1. The Voluntary and Community Sector in Bexley Sakthi Suriyaprakasam 9 th July 2014

2. The scope of the research Bexley’s VCS – make-up of the sector, income Economic and Social value of Bexley’s VCS– beneficiaries, fields of work, at what stage do they intervene, paid staff, volunteers Change, challenges and vulnerabilities The relationship between Bexley’s VCS and BVSC

3. What is the make up of the sector? 842 registered Voluntary and Community organisations Estimated 1,100 unregistered voluntary and community organisations (sometimes called ‘civil society’)

4. What is the make up of the sector?

5. Size of Charities by Income

6. How has the financial profile changed over the last two years? 31% (152) lost up to half of their income 10% (51) lost at least half of their income 8% (39) stayed at the same level of income 50% (244) increased their income, with 8% (37) at least doubling it.

7. Who are the beneficiaries?

8. What areas of work do charities cover?

9. How many paid staff do VCO’s employ in Bexley? The average number of paid staff working in Bexley in voluntary and community organisations responding to our survey was 17 However, nearly half (47%) of responding organisations had no paid staff at all Among VCOs which gave the breakdown of full-time to part-time staff, the ratio was 3:8.

10. What do volunteers contribute to the work of VCOs in Bexley? VCOs in Bexley on average have 8 trustees and 36 non-trustee volunteers The average number of unpaid hours contributed by trustees and volunteers in Bexley is 86.4 per week per organisation If paid LLW, this would cost each organisation £39,536 p.y. For all charities working in Bexley, the contribution of volunteers, if paid LLW, would be worth £19m

11. VCS Resources Charities working in Bexley have a total income of £235m VCS in Bexley raise about £5.90 for every £1 received from the statutory sector

12. At what stage do community and voluntary organisations intervene?

13. What problems do organisations expect in the next year?

14. FUNDING ISSUES Organisations were asked which of the following funding difficulties they expected in the next year: Getting enough grant funding 61% Need to find new ways to generate funds and diversify - for example trading and selling 42% Having to compete for contracts with larger organisations or private sector 31% Finding out about opportunities for contracts 24% Demands for impact measurement 21% Payment by results 18% Personalisation (the move to personalised budgets) 13% Unfamiliarity with and complexity of the tendering process (applying for contracts) 11%

15. ARE ORGANISATIONS AT RISK OF CLOSURE IN THE NEXT YEAR? 9.3% of organisations feel there is a real risk their organisation will have to close within the next year. Another 9.3% were unsure, and 81.3% felt there was no such risk for this year. There was a very slight tendency to higher confidence of surviving among larger organisations.

16. How valuable did VCO’s find BVSC’s help? Most valued – One to one development support – Training – Sub-sector forums and networks – E-bulletins – Community Directory

17. How valuable did VCO’s find the Volunteer Centre’s help? Most valued – One to one development and good practice advice/support – Training – Help to recruit volunteers

18. How do organisations prefer to receive information and support from BVSC? 1.Email 2.Post 3.Face to face/ individually 4.Telephone 5.Face to face as part of a group 6.Social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn). For organisations with £25k or less this order of preference changed to: 1.Email 2.Face to face /individually 3.Face to face as part of a group 4.Post 5.Social media 6.Telephone

19. What could we do more of? Help with finding funding Help to recruit volunteers Support with collaborative working inc. help with finding partners Finding premises Marketing their services More information on service gaps in the borough `Preferred provider’ for outsources services Use more online services and social media