Capacitybuilders - Improving support for a stronger third sector

24/01/2008

On 22 January, representatives from the lead bodies of the nine National Support Services (NSS) workstreams gathered in Birmingham to engage with regional and local ChangeUp consortium and Improving Reach grant recipients. The event, hosted by Capacitybuilders, aimed to encourage a ‘creative’ discussion that will help shape the development of the new national support services, ensuring they work effectively alongside a range of sector support providers, especially those working at local and regional level.

All NSS lead bodies are currently working with Capacitybuilders to develop their 3 year business plans. A key element of this work is a commitment to ensure that these plans accurately reflect the needs of the people and organisations delivering support to third sector organisations across England.

Facilitated by Capacitybuilders’ Specialist Advisor, Catherine Johnstone, delegates took part in a series of round table discussions and were given the opportunity to speak directly with the lead bodies about the workstreams. Delegates were encouraged to share their experiences of receiving services to deliver better support to the frontline and were asked to identify what the national support services can learn from this experience. Delegates were then invited to put forward practical solutions to ensure that the national support services provide ‘added value’ and adopt principles that make them inclusive, informed and beneficial without being bureaucratic.

The event received a warm welcome from all attendees and plans to continue this type of ‘creative conversation’ as part of the ongoing development of the national support services are being considered. The range of practical proposals put forward during the discussions will now feed into the development of the business plans currently being developed. A full write up of the event feedback has been published on the Capacitybuilders website along with a summary of each national support service workstreams.

ENDS. 314 words

Editors notes:

The nine National Support Service workstreams that have been awarded are as follows:

• Campaigning and Advocacy will be led by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations
• Equalities and Diversity will be led by the Women's Resource Centre
• Income Generation will be led by the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations
• Leadership and Governance will be led by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations
• Marketing and Communications will be led by the Media Trust
• Modernising Volunteering will be led by Volunteering England
• Performance Management will be led by Charities Evaluation Services
• Collaboration will be led by bassac
• Responding to Social Change will be led by National Council for Voluntary Organisations.