Positive for Youth

Discussion Paper

May 2011

Growing the role of Voluntary and Community Sector

Organisations in Service for Young People

A Positive for Youth Summit took place on 9 March 2011 bringing together ministers and officials
from seven Government departments with experts, professionals and young people to debate the
key issues faced by young people and services for young people.

Building on the summit, this paper is part of a series of discussion papers being developed in
partnership with experts from the youth sector This paper and a number of other discussion papers,
can be found at www.education.gov.uk/positiveforyouth.

Through these papers we are promoting a public debate on these issues in order to help shape a
new Government policy statement on young people and services for young people which will be
issued for further consultation later this year. Please note that these are discussion papers and not
final statements of Government policy.

We would welcome comments and views on the issues and questions set out in this paper.

Your comments will help to inform the development of this new policy statement. Comments should
be sent to the Positivefor.Youth@education.gsi.gov.uk email box. We regret that we will not be able
to respond to every email we receive.
 Growing the Role of Voluntary and Community Sector Organisations
in Services for Young People

Summary
Many charities and other types of voluntary and community organisations play a major
role in the lives of young people. We think more can be done to help them grow and
show more clearly the difference they make. Some are already involved in delivering
services funded by councils or other public sector bodies, but we think that this could
happen more often. We want to know how you think this can be achieved.

Introduction

1. This paper looks at how to create new opportunities for, and grow the capacity of,
voluntary and community sector organisations (VCSOs) to play a greater role in the
delivery of services for young people1. It seeks examples of effective practice and
VCSOs’, local authorities’, and others’ views on the following questions:
 What is the best way to support local commissioners to diversify delivery of out-
of-school youth services and develop their local voluntary and community sector?
 How should VCSOs develop and learn from current and best practice and how
can they ensure that commissioners know about their successes?
 How can national action best enable VCSOs to access sources of social finance?
 How can we take advantage of the opportunity that NCS presents to strengthen
the profile of youth VCSO organisations in delivering services to young people?
 What examples are there of good or innovative practice leading to a greater role
for the VCSO sector in delivering services for young people?

Background

2. In recent years, centrally prescribed policies, funding, and programmes have made
less impact than had been hoped for on some of society’s biggest issues. The
Government recognises that public sector agencies cannot tackle society’s
challenges on their own. It is committed to increasing the diversity of provision to
help share responsibility across society, bring a wider range of expertise and
resources to bear, and drive innovation and efficiency by increasing competition and
consumer choice.

3. The people and communities of our country have a long and deep commitment to
social action and supporting the personal and social development of young people.
Such as with the development of the Scout movement, it was pioneers in this
country that revolutionised the way in which communities around the world still
provide opportunities for their young people today.

4. A large and diverse range of voluntary and community organisations continue to

work rooted in their communities. They are well placed to understand local needs,
gain young people’s trust, ensure young people’s voices are heard in decision
making, draw on the good will of local volunteers, and leverage in funding from
individuals, businesses and social funders. Since they often create less of a

1
VCSOs are non-profit organisations including voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations

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 distinction than many state funded services between young people and young adults
they are well placed to support young people as they transition to adulthood.

5. Many community-based VCSOs work independently of public funding in line with

priorities they identify themselves in response to the needs of young people in their
communities. Often, local authorities have supported their activities with grant
funding, however the availability of grants is decreasing because of pressures on
public sector finances and an ambition to enable the VCSO sector to participate
more fully in the provision of publically funded services as part of local strategies and
plans for young people.

6. This shift to involve VCSOs more fully in public service delivery has not been easy to
achieve as there has often been a lack of contestability and understanding of the
VCSO sector in local commissioning. VCSO organisations have also lacked scale
and capacity to participate or succeed in competitive commissioning processes
where they exist. Faced with uneven capacity and capability in their local voluntary
sector, local authorities have often defaulted to delivering services themselves
because this seems a quicker and simpler route to delivering a consistent quality
service. However, experience shows that effective capacity building support can
enable VCSOs and social entrepreneurs to play a more significant role in local
services for young people.

What needs to change

7. The Government believes the state should do more to stimulate rather than limit
social action in services for young people by individuals, communities, and the
VCSO and private sectors. As strategic commissioners, local authorities and other
public bodies should facilitate the development of contestable markets, the growth of
cross-sector partnerships, and the involvement of a wide range of bodies in needs
analysis and delivering services. Youth VCSOs need to step up to the challenges
ahead. They need to do more to demonstrate and communicate the impact of the
services they provide and they need to make best use of better access to capital
financing and other resources to develop and grow their innovative and successful
approaches.

Creating New Opportunities

8. The Government is committed to opening up local markets to enable the voluntary
and community sector to become more involved in delivering key services for young
people. The Localism Bill is seeking to decentralise power to councils and
communities. Subject to parliamentary approval, the Bill will:
 introduce new powers to give communities the 'right to challenge' to take over
local authority services;
 give communities new powers to help them save local facilities threatened
with closure by giving them the initiative to identify assets of community value
and time to bid for them on the open market if they come up for sale; and
 introduce local referendums which will give the local electorate the power to
influence local decision making processes – elected local representatives’
ability to request, on behalf of young people in their local area, that a council
holds a local referendum, will give young people a voice on any local issue
important to them.

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9. The quality of local authority commissioning is key to creating opportunities for the
VCSO sector – including LAs role in developing the capacity of local providers. The
Commissioning Support Programme developed a comprehensive range of materials
to support local commissioners throughout the commissioning cycle. While the
programme has now closed, the materials remain available via the DfE website 2 and
the Department is now working with LAs to develop a sector-led approach to
capacity building and performance improvement, which will continue to promote the
benefits of good commissioning.

10. Commissioners face challenges in the current context including reduced funding
availability, providers entering and leaving the market, and assessing the relative
impact of different providers including in-house LA provision. DfE will work with the
Local Government Association and other LA bodies to diagnose commissioning
support needs, including the need to:
 Improve the quality of commissioning decisions and the extent to which they
are informed directly by the needs and views of users, e.g. about the relative
priority of services for different ages and localities, or the mix of targeted and
preventative/ universal services;
 Strengthen the evidence base and rationale for cost-effective investment in
services for young people including demonstrating the contribution they make
to priority outcomes; and
 Increase contestability and value for money in commissioning, including
through payment by results and alternative delivery models such as
mutualisation that will stimulate greater entrepreneurialism and leverage
additional funding and resources from communities and the private sector.

11. A separate discussion paper is available looking at the commissioning of services for
young people.

12. While these reforms are put in place and take effect, the Government has acted to
safeguard a diverse market of VCSOs including those providing services to young
people. The Cabinet Office is providing £100m through the Transition Fund to
provide short-term support for VCSOs providing public services. DfE is providing
direct grant funding to a number of voluntary youth organisations that are of national
significance through its National Prospectus – approximately £15m in each of 2011-
12 and 2012-13 has been awarded to 17 organisations to deliver services focused
on early intervention with and intensive wrap-around support to the most
disadvantaged young people.

What is the best way to support local commissioners to diversify delivery of

out-of-school youth services and develop their local voluntary and community
sector?

Growing Capacity
13. CSOs are an intrinsic part of our society’s fabric. Their position and roots in
communities (be they communities of place, faith or interest), their role as advocates
for the most disadvantaged and campaigners for causes that are often unpopular,
and the opportunities they provide for people of all ages to become active and work
collaboratively with others, result in practice that is often ground breaking. Yet much

2
http://www.education.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/strategy/a0072465/commissioning.

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 excellent practice remains unheard of and outside the mainstream. Whilst there may
be good work in one area, VCSOs working in a neighbouring area may not know
about it and may therefore not benefit. VCSOs themselves need to think about how
they can step up to the challenges arising from the current economic climate and
new Government priorities. In particular, VCSOs need to think about how they:
 Demonstrate the impact of their often excellent practice so that it can be
recognised and shared more widely;
 Find mechanisms to bench mark their own practice so that they can be sure
they do the best they can with and for young people;
 Work effectively in partnership with other organisations, and across sectors,
so that they can develop and learn; and
 Find effective ways of communicating so that commissioners know of their
work.

14. Local VCSO networks and infrastructure play a special and unique role in the
coordination of services and in giving the VCSO sector a voice. Yet local networks,
and specifically youth VCSO specific networks, are often the first organisations to
lose their funding as priority is placed on direct service delivery. Within this reality,
VCSOs need to be prepared to work more effectively and build models for a
consolidated sector infrastructure. Such an infrastructure could:
 Provide crucial information so that all VCSOs in a local area are best
appraised of opportunities as well as best practice;
 Facilitate a dialogue between service planners, commissioners, VCSOs and
young people about needs, priorities, service design and delivery;
 Assist in the formation of bidding consortia to ensure that smaller as well as
larger VCSOs benefit from opportunities to tender for services; and
 Help organisations to demonstrate impact by providing information on
measurement tools and frameworks.

How should VCSOs develop and learn from current and best practice and how
can they ensure that commissioners know about their successes?

15. Voluntary and community organisations need better access to capital to invest in
their long term growth and play a greater role in the market for services for young
people. As set out in its Social Investment Strategy in February 2011, the
Government has ambitious plans to establish a Big Society Bank to help social
enterprises, charities and voluntary organisations to access more resources and to
play a bigger role in creating the Big Society. The Government will include among
the bank’s high level objectives a mandate to give a priority to supporting the
development of community-led, social enterprise initiatives to improve opportunities
for young people. As an independent, wholesale organisation, the bank will be free
to make its own investment decisions based on the quality of opportunities
presented by the market.

16. The Government is also working with partners in the voluntary, community and
social enterprise sectors to promote the wider use of innovative ways of increasing
social and community investment, including the issue of community shares by
community enterprises, the piloting of social impact bonds to attract social
investment in preventative interventions, and the expansion of community ownership

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 of physical assets which can be used to generate income and underpin debt finance.

17. In February 2011 DfE appointed as its strategic partner for the voluntary youth
sector “Catalyst”, a consortium led by the National Council for Voluntary Youth
Services and involving the National Youth Agency, the Young Foundation and the
Social Enterprise Consortium. From April 2011, Catalyst will work collaboratively
with the Department to:
 advise and inform the Department about key issues that impact on voluntary and
community sector organisations working with young people;
 develop capability and capacity in the voluntary and community sector; and
 provide robust and systematic dissemination methods for information, policy
developments and key programmes enabling voluntary and community sector
organisations to engage in the delivery of improved outcomes for children, young
people and families.

18. Catalyst will undertake a range of activities to grow the capacity of VCSO
organisations providing services for young people. It will provide expert advice and
support and disseminate good practice to national and local voluntary and
community service organisations, working in partnership with others, to build
capacity across the sector so that they are more innovative and entrepreneurial and
better placed to meet the emerging demands of commissioners and access social
finance. This will help move organisations towards self-sustaining and more cost-
effective activities with the aim of achieving a more contestable market for youth
services activities.

19. Through a stand of work called ‘Strengthening the youth sector market’ Catalyst will
help the sector understand why new ways of working are so crucial. This will include
establishing a Youth Social Investment Retailer to support voluntary youth
organisations to access social investment, including finance originating from the Big
Society Bank, and establish a trading company as a vehicle for the sector to provide
licensing and franchising opportunities that will help organisations scale up their
operations and build and access new and bigger markets.

How can national action best enable youth VCSOs to access sources of social
finance?

20. National Citizen Service (NCS) will be a catalyst for the creation of a wide range of
new partnerships that will increase diversity in the market of providers of wider
services for young people. The Government’s ambition is that NCS will, over time,
give all 16 year olds a challenging and rewarding personal and social development
experience in which they can learn from others from different backgrounds,
contribute actively to their communities, and celebrate their transition towards
adulthood. We want NCS to be a gateway to the Big Society and inspire a lifetime of
volunteering and community action for those participating. A wide range of
organisations have been encouraged to get involved including, but not limited to,
civil society organisations including charities and social enterprises; local authorities;
schools and other education/training providers; uniformed services; independent
schools and private sector organisations. The diversity of the organisations involved
in NCS will be a key factor in the programme's success.

How can we take advantage of the opportunity that NCS presents to

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 strengthen the profile of youth VCSO organisations in delivering services to
young people?

The key players

21. The role of key players in creating new opportunities for, and growing the capacity
of, the VCSO youth sector are:

 Government – setting vision, creating the legislative framework for reform, and
facilitating and co-ordinating the overall system to function effectively;
 Local authorities – improving their own commissioning practices, including local
market development, and working together to put in place sector-led
arrangements for peer-to-peer support;
 CSO organisations – developing robust business plans for services with
demonstrable impact that commissioners will want to purchase; and
 Social Financiers and Philanthropists – providing greater levels of social finance
to VCSO organisations to underpin their long term growth and development.

Existing models of good practice or innovative delivery

22. Some local authorities have taken significant and innovative steps to shift the
delivery of services for young people from local authority control into the VCSO
sector. Two notable examples are:

a. The Medway Youth Trust, established as a charity by the LA to focus

exclusively on services for local children young people, with key stakeholders
and young people at the heart of its prescribed governance structure; and

b. The ‘Youth Mutual’ being created by the LB of Kensington and Chelsea as

they support the staff of their existing high performing in-house youth service
to spin out into an employee owned social enterprise.

23. In both cases, the aim is an entrepreneurial, agile not-for-profit VCSO organisation
with a high degree of employee ownership, able to compete in the market for public
contracts, while developing other sources of income and resource, including through
philanthropic and community giving of time and money.

What other examples are there of good or innovative practice leading to a

greater role for the VCSO sector in delivering services for young people?

Comments
24. We would welcome comments and views on the issues and questions set out in this
paper sent to positivefor.youth@education.gsi.gov.uk.

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Key points made through the consultation Government’s position Action Government is taking

Greater partnership is needed between commissioners and Agree. We want to see LAs The policy statement will make clear that good
VCSOs pre-funding, particularly through investment to build develop a more contestable commissioners build the capacity of their market.
capacity – business mentors can also help with this. market with a wide range of This will be reinforced in the new guidance on LAs
providers able to bid for funding. duty to secure youth activities.

Infrastructure bodies also have an important role in It is for the sector to say what Funding Catalyst to support VCS workforce
supporting VCSOs to be commissioning ready and support they need. development, and working with LGG and Catalyst
gathering and disseminating good practice. to create stronger social networks for sharing
practice.

Concern that small VCSOs are squeezed out by their It is for local authorities to We are funding Catalyst as our strategic partner
inability to respond to unrealistic bidding timescales and manage their own market of for the voluntary youth sector.
bureaucratic processes; and to bear the financial risk of providers
Training for commissioners under sector-led
PBR.
arrangements.

The need for more standardised approaches in key areas Agree. We want to see a common Funding The Young Foundation via Catalyst to
such as through a widely recognised framework of impact framework developed to describe develop an Outcomes Framework for young
measures so that commissioners know what successes the outcomes we seek for young people.
they’re looking for, and VCSOs are more aware of what to people and bring consistency to
promote. how we measure impact

Doubts about the relevance of social finance to small local Social investment can provide the Investing to raise awareness and build investment
organisations and a call for more information and brokerage capital funding that innovative readiness through Catalyst, and setting up a
to raise awareness, understanding and access. VCSOs need to grow; it is not a specialist social finance retailer to lead to more
replacement for lost revenue social investment in youth projects.
income.

NCS presents an opportunity for VCSOs, including through As NCS grows it will provide We are evaluating NCS to learn lessons and
post NCS progression routes. But it needs embedding in, increasing investment in demonstrate impact. We are calling on LAs to
and linking to, other opportunities for young people. organisations working with young engage with NCS and embed it into their local
people, including VCSOs offer to help NCS graduates progress into other
opportunities.

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