NVSC - Newham Voluntary Sector Consortium
The future’s bright, the future is NVSC!!
March 03, 2008
In the early nineties, Newham Council withdrew the funding from Newham Voluntary Agency Council (NVAC) which was the CVS for Newham. It was well documented at the time that this was for political reasons - in the good old days there was an appeals process, so NVAC were effectively able to operate for a full 6 months after the original decision.
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 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 Newham Partnership Board Page 3 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.
Sarah Ruiz - Director
Posted by webmaster at 11:21 AM