Building Our Industrial Strategy Green Paper 2017

Building our Industrial Strategy Green Paper 2017

NCVO Response

About us

NCVO is the national umbrella body for voluntary organisations and volunteering. Established in 1919, NCVO supports and gives voice to over 12,000 organisations, from large ‘household name’ charities to small groups involved in all areas of volunteering and social action at a local level. As the champion and voice for volunteering, we are committed to supporting, enabling and celebrating volunteering in all its diversity.

We welcome the Prime Minister’s vision of a Shared Society and an Inclusive Economy that works for everyone. We support the commitment to an economy that spreads opportunity and growth, benefitting people across the country and throughout all communities. We believe that the voluntary sector can be a key partner in this agenda, playing a fundamental role both in creating a truly inclusive Industrial Strategy, and in building the Shared Society.

The full involvement of the voluntary sector will help ensure the creation of an Industrial Strategy that will continue to attract the talent, skills and investment that will enable our economy to face up to the challenges now and in the years to come. Most importantly, the involvement of the voluntary sector will help ensure that every place and its community meet their full potential, by closing the gap between different parts of society and empowering those individuals who are harder to reach.

The voluntary sector’s contribution to our economy

The voluntary sector is a vital part of the fabric of a strong society in the UK. It’s made up of more than 160,000 organisations which are incredibly diverse and represent a range of sizes, aims and activities.

Voluntary organisations make a major contribution to the UK economy and wider society. They employ 853,000 people, mobilise 14.2 million regular volunteers, and they add up to £12.2bn in Gross Value Added to the UK economy every year. To give some idea of the scale of the sector’s contribution, voluntary sector GVA is comparable to the nominal GDP of Iceland.

The economic contribution of voluntary organisations can also be considered at the local level. Small and medium sized charities account for 97% of the sector and – along with social enterprises and other civil society groups – already make a significant contribution to their local economies. They do this through: creating jobs, providing services for individuals and communities, spending money on other local goods and services, and attracting new resources into an area, such as volunteer time and grants.

Beyond their immediate economic contribution, many of the key institutions that support local areas are voluntary organisations, and the social infrastructure they provide will be an important part of helping the country’s industrial infrastructure develop. Voluntary organisations are therefore particularly well placed to support the Government in helping transforming local areas, as they understand the needs of the communities within which they work.

Developing skills

Young people can develop many skills through volunteering

Consultation question 10:

What more can we do to improve basic skills? How can we make a success of the new transition year? Should we change the way that those resitting basic qualifications study, to focus more on basic skills excellence?

Much of this paper is focussed on growing technical skills for young people, through higher technical education qualifications and apprenticeships. However, NCVO believes that a successful Industrial Strategy should be based on the recognition that it is important to develop a broader set of skills for young people. There are many skills that go beyond formal qualifications and apprenticeships, but that are equally fundamental in shaping young people and, in turn, society and the economy.

Volunteering and social action can be an effective way of developing a range of skills, and so the role of volunteering and social action should be considered in any strategy to ‘upskill’ young people. Volunteering can be especially important for developing soft skills- such as self-esteem, confidence, communication and leadership. Employers have previously noted a skills gap among entry-level employees in these areas and 67% of employers have claimed entry-level candidates with volunteering experience demonstrate more employability skills. Research collated by the #iwill campaign looked at self-reported evaluations of UK social action programmes which showed that young people consistently feel more confident about securing a job in the future after taking part in social action.

Effective partnership working across sectors, where businesses and charities find mutually beneficial ways of working together, can be particularly effective in harnessing volunteering as a route to skills development and potentially employment. For example, Team London’s HeadStart programme brings charities and businesses together, offering a programme for young people which involves volunteering, employability workshops and communication training and culminates in an interview with a business partner. Since being established, 5,000 young people have taken part, contributing 100,000 hours of volunteering. The #iwill campaign is also a good example of a cross-sector approach to growing youth social action and ensure more young people and communities can experience the benefits.

For volunteering and social action to bring the benefits outlined here, it must be high quality and should meet the six principles of quality youth social action developed by the Young Foundation and the Institute of Volunteering Research.

Volunteering can help develop skills across working life

Consultation question 14:

How can we enable and encourage people to retrain and upskill throughout their working lives, particularly in places where industries are changing or declining? Are there particular sectors where this could be appropriate?

Volunteering offers an opportunity to develop skills and experience for people of all ages. It is not just young people making their first steps into employment, it can be hugely important in supporting people to make a career change, or to progress in their existing career- and so is relevant across people’s working lives.

Volunteering can give people an opportunity to gain knowledge and experience in a different sector. This is especially true for those wishing to move from private sector to voluntary sector. It can also be great help in accessing work in areas such as health and social care and policing, where volunteering can be a way to meet person specifications on job adverts or meet requirements both to access and complete certain qualifications and courses.

Volunteering can support career progression within an existing field. Trusteeship for example can be a highly effective way to develop a private sector workers’ problem-solving, leadership and strategic decision making skills. This can be especially effective if opportunities to develop such skills in an existing role are limited. Charities have in the past reported a shortage of trustees and they would surely welcome expert insight from the private sector. Recognising this mutual benefit is important and if harnessed, could be key to successful partnerships between the private and voluntary sector. Step on Board, a programme run by NCVO and Trustees Unlimited for example, innovatively connects business leaders with trustee positions in charities, providing a comprehensive and tailored programme that provides employees with training, skills-matching and coaching.

Employer supported volunteering (ESV) can also provide opportunities for personal and professional development while making a difference to charities, society, and businesses themselves. Joint research from CIPD and the Institute for Voluntary Research (IVR) outlines some of the positives for businesses and calls for greater collaboration between charities and businesses to unleash potential for greater ESV. One practical way in which to support greater ESV is to fulfil the Conservative 2015 manifesto pledge to offer three days’ volunteering leave to enable more employees to take up this opportunity.

Enabling innovation through better procurement

Consultation questions 23-24:

Are there further steps that the Government can take to support innovation through public procurement?

What further steps can be taken to use public procurement to drive the industrial strategy in areas where government is the main client, such as healthcare and defence? Do we have the right institutions and policies in place in these sectors to exploit government’s purchasing power to drive economic growth?

Better implementation of social value

Implementing social value into commissioning practices can help maximise the spending power of contracting authorities, while providing additional benefits to local communities. These can include: helping SMEs win more business; creating jobs and volunteering opportunities; increasing community involvement and cohesion; addressing social isolation; generating apprenticeships and education pathways; facilitating neighbourhood improvement schemes; reducing environmental degradation; and fostering local economic growth.

Challenges remain in implementing the Social Value Act, namely that of many public bodies lacking the skills, knowledge and inclination needed to put a social value commissioning strategy into practice. The forthcoming review of the Social Value Act provides an opportunity to address these issues through a combination of statutory guidance, training and amendments to the Act.

The recent House of Lords report on Stronger Charities for a Stronger Society recommended that the Government require public sector commissioners to “account for” rather than merely “consider” social value, and that measurable targets for the use of social value in commissioning should be set. Removing the EU procurement threshold clause and extending the Act beyond services to goods and works would also send a clear signal that social value should apply across all procurement activity.

Beyond social value, there is a developed body of evidence on how commissioners can achieve better outcomes by co-producing services with their users and delivery organisations, and using commissioning methods appropriate to the service – most notably as set out in the recommendations of the joint review of partnerships and investment in voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations in the health and care sector.

Creating the right institutions to bring together sectors and places

Are the right central government and local institutions in place to deliver an effective industrial strategy? If not, how should they be reformed? Are the types of measures to strengthen local institutions set out here and below the right ones?

Recognising the need for local initiative and leadership, how should we best work with local areas to create and strengthen key local institutions?

What are the most important institutions which we need to upgrade or support to back growth in particular areas?

Are there institutions missing in certain areas which we could help create or strengthen to support local growth?

NCVO welcomes the Green Paper’s proposals to support and grow important local institutions, such as ‘cultural, sporting and quality of life institutions’. Voluntary organisations that act in this capacity work across an even broader range of areas, including employment and skills, social care and advice. We agree wholeheartedly with recognising the importance of such institutions in creating places and making them attractive to people and firms.

As highlighted above, voluntary organisations already make a significant contribution to their local communities and economies. They do this through: creating jobs, providing services for individuals and communities, spending money on other local goods and services, and attracting new resources into an area, such as volunteer time and grants.

Volunteering is also central to this pillar of the Industrial Strategy. Volunteers play an essential role in maintaining the strength and variety of our museums, sports clubs, local heritage and local conservation. They also contribute more broadly to general community strength and cohesion. Good local volunteering infrastructure is essential to ensure volunteering at the local level is supported and carried out at high quality.

Volunteering infrastructure also plays an important role in brokering volunteering opportunities, helping to support volunteers to access quality opportunities that suit them. It can also play a key role in brokering ESV, and fostering effective relationships between business and charities. Volunteer centres’ person-centred approaches can also help break down barriers to volunteering by thinking how to tailor opportunities to individual’s needs. For example, they have been shown to play an integral role in strategies to move long-term unemployed into employment through volunteering. This is vital if we are to ensure that the benefits of volunteering, particularly around skill development highlighted here, are accessible to a diverse range of people and communities. This will help to ensure that the benefits of volunteering are accessible to those who may face additional barriers to finding employment.

One way in which the government could strengthen local civic institutions would be to develop the endowments of the UK’s community foundations, placing them on a better long-term footing to support their local areas. These institutions already have a strong understanding of the needs of their areas and the capacity to carefully target funding.

The existence of strong local institutions rests on the relationships they build with their counterparts, and the extent to which they enable the participation of all their stakeholders. In developing and supporting local commissioners, local enterprise partnerships, and city mayoralties, the government can encourage joint working between devolved bodies and the voluntary sector through the terms of devolution deals, growth funding and issuing guidance.