Voluntary and community sector (VCS) strategy 2022 - 27 consultation

Oxfordshire County Council is co-producing a five-year voluntary and community sector strategy with the local voluntary and community sector (VCS). The strategy aims to underpin the relationship between the council and the sector, to reiterate our commitments to each other and ensure alignment to the needs of our communities.

We are now consulting on the draft priorities and ambitions for the emerging strategy, which have been developed by our Voluntary and Community Sector Strategy Co-Production Group. We would like your views on whether these are right to meet the needs of the local VCS. We would like you to tell us if you think there are gaps in our understanding or whether there are other important priorities and ambitions to consider. The ambitions are deliberately high level, and a more detailed work programme will be developed for us to follow over the next five years.

The consultation is open until 11.59 on 12 June. During that time we want to hear from as many local voluntary and community sector groups as possible. What you tell us will be carefully analysed, taken into account and will influence the final strategy.

Supporting information

Oxfordshire County Council recognises and values the critical work the local VCS does across Oxfordshire, and the positive impact this has on residents. Local Government alone cannot create a greener, fairer and healthy county for our residents, and we know that the local VCS provides a vital contribution to help achieve this.

In December 2021, we hosted two virtual workshops which over 90 local VCS organisations registered to attend. The workshops allowed us to gather the initial evidence from the sector about their challenges and decide how to bring forward the co-production of the strategy. From this, we developed a Voluntary and Community Sector Strategy Co-Production Group, open to anyone in the local VCS who wanted to join.

Since then, with 11 VCS organisations on the group, we have analysed the evidence from the workshops held last year and developed our priorities and ambitions for the strategy.

The final version of the strategy will be published in the summer of 2022.

Please fill in our online survey by clicking the ‘TAKE SURVEY’ button below.