Have your say on the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) Infrastructure Support Contract

Purpose / Background

As the Voluntary & Community Sector (VCS) emerges from the pandemic, it is increasingly called upon to provide support for residents and communities most affected by the ongoing cost of living crisis. To continue the delivery of quality services and to address newer challenges, the Council recognises the VCS itself needs essential infrastructure support.  The VCS Strategy sets out the delivery of shared partnership goals.

• Infrastructure support refers to variety of areas and opportunities that serve to strengthen the ability of our VCS to deliver effective and efficient services to Lambeth residents. The current VCS infrastructure support contract with Integrate Agency CIC comes to an end in April 2024 and the council will be retendering for new service provision.

Infrastructure support includes:

Support with:

• funding applications and bid writing 
• with organisational development 
• recruiting and retaining volunteers (including board members) 
• community engagement Identifying opportunities for mentoring
• capacity building 
• get voices heard 
• new technology (e.g. training, accessing equipment) 
• premises/facilities management (eg leases, improvements, opportunities to access Council owned premises) 
• building relationships with statutory partners (eg council, NHS, police)
• providing opportunities to network and/or collaborate with other groups  
• Other

The Lambeth 2030 Plan sets an ambitious vision for equity and justice, neighbourhoods that people want to live in, safety and a place we can all call home. Central to this are strong and empowered communities and a recognition that the ambitions in the plan, produced with Lambeth residents and communities, can only be delivered in partnership. We will not be able to achieve our vision for Lambeth unless we work hand in hand with our diverse communities, to understand their experiences and what’s important to them and to design and deliver tailored solutions that help meet local needs. The VCS is fundamental to making these ambitions a reality and we are keen to work collaboratively to identify how best we can support the sector to do that.

After the consultation closes

The data will be analysed and feedback will be shared with the VCS by early March 2024.