The value of infrastructure to the children, young people and families' VCS

The economic climate, combined with current government thinking regarding ‘civil society’ as an alternative/ low cost provider of public services and the Big Society emphasis may pose a potential threat to infrastructure organisations who do not directly deliver frontline services.

In this climate it will be essential for infrastructure organisations to have a clear sense of their ‘offer’ and value, both individually and as a collective and to develop this into clear messages to inform policy and budgetary decision making.

The purpose of this roundtable event (delivered by Children England and supported by G:up) will be to bring together infrastructure organisations supporting the children, young people and families VCS and to begin an honest dialogue looking at:

• What support is currently being offered across the region;
• Whether there is a common or core offer which we could collectively make a strong case for (to support you in your conversations at local level);
• How we could work collectively to build the evidence base for such a case; and
• Agreeing actions to take this work forward.

To maximise use of time on the day, a short (5mins) initial questionnaire gathering brief details on the support you provide to organisations working with children, young people and families will be circulated this week. The information will be collated and analysed in advance to aide dialogue.