High calibre leadership by the chief executive and good trustee governance are the keys to the creation and sustainability of effective local VCS infrastructure organisations (LIOs), according to a new report from NAVCA.

Building Effective Local VCS Infrastructure also found that local statutory organisation support, in terms of both funding and general support, was also crucial to the quality of service offered by LIOs. The report also highlighted threats to effectiveness, including difficulty in maintaining secure funding and a turbulent policy context for the VCS.

NAVCA’s director of development Dianne Leyland said it was crucial that funders and supporters of infrastructure paid attention to the report’s findings if LIOs were to be able to provide the best services to local groups. “Whilst LIOs themselves have a responsibility to review and improve their performance, too much of their energy is taken up securing piecemeal and short-term funding,” she said. “We call on all local statutory organisations to provide proper long-term funding for LIOs so that they can concentrate on delivering effective support to the local VCS.”

NAVCA has also published a report entitled Why grants are important for a healthy local VCS which looks at the grant funding relationship between local government and the VCS as part of the local funding mix. The report contains a checklist which local authorities can use to benchmark their activity, and which LIOs and the VCS can use as a basis for discussion with local authorities and local strategic partnerships.

Building Effective Local VCS Infrastructure can be found at: www.navca.org.uk/publications/belvi

Why grants are important for a healthy local VCS can be found at:
www.navca.org.uk/whygrants