Fighting for survival

• Councillors
• Local radio
• Local newspaper
• Contact MP’s
• Ltr to Guardian
• Ltr to Times
• Inform volunteers
• Mobilise volunteers
• Inform referrers
• Write to families
• Cancel next volunteer training course
• Inform new volunteers course cancelled

Who can help?

I sat staring at this hastily scribbled list which was to form the basis of my action plan. Still reeling from the shock at just having heard in a special meeting with my trustees that we had between four to eight weeks before the project would close and staff (we are three) were given warning of redundancy.  

What does this project do? Our volunteers — there are currently 35 — for the past 11 years have visited children and families on a weekly basis providing emotional and practical support. Annually, we support 70-80 families and approximately 150-180 children. The volunteers do not tell parents what to do or how to sort out their lives, instead they build a relationship which enables them to be alongside parents and children, helping and guiding them to find their own resolutions and the confidence to know that they have the skills to help themselves if things get difficult again. It’s the kind of work that used to be included in the role of health visitors. Unfortunately, they are now so stretched with their caseloads that there isn’t the time, which, by the number of referrals we receive from our health visitor colleagues, demonstrates how much we are needed.

Over several years we have had an excellent working partnership with our local authority and been contracted to provide services. We know we are valued by our statutory colleagues, who recognise the importance of the early intervention work we do and would like to see this relationship continue. We have been told that we are the "preferred provider" and there has been mention of an extension of our contract, but none of this can be confirmed in any concrete manner. We have been told by the local authority that the difficulty is that they are unable to provide us with confirmation as to our future funding in a timely way because the process for expenditure, consultation and budget cuts is currently underway and has to take its course; it cannot be rushed, nor it appears, any exceptions made. Our contract finishes at the end of March and without secured funds we cannot legally produce a budget for next year. We also have to keep in line with Charity Commission guidelines and, therefore, without written confirmation of funds, the trustees had no alternative but to begin the process of winding down the project. Hands are tied as this project sinks into oblivion.

What about the transition fund?, I hear people say. I will scream if I hear the TF words again.  When I last looked, the transition fund closed on 21 January and I understand is heavily oversubscribed.  Needless to say, I was somewhat bemused when on 7th February’s Channel 4 News programme I heard Nick Hurd, minister for civil society, repeatedly state to Jon Snow that the fund was currently operating. I had explored this avenue as soon as it was launched on 30 November 2010 but as we didn’t know how much to expect with the cuts and neither could we provide evidence (i.e. written confirmation from the local authority) we were unable to apply and of course the fund would only allow for change activities and not core costs.  

This project has been supporting families who would fall beneath the thresholds for social care intervention and often through the gaps of other support services. Our volunteers have been trailblazing the concept of the big society for 11 years in this borough and have done so, quietly, tirelessly and modestly. Today I have decided that modesty must go out the window as I write to stand up for a small scheme with a big heart. I intend to fight for the survival of this project, fight for all those families who have benefited from our help, fight for all those families waiting to benefit from our help and fight for the children who have been kept safe because of a volunteer’s support and guidance.

Fighting talk brings me back to my list. Since the start of last week I have spoken to a producer for an ITV current affairs programme; booked an appointment with our local MP who will meet and speak to one of our parents; emailed The Times, The Guardian and Radio 4’s PM programme; kept my volunteers up to date with events; organised a question for the council’s next executive meeting; drafted letters to supported families explaining the situation; drafted letters to families on our waiting list; checked to see if my colleagues were okay; cancelled the next volunteer training course and venue; and cancelled 19 interviews with new volunteers — visualising the disappearing potential of supporting between five and six families as each volunteer walked out the door.  

What I really want to be doing is my job and getting on with what this project does best — supporting parents and children through whatever life has to throw at them.

Forget the big society, even if my project pulls through this, I feel that by the time the spending cuts have completed their devastating effects, we will be left with the "paltry society" and a voluntary sector strewn along the roadside like the burnt-out remains of abandoned vehicles in a war zone.

The author has asked to remain anonymous