In Autumn, the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NVCO) published their 2022 Almanac, providing key insights into the state of the voluntary sector based on 2019/2020 financial accounts. The report helps us gain perspective on how prepared charities were going into the Covid-19 pandemic, the initial impact that it has had on the voluntary sector and the affects this may have for organisations when hit by the cost-of-living crisis.
Our Data and Research Officer, Molly Frankcom has been taking an in-depth look at the report and has given her reflections in the blog below.
The insights and data provided in the NCVO 2022 Almanac really help us to understand the state of the sector going into, and emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic. Looking forward, this helps us to better understand the impacts of the pandemic and how we could prepare for those in future times of crisis. As we now see the cost-of-living soaring levels of inflation push our VCSE sector closer to breaking point, we can take the data presented to us and look at ways to support the needs of VCSE organisations and use it to try and influence policy and decision making around sector needs.
My Key takeaways are:
Financials:
Income from the public reached its the highest level in 20 years, providing 50% of the voluntary sector income within the reporting period. This rise in contributions from the public has coincided with a decrease in spending from the Government which now makes up 25% of the voluntary sector income. Interestingly, the reduction in government spending did not reduce the overall income of the sector between 2019/20 in fact, the overall income rose by 3% to £1.8bn. This demonstrates to me the potential opportunities and willingness we have within the sector to diversify funding streams and be enterprising when government spending is reduced. These characteristics will be fundamental to the future of the sector if government spending continues to diminish.
Volunteering:
Levels of formal volunteering fell significantly during 19/20 to 20/21, this may have been due to the decline in in-person meetings due to the Covid-19 lockdown and a reduction in organisational activity. When interviewed for the NCVO's Time Well Spent Report, featured within the Almanac, participants felt that there was a lack of communication from organisations on their volunteering responsibilities during the pandemic, this is likely to be due to uncertainty within the sector at the start of the pandemic. However, informal volunteering, understood as giving unpaid help to someone that is not a family member, increased slightly during the Covid-19 pandemic. Within the reporting period of 2020/21 54% of the population (24.9m) volunteered informally at least once a year and 33% (17.9m) did so at least once a month.
It is predicted that some volunteering activities will be affected by the cost-of-living crisis as work commitments were seen as the top barrier to volunteering (48%), the pressure to work and generate a higher income through working higher hours will no doubtly increase and therefore paid work will become a higher priority than volunteering for individuals as the cost-of-living rises. We will need to prepare for a reduction in our volunteer numbers and consider how best to utilise volunteers skills to continue to make volunteering a worthwhile experience, whilst providing more wellbeing support for those who continue to give up their spare time.
Workforce:
3% of the UK workforce, approximately 1 million individuals, are employed within the voluntary sector and overall the sector has seen a 27% increase in its workforce since 2011. Most voluntary sector workers are employed by organisations who have between 1 to 49 employees (56%). The largest sub sector for employment in the voluntary sector was social work encompassing 38% of the total workforce with over 365,000 employees.
However, geographical spread of the workforce revealed that there are spatial inequalities within the voluntary sector workforce as voluntary sector jobs were slightly overrepresented in London, the South of England and Scotland. In England, more than half the voluntary sector workforce is based in the South (51%) differing from the proportion of the population who live in this area (45%). Within the North East 4% of the population work within the voluntary sector, this is proportional to the percentage of the population that lives within this region.
Impact:
The NCVO and the government worked together to calculate the Gross Value Added contribution that the voluntary sector has made to the UK economy within the reporting period. The GVA calculated that the voluntary sector contributed £20.2bn to the UK economy in 2019/20 which amounted to 1% of the UK’s GDP. This percentage of UK GDP has been relatively stable since 2016 with only fractional decreases in the reporting period. The GVA was then calculated for different working subsectors revealing that the social services subsector reported the highest contribution (£3.7bn) followed by international (£3.1bn) and health (£2.5bn).
However, I think it is important to question if the GVA as an economic productivity metric, is equal to the added societal productivity and value that the voluntary sector has contributed to during the reporting period. Can this measure of financial impact alone encompass the building of relationships, increases in quality of life for those who are part of voluntary sector projects and the exchange of knowledge/services. Or should we be considering additional metrics to understand wider social impact? This is important to think about and challenge when reading reports which focus solely upon this metric.
Diversity:
Diversity within the voluntary sector workforce and volunteers remained an issue within the reporting period with particular focus placed upon Gender, Age, Disability, Ethnicity and Poverty and Socio-Economics.
Within both the voluntary sector workforce and volunteer groups women are well represented making up 67% of the workforce and are (31%) more likely to volunteer once a year than men (29%).
Both volunteers and workers tend to be older, those aged 65-74 are most likely to volunteer on a regular basis twice as much as those aged 25-34. However, volunteer retention for those over 65 has decreased by over a third within the reporting period, this is potentially due to an increase in cost of living whereby 2 million older households no longer have enough income to cover their essential spending. This statistic is likely to increase over the next reporting period.
Ethnic diversity has been a consistent issue within the voluntary sector workforce which is made up of 90% white individuals and when compared to the public and private sectors diversity is very low. Yet, within volunteering groups issues relating to ethnic diversity have made some progress as black individuals are the most likely group to volunteer at least once a year (35%).
Younger people, between the ages of 16-24, represent only 6% of the voluntary sector workforce unlike the private sector workforce where they amount to 13%. Formal volunteering for younger groups tends to be lower, however during the pandemic those volunteering rose to almost a third this may have been due to the voluntary sectors new found reliance on digital literacy within the pandemic which younger generations tend to embrace more easily.
Individuals with disabilities are well represented within the voluntary sector workforce, 1 in 5 people working in the voluntary sector self-identify as disabled this is a higher proportion than in the public and private sectors. Additionally, they are equally as likely as non-disabled people to formally volunteer.
Deprivation statistics found that levels of participation in formal volunteering were dominated by those who belong to the least deprived groups – 38% volunteered formally at least once a year whereas only 22% of those in the most deprived groups volunteered formally at least once a year. However, there was little difference between groups when informally volunteering.
My Personal Key Learnings for Voluntary Sector Organisations:
- Increasing diversity within both voluntary and paid workforces is important. This must be delivered alongside providing better support for those who may have to overcome barriers to accessing opportunities within the voluntary sector. Achieving better diversity and increasing access to opportunities within the sector could be done through providing part time and casual positions for those who have smaller amounts of spare time outside of paid work, being an accredited Living Wage Employer and providing additional IT support for those who are less computer literate.
- Organisations must focus on recruiting younger and more ethnically diverse individuals through performing targeted outreach and role advertisement to involve these groups of people within the voluntary sector.
- The sector must continue to diversify funding streams and seek support to prepare organisations and employees for financial challenges during the cost-of-living crisis.
- When reading reports which consider the sectors impact, individuals must appreciate the merits of both financial and wider social metrics to represent the work that goes on within the sector.