The future of local infrastructure – key findings and recommendations

Earlier this week the Independent Commission on the Future of Local Infrastructure published a report that reviewed support for local social action. Commissioned by Navca, Change for Good found that, like physical infrastructure, social infrastructure deserves and requires funding.

Key findings

The voluntary sector faces a unsurprising challenge – greater demand at a time of reduced finances. The report found that the sector, particularly at a local level, is so busy coping with the problems of today that it often fails to plan for the future. The commission also noted that some groups were failing to understand the scale of change that is still to come in terms of cuts and societal change.

When it comes to innovation, new developments also need some getting used to. The report found that the cashless economy – such as peer-to-peer support or resource sharing – is a growing space, but it’s taking the sector time to adapt after previously offering funded services. Likewise, social media and online tools are considered to have great potential, but much of the sector still needs to learn how to engage with technology effectively.

New opportunities such as social investment, social enterprise and social entrepreneurship are still not well understood and too few organisations are able to demonstrate the impact they are having in a proportionate way, the report said.

The report made it clear that a redesign is essential. While there is a case for local infrastructure, it needs to be, as Sara Llewellin, chair of the commission, said: “leaner, meaner and more technologically savvy”.

The commission’s recommendations

For infrastructure bodies:

• Illustrate how you can build relationships – either between charities or voluntary groups or through corporate social responsibility and pro-bono support.
• Skills and management – ensure you have the necessary skills to navigate change effectively, build strong relationships, focus resources and demonstrate your social value.
• Be there at the planning stage – insist you have a seat at the planning stage of proposals that might affect your communities.
• Demonstrate your social value and economic contribution – communicate it to your funders, local council, local businesses and the general public.
• Work with other socially active groups: your collective voice, across local and regional areas, will have more impact when influencing decisions.
  

For independent funders:

• Long-term funding should be concentrated on local social action, rather than just pursuing innovation.
• Short-term funding should support the redesign of local infrastructure bodies.
• Funders should collaborate to enable infrastructure bodies to use new ways of organising social action and social investment more effectively.
  
• The Big Lottery fund should, as a influential funder, organise a debate on how to enable the redesign of infrastructure.

For central and local government and local commissioning bodies:

• Provide a voluntary and community sector position on planning groups.
• Use a strategy that funds core services locally and attracts other resources.
• Work with independent funders and a spectrum of bodies to invest in social action.
• Take the time to asses the value of the sector and use that knowledge to evidence social capital.

For business:

• Connect your local representatives to local infrastructure bodies allowing easy engagement.
• Use local infrastructure as a vehicle to deliver your corporate social responsibility.
• Allow your workforce to lend their business skills to a local community group or charity.
• Create a clear volunteering policy and partner it with employee incentives.
  

If you work in the charity sector, please join our free network for charity professionals.