Urgent Action - Who powers our Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise sector?

Humber and North Yorkshire Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) Collaborative is working in partnership with the University of York to record, understand and evidence who is part of the VCSE sector workforce across our region.

The VCSE sector is a crucial part of Humber and North Yorkshire’s health and social care workforce, providing many services to our communities. However, there is a lack of understanding of what the sector’s contribution consists of, and without the data it is difficult to get system partners to recognise the size and scale of the sector and to understand what we have within Humber and North Yorkshire.

Humber and North Yorkshire VCSE Collaborative’s mission is to position the VCSE sector as an equal and key partner in the design, planning and delivery of health and social care across our region. To do this, they need to know who powers our VCSE sector; who makes up our workforce, our working patterns and our contribution to health and care across our communities. To collect this data, they need your VCSE organisation to be involved in a workforce mapping exercise.

The data your organisation provides will be collated to create an in-depth picture of our sector. This will feed into the planning of future investment and resource allocation into the sector for the delivery of health and care services across our communities. By completing the survey, here’s how you will be supporting your organisation and the wider VCSE sector across Humber and North Yorkshire:

Value – if we can show the value provided by our workforce this can evidence the need to invest more into the VCSE sector.

Diversity and inclusion – the sector is diverse and being able to showcase that and evidence a sector that represents its communities is hugely valuable to health and care system partners.

Volunteer management – this can evidence the role and value of volunteers that provide significant hours that the sector could not do without.

Planning – talent retention – knowing the sector means organisations can compare themselves to the rest of the sector and not lose talent to other organisations.

Data driven – the world is dependent on good data. This survey creates a collective picture which leads to better decision making.

Impact – understanding the values and strengths of the sector workforce means we can drive real impact and build trust with both communities and system partners.

The survey has been extended to 28 March 2025.

COMPLETE THE SURVEY HERE: https://york.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bK4FheiziStegPY

Who should complete the research?

To show the full breadth of the VCSE sector, ALL charitable organisations are encouraged to get involved! 

From tiny organisations up to branches of large national charities, and everyone in between – if you are part of the VCSE sector, the VCSE Collaborative wants you to be part of the research!

Some of the questions might not be relevant to your organisation, but it’s still important that this data is captured as it forms part of the bigger picture and helps map what organisations do and do not record.

Before you complete the research, here’s some important things you should know:

The survey is completely confidential and takes up to 1 hour to complete.

To support you to complete the survey, please refer to the checklist (below).

To ensure your organisation only submits one entry, we recommend the person who is responsible for your workforce completes the survey. This could be your Chair, Chief Executive, Manager, or your Human Resources representative, or yourself, if you cover all of these roles.

Your responses will be saved on Qualtrics, so you can go back to complete the survey when you have time.

If you have any questions or you require the survey in an alternative format, you can email the VCSE Collaborative team via: hnyicb.vcseteam@nhs.net

Information checklist:

To support you to complete each section, please have the following information ready.

Section 1 – Your organisation and services

☐ Your organisation’s focus and areas of activity

☐ Financial information – funding, income, reserves

Section 2 – Workforce, demographics and capacity

☐ Number of employees, hours worked, contract type, working patterns

☐ Employee demographics and commuter distance

Section 3 – Workforce Management and Sustainability

☐ Employee movements over the past 12 months

☐ Recruitment, employee benefits and training practices

Section 4 – Volunteers

☐ Volunteer numbers and age range of volunteers

☐ Types of volunteer roles within your organisation

Start survey now

If you have any questions or you require the survey in an alternative format, you can email the VCSE Collaborative team via: hnyicb.vcseteam@nhs.net

What happens with the data?

Researchers at the University of York will explore all the data. They’ll map the scale, demographics and contribution of the sector, whilst identifying any gaps or trends.

The findings will be made available to the whole sector to provide insight into your contribution, and as a resource to support future investment into the sector. The VCSE Collaborative will also identify any developmental opportunities and will tailor support to grow and develop our sector’s workforce.