Transforming Local Infrastructure
Suffolk Voluntary and Community Sector:
New Infrastructure, Improved Services
The Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) infrastructure partners* would like to share information on the progress of our programme to Transform Local Infrastructure services in Suffolk.
As you may be aware, the infrastructure organisations* in Suffolk have agreed to work together to devise a single infrastructure body for Suffolk in order to offer a consistency of service across the County, to maximise the deployment of our collective resources and to strengthen infrastructure’s relationship with the whole of the VCS.
We want to ensure that we strengthen local delivery of services, drive the delivery and development of these services through better needs and impact assessment and build sustainability in the sector in the face of the threat of future cuts in funding. We want to build on the strong networks that we have individually built in Suffolk, maximising the impact of our work and the return on our assets.
We are currently awaiting the outcome of our bid to the Lottery to fund the change programme, made under the ‘Transforming Local Infrastructure’ programme. This funding resources the cost of making the change to our services (but does not offer operational funding for infrastructure services themselves) and a decision will be made by the Lottery by early February.
The Infrastructure partners in Suffolk have seen this funding as a timely opportunity for a radical rethink of the way infrastructure bodies in the county are organised but accept that all voluntary sector infrastructure organisations will need to develop a more unified structure in this increasingly competitive and challenging environment should the bid be unsuccessful.
The partner organisations have therefore come together to form a ‘Project Board’ made up of trustees from all partner organisations and supported by staff from those organisations. Boards of Partner organisations are currently signing up to a Memorandum of Understanding to enable work to start on the disclosure of information that will be required in order to form a single body. We are also developing our communications protocol to ensure that staff, beneficiaries, funders and other stakeholders are kept informed and are able to share their views on what a better infrastructure offer for Suffolk should include and how the new structure should operate.
If you would like to find out more about what is being proposed or to let them know what you might want from Infrastructure in the future do contact Wil Gibson or Wendy Herber at wil.gibson@suffolkacre.org.uk or wendy.herber@savo.co.uk or your local Infrastructure contact.
* Bury Volunteer Centre, Babergh Communities Together, The Community Forum, Haverhill Association of Voluntary Organisations, Haverhill Volunteer Centre, Ipswich Council for Voluntary Services, Framlingham Volunteer Centre, Mid-Suffolk Action Partnership, Young Suffolk, Suffolk Action with Communities in Rural England, Suffolk Association of Voluntary organisations, The Voluntary Network. Infrastructure organisations are those whose main purpose is to support other VCS organisations and to encourage volunteering.
