Voluntary Sector Organisations Research Articles

The Distinctiveness of Smaller Voluntary Organisations Providing Welfare Services

AbstractThis article presents empirical findings about the distinctiveness of smaller voluntary sector organisations (VSOs) involved in welfare service provision, based on in-depth, qualitative case study research. We identify a series of organisational features and practices which can mean that smaller VSOs are distinctive from larger organisations. These include how they are governed and managed, their approach to their work, and their position relative to other providers. To explain our findings, we draw on the concept of stakeholder ambiguity. This idea was posited by Billis and Glennerster (1998) and is commonly cited in relation to distinctiveness. We identified several manifestations of stakeholder ambiguity and confirm the concept’s explanatory importance, although we argue that our understanding of distinctiveness is enhanced when stakeholder ambiguity is considered alongside other closely related features, such as being embedded in a local geographic community and informal familial care-based organisational cultures. Our findings also highlight the fragility of smaller VSOs. We argue that this combination of distinctiveness and fragility creates a tension for social policy makers, many of whom recognise the value of smaller VSOs and the risks that they face but must weigh this against a requirement to allocate resources for statutory services as effectively as possible.

Limited receipt of support services among people with mild-to-moderate dementia: Findings from the IDEAL cohort.

BackgroundGlobal initiatives that promote public health responses to dementia have resulted in numerous countries developing new national policies. Current policy guidelines in England, for example, recommend that people diagnosed with mild‐to‐moderate dementia receive information and psychosocial interventions to improve their ability to ‘live well’. However, it remains unclear to what extent these recommendations are being achieved.MethodsSelf‐reported information from 1537 people living with dementia and informant‐reported information from 1277 carers of people living with dementia was used to quantify receipt of community‐based dementia support services, including health and social care services provided by statutory or voluntary‐sector organisations, in Britain from 2014 to 2016. Demographic factors associated with differences in receipt of support services were also investigated to identify particularly vulnerable groups of people living with dementia.ResultsBoth self‐ and informant reports suggested that approximately 50% of people living with dementia received support services for dementia. Receipt of support services was lower among people living with dementia who are older, female, and have fewer educational qualifications. Receipt of support services also differed according to diagnosis and carer status, but was unrelated to marital status.ConclusionsLimited receipt of dementia support services among people living with dementia in Britain provides a baseline to assess the efficacy of current policy guidelines regarding provision of information and support. Targeted efforts to facilitate receipt of support services among the particularly vulnerable groups identified in the current study could improve the efficacy of dementia support services both in Britain and internationally, and should inform policy development.

Managing service hubs in Miami and Osaka: Between capacious commons and meagre street-level bureaucracies

As key sites of governance and poverty management, service hubs are conspicuous inner-city clusters of voluntary sector organizations that serve vulnerable urban populations, including people grappling with homelessness, substance abusers and mental illness. In this paper, we frame service hubs as potentially embodying capacious commons on the one hand, and meagre street-level bureaucracies on the other, reconstituting Lipsky’s individual focus to embrace the agency level. We use a comparative case study approach, focussing on two service hubs – Kamagasaki in Osaka and Overtown in Miami – to show how organizations in each combined, in various ways, the two logics in practice. The results suggest that service hubs acted more as ‘managed commons’, but with some tendencies towards street-level bureaucracy. This conversation between the commons and street-level bureaucracies, and its comparative application to the voluntary sector within service hubs, serve as our primary conceptual and empirical contributions, respectively. We conclude by considering how the two logics overlapped and created hybridized models of poverty management.

Effectiveness, acceptability and potential harms of peer support for self-harm in non-clinical settings: systematic review.

Many people who have self-harmed prefer informal sources of support or support from those with lived experience. However, little is known about whether peer support improves outcomes for people who have self-harmed or about the risks of peer support interventions in non-clinical settings. The aims of this review were to examine the effectiveness, acceptability and potential risks of peer support for self-harm, and how these risks might be mitigated. We searched bibliographic databases and grey literature for papers published since 2000. We included peer support for self-harm that occurred in voluntary-sector organisations providing one-to-one or group support, or via moderated online peer support forums. Eight of the ten papers included focused on peer support that was delivered through online media. No study compared peer support with other treatments or a control group, so limited conclusions could be made about its effectiveness. Peer support for self-harm was found to be acceptable and was viewed as having a range of benefits including a sense of community, empowerment, and access to information and support. The most commonly perceived risk associated with peer support was the potential for triggering self-harm. Our findings highlighted a range of benefits of being part of a group with very specific shared experiences. Mitigations for potential risks include organisations using professional facilitators for groups, trigger warnings for online forums, and providing regular supervision and training so that peers are prepared and feel confident to support vulnerable people while maintaining their own emotional health.

‘You can’t Google everything’: the voluntary sector and the leadership of communities of place

Responding directly to the themes of the Special Issue, this paper addresses a surprising absence to date of the voluntary sector’s important role in the constitution of place leadership. Drawing on an empirical study of locally rooted voluntary sector organisations in a district of the Midlands of England, we aim to untangle the complex relationship between leadership, place and the voluntary sector, building on recent advances in the collective and critical approaches to leadership studies. A thematic analysis of a rich qualitative dataset highlighted three core themes of the voluntary sector contribution to collective place leadership: their ability to draw on and mobilise local knowledge, their positioning in a web of dense local relationships, and the notion that their intrinsic characteristics are a key source of their distinctiveness and value to the local governance network that constitutes the district’s place leadership. In addition to contributing to a nuanced understanding of the voluntary sector’s place in both the leadership and place leadership studies corpus, our findings shed light on the multiplexity and tensions of leading in the collective, as well as the extent to which the voluntary sector is constrained by wider structures and macro-dynamics.

Designing Work with People Living with Dementia: Reflecting on a Decade of Research.

The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights is widely acknowledged as a landmark document in the history of human rights. Drafted by representatives from all over the world, the declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 (General Assembly resolution 217 A) as a common standard for all peoples and all nations. The declaration sets out a series of articles that articulate a number of fundamental human rights to be universally protected. Article 23 of the declaration relates to the right to work and states that people have a human right to work, or engage in productive employment, and may not be prevented from doing so. The right to work is enshrined in international human rights law through its inclusion in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, where the right to work emphasizes economic, social and cultural development. This paper presents ongoing research that highlights how a disruptive co-design approach contributes to upholding UN Article 23 through the creation of a series of innovative working practices developed with people living with dementia. The research, undertaken in collaboration with several voluntary and third sector organizations in the UK, looks to break the cycle of prevailing opinions, traditional mindsets, and ways-of-doing that tend to remain uncontested in the health and social care of people living with dementia. As a result, this research has produced a series of innovative work opportunities for people living with dementia and their formal and informal carers that change the perception of dementia by showing that people living with dementia are capable of designing and making desirable products and offering much to UK society after diagnosis. In this ongoing research, the right to continue to work for people living with dementia post-diagnosis in creative and innovative ways has clearly helped to reconnect them to other people, helped build their self-esteem, identity and dignity and helped keep the person with dementia connected to their community, thus delaying the need for crisis interventions. This paper reports on a series of future work initiatives for people living with dementia where we have used design as a disruptive force for good to ensure that anyone diagnosed with dementia can exercise their right to work and engage in productive and rewarding employment.

This is how it Feels: Activating Lived Experience in the Penal Voluntary Sector

Abstract Increasing calls for ‘nothing about us without us’ envision marginalized people as valuable and necessary contributors to policies and practices affecting them. In this paper, we examine what this type of inclusion feels like for criminalized people who share their lived experiences in penal voluntary sector organizations. Focus groups conducted in England and Scotland illustrated how this work was experienced as both safe, inclusionary and rewarding and exclusionary, shame-provoking and precarious. We highlight how these tensions of ‘user involvement’ impact criminalized individuals and compound wider inequalities within this sector. The individual, emotional and structural implications of activating lived experience, therefore, require careful consideration. We consider how the penal voluntary sector might more meaningfully and supportively engage criminalized individuals in service design and delivery. These considerations are significant for broader criminal justice and social service provision seeking to meaningfully involve those with lived experience.

Documents in a Field of Action: Using Documents to Address Research Questions About Nonprofit and Voluntary Organizations

In this article we show the potential of using documents to answer research questions pertinent to nonprofit and voluntary sector studies. We start by introducing what the methodological literature has to say about how documents are employed as a data source, along with their strengths and weaknesses. Then, we review 178 articles in three main nonprofit journals to analyze how researchers have used documents to understand nonprofit and voluntary sector organizations. We also provide a case example of document analysis to reveal the processes involved in using documents as a source of evidence. We emphasize that situating documents in a field of action invites researchers to pay attention not only to the information they contain but also what their production and consumption reveal about organizational life. Finally, we conclude with the implications and considerations for using documents in nonprofit and voluntary sector research.

Multidisciplinary policies and practices to support and empower informal carers in Europe

Introduction (Core aim of the workshop)According to research, informal carers provide over 80% of all care in Europe. Despite their vital role, carers’ needs are rarely discussed. Yet, demographic ageing puts carers under growing pressure, with negative outcomes on their health and wellbeing. Over the last few years, much has been done to take forward the carers’ agenda. However, the success of initiatives aiming to address carers’ needs depends on the interplay between a broad set of social and health policies and developments have often been implemented in a siloed manner. This workshop will present inspiring carer-led initiatives focusing on different stages of the informal carer ‘journey’ where private, public and voluntary sector organisations collaborate around more carer-friendly approaches.BackgroundIn Europe, the estimated value of unpaid informal care - as a percentage of the cost of formal long-term care - ranges from 50 to 90 %. The latest Ageing report highlights that a progressive shift from informal to professional care would entail an increase of 130% in the share of GDP devoted to long-term care. Against this backdrop, meeting the growing care needs of an ageing population without recognising and supporting informal carers will be challenging. Besides its bearing on the financial sustainability of care systems, informal care also contributes to social cohesion and intergenerational solidarity.Aims and ObjectivesStecy Yghemonos, Eurocarers, will provide a quick overview of the situation of informal carers in the EU and present the Eurocarers Strategy "10 steps towards carer-friendly societies in Europe".Elizabeth Hanson, Linnaeus University, will shed light on young carers, a sub-group of carers which is still largely invisible. Her presentation will underline the importance of awareness raising among professionals in the care and educational sectors and the need for adequate tools allowing to identify and support young carers through multidisciplinary collaborations.John Dunne, Family Carers Ireland, will describe the emerging Irish model for supporting family carers across different ‘tiers’ of the carer population and several dimensions of carer well-being in an integrated, cost-effective manner. He will also outline how building carer resilience strengthens integrated care by enhancing carers’ capacity to engage in healthcare partnerships.Target audienceThe workshop will serve to inform policy-makers, health and social care professionals, as well as patients and carers advocates about the needs and added value of carers in integrated community-based care settings.Learnings/Take awayRecognising carers as partners in care in integrated care pathways has positive effects on the quality of care they provide and helps to prevent the adverse impact of caring on carers’ health and wellbeing.Format- Introduction on situation of informal carers in the EU, Stecy Yghemonos (5’)- Presentation of initiatives on young (adult) carers (10’)- Q&A on presentation (5’)- Presentation of Irish model (10’)- Q&A on presentation (5’)- General discussion (25’): participants will be invited to share about practices and policies in their countries, and to identify common challenges and opportunities.Preferred length60 minutes

Minority Viewpoint: Capturing Ethnic Minority Voices in Renfrewshire

The research reported in this paper is an abridged version of a study exploring the views of ethnic minority communities in Renfrewshire. The study provided a voice to these communities in relation to their awareness of Renfrewshire Council's services and initiatives targeting ethnic minority groups. The study also surveyed the extent to which ethnic minorities engage with ethnic minority organisations designed to support their needs, the challenges they face and how they feel they are viewed by the indigenous ‘white’ community. Based on a series of focus groups, the findings reveal a lack of awareness among participants of Council services and initiatives aimed at ethnic minority communities. There is a varied level of engagement with ethnic minority voluntary and third sector organisations, a range of challenges including language barriers, perceived and actual racism, and some apprehension as to how ethnic minority groups are perceived by the indigenous white community. There are implications for key stakeholders such as the Council and others who should review their policies and practices to ensure that the needs and concerns of ethnically diverse communities in Renfrewshire are being addressed.

Charting the Rough Journey to ‘Home’: The Contribution of Qualitative Longitudinal Research to Understandings of Homelessness in Austerity

This article reflects on the contribution of qualitative longitudinal research (QLR) to understandings of homeless peoples’ experiences of support service interventions in an era of austerity in the UK. It brings into ‘analytic conversation’ data from qualitative longitudinal evaluations of homeless support projects operated by voluntary sector organisations in Scotland. With fieldwork spanning 2014-2019, the analysis expands the analytical potential of pooling small-scale studies through an interrogation of individuals’ ‘journeys’ through homelessness services and their rough path to ‘home’. By reflecting on our substantive findings, the article explores the added value and challenges of a longitudinal approach. It concludes that while QLR can deliver deep insight into lives lived by vulnerable populations and potentially reduce the distance between policy makers and those affected, its benefits must be balanced against pragmatism and the ethical responsibilities associated with the method.

Voluntary support in a post-welfare state: Experiences and challenges of precarity

This paper examines voluntary sector care and support provision under a context of significantly reduced government funding. Whilst geographers have analysed the causes and aftermath ofausterity on different populations, our focus is on how managers of voluntary sector organisations have had to learn and evolve through bidding for non-statutory funding to sustain their core provision. Drawing on research with voluntary support organisations in the learning disability social care sector in England and Scotland, the paper examines the effects of the state’s continued reliance on the sector for core ‘public’ services whilst simultaneously withdrawing its funding. Using accounts from managers, the paper offers a particularly novel and potent example of voluntary sector precarity and the deepening unfinished and unsettled nature of care and support that has unfolded in the wake of austerity. Through the empirical research, attention is drawn to three levels of precarity that are experienced by those seeking to sustain voluntary support provision: voluntary sector organisation and structures, the voluntary sector workforce, and individual managers’ everyday emotional and affective experiences.

Lord of the flies: a psychoanalytic view of the gang and its processes

Gangs are usually seen to exist on the edge of society, in the Mafia, on the street corner, or among those engaged in people- or drug-trafficking. In this article I take a different approach and argue that, especially in response to trauma, gang functioning may be present at the very centre of our society, and is sometimes to be found in governmental, business, public and voluntary sector organisations, as well as the groups and teams within them. Using Nobel-prize winner William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies to give shape to my ideas, I develop a psychoanalytic theory of gang functioning. I draw in particular on Kleinian psychoanalytic ideas as well as concepts from the psychoanalytic study of groups and organisations. I argue that the establishment of the gang involves primitive splitting and projective identification and the perversion of adult authority. I suggest further that gang functioning involves the destruction of the sensory and communicative apparatuses that alert the gang to reality, coupled with the creation of a substitute, false "reality". These features enable the avoidance of painful truths and experiences and facilitate the enactment of hatred that is so characteristic of ganging behaviour.

Be Media Smart

This paper presents Ireland’s public awareness campaign –‘Be Media Smart’-which was launched in Spring 2019 to combat misinformation and fake news and encourage people of all ages to stop, think, and check that information they see, read or hear across any media platform is reliable. Be Media Smart is an initiative of Media Literacy Ireland (MLI), an independent group facilitated by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) to enhance Irish people’s understanding of, and engagement with, media. Group members include large media and social media companies, Government bodies, libraries, academia and voluntary sector organisations. The paper will provide an overview of this national campaign particularly in terms of how a range of organisations includingall library sectors worked together to help empower Irish citizens to make informed media choices about the media content and services that they consume, create, and disseminate across all platforms.Some of the key observations and findings of the Be Media Smart campaign will be presented including the role of libraries and the value of the cross-sector collaborative approach. Challenges, lessons learned and future development plans will also be outlined. ‘Be Media Smart’ provides a best practice exampleof how a unique Irish initiative has helped to advance media and information literacy at national level.

Lessons from a voluntary sector organisation working to address loneliness and isolation among older people during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic and physical distancing policies have created a range of challenges for voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations addressing isolation and loneliness among older people. This paper explores four learning points from one VCS organisation, Time to Shine, which is working to reduce loneliness among older people in a COVID-19 world, using technology, finding the ‘hard to reach’, tackling ageism and managing anxiety following isolation.

The Action Scales Model: A conceptual tool to identify key points for action within complex adaptive systems.

Systems thinking is integral to working effectively within complex systems, such as those which drive the current population levels of overweight and obesity. It is increasingly recognised that a systems approach - which corrals public, private, voluntary and community sector organisations to make their actions and efforts coherent - is necessary to address the complex drivers of obesity. Identifying, implementing and evaluating actions within complex adaptive systems is challenging, and may differ from previous approaches used in public health. Within this conceptual article, we present the Action Scales Model (ASM). The ASM is a simple tool to help policymakers, practitioners and evaluators to conceptualise, identify and appraise actions within complex adaptive systems. We developed this model using our collective expertise and experience in working with local government authority stakeholders on the Public Health England Whole Systems Obesity programme. It aligns with, and expands upon, previous models such as the Intervention Level Framework, the Iceberg Model and Donella Meadows' 12 places to intervene within a system. The ASM describes four levels (synonymous with leverage points) to intervene within a system, with deeper levels providing greater potential for changing how the system functions. Levels include events, structures, goals and beliefs. We also present how the ASM can be used to support practice and policy, and finish by highlighting its utility as an evaluative aid. This practical tool was designed to support those working at the front line of systems change efforts, and while we use the population prevalence of obesity as an outcome of a complex adaptive system, the ASM and the associated principles can be applied to other issues. We hope that the ASM encourages people to think differently about the systems that they work within and to identify new and potentially more impactful opportunities to leverage change.

Shared leadership in voluntary sector organisations: exploring practice and theory development

This article investigates leadership practice in voluntary sector organisations (VSOs). Drawing on stakeholder theory and evidence from a qualitative study involving UK VSOs, it explores the manifestation of shared leadership practices and proposes a framework for more inclusive practices that enhance trust, accountability and collective responsibility. We find that certain stakeholders are more detached from processes of shared leadership than leaders in formal positions. Furthermore, involvement in leadership activity varies with status, with shared practices diminishing from trustees through to employees and volunteers, as trustees and employees are mainly involved in ‘high-level activities’ of the organisation while volunteers are involved in ‘low-level activities’. Our study poses a challenge to unitary and linear leadership models that present shared leadership as equally distributed in organisations.

Learning from theCOVIDcrisis for educating children and young people with SEN/disabilities.

Learning from theCOVIDcrisis for educating children and young people with SEN/disabilities.

Making a difference: workforce skills and capacity for integrated care

PurposeThe aim of this action research was to explore, from a workforce and a patient/carer perspective, the skills and the capacity required to deliver integrated care and to inform future workforce development and planning in a new integrated care system in England.Design/methodology/approachSemi-structured interviews and focus groups with primary, community, acute care, social care and voluntary care, frontline and managerial staff and with patients and carers receiving these services were undertaken. Data were explored using framework analysis.FindingsAnalysis revealed three overarching themes: achieving teamwork and integration, managing demands on capacity and capability and delivering holistic and user-centred care. An organisational development (OD) process was developed as part of the action research process to facilitate the large-scale workforce changes taking place.Research limitations/implicationsThis study did not consider workforce development and planning challenges for nursing and care staff in residential, nursing care homes or domiciliary services. This part of the workforce is integral to the care pathways for many patients, and in line with the current emerging national focus on this sector, these groups require further examination. Further, data explore service users' and carers' perspectives on workforce skills. It proved challenging to recruit patient and carer respondents for the research due to the nature of their illnesses.Practical implicationsMany of the required skills already existed within the workforce. The OD process facilitated collaborative learning to enhance skills; however, workforce planning across a whole system has challenges in relation to data gathering and management. Ensuring a focus on workforce development and planning is an important part of integrated care development.Social implicationsThis study has implications for social and voluntary sector organisations in respect of inter-agency working practices, as well as the identification of workforce development needs and potential for informing subsequent cross-sector workforce planning arrangements and communication.Originality/valueThis paper helps to identify the issues and benefits of implementing person-centred, integrated teamworking and the implications for workforce planning and OD approaches.

''It sounded a lot simpler on the job description'': A qualitative study exploring the role of social prescribing link workers and their training and support needs (2020).

Social prescribing is an increasingly popular approach to promoting health and well-being, by addressing the wider determinants of health such as physical inactivity, social isolation and financial insecurity. Social prescribing link workers (SPs) connect people to local, non-clinical services. As part of the NHS Long Term Plan, NHS England aims to recruit 1,000 SPs across England by 2021. Understanding the role of SPs, including challenging aspects of the role and the types of training and support needed by SPs is crucial to optimising the effectiveness of social prescribing. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with nine SPs from five NHS and voluntary sector organisations in London to explore the role of SPs and identify SP training and support needs. Interviews were analysed thematically and three key themes emerged for which SPs needed particular support: defining and promoting their role; supporting clients with complex needs and coping with the emotional demands of their role. SP perceptions of training and future training needs is presented as a fourth theme. Most SPs felt that the initial training received for their role did not prepare them for the most demanding aspects of their roles. The findings of this study support the assertion that the social prescribing link worker role is complex and challenging. SPs are required to have in-depth knowledge of local services, which is built over time and makes retention in the role of high importance. Steps have been taken to develop online resources to support SPs, however, there may be a need for more comprehensive training, especially in mental health. SPs benefit from access to peer or one-to-one support to help them manage the emotional demands of the role and could benefit from the formation of local networks, especially for SPs working in isolation.