FaithAction — Written evidence (CHA0015)
Introduction
1. FaithAction, a national network of faith-based and community organisations, has been in operation since 2009. Funded mostly by central government, FaithAction looks to reach and equip faith-based organisations to get involved either in public service delivery or social action. FaithAction runs a number of national programmes, as well as having input into policy with government departments to help raise the voice of faith groups as communities and charities. FaithAction also acts as Secretariat to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Faith and Society, chaired by the Rt Hon Stephen Timms MP.
2. The thinktank NPC is currently conducting research to understand the size, work and impact of the faith-based charity sector. Initial findings, published in April 2016,[1] found that 27% of charities in England and Wales are faith-based (44,985 from a total of 165,226 charities registered in England and Wales). While this research looks only at registered charities (defined as charities that embody some form of religious belief – or cultural values arising from a religious belief – in their vision or mission, founding history or project content), at FaithAction we are aware of numerous smaller faith-based groups across the country that are not established charities but are nonetheless active in serving their communities. These groups exist in different faiths, and vary in size and reach.
Responses to selected questions
3. In FaithAction’s experience, faith-based organisations (FBOs) tend to have a specific ‘DNA’ – that is, a core that makes them different from voluntary sector groups. They give their members a vision, identity and purpose, and the opportunity to live these out: to practise their fundamental values and beliefs as part of a community.
4. However, the potential of faith groups is not fully recognised at present. FBOs often see at least part of their purpose as being to meet the needs they see going unmet in the communities around them. While in some local areas faith groups are called upon to fill gaps in service provision, in others there can be a reluctance on behalf of more mainstream providers to work with FBOs. There is more that the faith sector can do to help equip communities and meet their needs.
5. Charities (whether faith-based or not) have in recent years been called to do more with fewer resources. For example, FaithAction’s report What a Difference Faith Makes…to Homelessness (2015)[2] identified this as one of the chief concerns of the groups that participated in the research: while they were more than willing to continue their work, they feared that their current levels of service were not sustainable because of increasing demand. Cuts to local authority services meant that some FBOs we spoke to, which once provided complementary services, were now the only providers. Economic pressures changes to the benefit system were resulted in higher levels of need: one foodbank reported that 43% of those referred to it were in need because of benefit changes, delays or sanctions. Higher levels of economic need and pressure on individuals were also meaning that more were suffering with their physical and mental health.
6. In our experience, charities have in recent years had to diversify their skills in order to remain active and relevant. At the same time, economic pressures have meant they need to find new ways to source the skills that they need. For example, in the past a medium-sized charity might have been expected to employ a person dedicated to business development and bid-writing. Now, those with these skills are often freelance consultants, as charities do not necessarily have enough funding to keep a full-time member of staff. At the same time, the members of staff they do employ are likely to be required to gain some of these skills even when their main role is in a different area of expertise.
7. There has also been increasing focus for charities on the need to evaluate their impact. This can be a costly exercise, requiring an investment of thought, time and resources – all additional pressures, even if (it is to be hoped) they pay dividends in the long run. Demonstrating impact is one way in which a charity can gain a competitive edge. The competitive nature of the sector has also grown in recent years: whereas in the past charities might have worked together, there is now less incentive for them to do so as the need to gain influence and, ultimately, the funding to keep them sustainable is greater.
8. Charities, and notably, in our experience, FBOs, hold an ‘over and above’ mentality, trying to address the needs of the whole person and not necessarily confining their work to office hours, or operating within ‘silos’. FBOs tend to focus on seeing those they work with as people rather than problems to solve, and to help in any way they can. For example, a faith-based charity working in the area of homelessness might not see itself primarily as a housing provider, but as an organisation offering practical, pastoral and spiritual support, hope to those in crisis, and respect based on a belief in the dignity of all people. An FBO dealing with somebody who has an alcohol problem is likely also to try to help them with debt relief or relationship issues.
9. Faith groups are often key in identifying issues and responding with localised approaches. They may be seen as institutions with the trust of their local communities, and welcoming to those who turn to them. FaithAction is aware of instances in which people have turned to faith centres (even centres of a different faith from the person’s own) and have sought and received advice and support, or been able to engage in community programmes. Some faith groups have a deliberate focus on working with groups from other faiths as part of demonstrating their shared responsibility to the community. All of this aids in community cohesion and breaking down barriers between different groups.
10. Volunteers are relied on heavily within charities and especially in FBOs. The Cinnamon Network in its Cinnamon Faith Action Audit report (2015)[3] estimates that there are over 1.9 million volunteers in FBOs in the UK (against over 125,000 paid staff). These volunteers contribute over 288 million hours of work annually.
11. Our impression is that volunteering is becoming more common: more people are doing it and recognising that when they spend time on behalf of their communities, this counts as ‘volunteering’. Some of the increase in volunteering is likely to be due to people’s inability to find paid work, while in others it is simply a result of the desire to meet the needs people see around them. There are still many in faith communities who would not think of themselves as formal volunteers, despite the fact that they donate some of their time to serving the community.
12. Resource is a great challenge for charities – not just in the financial sense, but in the sense that there is a need to bring in the right people with the right skills at the right time. For example, charities may find themselves with responsibilities in relation to their governance that require specific accountancy or legal skills, meaning people with these skills must be found or recruited if they are not already present and available in the organisation.
13. Furthermore, there is a challenge for organisations in having the right connections with other organisations locally. For example, we are aware of FBOs that are ready and willing to take some kind of action in their local community, but are waiting for permission from the local authority (whether or not this is actually needed) before they get underway, and do not have good contacts within the local authority to expedite the process. Local authorities are often seen as ‘owning’ what happens on the ground in communities, when perhaps it should be the communities themselves with the ownership. What is more, organisations that rely on volunteers who have other jobs might do most of their work in the evenings or at weekends – making it particularly difficult for them to build relationships with the local council or to get involved in local decision-making or commissioning of services. A lack of connections can also make it difficult for charities to overcome misperceptions about the voluntary and community sector – such the idea that it is unprofessional or unable to provide quality services.
14. A further challenge is that organisations that rely on volunteers may be seen by others as offering ‘free’ services that do not need funding. In fact, recruiting, training, managing and supporting volunteers takes time and resource. Volunteers do not provide ‘free labour’, but this perception means that they can be taken advantage of – when in fact there are instances when good input deserves recognition and some sort of remuneration.
15. The Faith Covenant is a means of helping local authorities and FBOs work better together. It was developed by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Faith and Society, of which FaithAction is the secretariat. The Covenant consists of a set of principles to which both local authorities (or other commissioners) and faith organisations can sign up, which set out a basis for open and transparent joint working. The aim is to make it easier to commission services from FBOs, and so to unlock more of the potential of civil society. More information can be found at www.faithandsociety.org/covenant. The Covenant has so far been adopted by Birmingham, Leeds, Solihull, Northamptonshire, Calderdale and Barnet.
16. On the part of local authorities and other statutory services, increased ‘literacy’ is needed with regard to how to engage with the voluntary sector in general and faith in particular. This can mean things as simple as not using council jargon in communications, as well as broad points such as the fact that it can take months or even years to build a good working relationship. This is not due to ill-will but simply because both sides have many competing priorities, and procedures that can delay progress. Local authorities will need to approach faith groups that they want to engage with, rather than expecting groups to come to them. Finally, with all charities under economic pressure, it cannot simply be assumed that they will always ‘be there’; organisations wishing to engage particularly with smaller charities and FBOs should do so while they can.
17. From FaithAction’s observations, FBOs have a number of opportunities at the moment. Due to cuts in funding for statutory services, there is more scope than ever before for voluntary sector groups to become involved in shaping and delivering services. Since FBOs often represent and/or serve groups that tend to be marginalised or suffer from inequalities, this is an opportunity for services to be shaped around those most in need.
18. However, there is a gap between groups that are currently ready to engage with commissioning, and those who are keen to but not ready. In many cases the latter include smaller organisations that would need to form consortia in order to be able to deliver public services. They currently lack the connections and relationships with each other, as well as with commissioners, that would make this possible. There is a need for a clear pathway for smaller organisations that want to get involved in commissioning to follow, with clear contacts for them to make along the way.
4. What skills are required to lead and manage a charity?
19. Faith-based charities have a particular need to consider the political climate and issues around integration and extremism. This also means there is an added element of public relations to the work of those who lead these charities. There is a pressure on certain faith-based charities – predominantly Muslim organisations – which can expect that their dealings might come under greater scrutiny than those of other charities, both from government and the security services, and from the press. We have seen from recent incidents and public inquiries, both those related to extremism (such as the ‘Trojan horse’ situation in Birmingham) and those related to child abuse, that mud sticks, regardless of whether or not the allegations are eventually proven founded. How much mud sticks is partly down to how well organisations are able to deal with media interest in them.
20. In FaithAction’s opinion, the skills that leaders and managers need are now at a level beyond what could have been imagined when the concept of charity governance was first developed. The expectations that regulators place on leaders and trustees seem sometimes to be unreasonable, given that such posts may be voluntary and unpaid.
5. What role should trustees play in the performance and effectiveness of a charity?
21. Some high-quality training is currently available for school governors. In our opinion, this should be adapted for charity trustees, and made available without charge to the trustees.
22. The role of charity trustee is currently little known or appreciated. In our opinion, it should carry as much prestige as that of magistrate. There should be greater public understanding and recognition of volunteering and charity governance, and how they serve society.
6. How can charities ensure that they are properly accountable to their beneficiaries, their donors, and the general public?
23. In our opinion, the accountability of charities depends on their developing key performance indicators that are both intelligible to and interesting for the public and their stakeholders. To take again the example of schools, the key elements that are of most interest to most stakeholders are examination results, the school’s finances and the condition of its buildings, and it is against these that schools are expected to be accountable. A similar set of priorities should be identified by charities.
7. What are the current challenges to financial sustainability, as well as efficient resource and risk management for the sector?
24. Lack of income remains a challenge for the FBOs with which we work. They report fewer grants available, increased competition for the funding that is there, and the move towards commissioning rather than grant funding, a system which smaller organisations find difficult to access. As mentioned above, in recent years organisations have also needed to find ways to bring in people with new kinds of business-related skills, which adds to the pressure on resources.
25. Nonetheless, the faith sector does have resources and assets to call upon, such as buildings in the heart of communities, and a willing community of volunteers. While assets such as this means that FBOs may be able to provide services at less cost than other providers, it does not mean that they can offer them for ‘free’. Buildings need to be heated, lit and insured, volunteers need to be supported, and these costs can add up. As indicated above, there seems to be an expectation from some quarters that FBOs are able to provide services for ‘free’ when in fact there is still a measure of funding required for these activities to be sustainable.
26. In our opinion, training is needed to help organisations gain the skills they need to become sustainable, use resources efficiently and manage their risks. This needs to be factored into initiatives when they are planned by funders, including government. Cabinet Office could be a suitable funder of training for FBOs; at least, it should help to raise awareness of the factors that distinguish FBOs from the wider voluntary sector.
27. This point was made by Jeremy Lefroy MP in a Commons Chamber debate on the contribution of faith organisations to the voluntary sector in local communities, on 5 May 2016:[4]
“My third point is about training and support. We are talking about people giving up an awful lot of their time. In some cases, they are really passionate about something but they need training to enable them to be most effective. Although I am not asking for large sums of money for training or support, perhaps we need to ensure that all proposed programmes contain a training element, because volunteers really appreciate that. Often, such training is done within the programme. Street Pastors has excellent training programmes, as do most other organisations. Such training is necessary; without it, people may soon feel out of their depth and become discouraged, which may make them less able or willing to volunteer. We must recognise that these programmes are not for the short term. People often give up years— sometimes decades—of their life for such programmes, and they need to be supported with refresher courses as well as initial training.”
28. Infrastructure networks and umbrella organisations are sometimes seen as expensive to run, but in our experience this is not necessarily the case and such networks are the best ways of sharing best practice and information. They include voluntary sector-wide networks such as NAVCA, faith sector networks such as FaithAction, and networks within individual faiths such as Churches Together.
29. We are concerned that the great work that many smaller charities do often goes unnoticed, unrecorded and unappreciated. Such organisations may do an excellent job but do not necessarily invest in making their work known; their work should still be championed. This contrasts with cases such as that of Kids Company, which had very high profile but was ultimately undone by its failings.
8. What is the potential of social investment and social impact bonds?
30. There is a risk that small charities, which are not cash-rich, will not benefit from these initiatives as they do not have the resource to handle this kind of investment structure.
10. What can the charitable sector in England and Wales learn from other sectors and/or approaches taken in other countries, including from Northern Ireland and Scotland?
31. In our opinion, the public sector could learn from Germany, where faith-based social action and public service delivery is simply considered a natural part of the mainstream system, and of clear benefit to it. A great amount of social care in Germany is delivered through Diakonie Bundesverband (the Federal Association of Christian Welfare and Social Work), an umbrella organisation for the social and welfare work carried out by Protestant church-based welfare providers, and Caritas, the Catholic social and welfare umbrella organisation. Jewish initiatives are gathered under a similar organisational structure.[5]
19 August 2016
[1] www.thinknpc.org/our-work/projects/faith-based-charities
[2] www.faithaction.net/portal/our-projects/homelessness
[3] www.cinnamonnetwork.co.uk/cinnamon-faithaction-audits
[4] www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/backbench-business-committee/news-parliament-2015/chamber-debate-on-the-contribution-of-faith-organisations-to-the-voluntary-sector-in-local-communities
[5] See FaithAction (2012), ‘A paper on: Diakonie Bundesverband (The Federal Association of Christian Welfare and Social Work. Prepared for the All Party Parliamentary Group on Faith and Society’. Available at www.faithandsociety.org/resources/