Support Needs of the Voluntary and Community Sector - Survey Responses

Support needs of the Voluntary and Community Sector - survey responses

1. Background

The Councils in Hampshire are working together to better understand what advice and support voluntary and community organisations need. This will inform future decisions about how these councils can help the voluntary and community sector. This will include consideration of the financial support they give to Councils of Voluntary Service (CVS).

A short survey was developed with the aim of understanding the needs of the whole sector and not just those organisations who are members of their local CVS.

The survey was on-line from April until July 2012 with hard copies available for those organisations unable to access the electronic version.

The survey was open to any voluntary and community organisation (VCO) working in Hampshire. Responses were limited to one per organisation and CVSeswere excluded on the grounds that they would have a vested interest in the outcome.

The survey was publicised byHampshire County Council departments, local District and Borough Councils, Councils of Voluntary Service, Community Associations, Parish Councils and included a news item in the May edition of the Hampshire Now Magazine.

1. Responses

720 responses were received from organisations throughout the county (see table below).The highest number of responses came from organisations who cover the New Forestarea (98) or are countywide organisations (96) with the lowest number of responses from Havant (24) and East Hampshire (17) .

Some completed surveys were discarded. This was either because the organisation had already completed a survey or was not eligible in that they were a statutory organisation, a CVS, or an individual, rather than a VCO.

It is recognised that the number of responses received accounts for 17% of the 4358 organisations and groups in Hampshire registered with the charity commission. This is a very significant sample.

The responses represent a wide cross section of the Voluntary and Community Sector and includes the views of small community groups run by volunteers, arts groups, sports organisations, uniformed organisations, support groups as well as medium to large sized voluntary organisations with a mix of paid staff and volunteers. Employees, volunteers and trustees all responded to the survey.

Responses by District

Table 1

Count of
Borough or
District / Form fillers role
District / Employee / Trustee / Volunteer / (blank) / Local authority observer / Grand Total
Basingstoke and Deane Borough / 27 / 14 / 17 / 6 / 64
Countywide / 71 / 9 / 10 / 6 / 96
East Hampshire District / 12 / 3 / 1 / 1 / 17
Gosport Borough / 19 / 2 / 12 / 4 / 1 / 38
Hart District / 11 / 14 / 15 / 3 / 43
Havant Borough / 13 / 3 / 7 / 1 / 24
New Forest District / 42 / 19 / 27 / 10 / 98
Rushmoor Borough / 23 / 12 / 37 / 6 / 1 / 79
Test Valley District / 13 / 9 / 15 / 2 / 2 / 41
Winchester / 28 / 16 / 19 / 6 / 1 / 70
Eastleigh Borough / 26 / 25 / 34 / 6 / 91
Fareham Borough / 11 / 11 / 34 / 3 / 59
Grand Total / 296 / 137 / 228 / 54 / 5 / 720

1. Support Needs

19 potential areas of support were listed in the survey, plus an option to select “other” so that organisations could tell us about any additional needs they had.

Respondents were asked to select up to five support needs. The results are shown in tables 2 and 3 below.

Support needs of the local voluntary and community organisations.

Table 2

Support Area / Quantity
Grants, fundraising or submitting bids / 436
Recruiting new or more volunteers / 381
Networking opportunities / 251
training and staff development / 214
ISA / CRB checks / 143
Representing your group’s or organisation’s views at meetings with other organisations / 142
Volunteer good practice / 141
Understanding national issues / 132
Forming partnerships / 117
Developing strategies / policies / 92
Equipment loan / 79
Developing/ building / changing the direction of your group / organisation / 75
Finance, budgets or payroll / 75
Submitting tenders / 70
Setting up a group / 67
HR / staffing / personnel advice / 61
Developing business skills or to become a social enterprise / 50
Community buildings management / 42
Good practice around diversity and inclusion / 41
Other / 35

Table 3

The results show that the priority for the majority of organisations is to get support when applying for grants, fundraising or submitting bids. This had significantly more responses than other needs and perhaps reflects the current economic climate and the reduction in funding and donations to organisations .

The second biggest requirement was support in recruiting volunteers. Support in good practice relating to volunteers was considered to be the seventh highest priority. If these two figures are added together it makes support relating to volunteers the highest need overall.

The other main areas where organisations need support are networking, training, safeguarding and criminal records bureau checks and representation.

These results tie in with the National Association for Voluntary and Community Action’s(NAVCA)fivecore requirements of a CVSwhich are Development, Support ,Liaison, Representation and Strategic Partnership Work.

3.1 Additional needs

Many of the responses completed under “other” were actually related to one of the support needs already listed . Some organisations used this option so that they could list two further needs. Many expressed a specific need for their organisation such as a financial need or the purchase of an item.

The most popular additional need, 25% of the responses, was transport provision.

Other needs raisedwere:

• procurement sites;
• technical advice;
• development of a programme of EU funding;
• strategic planning;
• help setting up corporate sponsorships with local businesses;
• identifying suitable buildings for voluntary organisations in the North of the County;
• support with media – press and publicity;
• advice about PRS and PPL licences;
• help finding speakers;
• interview techniques;
• advice on administrating and chairing meetings; and
• the need for joined up databases e.g health and well-being linked with exercise and leisure activities.

1. Where do organisations and community groups get their support?

Most organisations in Hampshire, who responded to the survey, use their local CVS to provide infrastructure support see table 4.The level of use did vary between districts as shown in table 5.

The second highest response was “another source”. The next four highest providers of support to the VCOs are Hampshire County Council, parent organisations, local District and Borough Councils and Community Action Hampshire.

It was unexpected that the second highest result was “another source”.

This could be explained in that organisations tended to use this option in the questionnaire when they wanted to express the fact that they didn’t have one key place they would go to but would on occasion use a combination of the agencies listed.

Organisations that arebased close to a bordering County, or who work across more than one county, said theysometimes use the neighbouring services for example voluntary services in Surrey or Bournemouth Borough Council.

Other place that people listed under other source, where they would go for support are:

• Unions;
• Village Halls;
• Arts Council;
• Schools and Colleges, including community schools partnerships;
• Networking events – business Southampton, Hampshire Fayre;
• Local communities;
• Diocesan Safeguarding Authority;
• Expert Sources;
• Hampshire Association of Local Councils;
• NHS;
• Round robin emails;
• Key National Contacts;
• Word of mouth – recruitment;
• Other hospices;
• Rotary Groups; and
• National Governing sports bodies.

Where would you normally expect to go for your main source of support?

Table 4

Source of support / Quantity
CVS / 929
Another source / 223
Hampshire County Council / 190
Your parent organisation / 181
Borough or district council / 166
Community Action Hampshire / 164
A national organisation / 110
The Internet / 81
We do not/did not know where to go for help / 76
Another local organisation/community association / 61
Your local volunteer centre / 55
We do not/did not need external help / 35
Community newsletter / 28
A private company / 23
Parish council / 18

Responses relating to each local CVS

Table 5

5.The standard of the support received

Organisations were asked to rate the quality of the support they hadreceived. The four rating levels were Excellent ,Good, Satisfactory,and Poor.

Acrossall the support needs the majority of organisations, 30-58%, rated the quality of support they received as excellent. The best rating of 58% was for help in setting up a group.

A few organisations rated the support they received as poor. The largest percentage of poor responses was 6%for help with submitting tenders.

It is assumed that the reason a significant number of respondents chose not to complete this question is because, for some organisations, this is support they require but have not yet received.

If you have already received help, how would you rate it?

Table 6

Support Area / Excellent / Good / Satisfactory / Poor / No response
Grants, fundraising or submitting bids / 42% / 32% / 8% / 3% / 16%
Recruiting new or more volunteers / 38% / 34% / 10% / 2% / 17%
Networking opportunities / 45% / 36% / 9% / 1% / 9%
Training and staff development / 39% / 36% / 10% / 0% / 14%
ISA / CRB checks / 49% / 31% / 8% / 2% / 9%
Representing your group's or organisation's views at meetings with other organisations / 41% / 25% / 6% / 3% / 25%
Volunteer good practice / 45% / 31% / 8% / 1% / 14%
Understanding national issues / 43% / 36% / 10% / 2% / 9%
Forming partnerships / 40% / 31% / 12% / 2% / 15%
Developing strategies/policies / 39% / 30% / 10% / 2% / 18%
Equipment loan / 48% / 19% / 9% / 24%
Developing / building / changing the direction of your group/organisation / 36% / 37% / 7% / 3% / 17%
Finance, budgets or payroll / 47% / 29% / 7% / 3% / 15%
Submitting tenders / 30% / 30% / 7% / 6% / 27%
Setting up a group / 58% / 25% / 3% / 3% / 10%
HR / staffing / personnel advice / 36% / 38% / 8% / 18%
Developing business skills or to become a social enterprise / 32% / 22% / 14% / 32%
Community buildings management / 33% / 26% / 19% / 2% / 19%
Good practice around diversity and inclusion / 41% / 29% / 2% / 2% / 24%
Other / 37% / 20% / 14% / 6% / 23%

6.Comments Received

There was an opportunity at the end of the survey for organisations, if they wished , to make any additional comments not covered by the survey responses.

The majority of comments relatedto particular types of organisation, below is a summary of the responses regarding each of these.

CVSes

There were 70 comments directly about CVSes96% of these comments were positive. 1% were indifferent and 3% negative.

The majority ofrespondents described the CVSes as essential support services that are professional, positive, cost effective, and champions for local groups. Staff were described as friendly, approachable and knowledgeable.

The two negative comments were aimed at particular services which were described as “empire building”, or “focusing on maintaining their offices rather than supporting the community”.

Other Infrastructure Support

It was identified in the comments that there are other organisations such as the Rose Road Association and Age Concern that also provide infrastructure support to voluntary organisations and groups in Hampshire.

Councils

Some organisations expressed their disappointment at being unsuccessful in their grant applications others their gratitude for the grant funding they had received.

Organisations felt they received good support from community development officers at both county and district level. There were also positive comments about the community innovations and the access teams at the County Council

Health Service

Concern was expressed about partnerships with the Clinical commissioning groups and how this will work for small charities One question raised was whether organisations will be able to charge for referrals.

7. Next steps

All survey respondents will be thanked for their input and sent a link to the results. They will also be invited to attend one of three stakeholder sessions in September 2012.

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