Call for Local Survey
October 2009

At the recent Voluntary Sector Forum, Kingston's Voluntary and Community Organisations' main response as to where we go next with National Indicator 7 was a call for a local survey. Many of the organisations who attended the Forum agreed that the initial survey was flawed and did not reflect their views. Most were not even contacted.

National Indicator 7 “Creating an Environment for a Thriving Third Sector” was the main topic for the Voluntary Sector Forum, which was well attended by representatives from a wide range of voluntary and community organisations, as well as Council members, RBK's Voluntary Sector Unit and NHS Kingston.

Presentations from Jill Darling from the Voluntary Sector Unit and Dean Tyler, Community Planning & Partnership Co-ordinator put NI7 into context. Jill's presentation gave the background to NI7 and Dean talked about where NI7 fits within the local framework (click on the links for pdf files of the presentations).

Participants engaged in a lively debate around the terms “thriving” (not struggling financially, sustainable, responsive, innovative, world-class), “creating” (a voluntary sector charter, COMPACT, drawing up a plan, listening and looking), “environment” (political & economic , infrastructure, population mix) and “third sector” (social enterprise, charities, self-help, community groups).

Groups discussed the key questions “what their organisation wants to see” and “what they can do to contribute (funding, sustainability, security, higher profile , increased recognition and accessible premises were seen to be the most important). The session ended with group discussions on how we can ensure that NI7 plans are developed that are both meaningful locally and help against the national target.

The findings will be put forward to the next meeting of Kingston Voluntary Board and, in turn, to the Kingston Strategic Partnership. The next Voluntary Sector Forum will be held in Spring 2010.