at the forefront of everyone’s minds. This must also coincide with strong mechanisms of reporting back to the local Forums pertinent issues arising at NP meetings, and also to ensure the Agendas where appropriate have items relating to, and suggested by the Third Sector.

The Neighbourhood Partnerships Review reported Options in May2013 and a Progress Report in November2013. 

“Increasing community involvement in the democratic process can empower local people and organisations and encourage community pride.”……However, local people and organisation must understand and know about the democratic process and the systems they can engage with, knowing when such meetings are taking place, in advance, would help people make suitable arrangements to attend.

The Third Sector has always been an important deliverer of services, often to the most vulnerable in our society. Being composed of many large and small organisations, the Sector – taken as a whole – can be flexible and responsive, meeting the changing needs of communities in ways that large, structure-heavy organisations can find difficult.

Experience from Changing Children’s Services in the early 2000s to today’s Reshaping Care for Older People Change Fund evidence that the Third Sector can often be creative and innovative, putting people at the heart of service design and delivery, and achieving the best outcomes for communities.

Rooted in and driven by communities, the Third Sector demonstrably supports prevention. The grass-roots activity of many voluntary organisations often provides a platform for the capacity of citizens and communities to be built, reducing the need for more expensive statutory services.

Help Us Help You

Please help us help you by completing our questionnaire regarding the local Voluntary Sector Forums which asks about your organisation’s involvement with, and your experience of, the Forum within your area.

This is an opportunity to collate as many opinions as possible and try to identify what the strengths of the Forums are, and how we build on these strengths, whilst acknowledging and identifying where improvements can be achieved. 

A discussion paper will then be produced highlighting the results and looking at a way forward to ensuring everyone, who wants to, can engage fully and effectively with both Voluntary Sector Forums and also Neighbourhood Partnerships.  This piece of work will also complement and feed into the Neighbourhood Partnership Review. 

All organisations responding to this questionnaire will be kept fully informed of the findings, and shall have the opportunity to comment on the draft discussion paper, with a view to creating an Action Plan, to which all interested parties shall contribute.

We also hope to highlight best practice and some of the successes achieved by all organisations working together.

Your help would be welcomed and appreciated.

Complete the Voluntary Sector Forum Questionnaire.