Bigger charities’ relationships with local authorities improve over pandemic – but smaller ones miss out
Melanie May | 22 April 2021 | News
Over half of the charities surveyed for a Covid impact barometer say local authorities have become ‘more responsive’ to their needs during Coronavirus, and many charities have increased their engagement with local government. However, improvements in relationships with local authorities seem skewed towards larger charities, with smaller organisations missing out or seeing a decline.
Almost 550 organisations from the UK voluntary, community and social enterprise sector took part in the sixth survey of the Respond, Recover and Reset: The Voluntary Sector and Covid-19 project, which is led by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), Nottingham Trent University and Sheffield Hallam University.
The research shows a high level of collaboration between charities and local government during the past year, with 71% of respondents reporting working with a local authority, and 52% saying that local authorities had become more responsive to their needs as a result of the pandemic.
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36% of respondents also stated that they had increased their engagement with local authorities in the past year. One in four reported an improved relationship with local authorities due to the pandemic, while only 7% believe their relationship had declined since March 2020.
However, larger organisations – with annual income of £1-10 million – were more likely to see an improvement in their relationship with local authorities (33%). Smaller organisations – those with £10,000 annual income or less – saw the lowest (9%) improvement. Smaller organisations were also more likely to report a deterioration in the relationship (12%) compared to larger organisations (1%).
Among other findings, the research also showed:
- 30% reported a deteriorating financial position the past month, 46% said their finances were stable, while 22% saw improvement. 22% expect a deterioration in their finances over the next month.
- 48% report an increase in demand for their services over the past month, and 59% expect an increase in demand for their services over the next month.
- 68% of respondents expect coronavirus to continue to have a moderate or significant negative impact on delivering their objectives next year, while 8% said it was likely or very likely they will no longer be operating next year.
Alex Farrow, head of networks and influencing at NCVO, said:
“After a difficult year, the urgency of the pandemic has seen charities and volunteers working more closely with local authorities to respond to the immediate challenges of their communities. Ahead of the biggest ever set of local elections, it’s clear that this relationship will continue to be key as we work to ensure our communities are empowered, resilient and sustainable.
“Charities and other voluntary organisations offer councils local expertise and knowledge and help services be tailored to the needs of communities. While over half of the organisations we surveyed saw an improvement in their relationship with local government, it’s clear that this is not universal and that lots of smaller charities have not seen an improvement.
“We’re concerned about the level of funding local authorities will have to sustain engagement and rebuild communities in the months and years ahead. We continue to call for central government to strengthen the long-term financial sustainability of local authorities by increasing core funding. This would have a huge impact on charities around the UK.”
Daniel King, professor of organisational behaviour at Nottingham Trent University, said:
“The pandemic has revealed that in some areas local authorities and charities and volunteers have found new ways to collaborate with each other. We have seen in some local authority areas barriers broken down, joint work undertaken and partnerships developed in ways that did not seem possible before Covid-19 hit. Whilst this is not true everywhere, and smaller organisations seem to be more likely to be excluded, it does demonstrate it is possible for new partnerships to be developed in ways that can be creative and beneficial to local citizens. Yet, as the initial crisis of the pandemic eases, there is a danger that things go back to business-as-usual and the silos go back up. With funding cuts on the horizon the next year is going to be challenging for many charities and voluntary organisations.”
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.