Annual Review 2014/2015 This year Sutton Centre for the Voluntary Sector (SCVS) celebrates 50 years of supporting voluntary organisations in Sutton. However, our core purpose remains the same this year as in 1965 – enabling the community to respond to local need, developing voluntary organisations, communicating with the sector, bringing people together, and championing the work of our 278 member organisations. The voluntary sector continues to experience some of its most challenging times, facing ongoing reductions in funding from all sources combined with an increased demand for services. SCVS has prioritised support in the key areas that make organisations more robust and sustainable – governance, fundraising, quality standards, partnership and demonstrating impact. In 2014/15 we provided 305 one to one advice sessions to organisations (with funding as ever the most pressing issue); delivered 18 training sessions on a number of topics and represented the sector on at least 22 strategic partnerships or groups. We also continue to administer the Sutton Community Fund and distributed 27 grants totalling £155,644 to enable organisations to deliver work beneficial to the local community. Partnerships have been a major focus of our work during the year, demonstrating the value and importance of organisations working together to respond to challenging times. We have supported Sutton Together (the voluntary sector consortium) to win 3 major contracts and develop proposals for a Care Delivery Partnership. We also enabled the development of new partnerships - Arts Network Sutton, Sutton Theatres Trust and Sutton Esteem. We have also prioritised building the good relationships between the voluntary and public sectors in Sutton, with ongoing Compact meetings and key areas of work around commissioning and the Developmental Assets Framework. The strength of our partnership was confirmed once again by the winning of a second national Compact Award in 2014 for innovation. Our plans to develop The Grove (Carshalton) into a Voluntary Sector Hub were given a boost in December 2014 when we learnt that our first stage bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund had been successful. This was a real achievement and gives us the funding and time to develop full proposals for a second stage bid in 2016 (fingers crossed!). SCVS has also achieved significant successes in other areas. In partnership with the Volunteer Centre and five other voluntary organisations we won the Infrastructure Support and Capacity Building Fund contract which secures our core funding for the next 2 – 4 years and in 2014/15 we developed a new membership offer to increase our income generation potential. We were delighted to achieve PQASSO Level 2 early in 2015 which, along with the NAVCA Quality Award, verifies that we are a well-run organisation delivering high-quality services. As ever, my thanks to the staff of SCVS, my fellow trustees and all our partners and supporters for all their hard work and commitment that has made these achievements possible and I look forward to another successful year with SCVS. Denise Crone, Chair of SCVS Board of Trustees
1965 - 2015 1965 In 1965 the inaugural meeting was held of the Sutton and Cheam Council of Social Services… later to become SCVS. From then we have gone from strength to strength...
1966 June 30th 1966 – First AGM of the Council of Social Service, with 80 people attending.
1974 1971 In 1971 the new Priory Crescent Bureau (Cheam and Worcester Park) was established and a Bureau organiser Mrs Frances Watt was appointed
1st April 1974 – The Sutton Council of Social Service becomes the Sutton Council for Voluntary Service (SCVS)
1976 Stringent economic measures affecting the Statutory Services inevitably meant that the services offered by the voluntary sector came into their own.
1967 In July 1967 a Voluntary Service Bureau was set up at West Street, opening initially on Mondays and Wednesdays only.
1978 Carshalton Voluntary Services Bureau was established at ‘The Lodge, Honeywood Walk, Carshalton, Surrey
1981 Assorted fundraising events took place to raise money for the International Year of Disabled People. Total amount raised - £10,000
1982
1990
Gordon Lambert retired as Chairman of Sutton Council for Voluntary Service after ten years. Sutton Bereavement Service set up.
SCVS celebrated 25 years of supporting Sutton’s voluntary sector.
1985 1993
The Voluntary Sitting In Service was established by SCVS and Victim Support Scheme was set up.
1984 A pilot scheme for Homestart was started in Sutton by Marion Moss.
£50,000 was received from LBS to purchase three vehicles for use by the community sector.
1998 Sutton Community Transport was established.
1987 Entering the world of technology—the first computer was installed at West Street.
1995 SCVS moved to Unilink House.
1997 SCVS became a Company Limited by Guarantee.
2000 Sutton Community Fund launched.
2004 Granfers Community Centre officially opened.
2005
2007
SCVS celebrated 40 years with a ‘Movers and Shakers’ event. South London Voluntary Sector Learning Consortium was launched in September.
SCVS attracted funding for the Sutton Multi Agency Refugee Alliance public exhibition.
2006
The first birthday of the highly successful Play Network was celebrated with its 85 members.
2003
2015
SCVS launched its first website. Sutton Compact principles agreed.
2013 The first Sutton Trustee of the Year Award was awarded to Muriel McIntosh.
2009 By 2009 Sutton LINk, set up by SCVS, had a membership of 250 voluntary organisations and 290 individuals.
2011 CPS Payroll a successful trading arm with over 100 clients by 2011.
SCVS celebrates 50 years of supporting the voluntary sector in Sutton.
Developing
Supporting Joint Working During 2014/15 SCVS supported a number of significant projects, encouraging voluntary organisations to work together to establish new services in response to local need, or to secure public sector contracts.
Our main area of work is providing support to voluntary organisations covering every aspect of running a charity or small community group.
SCVS worked with Sutton Together Partners to enable them to win three contracts with a combined annual value of ÂŁ872,000.
We supported arts organisations to form a Theatres Trust to bid to run London Borough of Sutton theatres in Sutton.
We supported the development of Esteem Sutton, a partnership of 7 VCOs working with children and young people, to develop and promote emotional wellbeing in schools.
SCVS led on a significant piece of work for Sutton Together to develop a Care Delivery Partnership in response to the Care Act.
We worked on a focussed piece of work to develop Sutton Arts Council into a strong and well governed charity, now known as Arts Network Sutton.
Training 18
In 2014/15 we provided training sessions for 123 staff, volunteers and trustees of voluntary organisations. These ranged from a crowdfunding workshop to safeguarding, emergency first aid and developing a fundraising strategy.
Quality Standards SCVS supports organisations to work towards the PQASSO quality standard, which is the most appropriate quality mark for small organisations and is recognised by the Charity Commission. In 2014/15 we supported two organisations (Refugee and Migrant Network, and Jigsaw4U) to successfully obtain level one PQASSO accreditation; one organisation to successfully prepare for their assessment and a further six organisations to work towards PQASSO.
Helping organisations generate income SCVS supports voluntary organisations (through one-to -one advice, training and brokerage/group support to achieve greater financial stability. In 2014/15 bespoke support for business planning was provided to 6 organisations; fundraising strategy and business planning was discussed at our forums, and SCVS involved the sector in various commissioning activities.
Connecting One of SCVS’s core functions is to make sure that voluntary and community sector organisations in Sutton are well informed about national and local policies and developments, funding opportunities, consultations and relevant training and events. We do this by providing information through our website (www.suttoncvs.org.uk), bi-monthly newsletter the Networker, ebulletins and social media, as well as through one to one advice sessions, emails and through our forums and events.
The Networker During 2014/15 five editions of our newsletter The Networker were produced.
Networking One of the ways SCVS promotes join working is through our forum/network meetings. These also offer an important opportunity for sharing information, receiving updates from the public and voluntary sector, and a chance for organisations to comment on and influence local strategies.
In 2014/15 there were:
Trustees’ Week 2014 In November 2014 we held our second annual event especially for trustees as part of Trustees’ Week 2014. The networking event was attended by more than 50 trustees from across Sutton. During the evening the second ’Sutton Trustee of the Year Award’ was presented to Mavis Peart, Chair of Sutton Mencap, for her excellent work as a Sutton trustee. “ feel deeply honoured by it because I know that there are hundreds of trustees who are just as effective as I am and I think that’s why I feel very touched by this particular honour and I think we are very fortunate in Sutton as there are so many people who are willing to work in charities not for what they can get out of it but because they want to be useful and do some helpful work in the community. I particularly think the effectiveness of the trustees in Sutton is because we are all involved with SCVS and their amount of knowledge and advice helps us to be effective when we run our charities.” Mavis Peart, Nov 2014
2 Voluntary Sector Forums 4 Health, Wellbeing and Social Care Networks 4 Children, Young People and Families Forums
2 Social Enterprise Networks 2 Small Groups Forums Which altogether were attended by around
300 people.
Influencing SCVS makes sure that Sutton’s voluntary and community sector organisations have their say on key developments and decisions made that affect them, both at a local and a national level, so that their views have real influence. SCVS currently represents the sector on 22 strategic groups including the Health and Wellbeing Board, One Sutton Commissioning Collaborative, Safeguarding Adults Board, Safer Sutton Partnership, Children’s Trust and Local Safeguarding Children Board. For all of these groups SCVS sought input from the voluntary sector beforehand and fed back afterwards.
July 2014 saw the launch of Sutton’s voluntary sector consortium — set up so that voluntary organisations in Sutton would have formal arrangements and agreements in place to work together more efficiently and effectively. By March 2015 Sutton Together had grown to 14 full members and 9 associate members. Since its launch the Consortium has won three contracts (annual value of the three contracts is £872,000), developed a Care Delivery Partnership in response to the Care Act and developed a response to four other opportunities including the Information and Advice Contract and the Health and Social Care Volunteering Fund.
Sutton Compact Much of the work promoting and championing the voluntary sector takes place through the Compact— the agreement that underpins the relationship between the voluntary and public sector. In 2014 , for the second year running, the Sutton Compact won a Compact Award, the national awards from Compact Voice, highlighting Sutton as one of the best examples of local Compact work in the country. We were nominated in two categories; Innovation and Impact, and we took home the Impact Award for our work on infrastructure support and the capacity building fund.
Funding Sutton Community Fund SCVS administers the Sutton Community Fund which since 2000 has allocated small grants to the VCS to deliver work of benefit to the local community. During 2014/15 three funding rounds were held and 26 grants were awarded totalling £155,643. A wide range of projects received grants in the last financial year, including Sutton Community Farm who received funding to construct an improved compost toilet, that is fully accessible hygienic and comfortable for all visitors to the farm. SCVS delivered free workshops to support VCOs applying to the fund and helped 12 individual organisations to complete their applications, and all these bids were successful.
Pro Active Sutton Physical Activity and Sports Development Fund The Pro Active Sutton Physical Activity and Sports Development Fund was a grants funding programme, financed by Sutton Council and Public Health and administered by SCVS. It supported projects that improve the take up and maintenance of physical activity and sport by Sutton residents. The Programme awarded 16 grants totalling £15,280. The successful projects included Nordic walking sessions, the upskilling of staff to deliver sports activities, yoga classes, exercise classes for people with cardiovascular disease, chair based exercises and running club sessions.
ASSHH grants In 2014/15 SCVS also administered a small grants scheme (amounts of up to £500) on behalf of the Adult Social Services. During the year 14 grants were awarded totalling £6,647 mainly to support small community groups working with vulnerable adults eg. Sutton Seniors Forum.
A sustainable future In 2014/15 significant progress was achieved in developing SCVS as a highly effective, sustainable infrastructure organisation. A new membership offer was researched and developed, and launched in April 2015. Meanwhile the community accountancy service was revised and a new model developed to increase the income generation potential. We have also continued to generate income from running training sessions and offering some admin services, and from our community accountancy and payroll services
Accountancy services During 2014/15 we generated income by delivering accountancy services to 22 organisations, as well as providing free management advice for small voluntary and community organisations.
Since 2013 SCVS has been the support organisation for Healthwatch Sutton, Sutton’s consumer champion for health and social care., working in partnership with SCILL who deliver the information and advice service, and Sutton CAB who deliver the independent complaints advocacy service.
Creative Payroll Solution (CPS) Ltd The trading arm of the Charity, CPS Ltd provides bespoke payroll services to voluntary organisations in Sutton and beyond. The company continues to grow despite the challenging economic circumstances and in 2014/15 ran payroll for 122 organisations.
Grove House project Over the last year Sutton Centre for the Voluntary Sector (SCVS), in partnership with Volunteer Centre Sutton and the Friends of the Grove, has continued to work with our partners on exciting plans to transform Grove House, Carshalton into a heritage and voluntary sector hub for the local community. Grove House is a Victorian mansion situated at the heart of the Carshalton Conservation Area. Built around 1840, the house is an important feature of the local landscape and is one of the only surviving Victorian country houses in the area. In recent years it has been occupied by Sutton Council, but in the past it was home to generous local philanthropists who positively contributed to the development and wellbeing of the community by supporting local charities and other organisations.
We plan to:
Restore the house – open up approximately one third of the ground floor for community and heritage activities and use the rest of the building as a base for voluntary organisations and volunteering.
Open the house to the community to access its heritage and use its facilities.
Keep the house in community ownership as a local asset.
Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF Bid) The partnership has been successful with a first stage bid to the HLF which provides funding and support to carry out further planning and preparation to develop detailed plans and costs for the building and activities. These will enable us to submit a second stage application in the Spring/ Summer of 2016 in order to secure funding to carry out all the work. This will again be a competitive process and we are not guaranteed success, but Sutton has a good track record with HLF bids and we will do everything we can to produce the best possible application!
The next 50 years…. SCVS has played a key role in Sutton over the last 50 years. We have supported and developed the voluntary sector, started new organisations to meet local need, ensured that community voices are heard in the places where local decisions are made, and campaigned for voluntary organisations and the people they support. So what challenges will we face over the next 50 years? What will life be like for the people of Sutton in 2065 when SCVS celebrates 100 years? And how will SCVS adapt and thrive to achieve our vision of ‘A strong and pro-active voluntary and community sector improving the lives of people in Sutton’? Whether you believe we are heading for a disaster caused by massive population growth and climate change, a better world through rapidly developing technological solutions and advances in healthcare (or somewhere in between), we know for certain that the voluntary and community sector will continue to play an essential role in our society. In any future scenario local people will come together to meet the needs of their community, and some of these groups will become voluntary organisations and charities. We can be sure of this because there will always be ‘need’, and because throughout history people have always come together to improve their communities and the lives of others by taking action or donating time or resources. We know that the need will change because the population of Sutton is already changing – it is increasing and becoming more diverse ethnically; the number of older people (65+) is predicted to rise by almost 21% by 2022; and by the same date the number of younger people (0-19) is set to grow by 17.5%. The current priorities of reducing health inequalities, building strong communities, developing the economy and environmental sustainability look likely to remain. However, the way society responds will be challenged over the next 50 years by changes to political systems, the development and increasing use of technology, how the economy develops and what happens in the public sector. As a result voluntary organisations will change, as they have done over the last 50 years, some will no longer be relevant by 2065 and will have closed, but new charities will emerge to meet the needs and challenges of the 2060s. These organisations will need to be supported to survive and thrive by a charity like SCVS that understands their challenges and aspirations, just like the organisations that were emerging in the 1960s. In a more complex world the need for an organisation that can bring the voluntary sector together to develop partnership solutions and speak with one voice, and to advocate on their behalf, will be even more critical. So, we may be replaced by robots, operating from a floating building above Grove Park and be called the South London Centre for the Voluntary Sector, but I predict that SCVS will still be relevant and needed and celebrating 100 years in 2065. Susanna Bennett, Chief Executive, SCVS
Our Accounts
Statement of financial activities for the year ended 31st March 2015 Unrestricted Designated Restricted Total funds (£) funds (£) funds (£) funds (£)
2013 (£)
Total incoming resources
303,330
-
325,678
629,008
640,272
Total resources expended
303,105
23,277
270,001
596,383
695,798
225
(23,277)
55,677
32,625
(55,526)
(10,000)
10,000
-
-
-
Net movement in funds
(9,775)
(13,277)
55,677
32,625
55,526
Total funds bought forward
96,946
368,421
84,139
549,506
605,032
87,171
355,144
139,816
582,131
549,506
Net incoming (outgoing) resources before transfers Gross transfers between funds
Total funds carried forward
The financial statements have been produced in a format to comply with both Company and Charity Law and the full document is available on request.
The team SCVS Chief Executive – Susanna Bennett Development Team Manager – Toni Walsh (to March 2015) Development Officers – Tom Strannix (to Nov 2014), Razia Sattar, Hilary Chisnall (from Dec 2014) Finance Manager – Glory Sivaraja Community Accountants – Helen Varley (to May 2015), Laura Corney (from June 2015) Communications & Marketing Co-ordinator – Claire Avery Office and Grants Manager – Jackie Parr
CPS Ltd (Payroll Services) Payroll Officer – Karen Adorjan Payroll Assistant – Melanie Brannan
Healthwatch Sutton Manager – Pete Flavell Outreach & Engagement Officer – Pam Howe Admin, Comms & Marketing Assistant – Sara Thomas
Trustees Jeffrey Cashier Denise Crone (Chair) Neil Frater (Vice-Chair) Candida Goulden (from Nov 2013) Paul Harper David Jones (to Nov 2014) Jenny Sims Nick Walsh (from Nov 2014)
Sutton Centre for the Voluntary Sector Granfers Community Centre, 73-79 Oakhill Road, Sutton, Surrey, SM1 3AA Tel: 020 8644 2867 Email: enquiries@suttoncvs.org.uk
@SuttonCVS
www.suttoncvs.org.uk
SuttonCVS Company Limited by Guarantee registration No. 3336660
Registered Charity No. 1063129 (registered in England and Wales)