Wokingham Borough Council has decided it will no longer fund Voluntary Action Wokingham Borough.   This is what I said about it at last week’s council meeting.

“On 2nd December the council put out a press release on the subject of voluntary sector grants.  The first half of the press release invited voluntary and community groups to (I quote) “join a discussion on the future of the sector’s funding.”   The second half of the press release announced (I quote again) that “the Borough Council and NHS Berkshire West have decided to terminate their joint funding arrangement with Voluntary Action Wokingham Borough.” 

How typical of the way this council is run that the crucial decision to axe VAWB’s funding – and thus VAWB itself – was made before any discussion or consultation.  And how well-thought out that it was done before coming up with any alternative way of working with the voluntary sector.     

Voluntary Action Wokingham Borough is the umbrella organisation for the voluntary sector.   It provides help to a vast range of organisations, and acts as a link between the council and those organisations.   It is an integral part of the local strategic partnership.  Yet the announcement that the council was chopping VAWB’s grant from April came out of the blue.  We understand that VAWB themselves were given only a few days’ notice.  Without the council grant VAWB cannot continue to function, and it is already preparing to shut down. 

This is no way to treat an organisation which is one of the council’s main partners, and which represents a sector which the council will increasingly be relying on as times get harder. 

I have been looking into how this cut came to be made.  I was told that it was part of the in-year cuts made by the Executive in July.  So I looked at the July Executive report on “Budget Revisions”.  There is no mention of the voluntary sector in the list of cuts.    

If the Executive did indeed decide in July to cut funding to VAWB it is not exactly open and transparent not to put it in the agenda and not to let anyone know about it until the end of November.  And if they didn’t decide to do it in July – when did they?   It certainly has not featured at any Executive meeting or in any Individual Member Decision since.  A decision like this should not be made so secretly. 

There are only two possible conclusions about the decision on the VAWB grant.  Either the Executive did not know what was going on or it did know but wanted to stop anybody else finding out for as long as possible.  Incompetence or deceitfulness?  Neither reflects well on them.    

How ironic that at that same meeting in July at which VAWB’s funding is said to have been chopped, the Executive also considered a paper on The Wokingham Local Giving Partnership, which is the mechanism by which the borough’s voluntary sector grants are now to be distributed.  Attached to that paper was the constitution of The Giving Partnership, which explicitly names VAWB as part of its steering group. 

I am hoping this evening to get an explanation from someone in the Conservative group as to the process which was followed to make this cut, why it appears to have been kept secret for several months, why no-one in the voluntary sector was asked for their views in advance of the decision, and why it was taken without the council having come up with any alternative arrangements for how to work with the voluntary sector in the future, or for continuing the vital work that VAWB does to help voluntary groups. 

As I said earlier,  this is no way to treat an organisation which is one of the council’s main partners, and which represents a sector which the council will increasingly be relying on as times get harder.  To be honest, it’s a total disgrace.

I do not see how anyone can argue that cutting VAWB’s grant will save money in the long run if you have not yet done the work to show what will exist in the future instead of VAWB. 

I referred to the council press release inviting voluntary sector organisations to take part in a discussion about their future funding.  That discussion took place at a workshop on Tuesday and the Wokingham Times wrote about it last week.   This is part of what they said: 

[quote from the Wokingham Times 13th January 2011]

VAWB has argued cutting its funding before holding consultation on the council’s new commissioning process and the challenging financial climate was a mistake.One of the issues to be discussed at the meeting is where training, funding advice and communications for charities will come from – services VAWB provides at present.Ian Saxton, chief officer of VAWB, said: “Why is the council doing this having taken the decision to close VAWB? They could have done the consultation beforehand.“At the time the council told me it was ceasing funding they said they were going to carry out consultation, I said ‘what if that consultation comes back with the answer we like VAWB and we want VAWB’. I was told that is not an option.”Mr Saxton said the charity was not given the option to make savings, which he says VAWB could have done in consultation with the council.He also criticised the council for holding the workshop on the same day as a conference for all charities in Bracknell and Wokingham taking place in Binfield.       You couldn’t make it up.  You even managed to hold the workshop on the same day as a conference for local charities. 

The more I look at this the worse it appears.   I am sure that the Conservative group would like to see a flourishing voluntary sector in Wokingham.  Well, guys, you are not going to bring it about with this amazing mixture of short-sightedness, incompetence, secrecy and somewhat arrogant belief you always know best.  We on this side deplore these cuts to the voluntary sector, and you should too.”

 

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