Late 2023 into Spring 2024, the Governance Board worked to register the VCSA as a Community Interest Company (CIC). The company is was up to facilitate the engagement and involvement of the whole VCS in the activities of the Assembly, and to work with existing VCS groups and organisations to achieve this.
Set out below are the key elements of the purpose and activities of the CIC as contained in the Memorandum and Articles of Association, and the company’s registration with the Community Interest Company Regulator. The CIC will be expected to report back on its activities against each of these areas in an annual report to the CIC Regulator. These reports will also be published on the Assembly’s website.
Increase and support communication within the VCS and between the VCS and partners.
- We will increase the promotion of contact details and service information for VCS support across Dorset.
- We will support and develop our online and offline communications networks between VCS organisations, including social media, email news, and websites, as well as posters, leaflets and print promotion.
- We will support and develop systems to share local information about needs and services across a variety of platforms and with public and private sector partners.
Facilitating better communications will improve the sustainability, awareness, and inclusion of VCS people and organisations in the web of support offered in Dorset. Better communications will increase the ability of VCS organisations to access and develop opportunities to support Dorset’s communities and refer residents to services when they need them.
It will also enable the VCS to raise concerns and issues that need to be addressed in their communities and networks. This will improve community access to services, and also increase awareness of unmet need and other community concerns.
Increase and support engagement within the VCS and between the VCS and partners.
- We will host and promote activities and opportunities for VCS organisations, groups, and individuals to meet up to discuss issues, concerns, and ideas.
- We will actively work to include people from our minority communities and under-represented people from our VCS and wider community in our networks and engagement activities. This will include advocating for and enabling greater consideration of access arrangements and additional support to enable participation.
- We will facilitate links and relationships between people and organisations in the VCS, and between the VCS and other sectors, by hosting and promoting opportunities for networking and engagement.
Greater engagement within the VCS and with partners from other sectors will facilitate stronger working relationships and deliver a more coherent and rich response to issues that face communities in Dorset. Better engagement and networking will create and develop mechanisms to enable improved collaboration between partners from all sectors enhancing problem-solving, insight-gathering, and service development.
It will increase the use and effectiveness of strengths-based working approaches, helping to provide more appropriate responses to tackle the needs of the communities across Dorset, through the inclusion of a diverse and representative group of stakeholders and contributors.
Increase and support representation of the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) in Dorset.
The Voluntary and Community Sector Assembly (VCSA) Governance Board is integral to ensuring that plans for the design and delivery of Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) effectively bring together NHS providers, local authorities, and VCS organisations as genuine, role-playing partners.
- We will identify, recruit and support representatives of the VCS to contribute to meetings about planning, designing, and delivering support services in collaboration with our public and private sector partners.
- We will gather information from the VCS to submit to public and private sector partners, and share with the wider VCS, about the needs of our communities and VCS in Dorset and examples of good practice.
- We will seek opportunities to showcase and promote the work of the VCS in Dorset in a range of settings. This evidence will be available to support funding applications and service development involving the VCS in Dorset.
The voice of the VCS will be heard more widely in Dorset, encouraging partners to include the VCS in developing and providing support to communities across Dorset.
This will include building a wider understanding of the qualities and characteristics of the VCS and its ways of working. This will open the door to increased VCS involvement and collaboration with public and private sector partners in service design and delivery and enable under-represented and ‘marginalised’ people to be included. This will enrich and strengthen the quality and resilience of support offered in the communities of Dorset and facilitate the development of services to meet local needs.
Increase and support collaboration within the VCS and between the VCS and partners.
- We will promote and link in VCS organisations, groups and individuals with work programmes and support services within the public and private sector.
- We will achieve this through the representation and awareness-raising mentioned above and through promoting increased joint working with partners and ensuring strong connections between people providing support in Dorset from all sectors.
- We will promote opportunities for partnership working, and resource-sharing and support collective applications for grant funding between VCS organisations, and between the VCS and the public and private sector.
We will develop and offer centralised resources for project leadership, management, and administration to enable collective action of VCS organisations, groups, and individuals. This may include representing VCS partnerships, managing common financial resources, and leading on grant applications to enable collaborative service development and delivery.
Increased integration in service design and delivery within the VCS and between the VCS and other public and private sector partners will increase the support on offer to the public, improve the distribution and effectiveness of resources across the VCS, and nurture more diverse and agile collaboration. The community will benefit by having a greater range of services on offer, with better connections between services and service-providers, and a more robust and appropriate fit between services and communities.