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ESV: Realising the PotentialSummary of the North East Workshop Discussions10th June 2016

Dr. Jon Burchell (University of Sheffield), Dr Joanne Cook (University of Hull)

Reflecting on Current Challenges

During the first workshop session, participants were invited to share their reflections on

current challenges and developments emerging within their organisations in relation to

ESV and ESV engagement. In this summary, these issues have been drawn together

under the ‘gaps’ classifications utilised in the supporting research to the workshops.

Skills GapAcross the discussion groups, participants noted the skills gap between the types and

styles of activities companies and employees tended to favour and the type of support

and skills that Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations

tended to be seeking from business engagement. Challenge style events, it was

suggested, often took precedence because it allowed employers to send a team of staff

out in one go and because employees liked to do something totally different to their day-

to-day jobs.

VCSE groups however, suggested that it was important to start with challenge events

but then to look to move beyond these activities. In particular, they wanted to see ESV

develop to incorporate a greater focus upon skills and processes that they didn’t have

the time resources or skill sets to do and which they could not afford to buy in. One

larger charitable organisation jokingly suggested that they were at the point of having to

build new fences just so businesses could come and paint them, as this was always the

type of support that was being offered to them. However, they would rather have four

solicitors come and give even just an hour’s worth of legal advice instead.

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It was noted however that skills based sessions also offered the opportunity for team

based activities and to utilise skills in a different context to the usual job routines. One

group identified the value of motivational sessions on team building for their staff who

faced working with vulnerable groups across the North East.

Overall it was suggested that the offers needed to encapsulate the different drivers for

volunteering, in order to encourage more people to engage.

“The more choice you can offer the better. Every individual member of staff is

different. You’ll have some members of staff who will want to share their skills in a

particular area, you’ll have some who won’t, you’ll have some who’d prefer to do

one off things, you’ll have some who might prefer to build a connection with one

particular organisation, it’s a thing about choices, everyone is different”.

In order to break down the skills gap, it was suggested that employers needed to be

encouraged to look to utilise volunteers in a more effective manner. In doing so they

would be able to create relationships that would enable them to develop better quality

employees with broader skillsets and an understanding of social action.

Participants were clear that challenge days and fence painting plays a key role in

getting people involved. However, they noted that a primary role for a successful broker

was to help to take this to the next level and keep companies involved and identify

different ways in which that relationship could develop.

Knowledge Gap:Participants across the workshops reflected upon the different ways in which the

knowledge gap impacted upon the effective engagement with ESV. A number of

business representatives reflected that they had little knowledge of many of the smaller

charity groups in the region. Companies struggled to know how to find them and further

how to contact them. Furthermore, they suggested that they lacked a clear

understanding of how to move volunteering on beyond the challenge style activities.

Company representatives spoke of how it had taken significant time to get to

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understand the ‘jargon’ of the voluntary sector; even understanding what the VCSE

sector actually was.

It was also suggested that on occasions businesses could not understand the resource

pressures and preparation time needed to create quality volunteering opportunities. This

would lead to companies giving very short notice regarding their availability for ESV

activities. One volunteer centre representative gave an example of a company

contacting them with a request for an activity for 30 people but with only two-day’s

notice. It was argued that greater preparation would ensure a stronger experience for

both the charity and the volunteers, and subsequently the employer.

On the voluntary side, it was also suggested that VCSE groups needed to develop a

stronger understanding of what employees are seeking to get out of volunteering in

order to offer opportunities that engage the volunteers. Failure to do this, it was

suggested had on many occasions led to a significant drop-off in volunteering.

It was suggested that both sides needed to develop a stronger understanding of exactly

what the underlying motivations for employees to volunteer were and to share this

information more broadly. By doing this, opportunities could be targeted to the correct

groups of employees.

VCSE sector representatives also spoke of not being clear on whom within an

organisation they should be seeking to talk to and how they could engage them in

conversation.

A key to overcoming many of these problems it was suggested, lay with training

organisations on how to pitch to businesses and developing a common language that all

groups could frame their aims and objectives for volunteering within. It was felt that

these skills were not shared enough across sectors but also within sectors.

What is key is understanding. Too often you hear examples of businesses coming

in and not doing well because they didn’t understand what they were meant to do

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It’s giving the skills to the smaller charities, showing that you have to look at impact

and successes – there’s all sorts they are doing but it’s not on their websites, they

aren’t celebrating it.

A gap in knowledge was also identified as a key outcome of cross sectoral engagement.

A number of participants spoke of how engagement led to organisations reassessing

what sort of support and skills they actually needed.

Charities on the ground, when you ask what they need they always say it’s

funding, when you work with them to talk in more detail, you learn that some of the

governance isn’t right, or they don’t have a business plan for example.

Capacity Gap:Groups from all sides acknowledged a range of capacity challenges.

Companies talked of seeking ways in which they could expand and diversify their

volunteering offer. One of the big challenges was how to engage ‘customer facing’ staff

or production line based employees for whom spending time out of the workplace

represented more of a direct challenge to company core activity. There was, therefore a

need to look to how opportunities could be developed to utilise the capacity of these

groups to engage in volunteering.

Discussion also focused upon some of the internal constraints within organisations

which meant that despite having a detailed volunteering strategy/policy, the anticipated

levels of engagement didn’t materialise. One broker summarised one such experience

as follows:

They say they are an organisation committed to ESV and that they employ a

coordinator and that they are committed to so many days a year, but the reality is

that the culture doesn’t purvey through the organisation. It may look great from the

outside but the reality is that it’s not managed well internally and line managers are

not on board with it and therefore see it as a pain, they see it as their teams being

taken away and it disrupting work programmes.

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VCSE organisations spoke of the significant capacity pressures that organising

volunteering created. When proposed volunteering partnerships didn’t materialise, or

where numbers were not as anticipated this could often lead to groups having to

reallocate core resources to cover for a shortfall in volunteers.

Capacity issues were not only of concern for companies and VCSE groups. Brokers

also identified a significant challenge in ensuring capacity to create the support

necessary to manage the expectations from both sectors.

Infrastructure gapDuring the discussions a number of strong brokerage models were identified as active

within the region (these are reflected in the following section). Participants agreed

however, that the primary challenge lay with who should finance these infrastructural

processes.

people want to engage, the charities want corporates to be there to help, it’s the

brokers that are the key to the infrastructure process, and we don’t know where

the funding is going to come from.

we need to push central government on this. This is the key to unlocking this. If we

don’t have that [funded brokerage support], we’ll be back here in two year’s time.

‘Without the broker there, this [effective engagement] DOESN’T happen.

Somebody needs to pay the broker, it doesn’t happen free of charge.’ There’s lots

of travel, admin work, etc…. it needs somebody to head it up and keep the

momentum going.

Participants spoke of how many infrastructure organisations were functioning with

limited resources which didn’t allow them to fully engage with ESV activities and

potential. Focusing upon day to day activities meant groups had little time or resource to

look more broadly at the offer across the region and how they might work together.

Part of the problem with getting infrastructural support funded effectively it was

suggested lay with organisations misunderstanding the broad range of activities

undertaken by good brokerage organisations to make relationships work. While some

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examples of good practice were identified a number of areas were identified across the

region where funding cuts had led to the closure of CVS organisations and resulted in a

lack of brokerage/infrastructure support. This meant that the picture across the region

was significantly variable.

ESV is only successful if it’s properly managed, supported and evaluated. It will

only move forward with infrastructure, regional or national, that everyone agrees

on.

Some participants did however raise a note of caution as to the nature of the potential

brokerage organisations that might seek to fill the space. It was suggested that one of

the dangers of the proposed 3-day volunteering policy might be to encourage more

commercially driven brokerage providers into the market which could put even greater

pressure on the resources coming into the voluntary sector.

Building a Regional Picture of ESV Development in the North East

In the second workshop session, participants were asked to focus upon developing a

picture of ESV within the region. In particular, groups were asked to examine three

central themes, which are summarised below.

‘What’s There?’ (What exists that can be built upon? Examples of good

practice? Areas and aspects that work well?).

‘What’s Needed?’ (What is missing from the region? How might some key

barriers and challenges be overcome? What frameworks could be

developed?).

‘What’s Possible?’ (Given the current context and limited resources, what

can be achieved? How could ESV be moved forward and engagement

strengthened?). The sections below summarise and synthesise the

discussions from the four working groups, under these three headings.

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What’s there? Existing processes that have a positive impact:

Participants identified a range of activities and infrastructure support processes within

the region which were developing effective ESV initiatives. The most frequently cited

example across the workshops was the work of Sector Connector. Originally funded by

North Tyneside Council to bring together the local authority, businesses and voluntary

organisations, currently there are 110 charities being helped by around 87 businesses.

A key to its success, participants noted, was its founding on selling the business case

for ESV and on its local and community based roots.

Sector Connector works incredibly well because it’s local and because it’s based

in the community, you have a good number of very willing local employers on

board and you keep it local. You can feed in a request on a number of occasions.

Equally, charities are able to bring their own partners into Sector Connector; it’s

small enough and local enough that it works.

They did 2-hour workshops that were picking at particular skills that lots of

community and voluntary orgs have. Those 2-hour sessions are targeted at both

businesses in the community and the voluntary sector, it’s giving them the skills. A

lot of people have the time to come and learn about marketing, or HR, or HR, for

two hours. The networking that goes on as part of these sessions has been really

valuable. It means that they’re clearer about what support they can give as a

business and the CVS know better what they might want to get.

An initiative from St Oswald’s Hospice was also identified as an innovative model. In

this case the hospice offers ‘takeover days’ where corporates can come in and run a

shop in the retail department.

Skills Bridge was also seen as an effective localised model, focused upon identifying

and channelling volunteering opportunities and encouraging people to participate.

They start with an organisation who thinks they have one particular need but when

you dig down it’s completely different things they need for their long term

sustainability, so it needs a certain skill set to do that.

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In County Durham, participants identified a valuable volunteer forum that meets every

three months. One of the key contributions of this forum was to introduce a ‘kite mark’

which, once achieved, allowed organisations to help other smaller organisations to

make sure they had policies and procedures in place to engage with volunteering, etc. It

was seen as a good model for increasing infrastructure support with very little direct

cost.

In addition, groups also identified positive examples of companies engaging in trustee

schemes with small charities and other companies engaging with the citizen service

initiative to run CV and interview skills sessions. These were seen as effective

processes as they enabled one group of volunteers to work with a range of charities or

individuals in one go. By doing this, it was felt, it could make more of the volunteer

resource.

Discussions also focused upon the ways in which companies sought to measure and

evaluate the impact of their volunteering. While some models were being piloted many

still found it difficult to get a clear grasp of what skills employees were gaining and how

they were impacting on their work roles.

What’s needed?a) Stronger Promotion of the value of ESV and the opportunities for engagement

Participants talked about a range of ways in which ESV could benefit from stronger

promotion and a greater level of awareness-raising regarding the potential opportunities

for engagement. It was noted that many organisations were unable to identify the

correct people to contact or were unaware how to start the conversation. As a

consequence, often bigger charities that were more well-known were selected and

approached rather than smaller, localised groups. One example of this was highlighted

around the potential role of volunteers as trustees.

‘Trustees’. This word frightens the living daylights of most people. People think

they haven’t got the skills, money etc. to be a trustee. What would be good is to

have more of educational piece for big companies to learn about what is a trustee,

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how to become a trustee so that people can feel encouraged and comfortable to

do this.

To overcome many of these concerns and lack of knowledge groups suggested that

more networking opportunities were required.

For the VCSE sector, participants noted that significant work could be undertaken to

encourage groups to become ESV ready and to demonstrate how this type of

volunteering engagement could benefit them. This included not only helping

organisations to become ‘volunteer ready’ but also to help them understand how to pitch

their activities and requirements to the business community.

Some organisations would do well getting help with marketing, finance etc.

Charities don’t have the time or the knowledge of how to set up volunteering, a

policy etc. There definitely needs to be help in that area to engage with that sector

and to provide them with the support to take on volunteers.

Often people want to do it but they don’t know what the needs are. It’s putting it in

the right packaging and selling it the right way, don’t be afraid to ask business

directly what help you need. Businesses understand that kind of terminology, what

do you need, when by, what’s it look like, what’s the end result. If you package it,

persist with it, it will work.

Discussions also reflected upon the need to communicate the benefits of volunteering

more effectively to the potential employee volunteers themselves and creating a more

effective framework for volunteers to be able to market their activities within their

working lives.

Volunteers will get a wealth of experience, knowledge, skills that they can take to

future employers and it’s how to translate that, it’s making sure volunteers are

aware of the language that they need to translate back so they show their skills to

the best benefit. It’s closing the loop and making sure it goes back into the

organisation. It’ s not just filling out an evaluation form but articulating it.

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b) Developing the capacity for brokerage support.

While the majority of participants spoke of the core value of brokerage in shaping

effective ESV engagement, the primary concern rested with the limited capacity of

brokerage organisations within the region. It was acknowledged that good brokerage

involved a broad range of activities and these were often resource intensive

Brokerage is huge, it’s not just signposting, there’s matchmaking, it’s acting as a

clearing house, looking at the structure of what’s important, what works well in one

area is different to somewhere else.

Participants were concerned that the dwindling resources heading into local CVS

organisations was restricting their abilities to engage with businesses and consequently

the local links between small charities and local businesses will inevitably diminish.

While there were suggestions of ways in which brokerage organisations could

potentially increase resources, overall it was felt that there needed to be more resource

from government into this aspect of ESV in order to capture the potential of this form of

volunteering.

c) Strong case study examples of good practice and sharing of information

Linked to the discussion of making the case for ESV outlined above, participants felt

that organisations needed to be encouraged to share information and models of good

practice in order to improve the overall quality of ESV engagement. On one level this

required better background research and data to try to quantify the benefit of

volunteering. In particular, good case study examples of what works, and evaluating the

impact of such schemes. It was felt that having a stronger base of information would

make it easier to promote ESV to companies, voluntary groups and potential volunteers.

Government could have a clear role here in articulating and promoting the business

case for ESV.

It would be good to have some case studies that show this is what a volunteer did,

this is how it helped the volunteer and the business, a quick way of getting this out

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there, through business platform networking meetings, or business forums - this

would market it. Because businesses don’t have time to sit down and think about

ESV, so some templates, some shorthand making it easy to understand, you

would be much more likely to convert them into someone that would take part.

Participants suggested that although some innovative models and practices were

developing in the region, different areas were quite insular and as a result there was a

limited amount of information sharing. This situation was made more complex by the

different regional boundaries currently in place.

There are things happening in Newcastle that you wouldn’t know about it and in

South Tyneside etc. VONNE is a regional organisation and now we have this

emerging split between the Tees Valley and what’s called the Northeast combined

authority area, which is confusing because it doesn’t cover the whole of the

northeast. These confusing boundaries don’t make things easier.

It was also suggested that the competitive nature of the volunteering environment acted

as a disincentive to sharing information which was damaging ESV development.

There is an element of competitiveness - you don’t want two CVS organisations

fighting over the same businesses. This is why brokerage is important because it

does the matching better. Everybody must sell themselves, but VCS organisations

don’t want to be fighting each other for support.

Participants noted the importance of overcoming the competitive tendency to limit the

sharing of information, and stressed that third party organisations needed to rethink how

they engaged with one another.

Charities should be helping each other out anyway, they’re not empire builders

do charities know where they sit on the supply chain? If they’re all doing the same

thing that’s a bit stupid. There’s likely to be some supply chain that they are all in,

and it’s about understanding what everyone is doing, if some of the established

charities that have been there for a while, can help some smaller charities that

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aren’t in competition, why can’t they do that? They are all investing in the same

communities.

A similar drive towards collaboration over competition was also encouraged for the

business community. As well as showcasing good practice it was suggested that

leading companies might be able to offer mentoring to provide guidance for those

organisations just starting out on developing ESV.

d) Greater engagement of Chambers of Commerce and Local Enterprise

Partnerships (LEPs)

Participants felt that the broader business community were relatively slow in engaging

with ESV and that more needed to be done to push the agenda through other networks,

such as the Chambers of Commerce. This also provoked a discussion that a more

‘joined-up’ approach to engaging in ESV could be created if some form of collaboration

between the combined authority, northeast LEP, and the local chambers could be

developed to encourage these groups to help as ESV activity was ultimately in all their

interests.

If we are saying that volunteering is a good way of getting people into jobs. Can

we come together as three sectors and put a bid to the LEP?

e) An information hub:

A consistent theme throughout the discussions involved the processes through which

organisations could find a route to engage with ESV. It was felt that currently the field

lacks coherence with a broad range of brokers and information sources making the field

confusing. Participants suggested that greater clarity could come from having one ‘entry

point’ for organisations to start to engage with ESV. While it was noted that a ‘one-size-

fits-all’ model would prove challenging to the varying nature of the volunteering

requirement, one location that could act as a signposting centre was seen as a key

potential development.

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An information point was also seen as a key tool for enabling companies and brokers to

access the smaller charities and community groups and key for ensuring a better

coverage of opportunities and support across the region

The end game would be a directory of the third sector in the North East. As a

business, you put your postcode in, you can see who is out there, what they’re

trying to do, what their impact is, what their services are, what help they need.

Sourcing the projects and knowing where they are, is a real challenge. There

needs to be some kind of place, where charities can put their need, so that the

brokers can go and choose from that as well.

However, participants were keen to stress that online portals were significantly limited if

they didn’t have the human and logistical support mechanisms behind them and the

necessary resources to ensure that the information was up-to-date and accurate.

What’s possiblea) The creation of networking events

Participants suggested that it would be important to bring organisations together to

share knowledge and information and to create an active conversation around ESV and

to get a clearer picture of what the ESV offer entailed. It was felt that this was an activity

which could have a fairly important impact for relatively small resource costs.

Participants noted that OCSI could look to possibly fund these types of networking

activities.

We are not talking money, we are talking help, resources and skills. This would be

a good starting point.

Participants did however raise concern that networking skills were relatively common

within business and broker organisations but that many representatives from smaller

charities might struggle to sell their organisation effectively or feel intimidated within a

networking setting. Again, it was felt that brokers had a key role to play in strengthening

the ability of VCSE organisations to pitch and engage effectively

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the only way of improving at networking is by doing it and continuing to do it, so

that when you go into a room you know people. That’s the only way that people

can get over the fear of networking.

Another suggestion was to rethink the format of this type of networking activity. Sector

Connector utilise workshop formats to allow people to get to know each other more

effectively. While the possibility of linking ESV topics into existing business networks

and forums was raised, some concern was expressed that it needed to be the right

group of people to ensure that some form of action might emerge from the networking

activities.

b) Creating and delivering a stronger message about the benefits of ESV

By utilising examples from existing ongoing relationships and practices, and developing

stronger measurement and reporting activities, it was suggested, organisations would

be able to better articulate the benefits of ESV to other organisations. This would be

particularly important for increasing the numbers of people engaging in skills based

volunteering and for encouraging funders to see ESV and related infrastructural support

as a key are for resources.

We need to work at articulating better what the benefits are to people like the

northeast LEP and the NHS, and delivering the message to the audience and

changing it. The message to the NHS might be about reducing hospital in-patient

stays, but the message to the LEP is about increasing employment; it’s getting our

messages straight.

We need to understand what the drivers of these organisations are. The LEP is

about economic growth, if you can understand what drives them, you can mould

your message to ensure that it hits those drivers.

Participants suggested a range of potential methods to enhance the ESV message

targeted at different types of organisations. It was suggested that the messages needed

to be supported with case studies of good practice. Another possible driver might also

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be to develop a quality mark which organisations could achieve through their delivery of

ESV activities. Greater recognition it was suggested might encourage stronger

engagement and act as a reward for good practice in the field.

Participants felt that the LEP in particular, needed to be a target point, as ESV

connected strongly to their agenda but was largely ignored.

An action to be taken out of today is how to communicate the important role that

this sector and the business sector see in brokerage and make sure that key

decision makers at the LEP and at the new combined authority are aware, it’s not

at the top of their priority list. We need to find a way of being more creative about

packaging it and demonstrating how it contributes to economic growth etc. and

reducing the call on acute services in health.

c) The development of regional pilots

A number of participants discussed the potential for OCSI to fund pilot studies to look at

potential new/successful models of networking and brokerage. There was a recognition

that any pilots would not necessary have directly applicable learning across the country

due to the diverse nature of the regional challenges. However, a series of pilot studies

covering rural and urban locations, north/south etc. could have value. It was suggested

that some key learning could be taken from the models of brokerage emerging in the

North East

The brokering groups in the northeast are in contact with each other. They have in

the last year or so developed the Skills Sharing Group. The picture in the

northeast in terms of ESV brokerage is quite diverse. There’s locally targeted

brokerage projects like Sector Connector but also regional entities like Skills

Bridge. Some of the projects have different thrusts in terms of specialist areas,

they all have different ways of working, some focus more on mentoring, building

skills within voluntary sector, some focus on different things, there’s no duplication

we have an embryonic system to avoid duplication and to encourage collaboration

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d) Develop a stronger research base for the benefits of ESV

A key theme emerging from the discussions, which participants again felt could be

tackled with relatively limited resource, was to enhance research and understanding of

the benefits of ESV to the different stakeholder groups involved within ESV. More data,

both quantitative and qualitative needed to be created in this field, at both national and

regional levels.

With Pro Bono work, we need to find a way of capturing it so that you can say this

has generated so much money in the local economy - it needs to be based on

certain figures. How to make sure we have the right report structure.

The voluntary sector always struggles with proving its worth and putting a figure on

it, you have very sophisticated things like social return on investment, BUT it’s all

very subjective as to what cost/figure you put on the social value. If we could say

this is the return, it would be good.

e) Look at the possibilities for alternative ways to present volunteering opportunities

Participants also considered how the existing ESV resources might possibly be utilised

more effectively in order to have a broader impact. This led to a couple of suggestions

for alternative models of volunteering activity. First, it was suggested that consideration

should be given to what types of volunteering could be undertaken ‘in house’ in order to

engage those companies who found it hard to have staff out of the workplace for a

whole day, including SMEs. Participants suggested ways of creating activities people

could undertake in their lunch hours or down time which could give them a taste of

volunteering and engage them with an organisation. Also groups could consider greater

use of online and distance volunteering so that employees don’t always have to be on

site with all the associated time constraints and resource checks. Second, they

considered different ways in which charities might be able to join forces to host a

community volunteering activity focused around a specific issue or cause and work with

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companies on awareness raising, marketing etc. Finally participants also saw good

value in companies putting on volunteering activities that could engage a number of

different VCSE organisations at the same time, such as training sessions, workshops

etc.

f) Developing a regional portal

Participants were keen to identify a potential method of instigating some form of

regional information portal. Many suggestions were outlined, as demonstrated by the

quotes below, but overall it was recognised that in order to instigate such a scheme,

issues of financing, creating and maintaining such a system needed clarification if it was

to get off the ground.

We should speak to northeast funders network, it could take a long time to get

anything through government, but if there are funders interested in supporting

brokerage in the northeast, we need to speak to them collectively and to reflect

those things back and say look actually the northeast are doing well compared to

other areas in the country.

The portal – whoever runs it, if it could be controlled by the organisations, so you

register to the site, as a company or a charity, you put on your advertisement of a

volunteering opportunity and then that’s simply managed by everyone involved

and the businesses equally register to take up the opportunities.

It would lead you in two directions – if you’re a charity you click one button, if

you’re a business click another. It would be done thematically. Drop down menu –

legal, fence painting etc. Click on that, and then you see the list of organisations.

Participants also discussed whether or not some of the existing national portals could

be utilised more effectively. This led to the suggestion that if the core framework for an

effective portal already existed, could funding be identified to invest in and develop the

existing model. Participants agreed that it was possibly better to use and build on

something that is already there rather than starting something new. There is a need to

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collaborate rather than reinvent the wheel. You might have all the charities accessing

the new site, but businesses won’t engage. At its most simplistic, it was suggested,

there needed to be greater emphasis upon getting an ESV link/dimension onto many of

the existing hubs to signpost organisations to potential opportunities for engagement.

For further information about the research please contact

Dr. Jon Burchell email: J.Burchell@sheffield.ac.uk or

Dr. Joanne Cook email:Joanne.Cook@hull.ac.uk

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