Local authorities have been urged to avoid damaging the “microbiome” of the voluntary sector by valuing the smallest organisations and ensuring they are not excluded from decision-making.
The local infrastructure body Navca and the University of Exeter conducted a joint workshop last month which highlighted the need to further support the microbiome, or the group made up of the smallest VCSE organisations.
Navca said in a blog post last week: “If we are serious about ‘doing with’, we must avoid damaging the microbiome by valuing the smallest organisations, listening to their needs, and ensuring they are not excluded from decision-making, while at the same time not overwhelming them with bureaucratic processes that exceed their capacity and don’t meet their needs.”
Local systems should nurture the microbiome by providing consistent advocacy, financial support and direct engagement, ensuring smaller organisations are seen as part of the system rather than as outsiders, Navca said.
The local infrastructure body called for sustainable growth in new organisations, but not at the expense of existing ones.
“Instead, connections should be fostered between emerging and established groups to strengthen the whole ecosystem,” Navca said.
It also called for the removal of systemic barriers that hinder local VCSE organisations, from “inflexible funding models” to “bureaucratic hurdles” in accessing resources.
Public and VCSE sector insights from the workshop reflected a “clear tension”, Navca said.
“While participants recognise the need to nurture existing groups, support new organisations and, above all, avoid damaging the microbiome, structural barriers persist,” Navca said.
“These challenges – funding constraints, local authority bureaucracy, problems with accessing bank accounts, and resource limitations – prevent the smallest groups from thriving.”
Navca is a founding member of the Do With campaign, which was launched by the King’s Fund earlier this year and calls for a shift in how local systems engage with communities, from top-down decision-making or “doing to”, to genuine partnership or “doing with”.