COVID-19 and VCSE organisations response

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According to a recent government report (DCMS 06/05/2020) the Voluntary Community and SocialEnterprise (VCSE) sector is "fighting for survival", with increased demand for its services, whilstsimultaneously facing funding cuts estimated at £4.3bn (during March-May 2020), resulting inmany VCSEs organisations estimated to be insolvent 'within weeks'. As the report states:"Social distancing is making delivering services harder and more costly. Reserves are running out.Smaller charities, in particular, are at risk of imminent closure".The core ideas for this project emerged through dialogue with DCMS, who are leading thegovernment's response on how COVID-19 is impacting the sector, and co-designed with NCVO, thesector's leading infrastructure organisation. The project has three purposes. First, to provide realtimedata and learning on how COVID-19 is impacting the whole sector and, significantly, variesacross different organisations by size, structure and services offered. Second, to provide lessonslearnedreports about how organisations on the impacts and responses to COVID-19, particularlyfocusing on the new working-practices and innovations which can be scaled across the UK. Third,to provide insights to aid long-term the VCSE sector's resilience.The project team brings a unique alignment of researchers specialising in the VCSE sector, HR andinnovation, NCVO, who provide sector knowledge, guidance and access, through their researchand policy team and 15,000 members. The outputs are a VCSE vulnerability barometer, providingreal-time data of the impact COVID-19 on the sector, lessons-learned reports, enabling innovationsto be scaled, a final project report and toolkit for resilience.