Background Information – London Voluntary Service
Council (LVSC)
LVSC’s vision is of a vibrant and sustainable city where people’s lives are enhanced
through voluntary and community action.
London’s voluntary and community sector is at the heart of our work. To achieve our vision,
on behalf of the London voluntary and community sector, we will:
1
Be a central resource for knowledge and policy for
London VCS
We want to:
2

Be a central repository and directory for knowledge on the sector

Be an influential centre of policy analysis and response

Demonstrate the impact of the sector on the lives of Londoners
Act as a collaborative leader for London’s voluntary and
community sector
We aspire to:
3

Enable and deliver a strong strategic and independent voice for the sector

Promote and champion the sector

Act as a bridge between the voluntary and community sector and other partners
Enable the voluntary and community sector to best
deliver for Londoners
We want to:

Equip people and organisations in the sector to serve their communities

Enable people and organisations in the sector to collaborate effectively

Share best practice across the sector
Cross cuttng themes
Poverty, equality, health and climate change will be cross-cutting themes throughout all of our
work.
LVSC’s role
We believe LVSC has a pivotal role moving forward – working in partnership with the
sector to make sure it can best meet the needs of Londoners, that its voice is heard as
strongly as possible and that we properly understand and champion the sector and its
impact on the lives of Londoners.
We need to be confident about our leadership role and accept the challenges it brings,
whilst recognising the roles of other organisations and signposting appropriately. We must
base our leadership role on collaboration, objectivity, impartiality and knowledge of the
sector. This will enable us to identify gaps in the sector and work with partners to fill them
appropriately.
Our values
Equality
Inclusion
Collaboration
Sustainability
Learning
Independence
Our beliefs

The needs of Londoners are paramount and the VCS must at all times prioritise the proven
needs of the people in the communities they serve

The VCS is an invaluable part of the provision of effective services to people in London’s most
vulnerable and disadvantaged communities and has a crucial role in giving them a voice

The VCS must maintain its independence in order to protect its ability to respond to the needs
of Londoners

The VCS has a critical role to play in promoting social justice, diversity and inclusion and in
tackling poverty, inequality and climate change

Collaborative working, partnership and networking are effective ways of maximising limited
resources
Our services
LVSC provides a range of services to voluntary organisations including:

A representative voice for London’s voluntary and community sector, through strategic
networks: Voluntary Sector Forum and the London Employment and Skills Policy Network.

Policy support for London’s voluntary and community sector, including consultation,
briefings and analysis and training on issues and initiatives that affect the voluntary and
community sector.

Personnel, Employment Advice and Conciliation Service (PEACe) which provides a
dedicated employment advice service to support organisations dealing with employment
issues (http://www.lvsc.org.uk/advice-support/lvsc-hr-advice.aspx).

Management and personal development training courses, delivered in conjunction with
Happy Ltd, for staff and volunteers in voluntary and community sector organisations.
(http://www.happy.co.uk/happy-people/lvsc/).

A popular website (www.lvsc.org.uk) – full of news and information about the sector,
directories and resources relating to LVSC’s areas of expertise including policy, HR and
employment law, funding, organisational development, networking and more.

A new initiative under Transforming Local Infrastructure funding which includes, developing
United Way London, developing a bidding company, assisting in impact measurement, a
small merger pot.
The Chief Executive directly manages:
Head of Policy & Knowledge
PEACe staff
Transforming Local Infrastructure staff
Marketing and Communication staff
LVSC is a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee. We are controlled by our
members and consult with the voluntary and community sector across London.
VCS membership is open to CVSs, voluntary and community organisations and other not-for-profit
organisations that work in at least one London borough or are based in London. Supporter
membership is open to individuals, public sector organisations or private sector companies.
LVSC is funded by London Councils, City Bridge Trust, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Trust for
London and Big Fund.
Staff Team
All LVSC staff are currently based at our offices in Kings Cross.
Alison Blackwood – Head of Policy and Knowledge
Shirley Briggs – PEACe Advisor
Tim Brogden – Policy Officer
Michelle Curtis – Policy and Knowledge Support Officer
Lin Gillians – Interim Chief Executive
Steve Kerr – Policy Officer
Debbi Sandiford – Office Manager
Sandra van der Feen – Policy Officer
Valerie Walwyn – United Way Development Officer
A further note about Transforming Local Infrastructure
LVSC has been successful in its bid for Transforming Local Infrastructure funding. We will receive
£400k over 18 months.
The overall aim of TLI is very simply to transform infrastructure provision and work in a different
way.
Strand 1 – United Way
Outcome - Working across London with our partners we will develop a United Way model, that
brings together the private, public and voluntary and community sector to generate investment
from donors and large businesses (through sponsorship, payroll giving, and major gifts) for
effective programmes which address inequalities, and are delivered by frontline civil society
organisations.
LVSC have roughly £100,000 to put towards developing this strand. We are working with a
number of London borough Councils for Voluntary Service who are each committing £50,000 of
their own funding (from their own successful Transforming Local Infrastructure Fund bids) to
enable the development of United Way London.
Strand 2 – Bidding Company
Outcome - A bidding company is created for the purposes of enabling frontline civil society
organisations to find, and win, contracts and support their delivery, through consortia bids. Both
large and small frontline organisations will benefit. This work will include mapping those consortia
which exist, to ensure coordination and provide them with services to support and extend their role.
Some time ago LVSC started working with partners to develop a London-wide vehicle that could
bid for larger contracts and pull in relatively quickly the right voluntary and community sector
partners at the right time. The funding (roughly £80,000) will allow us to continue to develop this
vehicle but also ensure that the London-wide vehicle links with and supports local consortia.
Strand 3 – Intelligence and needs assessment
Outcome - We will gather intelligence from the voluntary and community sector and use this to
assess needs across London and demonstrate the effectiveness of services. This will ensure more
effective use of intelligence from civil society organisations to inform the decisions of policy
makers, commissioners, businesses and frontline organisations delivering services, as well as the
United Way work
This strand links the two pieces of work above to policy work. This work will link much more to
gathering intelligence and evidence of need and gaps in provision to enable civil society and
statutory organisations (including commissioners) to identify and tackle the big priorities in London.
It will join up the intelligence at local level to Londonwide work to give us a holistic picture.
Roughly £100,000 is available for this work.
Strand 4 – Support merger
Outcome - We will identify and make a small fund available to support Londonwide organisations
wishing to pursue merger; provided this enables them to be more efficient to benefit civil society
organisations.
This is a very small pot of money (around £20,000) to enable Londonwide organisations to merge
by contributing to legal fees or other costs.
Office Location
2nd Floor, 200a Pentonville Road, London N1 9JP
Kings Cross/St Pancras is the nearest London Underground station, only 10 minutes from the
office, and is better connected than any other London station with 6 of the major tube lines running
through it – Victoria, Hammersmith and City, Piccadilly, Circle, Metropolitan, and Northern
lines.
Kings Cross and St Pancras mainline rail stations are a 10 minute walk from the office.
Buses that run along Pentonville Road include 30, 73 and 214. Additional buses that stop at Kings
Cross Station include 10, 17, 45, 46, 63, 91,and 259.
July 2012