Maria lives in Southwark, south London. Originally from Uganda, she isHIV positive. So are her children. While her eldest child is becomingaware of illness in the family, her four-year-old son Sam is prone totemper tantrums, lacks confidence and has mobility problems. Mariaadmits she finds it hard to cope and wants help to increase herconfidence in parenting.
Thanks to the support of a small charity in London she's now gettingthat help. "The service from Positive Parenting and Children is the onlysupport I have for the children and myself," explains Maria. "Theirfamily support worker has helped to support my family a lot, especiallythrough recent problems. Sam has really improved, and there are onlyoccasional tantrums. His confidence has increased. He's doing things hehas not done before and I feel a lot less stressed and more able to copewith him."
At a recent review meeting, a social worker from Southwark Councilagreed: "The service seems to be working well. It sounds like the familysupport worker has made a good link with the family, which is reallygood to hear."
The support Maria and her family receive is only possible becauseprimary care trusts and local authorities in Lambeth, Southwark andLewisham have teamed up and commissioned Positive Parenting and Childrento deliver a specialised support service for families affected by HIVand Aids. It is a model of delivery that the Government would like tosee more of, recognising that charities can often work with familiesbeyond the reach of traditional statutory services.
But the future of public service delivery by the voluntary and communitysector is at a crossroads. The chair of the Charity Commission, SuzyLeather, sounded the alarm recently, warning of the dangers of an"all-party love-in with charities and the voluntary sector" (ChildrenNow, 28 February-6 March).
This followed a survey of the third sector by the regulator, which foundthat only 12 per cent of respondents covered all their costs all of thetime when delivering services for the state. Known as "full-costrecovery", Leather warns that such consistent under-funding threatenscharities' very existence.
To make matters worse, the survey reveals that just 13 per cent ofcontracts between the voluntary and statutory sectors last longer thanthree years.
The implications are clear: if short-term contracts and under-fundingare not addressed, there may not be a voluntary and community sector todraw on.
Action plan
The Government has pledged to address the problems. For instance, thelocal government white paper aspires to create a commissioning frameworkwith three-year funding as the norm.
And alongside the Pre-Budget report in December 2006, the Cabinet Officepublished an action plan for third sector involvement in publicservices. Steps to be taken include training 2,000 public sectorcommissioners to better engage with the voluntary and community sectorsand improving the capacity of the third sector to engage with the publicsector. As part of this strategic policy agenda, the Department forEducation and Skills is funding a 3m programme, known as VCSEngage, to help the voluntary sector become more involved in deliveringchildren's services (see box).
Some local authorities though are ahead of the game. Take KnowsleyMetropolitan Borough Council, which has recognised the need to be moreproactive in how it engages with the voluntary and community sectors. Itis planning to fund a worker to engage with the voluntary sector. Theirjob will be to find out what the issues are and then provide support;anything from helping charities sort out their governance arrangementsto looking at how to accurately cost services. "We want to make sure thesector has the capacity to deliver services on an equal footing,"explains Viv Murray, service director for universal and preventativeservices in the council's children and young people's directorate.
Meanwhile, in Harrow, the council is forging innovative partnershipswith the voluntary sector to deliver statutory services for children incare. A recent agreement with the voluntary adoption agency Coram Familymeans the day-to-day work of matching children with prospective familieswill be done by the charity (Children Now, 21-27 February).
The arrangement follows the success of the council's partnership withShaftesbury Homes & Arethusa, which has seen the charity provide staffand management in the council's new residential children's home. PaulClarke, director of children's services at Harrow Council, says thatworking with the voluntary sector in this way has helped solve problemsin the recruitment and retention of social care staff. "We found it hardto recruit staff who are skilled and experienced in assessing potentialadoptive parents. But Coram have got a national reputation forexcellence in this," he says.
Paul Ennals, chief executive of the National Children's Bureau, believesHarrow's Coram partnership "might be a sign of more to come". Otherchanges could be a greater use of consortia, where, for instance,charities like Rainer and Rathbone join together to provide services forchildren and young people. Or where big charities like Barnardo's andNCH subcontract work to small community-based organisations.
Back at the Charity Commission, Leather warns that such consortia "maybecome essential" if middle-income charities are not to be squeezed outof the market. But Maggie Jones, chief executive of the National Councilof Voluntary Child Care Organisations, warns that more support may beneeded if the voluntary and community sector is to survive. On top ofher day job, she chairs a small voluntary organisation in WestYorkshire. "We've just had to issue redundancy letters to our staff aswe still don't have a contract for next year and this is a service we'vebeen delivering for four or five years now."
For children's charities, the pressures can be massive. "There's a bigpush to improve skills and training, there's pressure to work in anintegrated way and to contribute to the children's information sharingindex. We're trying to raise our game, while at the same time deal withthe fact that we don't see full-cost recovery. So where are we meant toget the money to train our staff?" she asks.
Jones also points out that charities have a history of underinvestmentin their infrastructure because they invest money in the frontline.Providing services under contract to the public sector means investingmoney in the centre, which they often don't have. This is why moresupport is essential if the voluntary and community sectors are going tocontinue delivering public services.
"Local and central government is not giving that support. It means wewon't achieve the Every Child Matters agenda because the voluntarysector is essential to all children, not just the most vulnerable."
CASE STUDY
Today (28 March) sees the official launch of a 3mGovernment-backed programme to strengthen the involvement of thechildren's voluntary and community sector (VCS) in delivering services.Known as VCS Engage, it is being led by the National Children's Bureau(NCB) in partnership with a consortium of national voluntary sectororganisations.
The programme follows concerns that the third sector, particularlysmall- and medium-sized organisations, are being left out of the newframeworks for delivering services to children, young people and theirfamilies.
"There's a risk of there being a gap between government rhetoric andwhether the voluntary sector are actually at the table," explains PaulEnnals, chief executive of the NCB.
Running until March 2008, the programme aims to increase the capacity ofthe sector to engage at a strategic level in children's trust and localauthority commissioning arrangements. The idea is to boost the skills ofthe sector to enter the children's services market and compete on anequal basis with other providers.
One way the programme will do this is by training staff in the skillsneeded to engage in the planning and commissioning of services.www.vcsengage.org.uk
WHAT THE ISSUES ARE
VIV MURRAY, service director for universal and preventative services,Knowsley Council's children and young people's directorate
"We believe we don't have all the skills in the statutory sector todeliver services on our own. We have an excellent voluntary sector andinvolving them brings better outcomes for children and young people. Butif we're not careful we will push them out of the market."
MAGGIE JONES, chief executive, the National Council of Voluntary ChildCare Organisations
"The state wants us to take on the burden of delivering public serviceswithout the huge backup that local authorities and the NHS have, such aspersonnel, IT and finance departments. Even large voluntary sectororganisations don't have that level of infrastructure. If the state isgoing to require more of us, it has a duty to provide support." Aspokeswoman, the Local Government Association "Local government tendsnot to have much understanding (of the voluntary sector) and equally thevoluntary sector does not always have much understanding (of localgovernment). There's room for more discussion and for people to gettogether and explain the realities for them."
CLARE TICKELL, chief executive, children's charity NCH
"We do get a lot of state funding, but we are a very large organisation.It absolutely doesn't affect our independence. We also receive voluntarysector income, which is of more importance to us as it is what gives usthe ability to speak out and campaign."
PAUL CLARKE, director of children's services at Harrow Council
"We found it hard to recruit staff who are skilled and experienced inassessing potential adoptive parents. But Coram Family has got anational reputation for excellence in this. We've given the charity fullaccess to our management teams and records; they've also met with staff,managers and young people."
