In April 2019 the Voluntary Engagement Team (VET) commissioned the National Centre for Rural Health and Care (NCRHC) to undertake a formative and independent evaluation of its work. The evaluation was carried out between April and September 2019 during the formation of VET. This report presents the process, impact and economic findings of this work.
Connect to Support has just under 500 organisations – some are statutory bodies but 80% are VC organisations. Some of these are local versions of parent organisations in and outwith Lincolnshire but a reasonable estimate would be 350 independent VCS bodies on this source. The report below identified 223 organisations in 2010.
The last thorough look at the sector was in 2010 and can be accessed here:
Highlights are:
Total annual turnover across the Third Sector is £364 million, but the size of TSOs vary dramatically. There is, therefore, no ‘typical’ TSO, but the median income is £25,266 and 73% have a turnover in the bracket between £10,000 and £100,000. The major sub-sectors in which TSOs operate are education (with £97m turnover), healthcare (£67m) and environmental and conservation related activities (£54m).
The Third Sector accounts for 7,095 FTE jobs, representing 3% of all employment in Lincolnshire – higher than the UK average of 2.2%. Almost 65% have no paid staff whilst the ten largest account for 60% of all jobs. Average wages in the sector are slightly lower than the County average, at £17,735 for each FTE position. The Third Sector, however, has a lower salary to turnover ratio than the Public Sector in Lincolnshire, suggesting that it delivers services more efficiently and is able to utilise volunteer time.
There are over 26,000 regular volunteers within Lincolnshire’s Third Sector, supplementing many others in other parts of the economy. The balance between paid employees and volunteers varies considerably between the sectors in which TSOs operate. Education, the biggest Third Sector employer, supports almost 3,000 jobs across over 800 organisations, but with only 2,200 volunteers. The healthcare, advice and support, and sports/leisure sectors all support relatively few direct jobs, but rely on vast numbers of volunteers.
The turnover of healthcare bodies was assessed as being the second highest at £67 million.
The report identified just under 7000 volunteers in heath and care (pp 20)
We’re then thrown back onto national norms for a more contemporary picture. NCVO say that average volunteering rates are 11.8 hours per month. Assuming only modest growth from 2010 this would equate to 7000 x 141.6 = 991,200 hours per year.
We welcome the acknowledgement of the key role the VCS can play to the delivery of the Long Term Plan in Lincolnshire.
We welcome the description of the sector on the diagram on pp5 of the report. We wonder if an appendix setting out the diversity of the roles of the sector in more detail, which we would be happy to prepare, would be helpful?
We are pleased to note the references to enhanced VCS joint working and the commitment to closer working with us as a sector on pp 9 and pp10.
On pp11 we are pleased to see acknowledgement of the role of the sector in terms of helping with the delivery of the “closer to home” ambition.
We think the following reference on pp12 forms the key linkage for the further engagement with the VCS sector particularly in terms of the MoU we have collected established and would like to agree with statutory partners. It is so important we have quoted it below:
Lincolnshire’s future operating model will be based on prevention, self-care and joined-up local community services supported by specialist services in acute hospitals. There will be a range of health and care functions including a resilient communities offering that will build upon the existing Neighbourhood infrastructure and emerging Primary Care Networks. There will be a strong local focus. This will equip communities with the necessary tools and resources to know and improve the health and wellbeing of their population this increased knowledge will enable targeted interventions to specific groups of patients eg elderly, mental health. A well-connected infrastructure of voluntary services within local communities, that are seen as key delivery partners and who will allow people to access, shape and deliver a range of health and wellbeing initiatives that are meaningful to them and, therefore, lead to improved outcomes. These will include: social prescribing; care navigation and co-ordination; carer support; resident education for specific clinical pathways and volunteering groups.
In a County as large and diverse as Lincolnshire localities have different needs and circumstances. We welcome the references to locality working, where we feel the VCS is a very key partner around the style of delivery set out on page 12 of the strategy in this context. The concept on pp23 of a joined up approach around workforce based on the concept of “doing it once” exemplifies the importance more widely of the cohesive partnership approach we are offering to the statutory sector in our mission to deliver an effective health and care system in Lincolnshire.
We are very pleased to note the direct reference to the role of VET in diagram on pp32 of the strategy.
At the heart of our mission around health and care, which we has many resonances and references in this document are the joint working principles set out in the MoU we are proposing namely:
We believe this document provides a good starting point for the development of a forward going relationship on the basis of these aspirations.
There are still a few places available for the RHCA East Midlands Regional Seminar on the topic of Technology and Health, taking place on 12.11.19 at the LORIC Centre, Lincoln.
Professor Richard Parish CBE, Chair of the National Centre for Rural Health & Care will be chairing this seminar.
The speakers confirmed are as follows:
These seminars are free to members and provide an opportunity to both network and share good practice.
If you would like to attend, then please email events@sparse.gov.uk
East Midlands Academic Health Science Network, is sponsoring the first Power of Music in Health and Social Care Conference in October 2018. This conference is being organised in partnership with Lakeside Arts, Room 217 Foundation, Live Music Now, OPUS Music and Health and the Institute of Mental Health. It is also being supported by the Utley Foundation and the ESRC Festival of the Social Sciences.
Date and time: Monday 4th November, 8.30 – 16.30
Venue: East Midlands Conference Centre, University of Nottingham
Cost: £85.00
The 2019 programme features the Music for Dementia 2020 campaign and new developments in social prescribing. This one-day conference with 6 interactive workshop choices will appeal to music practitioners, users of health and social care, providers and researchers. Please see attached flyer.
The presenters include:
Performers
Speakers
Click here to register and for further information.
Cascading leadership provides an invaluable free opportunity for leaders working in health and wellbeing organisations in the voluntary and community sector in the UK to develop their leadership skills and receive practical support. It is built on a peer-to-peer model where an experienced VCS leader (a consultant) supports another VCS leader who is seeking support (a partner). Consultants and partners are matched together in pairs.
They meet at least five times over a period of nine months where the partner has an opportunity to work through organisational issues and receive support. The consultant also benefits from being stretched to develop their own leadership and skills, while being supported and supervised by senior staff at The King’s Fund.
There is no charge for the programme, which is valued at £5,800 for each pair. The next course starts March 2020.
Applications are especially welcomed for consultants and partners from Black and minority ethnic communities, as people from these groups have been underrepresented on previous courses.
I am pleased to bring to your attention the document below, setting out the opportunity to support the development of VET in a range of tasks. We have confirmation of funding to meet the majority of these costs and final agreement of outstanding funding is imminent.
Accepting there is a very minor risk that we may not be able to proceed with everything immediately, we are keen to identify potential suppliers of these services to maintain the momentum which VET has built up. The note is self-explanatory but if there are any issues which are unclear please don’t hesitate to contact me. In the interests of transparency we have indicated the amount of funding available for each area of activity.
Chris Wheway, Chair of VET: chris.wheway@stbarnabashospice.co.uk
We’ve had double good news this month already. Our bid to the lottery for development funding has been successful generating £47,500 for the following activities:
Separately, and thanks to quick action by Michele Jolly and Kirsteen Redmile (who turned around a very short timeframe funding application), the STP have been awarded £40,500 to develop the volunteering infrastructure in the county, working through VET and its partners. This funding is provided by the voluntary partnerships section at NHS England.
In addition to these two grants negotiations are close to a successful conclusion with the STP/County Council to confirm agreement to match fund an application for continuation activities building on the current NHS England funded accelerator programme which underpins the cost of our current operation. If these discussions are successful and our subsequent follow on bid is approved this will provide the partnership with another £50,000 to support a good proportion of its core work over the next three years.
The positive pledges of financial support from a number of VET partners of £500 each have provided a crucial underpinning to show how serious we are about moving forward as a group. That is not to say that those who have chosen not to contribute or are unable to do so are in any way less valued or important to our mission.
We have an ambitious programme for the next three years and whilst these not inconsiderable resources will make a real difference as the budget below shows we are not in a position to sit on our laurels.
| Activity | Y1 | Y2 | Y3 | Y4 | Y5 | Deliverables | Notes |
| Set Up Costs | 5500 | Company formation, bank account etc | £2000 for set up 10 days @£350 | ||||
| VET Secretariat | 14000 | 20000 | 20000 | 20000 | 20000 | Schedule, develop agenda and minutes for 6 weekly VET meetings, day to day representation of VET, manage formal governance and bank account | Contract for service with third party for £18,000 inc on costs pt per year, £2000 p.a for accounts etc |
| Negotiation Management of MoU | 10500 | Negotiated as a discrete activity Yr1 then handed over to VET Secretariat | 30 days year 1 @£350/day | ||||
| Development of MoU Driven Brand | 15000 | Generation of framework for participation and promotion to potential members. Design and development of brand guidance. Purchase of materials to give physical expression to brand | Framework 20 days @£350 per day, Design and development £5,000, Purchase of materials £3000 | ||||
| Establishment of VCS Health Strategy for Lincolnshire | 10750 | Negotiation of strategy process and then coordination of drafting, resources for publishing then handed over to secretariat | 25 days @£350 per day plus £2000 for print and publish | ||||
| Mapping of Sector | 9500 | Development of database, liaison with established sources of information, population of database, management of database passed on after year one to secretariat | 20 days @£350 per day, plus £2500 for development and management of database | ||||
| Capacity Building and Support for Small Organisations inc Website and Resources | 11375 | 7500 | 7500 | 7500 | 7500 | Development of a support service for Health and Care organisations based on initial diagnostic help, networking and referral services | 10 days @£350 set up, annual scope to support up to 10 organisations at £750 per organisation for a maximum of 2 days per organisation |
| Development of Annual Conference and networking opportunities | 7000 | 7000 | 7000 | 7000 | 7000 | Organisation of conference and seminar programme – 4 seminars per year plus access to National Centre for Rural Health and Care seminars | £2500 for conference per year, £500 per seminar, 10 days @£350 per day per year |
| Net Cost | 83625 | 34500 | 34500 | 34500 | 34500 | ||
| Organisational host costs | 4181 | Costs to accountable body in year one until established | 5% of operating budget | ||||
| Gross Cost | 87806 | 34500 | 34500 | 34500 | 34500 | ||
| Income | |||||||
| VCS Member subs | 8000 | 8000 | 10000 | 12000 | 12000 | Membership contributions (voluntary) | £500 per big organisation, £50 per small |
| NHS England Match Funding Budget | 18750 | 6250 | Sept/Sept matched funding budget year 1 | £25,000 one off needs match | |||
| Lottery Development Funding | 47500 | One year development funding to enable the capacity and momentum of the initiative to be established | |||||
| Statutory Sector/Third Party Funding Ask | 13556 | 20250 | 24500 | 22500 | 22500 |
Next Steps
In view of the gathering momentum we believe that VET needs to harden its commitment and focus. Our next regular meeting is scheduled for 4 November. In view of the volunteer infrastructure funding we are aiming to have an earlier breakfast meeting before the end of October and all members will be welcome to join us. We also have a full group meeting booked for December in Sleaford although the date for that may have to change due to challenges around the availability of speakers. We will update you on the preferred day as soon as it is set.
A second key issue in moving forward is to identify the strategy for delivering each aspect of the VET programme. Namely:
Over the next week we intend to issue mini-specs for each of these activities, which will be open for the following 14 days for organisations to show an interest in direct delivery or suggest third party engagement. Chris Wheway as Chair of the VET, supported by Michele Jolly as Vice Chair and Kirsteen Redmile from the STP will then consider what has been put forward and confirm a strategy for the way forward.
In the interests of positive transparency we hope that you will all agree that this is a positive and pragmatic way forward. If you have any views you would like to share please feel free to contact Chris or Michele respectively at:
chris.wheway@stbarnabashospice.co.uk
Voluntary, community and social enterprise sector partnerships in integrated care systems (webinar for VCSE and statutory partners) Tuesday 22 October, 2.30pm – 3.30pm