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9. Issues with Support
Respondents were asked to identify up to three main problems they have encountered with current external support services. 22 organisations (16% of survey respondents) said that they did not have any problems with the current available support. Figure 9a shows the problems identified by the remaining 115 organisations.
Figure 9a 4: Organisations Encountering Problems
The cost of using support providers was the most commonly reported problem, identified by almost 40% of participating organisations. Other common problems with support agencies included a lack of understanding of the support needs of the voluntary sector (23%), a lack of integration of support organisations (23%) and a lack of tailored support (22%).
Interestingly, 'no idea where to go for support or advice' was an infrequently reported problem, however this is in contrast to findings from the focus groups where many people themselves reported not knowing what support was available.
An interesting pattern emerges when these results are broken down by the different financial sizes of organisations:
- 60% of respondents noting that they had 'no idea where to go for support or advice' were those with an annual turnover of less than £25k. Larger organisations rarely reported this as a problem.
- Support agencies not working together was a problem reported more regularly by larger organisations. 70% of those reporting this problem had an annual income of over £100k.
Other problems with support identified by respondents themselves included:
- National bodies not understanding local needs and issues;
- National umbrella bodies focusing on the needs of local organisations rather than the strategic picture;
- Support providers not catering for large voluntary organisations;
- A lack of a co-ordinated approach to support for the voluntary sector;
- A lack of resourcing of support providers / ability for support providers to give in-depth support;
- Lack of 'professional' support available to committees ( e.g.HR, legal advice).
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