Dear Colleagues,
On 13th October, we held our VCSEF Alliance Meeting.
It was great to see so many people from the past and the present who took the opportunity to come together to discuss some of the issues that are really affecting, challenging and impacting the sector right now.
We began with a quick recap and review of sector feedback on the Council’s VCS Strategy. People were pleased that the Council said at a VCS network meeting in September, that the sector will see the final strategy document before it is signed off at Cabinet. It is important that this happens.
The focal point of the meeting, however, was ensuring that through the VCSEF Alliance (which has a long history in the city and was previously known as The Third Sector Partnership), the VCSEF sector has a strong strategic voice that is recognised and represented across the city where decisions about the VCSEF sector take place, on, for example, equalities, SEND, health, children and young people, procurement or the COMPACT.
So much of what central government wishes to achieve regarding ongoing adult social care reforms, moving healthcare out of acute hospitals and directly into communities through the NHS Modernisation Bill 2026, the 10 Year Health Plan for England, and The Neighbourhood Health Framework, cannot be achieved without the VCSEF sector.
But we know that up and down the country, the whole sector is under threat, from grass roots groups to large scale national charities through reducing funding, increasing costs, competition and duplication of services. This has increased over the last 12-18 months.
Why might this be happening?
We are seeing a trend of local authorities and NHS partners absorbing work that has been historically handled by the VCSEF sector and commissioned. This could be driven by a combination of financial survival, structural overhaul, and rigid legal and performance constraints. While the new Neighbourhood Health Framework explicitly names the VCSEF sector as a vital partner, practical realities may be causing statutory bodies to default to in-house delivery.
Under financial pressure, local authorities are legally required to prioritise their statutory duties e.g. child protections / crisis adult social care, over discretionary spend e.g. community wellness or preventive grants.
To save money and retain their own staff, statutory partners are increasingly in-sourcing. They bring services back in-house to keep their core workforces employed rather than letting public funds leave the system via external VCSEF contracts.
For years, public bodies relied on the goodwill of charities to subsidise underfunded public sector contracts using their own reserves or public donations. The cost-of-living crisis, static contract values, and high inflation have made this unsustainable. Many charities cannot bid for contracts that do not cover the true cost of delivery/full cost recovery. When charities become insolvent, local authorities and health partners can step in directly to ensure service continuity.
While the Neighbourhood Health Framework intends for integrated neighbourhood teams to blend with the VCSEF sector, the practical reality is that it is far easier to have a council employee change their work than it is to navigate complex, cross-sector commissioning and liability agreements with independent charities.
This creates an insular ecosystem where council staff absorb community tasks by default. Knowing this, we need to continue to unite and fight for the sustainability of the VCSEF sector in every forum, practically, operationally and strategically.
Incidentally, today, at the Alliance, two separate groups thanked WVCA’ s staff for helping them to recently secure funding – and flowers were given and received very unexpectedly.
All of us in the VCEF sector do what we do for a reason. There is something very personal and special about helping someone set up a group and access funding to support others. We must not lose sight of the difference we make and the positive impact we have on communities and people’s lives.
In that regard, please remember that we have a milestone celebration coming up: our Service User Involvement Team (SUIT) drug and alcohol recovery project was established in 2006 and our Social Prescribing service was established in 2016.
We are going to be celebrating our fantastic projects and their incredible work. You can sign up to attend here.
WVCA Celebration: 20 Years of SUIT and 10 years of Social Prescribing
10.30-3 on Friday 20th November 2026 at the Arena Theatre
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
Sharon Nanan-Sen
Chief Executive Officer