Gov.UK have shared reports from the Coronavirus Community Support Fund (CCSF) Grantholder Learning Hub, which was open to all recipients of the CCSF and National Lottery emergency funding during the pandemic.
The Learning Strand of the CCSF evaluation was a new way for the National Lottery Community Fund to create, share and facilitate learning from a major programme of funding for voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations during a crisis.
The Learning Hub reports contain the reflections of 3,200 organisations and highlighted areas of improvement for the sector as a whole.
The Creating a culture of wellbeing to support staff and volunteers report notes how the uncertainty and pressures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the wellbeing needs of staff and volunteers and led to greater awareness about wellbeing issues in the VCS more widely.
Key Findings
For VCS organisations
• VCS leaders must understand the strategic benefits of prioritising staff and volunteer wellbeing. By improving the quality and sustainability of services, promoting staff and volunteer wellbeing brings wider benefits to beneficiaries and communities.
• VCS organisations should explore funding for wellbeing initiatives, through highlighting the relationship between staff and volunteer wellbeing and wider organisational and community benefits.
•With remote working continuing and an increase in ‘blended’ working models, VCS organisations need to think carefully about how to promote the inclusion of all staff and volunteers and avoid division between people. Making staff and volunteer wellbeing a strategic priority can help with this.
• Some VCS organisations may be able to use their expertise of supporting wellbeing to generate income, by advising others on ways to promote staff and volunteer wellbeing.
For funders
• By encouraging VCS organisations to include support for staff and volunteer wellbeing in funding applications and requesting information on how staff and volunteer wellbeing is supported, funders can highlight the ongoing importance of promoting wellbeing and encourage VCS organisations to put support in place.
• Funders can promote staff and volunteer wellbeing by sharing good practice from funded projects about the tools and activities work best support staff and volunteer wellbeing. Funding research can also help demonstrate the benefits between staff and volunteer wellbeing and organisational resilience and effectiveness.
• To minimise the risk of exhaustion and burnout among staff, funders should consider whether funding applications include a realistic allocation of hours.
• Funders can support the wellbeing of VCS leaders creating opportunities for networks of leaders to support one another. For example, by matching leaders to act as peer support to one another, or funding organisations to provide support to leaders.
