A National Perspective Alison Adams, Local Intelligence Team, Office for Civil Society

August 152 This Government values the economic and social contribution of Britain’s charities, social enterprises and voluntary organisations, and the extraordinary work individual people do to improve the lives of others and of the most disadvantaged. Nick Hurd MP, Minister for Civil Society, May 2010

A vibrant civil society contributes to wider Government goals August 153 £11.7 BILLION The voluntary sector contribution to UK Gross value added (GVA), a measure of production or output similar to GDP: The value of unpaid work done by volunteers measured at the national median wage is worth: £23.1 BILLION...this is 0.8% of total UK GVA An estimated 765,000 people work in voluntary sector organisations % of UK workforce. £5.45 The amount general charities raise for every £1 spent on generating funds £8.33 The potential GVA created for every £1 invested by the public sector into social enterprises £24 BILLION The estimated contribution of social enterprises to Gross Value Added. An estimated 800,000 people work in social enterprises... There is overlap between the two Source: NCVO Almanac 2013

The operating environment – challenges and opportunities  Deficit reduction – changing patterns of public spending  Changing patterns of giving – people looking to give time and money in different ways  Technology – opening up new ways of working  Demographic changes – affecting demands on the sector  Public expectations – trust, transparency August 154

The Role of the Office for Civil Society  The Office for Civil Society (OCS), part of the Cabinet Office, works across government departments and leads on a number of key Government programmes for the civil society sector.  Around staff  Reports to Nick Hurd MP, Minister for Civil Society  Local Intelligence Team- eyes and ears of OCS at a local level August 155

Helping the sector in challenging times – priorities for OCS August 156 Social investment, helping to find alternative sources of capital to support the social sector. Social ventures need access to finance. This means increasing the supply of capital into the market, and supporting demand for it, as well as getting rid of a range of legal and financial barriers faced by social organisations Creating the conditions to make it easier to set up and run a voluntary, community or social enterprise organisation; get more resources into the sector; and make it easier for those organisations to do business with the public sector. Social action, encouraging the giving of time and money; and enabling community-led solutions to the challenges communities face.

Creating the environment for a strong sector Some examples:  £107m Transition Fund to support over 1,000 VCSE organisations delivering public services.  Transforming Local Infrastructure - £30m of investment to transform support to frontline civil society organisation; and around £50m to help not-for-profit advice providers to adapt to the new funding environment.  Supported the passage of the Public Services (Social Value) Act  Creation of Commissioning Academy; working across Government on the design of major public service contracts.  Review of the Charities Act 2006 and Red Tape Review to remove unnecessary bureaucracy facing VCSE groups; introduction of the Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) legal form.  Supported an independent review of sector skills and leadership. August 157

Promoting social action through the giving of time and money Some examples:  Social Action Fund - £20m – grant funding to expand proven models of social action.  Innovation in Giving - £10m – supporting innovative ideas with the potential to create a step change in giving.  Centre for Social Action - £36m – building on the above initiatives to build programmes, campaigns and infrastructure to drive social action in support of public service delivery.  Recruited and trained 346 Senior Community Organisers and 1,536 Volunteer Community Organisers.  Supporting the redevelopment of the Do-it volunteering website. August 158

National Citizen Service (NCS)  Launched in 2011, NCS is one of the Coalition Government’s flagship initiatives for building a bigger, stronger society. It gives young people the chance to learn new skills and get involved in their communities.  NCS gives young people aged 16 and 17 the chance to undertake a programme of personal and social development and community action that will promote:  a more cohesive society by mixing participants of different backgrounds  a more responsible society by supporting the transition into adulthood for young people  a more engaged society by enabling young people to work together to create social action projects in their local communities  The NCS programme involves two weeks of residential activities.  In 2012 over 26,000 young people took part, and over 30,000 so far in Ambitions to expand significantly in future years. August 159

Growing the social economy and increasing social investment Some examples:  Launched £600m Big Society Capital (BSC) – a world-first social investment institution  Launched a comprehensive £20m Investment & Contract Readiness Programme to help social ventures to reach scale  Accelerating the number of social impact bonds, through a dedicated centre of excellence and £20m Outcomes Fund  Progress on securing an effective tax and regulatory environment, and promoting the UK as a global hub for social investment August 1510

Effective, responsive local support is vital in a time of challenges and rapid change Transforming Local Infrastructure Programme Outcomes:  Frontline civil society organisations can access a wider range of high-quality support, networking and volunteering brokerage opportunities and value them more highly.  There is stronger local leadership for civil society organisations which contributes to better partnerships with local businesses and the local statutory sector.  Infrastructure organisations, including volunteering infrastructure, are transformed so that they are more efficient, effective and are able to learn and grow with less dependence on state funding. August 1511

Examples of TLI impact from across England  Mergers: eg. in Suffolk ten local organisations have merged to form Community Action Suffolk – a single infrastructure organisation for the county. Customers already seeing benefits.  Collaboration: eg. North Somerset, Derby have developed shared databases for improved customer communications and knowledge-sharing (Leeds too); collaborative purchasing in Wolverhampton.  Charging models: eg. Nottingham, where a new HR and Financial Services consultancy service has been established.  Links to business and public sector: eg. Tameside where the Tameside4Good model is helping to connect local businesses with good causes; Merton in London where TLI funded a post at the Chamber of Commerce to establish strong links between the sectors.  Innovation in service delivery: eg. Birmingham increasing use of online and peer support.  New sources of income: eg. Tameside agreeing a deal to use dormant local trust funds. August 1512 Source: Navca

Building on success and sharing the lessons  Creating a national resource base to consolidate and share learning and good practice from TLI projects  Planning a series of events to share deeper understanding of successful approaches  Continuing to work with Big Lottery Fund and Navca to build on TLI impact, including areas that did not receive TLI funding  Maintaining momentum locally through ongoing engagement and events like this  Other initiatives ongoing: Big Assist; Innovation in Giving Volunteer Centre programme (including Leeds) August 1513

Alison Adams, Office for Civil Society Mobile gsi.gov.uk