Financial challenges
Earlier this week (18 March 2024), Clinks published its latest annual State of the Sector report. As it has done every year for the last decade, Clinks examines the profile of the sector, its finances, its future and, for this edition, the changes it wants to see from the government that wins the upcoming election. The report draws on several data sources: a survey of voluntary organisations working in the criminal justice system, two focus groups with voluntary organisations, interviews with charitable funders, and analysis of financial records submitted to the Charity Commission by ‘crime and justice’ charities, based on the UK Charity Activity Tag classification system.
Key findings
Three key themes emerged from the 2023 research:
- The voluntary sector working in criminal justice is continuing to operate in a challenging environment.
- Organisations preferred grant funding over contract arrangements, including for future government commissioning processes.
- Organisations were cautiously confident about their financial sustainability over the next two years but uncertain what service delivery might look like in that time.
In anticipation of this year’s UK General Election, Clinks asked organisations and funders what they would like to tell the incoming government. They want a new government to focus on:
- Investment in prevention and rehabilitation
- Leaning on the expertise of voluntary organisations
- Empowering local organisations to deliver in their communities.
People using services
Clinks found that:
- Most organisations saw an increase in the number of new service users they were supporting in their criminal justice work in 2022-23.
- An overwhelming majority of organisations also continued to report an increase in the level, complexity, and urgency of service user need, continuing a long-standing trend.
- Focus group participants said this increase in need was due to the cost-of-living crisis, the impact of the pandemic, and the longer-term trend towards reductions in public services, creating more acute issues while there were fewer ways for people to access support.
- To meet changing need, organisations said they are working more flexibly with clients and increasing partnership working with other voluntary organisations, but also that staff are taking on larger caseloads.
Together, these findings raise serious concerns about the quality of services organisations can deliver, the sustainability of maintaining those caseloads for both staff and service users, and staff welfare and retention.
Service delivery
Clinks found:
- A continued increase to in-person service delivery, with most services delivered face-to-face.
- The number of staff employed by voluntary organisations generally rose, mostly due to an expansion of service provision.
- However, focus group participants said they were making staffing changes to mitigate the impact of increased costs, such as through making redundancies, not filling vacancies, or widening responsibilities.
- Volunteer numbers broadly remained stable, and they were mostly involved in the direct delivery of services.
- Almost all organisations involved people with lived experience, including by consulting them on service design and delivery, employing them as staff and senior leaders, and recruiting them as volunteers.
Funding and financial sustainability
Clinks’ main findings were:
- Organisations largest sources of funding were both government/statutory contracts, and grants from trusts and foundations.
- Criminal Justice Charities receive significantly less income from donations and legacies than All Charities, as well as less income from trading activities.
- About two-thirds of survey respondents delivered services under contract or sub-contract, and Criminal Justice Charities were found to deliver more services under government contract than All Charities.
- Respondents were positive about their experiences of grant funding, particularly from charitable trusts and foundations, but slightly less so about government grants.
- Organisations were broadly negative about their experience of contract funding, which are almost always commissioned by the government or statutory bodies.
- While organisations reported stable or rising income from grants and contracts, this came at the same time as almost four-in-five reported rising running costs.
- Organisations were broadly confident about their financial sustainability over the next two years, but in focus groups, this was qualified by uncertainty as to what service delivery might look like two years later.
Manifesto
With a General Election in the offing, Clinks asked focus group participants and funders what they would like to tell a post-election government, and what support they might hope to see from it.
What organisations and funders wanted to tell the next government centred on three areas:
• Investing in prevention and rehabilitation
• Leaning on the expertise of voluntary sector organisations
• Empowering local organisations to deliver in their communities.
