Dear Colleagues,
Celebrating Our Shared Success
I want to start by celebrating a fantastic achievement for our city and partners. It’s been quite a time for SUIT, our drug and alcohol recovery project, who received acknowledgment for their outstanding partnership work.
City of Wolverhampton Council was shortlisted for the “Liver Health Checks” programme at the LGC Awards in the Public and Population Health category. The Liver Health Checks initiative was recognised for its pop-up clinics and instant fibro scans, which are used to check for early indicators of conditions such as fatty liver, fibrosis, and cirrhosis.
The service takes the tests directly to community centres and faith settings to help bridge the gap in accessing alcohol support and treatment, bringing vital health checks directly into local neighbourhoods. By finding health issues early, this work saves lives.
It shows the power of community-focused care and partnership. This national recognition highlights the incredible dedication driving our local public services. It is a proud moment for all of us who work alongside the council to support our communities.
A Sector Under Threat
However, we must be realistic about the immense challenges facing us. The VCSEF Sector is under threat. Rising operational costs and falling income are stretching groups to breaking point. Crucially, the Local Infrastructure Organisations (LIOs) that support, connect, and defend these local groups are facing their own existential funding crisis. Without strong infrastructure, the wider sector risks fragmentation at a time when communities need us most.
Particularly over the last two years, the UK’s VCSEF sector infrastructure ecosystem has faced an unprecedented “perfect storm” of hyper-inflation, local authority budget cuts, and declining multi-year grant funding.
This funding crisis has triggered a highly concerning wave of closures among both national specialist infrastructure bodies and regional Council for Voluntary Service (CVS) organisations that smaller frontline charities rely on for governance, training, and operational support.
The prominent charity and VCS infrastructure organisations that have closed or entered administration over the last 24 months are grouped below by their scope of operation:
National Infrastructure Bodies
- Getting On Board (Closed October 2024): A major national infrastructure charity established in 2005 to promote and diversify charity trusteeship. It closed its doors due to acute resourcing pressures and an increasingly challenging funding environment.
- Children England (Closed Late 2023/Early 2024): Although the decision was made in late 2023, the full wind-down spilled into early 2024. Operating for 81 years as the primary collective voice and infrastructure body for the children and family’s charity sector, it shut down due to insurmountable financial sustainability issues.
- These closures follow the highly publicised losses of the Small Charities Coalition (SCC) and the Foundation for Social Improvement (FSI) just prior, leaving the UK small-charity sector largely hollowed out of dedicated national infrastructure.
Regional & Local Infrastructure Bodies (CVS & Social Enterprise Support)
Local infrastructure organisations (LIOs) have been hit hardest due to their reliance on disappearing local government contracts:
- Stronger Kent Communities (Winding down June–September 2026): A prominent infrastructure organisation that supported thousands of small grassroots charities and social enterprises across Kent for nine years. It announced its formal closure due to an inability to secure future operational funding.
- Greater Manchester Centre for Voluntary Organisation – GMCVO (Entered Administration December 2024): As one of the largest local infrastructure bodies in the UK, GMCVO was forced to appoint administrators after its multi-tiered business model became unviable. While some of its social investment management was salvaged, its independent operations collapsed.
- Basildon, Billericay and Wickford CVS – BBW CVS (Closed mid-2025): Operating in Essex, this local infrastructure body held a general meeting in late May 2025 to finalise its closure. It cited a surge in demand for volunteer brokerage services paired with a total lack of public investment to sustain core staff.
Strategic Funding Infrastructure Shifts
While not traditional infrastructure providers, several grant-making infrastructure foundations have announced closures or a ‘spend down’ approach over this period, severely limiting the VCSEF sector’s long-term financial architecture:
- Lankelly Chase and the Foyle Foundation both advanced their timelines over the last two years to intentionally wind down operations, distribute all remaining capital assets, and close permanently
The Need for Better Alignment and Avoiding Duplication
Compounding these financial strains is a growing trend of operational duplication. We are noticing instances where public sector and health partners may be inadvertently duplicating services and functions that the VCSEF sector already delivers effectively. When parallel internal systems are created, it can lead to an inefficient use of scarce public resources.
Instead, we need to fully leverage the unique trusted relationships and expertise that our sector already holds, ensuring that vital funding goes directly toward supporting frontline community organisations. This would include equitable funding and a shift from ‘day rates’ and short-term grants to fair, multi-year funding that covers the true core costs of delivery and infrastructure using an open and transparent process.
Shaping the Future: VCS Strategy
This brings us to a critical juncture. The City Council has released its draft Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) Strategy. This document will shape how the local authority works with our VCSEF sector for years to come.
Have Your Say
Your voice is vital to making the changes we need. The city council ran a consultation exercise earlier this year. WVCA will lead the next part of the community consultation to gather your feedback, ideas, and priorities. All of the information is on our website. Please take the time to share your views and help shape the future of our sector.
Finally, if there are any issues that you would like to raise or anything that you would like to hear more about, please contact me.
If you would like more information, please remember to check out our website and newsletter regularly – there is always new information, and opportunities are always presenting themselves.
Thank you for your continued hard work, resilience, and commitment
Sharon Nanan-Sen
Chief Executive Officer
Wolverhampton Voluntary & Community Action