Infrastructure support for Leicester's VCSE sector

Overview

The Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector has long been a valued partner for the city council and other public bodies in Leicester, providing a range of important, significant – often vital – services, many of them directly commissioned.

The city council acknowledges the distinctive contributions made by local VCSE groups and organisations to the betterment of life for individuals, families, communities and neighbourhoods in Leicester. This can be seen in how they assist the most deprived, needy and underserved people, as well as enriching the collective life of the city through involvement in the arts, culture, education, the environment, heritage, sport and more.

As part of our commitment to the VCSE sector, the city council has had long-standing arrangements in place to provide it with infrastructure support. "Infrastructure" is a word widely used in connection with the sector, with a range of meanings. In the present context, "infrastructure" refers to the kind of engagement, involvement and relationship that helps groups and organisations set up, grow and flourish: this is offered as information, advice and guidance – often delivered as training of some kind. Such support has been available for many years to locally-based VCSE sector groups and organisations active in the city of Leicester, free of charge to those who want it.

Leicester City Council has commissioned this infrastructure support from an external third party, which has obtained the tender to do so in a fair, open and publicly contested procurement exercise. The current contract (which was launched in October 2017) has been extended more than once, due mainly to the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic and its attendant lockdowns. This contract will end on 30 September 2021. It will not be extended beyond that date; neither will it be reprocured in its present form.

It should be noted that Leicester City Council is under no formal obligation to support the local VCSE sector in any way at all. It is not part of the statutory provision required of local government. Support for the sector is part of the city council’s discretionary spending programme. However, we consider it our responsibility to help maintain the presence and participation of the sector to the fullest extent possible.

The increasing burden on local government throughout the country, caused by continual reductions in the public purse, make it necessary for the city council to review the nature and extent of the support we can provide. We have to look at doing better with less and find ways to refresh, renew and reinvigorate our infrastructure support in the face of present and emerging challenges and opportunities.

Why your views matter

The city council is seeking your views for the following reasons:

1. We want to understand the extent to which the infrastructure support services we have commissioned in recent years have been accessed by local VCSE groups and organisations, how useful they have been, which ones may no longer be necessary, and which ones we should continue providing in some form.

2. We want to obtain your views on how changes to infrastructure support might impact groups and organisations in the local VCSE sector, their staff and volunteers, and their service users.

3. We want to collect proposals, recommendations and suggestions from as wide a range of respondents as possible about alternative forms of infrastructure support to meet current and future challenges and opportunities facing the local VCSE sector.

4. We want to update information about groups and organisations in the VCSE sector in Leicester.

We hope that you will be able to play a part by completing this questionnaire – whether on behalf of a VCSE group or organisation or as an engaged citizen with an interest in these groups and organisations and their active involvement with people and institutions in the city of Leicester.

What happens next

We will use information obtained through this survey for these purposes:

1. To gauge how popular and useful the infrastructure support commissioned by the city council in recent years has been to local VCSE sector groups and organisations;

2. To consider potential impacts of changes to the current provision;

3. To contribute to development and implementation of a new VCSE Sector Engagement Strategy.

4. To update information we hold about groups and organisations in the city's VCSE sector.