John Dimmer, Head of Policy, Strategy & Partnerships, set out the context and approach taken to develop the draft voluntary sector and volunteering strategy. He highlighted the key themes that were emerging in the strategy and had been discussed at the Merton Partnership Conference on 14 November. Comments on the direction of travel and content of the draft strategy were being sought from the Commission prior to taking it to Cabinet and the Merton Partnership Board for further consideration.

Khadiru Mahdi, Chief Executive of Merton Voluntary Service Council (MVSC), said that although the voluntary sector was thriving in Merton, there were some risks and challenges now and ahead. He highlighted the need for voluntary sector organisations to diversify income streams plus the role of public sector commissioning functions in responding to the Social Value Act.

Several Commission members shared some of the difficulties they had experienced whilst bidding for contracts as part of or on behalf of small voluntary organisations. They welcomed the concept of social value being taken into account as part of the bidding process but cautioned that this should be done in an open and transparent way alongside price and quality considerations.

Caroline Holland, Director of Corporate Services, said that revised contract standing orders would be brought to the next meeting of the Standards and General Purposes Committee and that this would include proposals to incorporate social value in a transparent and measurable way.

In response to a question about the future for the myriad of very small voluntary organisations in the borough, Khadiru Mahdi said that MVSC had established a small groups forum that brought them together for action learning sets and this knowledge sharing had been beneficial. John Dimmer added that smaller organisations would face challenges from funding decreases and from the changing nature of service provision that would result in the commissioning of much more complex services in future.

John Dimmer said that it was imperative for the Council and MVSC to communicate those challenges to the voluntary sector and to encourage smaller organisations to work in partnership. Khadiru Mahdi added that the MVSC had started a pilot consortium of health and social care providers to bring together large and small organisations as a template for the future.

In response to a question about the role of the Charity Commission in encouraging partnership working, Khadiru Mahdi said that the Charity Commission had retrenched and was looking to organisations such as MVSC to lead on this.

A member commented that 36 recommendations was rather a lot and that it would be helpful to see how they would be prioritised, measured and given a timeline. John Dimmer agreed and said that a small number of costed actions would underpin  and drive the strategy.

In response to a question about the Merton Community Fund John Dimmer said there was a lot of untapped potential and that Merton could learn from successes with similar funds in other boroughs.

The Commission thanked the officers for the report and RESOLVED:

1.    To endorse the direction of travel taken by the draft voluntary sector and volunteering strategy

2.    To give political backing to the concept of including social value in the contracting process as long as this is done in a transparent and measurable way alongside price and quality considerations.