The report, Connecting Locally: local voluntary and community sector infrastructure in England, shows that local infrastructure have a key role in local strategic leadership, developing strong relationships with local authorities, the NHS and other statutory bodies and VCSE organisations.

Local infrastructure is important to the most vulnerable communities. For example, NAVCA members (including Nova) are concentrated in the most deprived fifth of local authority areas: covering 91% of the population of these areas. With the support, advice and guidance of local infrastructure organisations, the local VCSE sector secured £139m in the year to March 2021.

The report also shows the scale and significance of volunteering within the NAVCA membership. Each week, 11,446 volunteers contribute 16,576 hours to NAVCA members, alongside 3467 FTE staff. This is the equivalent of another 474 full time staff – demonstrating the importance of volunteers in supporting the VCSE sector.

Dr Rob Macmillan, Principal Research Fellow at CRESR, said

‍“The research shows the breadth and depth of local infrastructure work across the country, and just how significant it is in forging connections across sectors and services. This report paves the way for strategic conversations with stakeholders on the services needed to support the local voluntary sector and communities.’’  

NAVCA are hosting an online event on Thursday 2 February, 12:30pm to 1:30pm, with Dr Rob Macmillan, to talk further about the research and how we can use it to strengthen our movement. You can sign up for the event here.