Agenda item

Councillor Melvin Wallace, Cabinet Member for Culture & Community Engagement, introduced the report

Cabinet was reminded that as part of the Council’s on-going work on demand management, and also as a result of key legislative changes such as the implementation of the Care Act, much consideration had been given over the past several months to the Council’s relationship with the voluntary and community sector (VCS); what outcomes the Council would wish to see delivered within the VCS, and how the Council could support the sector to build its capacity to deliver against its shared priorities.

On 9 October 2014, Council had published a draft Voluntary Sector Strategy for consultation.  An independent consultant was appointed to lead the consultation process which comprised of workshops, focus groups, one-to-one meetings and an opportunity to submit comments directly either to the Council’s consultant or to the Council itself. 

The aims of this action plan was to strengthen communities and to increase the effectiveness and impact of the voluntary sector so that it could support communities to be more resilient, by enabling neighbours, communities and families to support one another, and that local people could take the lead on improving their local areas through voluntary action, and

To improve local voluntary sector capacity to deliver high quality local services which people needed, and that new types of services, which best met peoples’ needs should be developed with - and by - the sector, possibly through new models of delivery.

Reasons for the decision:

The Voluntary Sector Strategy and action plan set out how the Council would work with the sector going forward.

Other options considered:

As part of the delivery of the action plan, further options would be considered in the future as to how services would be commissioned from the sector going forward.

Cabinet approved the Voluntary Sector Strategy and Action Plan attached to the report.