Every Parent Matters - Impact on the Voluntary and Community Sector

The Voluntary and Community Sector historically have provided a wide range of essential parenting support services often reaching the parts of the community that statutory services traditionally found hard to reach. The raft of initiatives over the last 10 years, following the ‘Supporting Families’ Green Paper (1998), have brought a hitherto largely informal and voluntary activity into the mainstream. Since 2006 the parenting sector has undergone radical reform and received some substantial investment. This survey aims to capture the impact of that investment on the voluntary and community sector parenting market and highlight key ongoing messages from the sector. We have two useful benchmark research documents produced by PWC for DCSF in 2006 and 2007 where the capacity of the parenting support market was reviewed. They identified the following (amongst others) as key challenges for the VCS:

Limited availability and short term nature of fundingWorkforce Development, training levels, skills, knowledge and understanding of available staff/volunteers

Commissioning Process

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Funding for services was highly fragmented and typically time limited. This was driven by the way in which funding flowed from central government, often via a large number of discrete, time-limited funds, pilots and initiatives.

Nature of current local authority commissioning process and the willingness of local authorities to commission/work in partnership with external providers.

The way in which local authorities organised themselves to commission services, with multiple parts of a single authority often providing funding to a single provider. At this point in time the parenting commissioners were newly appointed.

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1)

How well informed did your organisation feel about opportunities to engage in commissioning of CYP& F services in your boroughs / local authorities during 2008/09?


	Very well informed
	Well informed
	Uninformed
	Don’t know

Additional Information:

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2)

How do you normally receive information on local CYP & F commissioning opportunities?


	Local CVS or other local infrastructure
	Other local VCS sources
	Regional networks or organisations
	National networks or organisations
	Local or regional statutory contacts

Other (Please specify):

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3)

In your view what worked well within local CYP & F commissioning in which you were involved in?


	Timescales for commissioning
	Quality of the information provided
	Willingness of statutory sector to engage with the VCS
	Quality/availability of VCS infrastructure support
	None of the above

Other:

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4)

And what didn’t work well?


	Timescales for commissioning
	Quality of the information provided
	Willingness of statutory sector to engage with the VCS
	Quality/availability of VCS infrastructure support
	None of the above

Other/Additional comment:

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5)

Do you have any suggestions for improving the process, or details of any good practice you wish to share with other areas?

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6)

CYP & F service tender opportunities in 2009/10 - Did you submit tenders for any local CYP & F commissioning processes in 2009/10?


	Did not apply
	Don’t know

Did apply (please tell us the service and funder)

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7)

CYP & F service tender opportunities in 2008/09 - Did you think access to tender opportunities and supporting information was:

Very good

Good

Adequate

Poor

Don’t know

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8)

If you did apply were you successful in your application?

Yes

No

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9)

And if you did apply, how was your overall experience of the application process?

Very good

Good

Adequate

Poor

Don’t know

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10)

Your engagement with Children’s Trusts - Is your organisation currently involved in any of Regional Children’s Trusts?


	Yes – as a VCS representative
	Yes – we participate in various aspects of the work of the Trust (e.g. respond to consultations, submit information, attend open meetings or forums)
	No we are not involved in Children’s Trusts
	Don’t know

Other: