Growing Well?
"After what has been variously described as ‘the nice decade’ and the ‘years of plenty’, we are about to witness the biggest cuts in public expenditure and the most radical changes to public services, since the Second World War.
An enhanced role is envisaged for CSOs, while cutbacks in their funding are being announced every day. The outlook for voluntary funding is uncertain..."
(The Funding Commission, 2010, Funding the Future: A 10-year framework for civil society, available from www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/fundingcommission)
The purpose of this blog is demonstrate the approach that our organisation is taking to prepare for, and guide it's work through this "uncertain" future.
Our first step was to develop a plan covering all the topics that needed to be reviewed. This would enable us to take a systematic approach to change
We have always reviewed and evaluated our work on a regular basis, but in the present "challenging conditions" our initial steps have been to:
- Evaluate the quality of our work over the previous 2 years. This was to ensure that we have maintained a high quality, professional service and were continuing reaching those members of the community who would benefit from our services.
- Review our charity objects to ensure they continue to be relevant and reflect current needs in our community.
- Review our skill sets of our trustees, staff and volunteers. This has enabled us to plan for changes in service delivery and identify gaps in knowledge/skills and identify training needs.
- Review the potential for partnership working which would help us take our work forward - such as with other Third Sector Organisations, Health Services, schools, and so on.
HHEAG was established by a group of local residents in 1990. It was felt that after working in this area for 23 years, a review of our charity objects by staff and trustees was in order. The purpose of reviewing our organisation's constitution was to ensure the activities we carry out today are still fit for purpose, and to clarify with the Charities Commission to what extent our charity objects can be amended to reflect the changes in the societal role of organisations such as ours since 1990. Please click on the Objects page for further practical information about how to carry out such work in your own organisation.
Following on from the review our charity objects, we looked at the skill sets within our organisation - this included Trustees, Volunteers, Staff and Service Users.
The purpose of this was two-fold: to check understand what skills we had and could utilise in our work, and to identify any gaps in knowledge or training needs.
The following pages will offer more detailed information on our methods and progress. We hope you will find these useful and help you to successfully navigate your own pathway toward future sustainability and success.
