Resilience and early intervention: A voluntary sector perspective Maggie Jones Children England 22 nd March 2013 Resilient Families UCLan and Howgill Symposium West Cumbria

About Children England The leading membership organisation for charities and community groups working with children, young people and families in England Supporting and representing the sector since 1940s Membership network of over 100,000 like-minded people working across the sector Represent the full diversity of the sector Overarching Strategic Partner to DfE for the VCSE sector Our Mission: To create a fairer world for children and young people by championing the voluntary organisations which work on their behalf

The CYP&F Voluntary Sector 64,000 charities (half of all charities) in England have children, young people and families as their main beneficiaries (2009/10 data) And 21,000 civil society organisations (half of all) Total income - £3.3 billion (core c.yp.f service sector), PLUS £8.7billion in wider sector serving cyp as part, but not focus, of delivery 96% operate at local level only 54% do not employ any paid staff 91% annual income of less than £100k 53% under £10k income Only 1% of total income from corporates

The Voluntary sector role in building resilient families Respect and self worth Strengths based approach Non stigmatising services Whole person/ child/family approach Often grew from and steered by peers Community and cross sector links No wrong front door Stitch in time approach

Perfect Storms Aim: to capture the cumulative impact of the pressures faced by the CYP VCS, our statutory partners and CYPF that we support Not a representative survey of the sector and it produces no new statistical data Interviews with over 50 people from the VCS and statutory, including commissioners Based on these in-depth interviews and wider statistics, we suggest that there are two perfect storms, one affecting the VCS business model and the other local areas

Challenges for maintaining the voluntary sector role in resilience and early intervention 1. Operational challenges Delivering through instability, churn and rapidity of change within the operating environment The impacts and costs of Competition and Collaboration Maximising the power and capacity of volunteering and charity donation, without exploiting them as a cost-saving measure Sharing and transferring risk and liability in contracting Reward based payment vehicles (eg PBR) Impacts of short-term funding on service continuity, workforce stability, and demonstrable outcomes for children and families The myth of early intervention funding

2. Identity challenges Arm of the state? Lose the capacity to be bottom up Single function based services No room for innovation and radicalism Holding higher levels of risk can undermine early support Families see using us as a mark of failure not empowerment

VCS role in alternative local service economies Edgar Cahn and the Core Economy VCS economy, based on gift, reciprocity, self help and philanthropy VCS as bridge between the Core and Cash based economies In creating value from things and with people others leave behind, we give them a status and build confidence Communities creating value for themselves

So how do we support families and communities to weather the storms? Three sectors playing to their own strengths not wasting time on a lowest common denominator model. Lets find where it works Challenge and resist purely commercial solutions to human relationship based services We must find better ways of valuing the un-costed and un-seen Could make a major contribution to Pre-distribution in the longer term Use local political capital: local charities, communities and councillors/ elected and appointed board members It may feel un-tested and unsure, but so are most Government policies and all recent attempts to rebuild economies!

These are the times we were made for. The children, young people and families we work with need us more than ever before We cant afford to let them down

Thank You