Our borough has a vibrant and flourishing third sector which caters for a variety of needs covering everything from dementia to disability, sport to parent support networks.
We value the passion, diversity, and independence our partners bring which plays a crucial role in advocacy, service delivery, representing residents and developing enterprising solutions to many of the challenges we face. Thanks to them, the borough ranks as the "kindest" in London based on the number of charities per head.
Many council services work with local voluntary and community sector organisations to offer direct support, advice, and information to residents. The sector was instrumental in the community response to the Covid-19 pandemic and more recently the cost-of-living crisis.
Our Cost-of-Living Alliance brought together local organisations to share information and develop approaches to maximise the positive impact we can make together.
In recent years, H&F has invested over £3.3m annually in our third sector, such as for commissioned advice services, grant-funded projects, fast track small grants and support to the third sector itself to develop and excel.
This has included investing in the local Citizens Advice, the H&F Law Centre, Action on Disability, and domestic abuse charities – providing help for important services in a period of reduced central government funding and increasing demand on services.
Our ambition
Our ambition is to maintain a strong and capable third sector that is well equipped to support our rapidly changing communities.
This means working with and listening to independent organisations to continue to improve the delivery of their and our own services, with the aim of building stronger, active, and more connected communities across our borough.
Short term goals
In the short term, we will:
- continue to invest in and enhance our partnerships with third sector organisations, not least those that support residents with the cost of living, poverty and social exclusion
- build on the Cost-of-Living Alliance to create a permanent forum for interaction with and within the sector
- review our approach to engagement and funding provision for third sector organisations, as part of the development of our Third Sector Strategy, to ensure it serves the changing needs and aspirations of our diverse residents.
Long term goals
In the long term, we will:
- work with third sector organisations to co-produce their services and ensure that ours is the country's leading borough for co-production
- work with third sector organisations on delivering shared, cross-cutting priorities
- extend our co-production activity to ensure third sector organisations fully represent the community and participate in decision-making in their areas of expertise
- work to build capacity within the third sector enabling them to better serve our communities
- undertake outreach with our communities across the borough so that residents can tell us what they would like the council to support and invest in
- ensure our third sector is flexible to adjust to the changing needs of residents during emerging times of crisis.