01 Apr 2007 - Dissolution of Voluntary Action Bolsover
VOLUNTARY ACTION BOLSOVER
A joint-statement from Mandy Chambers and Eion Watts
Chair and Vice-Chair of Bolsover Local Strategic Partnership
You may have read recently that Voluntary Action Bolsover, or VAB as it was known, has been wound up.
Voluntary Action Bolsover was a registered charity and a local development agency incorporating a council for voluntary service (CVS) and a volunteer bureau. Amongst the roles it undertook were support for the development of various forums, providing help with putting together funding bids, writing constitutions, and generally helping groups to develop their capacity.
Under the Local Government Act 2000 and Neighbourhood Renewal Guidance, the Local Strategic Partnership has a duty to support a robust, fit for purpose Community Empowerment Network and this had already been established for this purpose in 2001, including representation from VAB.
However, in July 2005 the Local Strategic Partnership funded a mapping exercise, looking at the current voluntary and community provision across Bolsover District.
The result of this process was a further report with specific recommendations, the most important recommendation being the creation of a single, unified community and voluntary sector organisation for the Bolsover District.
A Working Group was formed consisting of the organisations affected by the outcomes of the Final Report (including Voluntary Action Bolsover). However, jointly, the Group were unable to agree upon the implementation of the recommendations. Following lengthy debate and discussions, Voluntary Action Bolsover took the decision to no longer participate in the process to form a new umbrella organisation.
This decision was not forced upon VAB by the Local Strategic Partnership nor was any influence brought to bear for them to arrive at their decision. Indeed, no representative from the Local Strategic Partnership was invited by VAB to take part in their (VAB’s) discussions which ultimately led to their decision to withdraw.
However, over a period of several months every effort was made to engage with all of the community and voluntary sector partners in the creation of a unified organisation. The decision by VAB not to participate in this process was regrettable for all concerned.
Consequently the working group proceeded with the implementation of the report recommendations and a new umbrella organisation has emerged, Community and Voluntary Partners (CVP) .
The minutes of the Executive Support Group meetings, which contain the discussions over the restructure of the community and voluntary sector partners, are available on this website. Click here to be taken directly to the pages (http://www.bolsoverpartnership.org.uk/meetings-detail/11/ ).