Voluntary and Community Sector support services

We ran this consultation for 13 weeks (from 18 Nov 2016 to 10 Feb 2017) to solicit a range of views about services commissioned by the council over the past three years to help groups and organisations in Leicester’s voluntary and community sector (VCS).

Specifically, we wanted to find out:

• how many VCS groups and organisations have accessed these services
• how often VCS groups and organisations have accessed these services
• how useful VCS groups and organisations have found these services
• what outcomes, if any, have been achieved as a result of the support

what future support respondents believe the council can give the city’s VCS.

Our intention was to develop a better understanding of the support services considered most valuable within the sector and which the council should consider retaining in some meaningful form within any future arrangements.

The total number of respondents to the online survey was 134. Of this number, respondents identified themselves as belonging to the following categories:

• 51 (38%) on behalf of a local VCS group or organisation
• 29 (22%) as someone who uses services provided by a VCS group or organisation
• 54 (40%) as a member of public with an interest in how the city council supports the VCS in Leicester.

We know that there are a large number of VCS groups and organisations in the city, that between them they employ a large number of people, and that they provide services to a high number of users.

It is therefore noteworthy that even though the consultation has been actively promoted in a number of ways the actual response levels were disappointingly low.

Results of the consultation were factored into the procurement of a new, streamlined service providing infrastructure support that was the subject of a procurement exercise in August and September 2017, leading to the award of a two-year contract (with possibility of a 12-month extension) to Voluntary Action LeicesterShire.