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V fears 90 jobs will go after £8m schools volunteering programme is abolished
By Kaye Wiggins, Third Sector Online, 29 July 2010
The youth volunteering charity says Department for Education's decision to cut vschools is 'complete folly' and won't save much money
Ninety staff at volunteering charity v have been told their posts might be made redundant after the Department for Education abolished the charity’s £8m schools volunteering programme.
V received all of the funding for its vschools programme, under which schools were allowed to make community work part of their curricula, from the Department for Education. The programme was launched in January, with one-year government funding worth £8m.
The 90 staff include school advisers who were auditing existing community schemes at schools and offering suggestions for new volunteering projects.
Jayne Colquhoun, corporate affairs director at v, said it was "complete folly" to close the vschools programme.
"The government wants to set up a National Citizen Service scheme, and this programme was preparing young people for that," she said.
Colquhoun said v was told yesterday that the scheme would be abolished and had launched a consultation with its staff about the redundancies.
In a statement, Terry Ryall, chief executive of v, said: "The decision not to fund vschools is a big blow for the big society. This government, like all others, will be judged by its actions rather than its words.
"In just four months vschools has established a universal volunteering and social action initiative for every state secondary school in England. Feedback from schools and local government has been universally positive and welcoming."
The statement said savings to the public purse as a result of scrapping the scheme would be minimal, because the start-up funding had already been spent.
A statement from the Department for Education said: "The action needed this year to address the deficit is unprecedented. The government is still fully committed to youth volunteering. Young people of all ages can and do already volunteer, with their families, at school and in the wider community.
"The National Citizen Service programme will act as a gateway to the big society for many young people."
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Geoffrey Foster, 30 July 2010, 11:16
This is what happens with a Tory government - people should know better
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Stephen Dale, 30 July 2010, 11:31
This is shaping up to be everything we feared about the Big Society. Much as I slightly resent the millions of pounds poured into V whilst Volunteer Development Agencies such as local Volunteer Centres struggle to maintain their services on tiny grants from local authorities \(if they are lucky) I hate to see existing initiatives pulled in this way - especially when most of the money has already been spent \(on a very very expensive website). What hope does this offer to the organisations which already see themselves as the agents of the Big Society - if you want to put it that way - the CVSs and the Volunteer Centres? What hope is there that the government will invest in existing infrastructure rather than re-invent the wheel?
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David Smith, 30 July 2010, 13:32
The funding that went into V should always have been used to strengthen existing provision - had that happened they might not ben facing 90 redundancies when the funding inevitabely ended.
Whether or not Big Society is a smokescreen for cuts - this was a one year project that would have most probably ended anyway.
Lets just hope the the new government is a little smarter about where it invests in the future.
@Stephen - good point about the website - just another examples of money going into IT with no sustainable plan for the future.
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John Wolf , 30 July 2010, 15:11
Tax and Axe
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jenni young, 2 August 2010, 11:43
Can I take this opportunity to dispel one of the greatest myths of modern time, \(apart from Santa Claus). To set the record straight - the "millions poured into v" were promptly and judiciously granted to organisations across England to support and provide a grassroots infrastructure for volunteering where it matters most and to strengthen existing provision. In fact, our central operating costs run at 6% - almost half of our counterparts and sector average. We are deliberately lean to ensure that local organisations and those who need it most benefit from the investment. By March 2011, v will have invested to the tune of £114m in community based organisations. And contrary to the comments above, a great many volunteer centres have been and continue to be funded by us.
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Warren Escadale, 2 August 2010, 12:18
I appreciate these are austere times but it's becoming increasingly difficult to see where the intelligent investment for medium to long term growth is being made. I know the Government outlined key questions \\(in the Spending Review Framework) in order to assess spending and I also know that each Departmental Structural Reform Plan should consider the Big Society agenda -- what I hope is that the Spending Review and each Government Department \\(besides a cuts agenda) looks at positive ways, intelligent investment, to grow our economy, build our communities and help families to prosper. I'm not sure Big Society is a specific enough question and answer. There's a sense in which it can mean all things for all people without ever reaching a consensus. For me, I'm beginning to think it lacks the rigour of the Government's cuts questions.
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