Issue - meetings

Purpose: To summarise the outcome of engagement with the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) and to set out recommendations for VCS support in West Berkshire.

Resolved to:

a) That the Council provides specialist safeguarding support and awareness raising programme to support the VCS in West Berkshire (as set out in paragraphs 6.12 - 6.13 of the Report).

b) To procure “General VCS Support” in West Berkshire to include support for voluntary organisations and community groups in fund raising, business management, organisational development, sector communication, advocacy and networking.

c) To provide a contribution to the Volunteer Centre West Berkshire to facilitate volunteer brokerage amongst the VCS in West Berkshire (as set out in paragraph 6.11 of the Report).

This decision is eligible to be ‘called-in’.  However, if the decision has not been ‘called-in’ by 5.00pm on 25 October 2021, then it will be implemented.

Councillor Graham Bridgman summarised the report (Agenda item 7) which detailed the outcome of engagement with the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) and set out recommendations for VCS support in West Berkshire.

Councillor Bridgman thanked Sam Shepherd for the work that had gone into the report. He noted an amendment to the report; there was a reference to the contract funding being agreed at an Executive meeting in September 2020 but it was in fact October 2020.

Councillor Bridgman particularly noted that section 4.3 of the executive summary linked into a variety of strategies and vision statements, in particular the Berkshire West Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy which was due for discussion at Council in December 2021.

Councillor Lynne Doherty added her thanks to Councillor Bridgman’s.

Councillor Erik Pattenden thanked the VCS for their work. He noted that many of the services covered in the report were previously covered by Empowering West Berkshire, who had their funding cut six years ago. He asked why it had taken so long to put replacement support for the voluntary sector in place. Councillor Bridgman explained that it had taken time to get funds in place. Councillor Pattenden also noted the low participation in the consultation and queried what measures had been taken to ensure the proposals were meeting the needs of all the voluntary organisations in West Berkshire. Councillor Bridgman accepted the participation percentage was low but noted that a few responses from large organisations could be considered a good representation if those few represented a large portion of the sector and so the raw percentage participation could be misleading. He also stated that there was no way to force participation and it was necessary to work with the responses received. He felt sufficient engagement was received to produce a useful proposal and hoped that more groups would engage as the public became more aware of the proposals.

Councillor Jo Stewart added her experience over the last few months from being on the Mental Health Action Group of the importance of the voluntary sector. She understood concerns about the engagement with the consultation but noted how closely the Council had worked with those groups which did engage to produce proposals which met their needs.

RESOLVED that:

a)    The Council would provide specialist safeguarding support and an awareness raising programme to support the VCS in West Berkshire (as set out in paragraphs 6.12 - 6.13 of the Report).

b)    “General VCS Support” would be procured in West Berkshire to include support for voluntary organisations and community groups in fund raising, business management, organisational development, sector communication, advocacy and networking.

c)    A contribution would be provided to the Volunteer Centre West Berkshire to facilitate volunteer brokerage amongst the VCS in West Berkshire (as set out in paragraph 6.11 of the Report).