Decision Maker:

Outcome: For Determination

Is Key Decision?: Yes

Is Callable In?: No

Date of Decision: July 21, 2025

Purpose:

Content: RESOLVED:   That Cabinet:   Adopts the refreshed Voluntary and Community Sector Strategy 2025-2035 at Appendix 1.   REASON FOR DECISION:   The last VCS strategy was developed on the back of seven years of austerity that was starting to take its toll on the sector and particularly medium and small organisations. It was an attempt to better protect the future of the sector and particularly those organisations who are part of the systems of support that provide early help and intervention for our most disadvantaged and vulnerable residents. As with the last strategy this refresh provides an opportunity for the Council to set out why it values the VCS (Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise) and why it needs to work with the sector. There is now a better understanding of the role of the VCS in the transformation of public services and the role of the state no longer being principally about ‘delivery’ but also ‘enabling’ the building of stronger communities. As a diverse and independent sector without clear mandated leadership we recognise the challenge for the VCS as a whole to set out and respond in an effective and coordinated way to the issues this strategy identifies. However, the process of refreshing the strategy allowed the Council and the VCS to not just look at practical issues together but also the changes needed to how we work together and the relationships that support this. The refreshed strategy provides an opportunity to rearticulate the challenges of culture, attitudes and behaviours which not only speak to relationships between the Council, other statutory partners and the sector but also between different VCS organisations and the negative impact these have on our ability to effectively support residents. This refresh maintains the strategy’s high level and long term ambition. To ensure and guide ongoing implementation, the Council will be developing accompanying short-term action plans against each of the themes in the strategy that will help to deliver change in the short, medium and long term. The five key themes have a long term focus, setting out what needs to change and why, whilst enabling us to envision the future, further develop relationships as well as shape future investment.   This theme explores the different ways of thinking and behaving that allowed the Council and the VCS to work differently during the Pandemic and what this enabled us to achieve. It sets out how we have built upon what was learnt during this period and has highlighted the culture, attitudes and behaviours within the Council and VCS that continue to hinder our collective ability to work ‘upstream’ with communities as well as respond to the complexity of immediate needs facing many of our residents.   The Council’s current understanding of and approach to risk limits the Council’s ability to know the sector relationally, engage meaningfully and develop mutually beneficial relationships. Traditional power relationships were challenged during the Pandemic enabling VCS partners to take leadership roles and reduce expectations on the Council, made possible by a temporary shift in perceptions around risk.   The Council is having to make significant reductions to budgets but remains ambitious about dismantling the systems and structures that perpetuate inequalities. Working with the VCS provides a unique opportunity to understand where our services are not working for those residents who are unlikely, unwilling or unable to access help from us and how we can enable the sector to do what is required. We also need to consider how we are investing as a Council and the way we work that will enable us to work with partners to address the most pressing inequalities.   As competition increases for resources from philanthropic sources the Council will be looking to maintain and develop new funding streams for the VCS. Working with existing external funding partners and tapping into new sources of income will be a priority going forward.   The Council knows that the causes of poverty are multi-faceted, and as with all complex systems the relationship between cause and effect is almost impossible to attribute with any certainty. We also have a better understanding of how racism is currently designed into our processes, and how we perpetuate it if we do not consider where it might be built into the way that we approach measuring success. The Council needs to ensure that it is using its investment with the VCS in a way that acknowledges this complexity and moves away from funding for short term outcomes that will not lead to the change we want to see. However this will need new and more innovative approaches to measuring, drawing on alternatives that are currently being developed and tested by Hackney and other councils.   Rather than investing in time limited and outcome/output based project activity, our work with the sector over the past five years has demonstrated how we should invest. We need to refocus the grants programme and other resources to ensure we create the right conditions for systems change and the right support for vulnerable and disadvantaged residents, and support place based working. From our experience during the Pandemic we identified the need for investment in community infrastructure and place based organisations.   Affordability, suitability, flexibility and underuse of some premises and spaces remain as issues, challenges and aspirations related to the VCS securing the premises, accommodation and spaces they need to operate and deliver services. The equalities and system issues highlighted throughout the refreshed strategy impact on access to accommodation in the same ways. In working to improve availability and access to high quality delivery spaces, the Council must maintain a critical focus on addressing inequalities.   To manage Council assets, a cohesive and strategic approach that reflects local needs, is required if the Council is to ensure that they are fit for purposes and can meet community needs in an effective way.  Our policies and processes impact the way that spaces are managed and made available. Improvements are required to make processes more accessible, to communicate policies more clearly and to manage and make space available in an effective and inclusive way.   The Council recognises that social action can help people feel connected and empowered which in turn helps tackle inequalities and leads to more resilience in communities and is essential when trying to address structural racism and the associated imbalances of power. Volunteering and social action have significant potential to strengthen bonds within Hackney’s communities and help to maintain cohesion. We know more can be done to develop knowledge about the conditions needed to harness people’s willingness to contribute, for example, how people navigate the processes of establishing new groups, their needs for physical space, support, and volunteering roles.   The Council has primarily focused its support on the formal voluntary sector in recognition of the dependence that many organisations have on volunteers. As their resources reduce, capacity to manage volunteers is impacted and this has increased reliance upon the resources of infrastructure organisations to undertake this. The Council and other anchor institutions in the borough could have a greater role to play in promoting volunteering and this includes internally, especially within the Council given the capabilities and capacity of staff teams.   Although the more traditional approaches to training and advice for the VCS remain valuable, new and flexible ways of increasing the strategic capacity and leadership within the sector need to be explored. Our experience of the Pandemic demonstrated the impact of meaningful and ongoing relationships and collaboration between organisations as a way to increase knowledge, skills and leadership within the sector and how this is a key way of improving competencies and access to resources.   New ways of working, building relationships, equality in partnerships are all moving us away from the funding systems that pass risk to the sector and instead take a more shared risk approach. This helps to tackle the inequalities and racism in the system of investment as it places greater  value on the unique position of the VCS organisation and how to maximise their impact. Although the Council recognises that systemic inequity may have impacted an organisation's ability to meet the requirements for accessing grants and other Council resources, until we can work together to overcome these barriers, organisational development and capacity building remain central to the health and diversity of the sector.   APPRAISAL OPTIONS:   Refreshing the strategy ensures a coordinated approach that will help to deliver the required annual savings of £820,000 to the Council’s grant programme, manage the impact better, and begin resetting and deepening the nature of the relationship with the sector so that we can more effectively and jointly address the challenges ahead.