NVSC

In the intervening 11 years, the Voluntary Sector in Newham stagnated. There was no active Community Sector, although there were some Community Groups. The Faith sector did their own thing and any thoughts of cohesion were very far away. The large organisations got larger and dominated the sector – there was no co-ordination, no information sharing and basically it was each man for himself. The only networking was around Community Care.

In 2001, Newham Council realised that this situation could not continue. This coincided with the move by Central Government to increase not only the capacity of the Third Sector but they recognised that instead of
continuing to provide services for the community, the community could do it for themselves.

At the same time, Local Authorities were setting up Local Strategic Partnership’s (LSP’s) and were encouraged to ensure that there was full participation from the community. This holds true now – LSP’s need to involve all local stakeholders, which includes the Third Sector.

Newham Voluntary Sector Consortium (NVSC) was established in 2002, to create confident communities. NVSC is, as its name suggests, a consortium. This consortium brings together organisations to work together to ensure that there is cohesion between and across the sectors. NVSC has continued to provide the mechanisms by which the sectors come together and through their elected representatives, are able to influence decision making. We have built a database from scratch and we are proud of the fact that we have over 1300 Voluntary, Community and Faith organisations actively working in this borough and more importantly, enabling their communities to improve the quality of their lives.

We appear to be coming full circle and again the decision to withdraw the funding from NVSC appears to be political. NVSC is not expecting special treatment but it does expect a fair and transparent process.

In the first round of Commissioning, there were clearly gaps in services – no service specifications that
supported the Equalities agenda or support for the Third Sector. Groups were assured at two very well attended meetings that both of these specifications would be available at a later date. To date there has been no specification, draft or otherwise that tackles the Equalities agenda. There is however a draft specification for Third Sector Support.

NVSC does not see that it has sole ownership in this market – there are several other organisations who provide support to the sector, however there can be no doubt that the service specification almost entirely replicates the current Service Level Agreement (SLA) we have with the Council. The SLA is currently in draft – and out for “consultation”. I use the term loosely on the basis that there is no formal consultation process as defined by the Compact, the document does not have a time line or any financial information. Therefore this process is flawed.

NVSC has funding from Newham Council until March 31st. Even if the draft specification, after the consultation, is commissioned there will be a minimum gap of 4 – 5 months.

That means there will be a huge gap in support to the Third Sector. Of course, the Council does not have to commission this service. In line with the government’s guidance on support to the sector they could contract NVSC directly with a SLA or they could of course Grant Aid NVSC, thus reducing the uncertainty. They could even offer an interim package. NVSC’s Board members are currently trying to negotiate a positive way forward. However, what is currently being offered would either take away the independence of the organisation or encourage the Board to act illegally.

NVSC is of course seeking funding from other bodies, but we all know how difficult is to attract
funding for core services – funding for specific projects is always easier, but no funder is prepared to fund what they consider to be the responsibility of the Local Council.

There is additional information on our website, you can view the notes taken from the workshops held at the consultation event at West Ham on February 6th. You will also find the draft specification on our website.

We have launched an online petition, which takes a couple of minutes for you to sign it or you can send letters of support. All details are on the website at www.nvsc.org.uk

Remember this is your organisation, if you want to continue to receive the services that you want then you will need to let your voice be heard.