Making sure VCFSE organisations are seen, valued and heard 

What the first year of the Strength and Leadership Programme has taught us—and why it matters to LVET members. 

Have you ever given up valuable time to attend a consultation, only to wonder whether your contribution made a difference? 

Perhaps your organisation has brought staff time, volunteer hours, trusted community relationships or the use of a venue to a partnership—but none of that value has appeared in the project budget. 

Or maybe you have been asked for your views on a new strategy after most of the important decisions have already been made. 

These are familiar experiences across Lincolnshire’s voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise organisations. They are also some of the issues that the Strength and Leadership Programme is working to address. 

What is the Strength and Leadership Programme? 

The Strength and Leadership Programme is a three-year National Lottery Community Fund project running from July 2025 to June 2028, delivered in partnership by LVET and Lincolnshire Community Foundation through Involving Lincs. 

It has been created to help Lincolnshire’s voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise organisations navigate a changing local landscape, strengthen their collective voice and influence, and ensure their role in supporting communities is properly understood, valued and built into local systems, strategies and commissioning. 

The programme focuses on system leadership, thought leadership, member development, community impact and needs, the State of the Sector research, stronger links between community-facing staff, internal trading between VCFSE organisations, and a clearer Lincolnshire approach to commissioning and trading with the sector. 

In practical terms, it is about four connected aims: improving system and place leadership; increasing VCFSE influence in strategy and networking; building a stronger understanding of member impact and community need; and increasing resilience through better internal trading, external trading and commissioning opportunities. 

That is why it links so closely to the theme of making sure VCFSE organisations are seen, valued and heard: the programme is about changing how the wider system recognises the sector’s knowledge, contribution and leadership potential. 

The first year has been about listening, understanding where the biggest barriers exist and beginning to develop practical ways to address them. 

This has included hearing from 128 organisations through the State of the Sector Survey, exploring how the VCFSE organisations can be involved earlier in local decision-making and developing tools to help organisations demonstrate their value. 

Several important messages are already emerging. 

VCFSE organisations contribute more than funding figures show 

VCFSE organisations bring far more to partnerships than the money written into a project budget. 

They contribute staff and volunteer time, specialist knowledge, trusted relationships, buildings, equipment, donated goods and a detailed understanding of their communities. These contributions are essential, but they can be difficult to calculate and are therefore often overlooked. 

The programme is developing an In-kind Valuation Tool to help organisations put a clearer value on these contributions. 

For example, if a small charity provides volunteer hours, staff expertise and free use of a community space for a project, the tool could help it calculate the financial value of that support. This gives the organisation stronger evidence for funding applications and more accurate information to use in conversations with funders and partners. 

The tool is currently being tested by smaller organisations so it can be refined around their needs and made straightforward to use. 

It is one practical way of helping the collective VCFSE organisations demonstrate not only what it delivers, but what it invests to make that delivery possible. 

Being asked for a view is not the same as shaping a decision 

Another clear lesson from the programme is that VCFSE organisations need to be involved earlier in decisions affecting their communities. 

This has been particularly visible through work around Lincolnshire’s Youth Strategy. Due to timeframes, the first draft proposal was submitted without involving the VCFSE sector. Through the programme, further conversations were opened with Lincolnshire County Council, creating greater opportunity for frontline organisations to help shape its continued development. 

This is an important distinction. Genuine co-production means involving people and organisations while ideas are still being developed—not presenting an almost-finished plan and asking for comments. 

Frontline organisations often understand the needs, strengths and experiences of local communities in ways that cannot be captured through data alone. Ensuring this knowledge reaches decision-makers can lead to strategies and services that are more relevant, realistic and effective. 

Contributing knowledge should not come at a cost 

We also know that taking part in meetings, consultations and planning sessions has a real cost. 

For a smaller organisation, sending someone to a two-hour meeting may mean taking them away from frontline delivery. There may also be preparation, travel and follow-up work involved. 

When this contribution is repeatedly unpaid, the organisations with the smallest teams can find it hardest to participate—even when they hold some of the most valuable knowledge. 

The programme is therefore exploring a participation model that would financially compensate VCFSE organisations for contributing to selected consultation and co-production activities. 

This would help create a fairer approach: one that recognises frontline insight as valuable professional knowledge rather than an unlimited free resource. 

Practical support must respond to what organisations need 

One of the strengths of the programme is its ability to adapt as we learn more. 

Some of the ideas around leadership training included in the original programme plan were based on the best information available at the time. As conversations with organisations have developed, it has become clear that some areas may benefit from a different approach. Rather than rigidly following a predetermined plan, the programme is using what it learns from VCFSE organisations to shape future activity and ensure support is as relevant and useful as possible. 

The programme is taking a similar approach to artificial intelligence. Rather than making assumptions about what support organisations require, it will explore current knowledge and skills gaps and use that insight to shape future learning. 

It may sound simple, but it is important: support should be shaped around the realities of organisations—not around a predetermined programme of activity. 

Why is LVET involved? 

LVET hosts the Systems Change Officer role, held by Carol, which gives us a direct link between the Strength and Leadership Programme and the organisations we work with every day. This means we are well placed to ensure that the learning, insight and opportunities developed through the programme are grounded in the realities facing Lincolnshire’s VCFSE organisations. 

We hear about the pressures organisations face, the knowledge they hold and the areas where the wider system does not always work well for them. Through the Strength and Leadership Programme, we can help bring those experiences into conversations with funders, commissioners and public-sector partners. 

We can also make complex developments easier to understand, connect members with opportunities to get involved and ensure that useful learning, tools and resources are shared across the sector. 

Ultimately, this work supports one of LVET’s central aims: helping to create the conditions where VCFSE organisations are involved early enough, listened to seriously and able to shape the decisions that affect their communities. 

What does this mean for LVET members? 

As the programme enters its second year, members will begin to see more opportunities to: 

• Contribute to conversations about local strategies and services 

• Use practical tools to demonstrate their organisation’s contribution 

• Connect with organisations working on similar issues 

• Access learning shaped around needs identified by the VCFSE organisations 

• Share experiences that can help influence funding, commissioning and partnership working 

We will also share the findings from the State of the Sector Survey, continue developing the In-kind Valuation Tool and create further opportunities for members to help shape the programme’s work. 

This is not about creating activity for the sake of it. It is about using what we hear from the sector to address practical barriers, strengthen relationships and help ensure that the knowledge and contribution of Lincolnshire’s VCFSE organisations are properly seen, valued and heard.