VOLUNTARY SECTOR JOINT LIAISON COMMITTEE

 

 

MINUTES of a meeting held on 12th September, 2007.

 

Present: Councillor Miss J. Cole (Chairman); Councillor Ms. L. Burnett (Vice-Chairman); Councillors Mrs. S.M. Bagstaff, C.L. Osborne and Mrs. M. Kelly Owen.

 

Representatives of the Voluntary Sector: Mr. P. Clarke (MIND in Vale of Glamorgan); Ms. J. Dean (Vale of Glamorgan Victim Support), Ms. A. Steere (Vale Volunteer Bureau), Mrs. R. Connor (Vale Council for Voluntary Services) and Ms. T. Burris (Age Concern).

 

 

333     APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE -

 

These were received from Councillors G.A. Cox, Mrs. V.M. Hartrey and Mr. Bin Sufyan (Muslim Welfare Association).

 

An apology had been received from the Penarth Youth Project.  The former representative had now finished with the organisation and a new manager would not be appointed until October 2007.

 

 

334     MINUTES -

 

At the meeting of the Committee on 1st May, 2007 the Voluntary Action Scheme priorities for funding 2008/09 had been considered and referred to Cabinet for approval.  Cabinet had subsequently referred the report to the Budget Monitoring Group, which was not due to meet until November 2007.  Representatives of the Voluntary Sector expressed their concern that the advertisement seeking applications for funding had not yet been placed in the newspaper.  Accordingly, it would be a very tight time scale for these applications to be received, considered and approved in time for the new financial year.  The Chairman was able to provide an update that this advertisement should appear in the newspaper in the next week. 

 

AGREED - T H A T the minutes of the meeting held on 1st May, 2007 be accepted.

 

 

335     SOCIAL SERVICES CHANGE PLAN: VOLUNTARY SECTOR ORGANISATIONS (CX) -

 

As a result of the joint review and the budget situation in Social Services, a Change Plan had been developed to address the issues in the Service which included driving up performance and reducing spend.  An interim manager was appointed in February 2007 to develop and implement the Change Plan and manage a newly created Social Services Directorate.  The Change Plan was agreed by Cabinet on 6th June, 2007 and was submitted to the CSSIW as the Council’s action plan and response to the recommendations outlined in the joint review, the CSSIW and the Wales Audit Office had accepted the Change Plan as a way to address the issues raised in the joint review. 

 

The key elements of the Change Plan were leadership, performance, budget and quality.  Its purpose was to drive up performance quality whilst reversing and reducing budget overspends each year.  There were two actions in particular that affected the work of the Voluntary Sector:

 

·   a review of working arrangements with the Voluntary Sector and the introduction of effective contracts with performance targets and monitoring

·   review of targets with partners and the use of the agreed targets to drive service delivery.

 

Various processes existed within Social Services in relation to the management of funding to Voluntary Sector agencies.  Many funding agreements were service level agreements and some had under-developed targets settings and monitoring mechanisms.  Some arrangements failed to meet the requirements of financial regulations.  A number of the funding arrangements had existed for a number of years and a review was urgently required to determine if they continued to meet Council priorities.  Agencies funded through Social Service budgets had been contacted and asked to produce a report on their activities and funding arrangements.  This information would be used to assist managers in the review of value for money of the organisation and its fit with corporate and service objectives and targets.  The work would take place throughout the autumn.  Where agencies assisted in meeting the exigencies of the service and provided a cost effective service they would be placed on to a contractual basis wherever possible. 

 

Representatives of the Voluntary Sector expressed their concerns about lack of information on the process undertaken for the review and several organisations had expressed the view that the forms sent out were very broad and focused on items such as unit cost and other matters that they felt were not pertinent to their particular service.  Other concerns were that organisations had not been provided with service specifications and details of financial regulations.  Representatives mentioned that they thought the under-developed target setting and monitoring mechanisms referred more to the Council than voluntary organisations.  Further voluntary organisations had not received feedback to date and very much wanted to open up dialogue with the local authority.  It was known that the children’s service section seemed to be ahead in setting up meetings with Voluntary Sector providers but nothing was known yet about meetings between the Local Authority and Voluntary Sector organisations which provided adult services. 

 

Rachel Connor had met with Mark Wheeler about the process to be followed for the review and he had indicated that he would be attending a network meeting with the Voluntary Sector and prior to this a letter would be sent to all organisations that would provide more information.  It was confirmed by officers that the letter to organisations would be sent out on 13th September, 2007 and this would set out criteria and give much more detail.  However it was indicated by officers that some forms back from organisations had provided excellent information and there would be the opportunity for others to provide further information if they felt this was needed. 

 

Officers agreed that Children’s services were in advance of Adult services. 

It was confirmed that in the current year a saving of £75k. was to be made through the review of partnership work with the Voluntary Sector with £100k. saving in the following year.  Officers confirmed that as no inflation uplift had been given to funding of the Voluntary Sector this had saved an estimated £45k.   Funding of the Voluntary Sector for the following year would be based on a reasonable amount for services provided.  Members expressed concern that the budget would be substantially less in a few years when compared to previous years and planning for this was needed now. 

 

Representatives of the Voluntary Sector thought that clarity in what the Council expected from its service providers was good but there was concern that if cost of living rises were not allowed for indiscriminately over a few years this could affect vulnerable organisations.  Officers confirmed that departments of the Council would not be allowed cost of living rises but were expected to provide 2-4% efficiency savings year-on-year.  The purpose of the review was to identify where limited resources should be most effectively targeted.  The Voluntary Sector indicated that they would welcome face-to-face meetings rather than a reliance on a paper exercise and facts and figures.  Discussion between the Council and Voluntary Sector organisations would be particularly welcomed as often as other external funding could be found by the Voluntary Sector and this could maximise resources for both sectors in the provision of services.  A recent example was a Voluntary Sector project where funding from the Council had been supplemented by a grant of £550k. from elsewhere. 

 

AGREED - T H A T the position be noted.

 

 

336     VOLUNTARY SECTOR PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT AND ACTION PLAN: PROGRESS REPORT (DFICTP) -

 

The report to Committee set out the progress made against the current Action Plan.  The Action Plan and report were made pursuant to the provisions of the Council’s compact with the Voluntary Sector. 

 

Action 2 of the Plan was to undertake a workshop to evaluate partnership working and to make recommendations for improvement.  Two workshop sessions had been arranged but on both occasions insufficient participation was indicated to carry out the workshops.  A final attempt to hold a workshop would be arranged to coincide with the date of the next scheduled meeting of the Voluntary Joint Liaison Committee on 21st November. 2007.  This meeting would commence at 5.30pm and be held in the Corporate Suite, Civic Offices, Barry. 

 

Action 8 of the Plan was to promote the Voluntary Sector and partnership working in ValeWaves and Vista but content / ideas would have to be provided by the Voluntary Sector.  This was very much an ongoing action and there was an event page, which could be used by the Voluntary Sector. 

 

Action 9 of the Plan was to develop an environmental forum.  The Vice-Chairman indicated that the RSA would be undertaking research on  200 people to compare urban and rural carbon footprinting and were looking for a venue in the Vale.  There was also information in the website and individuals could find out their personal carbon footprint.  It was felt that the Voluntary Sector organisations could perhaps become involved in research to be undertaken by RSA. 

 

AGREED - T H A T the progress to date against the Action Plan be noted.

 

 

337     ESTYN INSPECTION REPORT ON THE QUALITY OF ADULT AND COMMUNITY BASED LEARNING (DLD) -

 

An Estyn inspection of all adult and community based learning in the Vale took place from 12th - 22nd March, 2007.  The inspection included all providers who were members of the Vale Learning Network and who worked in partnership with the Council’s Lifelong Learning Service. 

 

The Lifelong Learning Services adult and community learning service had achieved many successes in recent years.  It had also received noteworthy recognition from the Welsh Assembly Government, Department of Education, Culture and Welsh Language in its provider performance review for 2005/6.  As a major provider of adult and community learning in the Vale, the Council’s Lifelong Learning Service made a significant contribution to the Vale Learning Network, and that it acted as the lead body for the learning challenge fund project which delivered an additional £909,000 learning opportunities provided by WAG and European funding.  The report highlighted the importance of partnership working and although main providers were included, there were many other voluntary organisations and small community groups providing lots of community based learning in the Vale and they made a very active contribution to adult learning.  The Vale Learning Network brought together Vale of Glamorgan learning providers, referral and guidance agencies and interested parties from other sectors to form a partnership that planned, developed and implemented a co-ordinated and integrated network of community-based learning centres across the Vale. 

 

The Estyn report stated that there was a wide range of adult and community learning opportunities throughout the Vale of Glamorgan, which affectively addressed the needs of local communities, provided health and wellbeing and provided opportunities for new careers and community regeneration.  Smaller organisations had benefited well from sharing practices and materials of the larger provider members.  The Vale Learning Network gave good value for money and it had fostered a strong commitment to partnership working between a wide variety of agencies and organisations.   Members worked well together to make good use of their resources to support adult community-based learning.  Overall, inspection grades were five at Level 2 and two at Level 3 and the report contained many positive comments.

 

The documents produced by the Quality Group of the Vale Learning Network were available as a toolkit for other members to help them to develop their quality procedures. 

 

Voluntary Sector representatives thought that there was lots of good news coming out of the Estyn report and it highlighted very good examples of effective partnership working and what we do well and gave a clear idea of what needed to be improved.  It was not possible at present to provide services to everyone as funding had remained static since 1999.  Resources were limited but it was obvious that community learning had a vital role to play in social cohesion.  Very large numbers of people within the Vale of Glamorgan were learning new skills in ICT, modern languages and crafts.  There had also been a noticeable increase in learners undertaking courses in literacy and numeracy.  It was a case of trying to do as much as possible with the funding available and working with partners was necessary to provide a positive experience for anyone undertaking community learning. 

 

AGREED - T H A T the report be noted.

 

 

338     ECONOMIC VALUE OF VOLUNTEERING WITHIN THE VALE OF GLAMORGAN (VS) -

 

The Vale Volunteer Bureau had first undertaken an audit of voluntary activity in 2000 when the monetary value of volunteering was calculated to be £8,207,136.  In 2006 a sum of £16,505,621 was calculated as the average monetary value of volunteer activity in the Vale of Glamorgan. 

 

The Vale Volunteer Bureau repeated the exercise at the beginning of 2007.  Questionnaires were sent to all recruiting organisations based in the Vale and registered with the Vale Volunteer Bureau.  Additional information requested included gender, age, employment status and ethnic categories of volunteers.  For the purposes of ascertaining the monetary value of volunteering these averages were then applied to the 238 voluntary organisations registered with the Vale Volunteer Bureau and based in the Vale of Glamorgan.  The information received from the returned questionnaires provided the average number of active volunteers per organisation and the average number of hours worked by those volunteers each week.  According to national statistics New Earning Survey 2003, a figure of £10.42 was recommended as the hourly rate for volunteering.  In comparison with the previous year, the amount had increased from £16,505,621 to £20,721,144 and was an increase of £4,215,523.  Therefore the economic value of volunteering within the Vale of Glamorgan was £20,721,144.  A cheque for this amount was presented to the Mayor of the Vale of Glamorgan Council, Councillor Clive Williams, at an event to mark Volunteers Week earlier in 2007. 

 

The rise could be attributed to the increase in the number of volunteers recruited through the Bureau and the outreach service.  It was also noted that this was an average figure and only provided a snapshot of the volunteer activity taking place within the Vale of Glamorgan.  The type of volunteering  referred to in the report related to formal volunteering and did not include many other types of informal volunteering and so was not reflected in any of the calculations. 

 

Statistics taken from the questionnaires were based on 1,599 volunteers who were currently volunteering.  Of those 1056 were women and 543 were men.  The most popular age group to volunteer were those aged 16 - 24 followed by those aged 55 - 64.  With regards to the employment status of volunteers students were more likely to be involved in volunteering followed by those who had retired.  In relation to ethnicity, more people volunteered who were White British followed by those who were White / Welsh. 

 

The Vale of Glamorgan Council provided £751k. to the Voluntary Sector in grants but this amount excluded service level agreements worth in excess of £2 million.  It was evident that this investment provided a staggering return in voluntary activity within the Vale of Glamorgan.  Organisations had far greater expectations of volunteers however, despite this, numbers had increased.  A Voluntary Sector representative indicated that the development of good mental health standards had been possible through the input of the Vale Volunteer Bureau and the value of this excellent resource should be recognised. 

 

The increase in the economic value of volunteering within the Vale of Glamorgan had a substantial return and it was thought that this information should be referred to the Cabinet and other members of the Council for information.

 

AGREED -

 

(1)       T H A T the Committee note the contents of the report and acknowledge the 27 fold return on the investment through voluntary activity alone.

 

(2)       T H A T the report be referred to the Cabinet and other Members of the Council for information.