Background
to the
Research
- Voluntary management committees
are in many ways the backbones of the voluntary and community sector
and an important building block of its infrastructure. This research
focuses on training and support needs of voluntary management committees
and aims to identify gaps in the provision of training and support
and explores some key issues facing voluntary management committees.
Research
Approach
- In-depth interviews were conducted with
25 organisations using a snowballing sampling technique to explore
the key issues faced by voluntary management committees attempting
to access training and support.
- The research was carried out between July
and the end of September 2002 at a time when the sector was being
badly effected by a period of minimal gap funding.
- 70 organisations within the voluntary
and community sector were identified as being providers of training
targeted at voluntary management committees.
- Training focused on five main themes including
committee skills, people management, finance, project management/planning,
and other areas.
Main
Findings
- Due to difficulties in terms of funding,
interviewees identified a more flexible support and development approach
as more useful than a formal or structured training course.
- Findings show a lot of unnecessary duplication
of training materials and resources and little knowledge of their
availability to groups.
- Availability of training and support services
to an individual organisation depend on whether they are part of a
larger umbrella/membership or network organisation (affiliated) or
independent (unaffiliated). Voluntary management committees within
affiliated organisations benefit from a complete package of training
and support. Unaffiliated organisations are dependent on fragmented,
poorly resourced, and short-term funding driven training and support
service.
- Other gaps in training provision appear
within sub-sections of the community, in particular women, people
with disabilities and people within ethnic minorities. Mapping of
training provision also highlighted a gap particularly in rural areas
outside of network or umbrella and membership organisations.
- There is a case for the establishment
of a single organisation with responsibility for providing flexible
training and support to unaffiliated groups in the sector.
- The report concludes that given the key
place that voluntary management committees hold within the sector
a strategic view needs to be taken in terms of funding of training
and support services to ensure long-term sustainability and growth.
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