Annual Review 2014/2015 This year Sutton Centre for the Voluntary Sector (SCVS) celebrates 50 years of

supporting voluntary organisations in Sutton.

However, our core purpose remains the same this year as in 1965 – enabling the community to respond to local

need, developing voluntary organisations, communicating with the sector, bringing people together, and

championing the work of our 278 member organisations.

The voluntary sector continues to experience some of its most challenging times, facing ongoing reductions in funding

from all sources combined with an increased demand for services. SCVS has prioritised support in the key areas that make

organisations more robust and sustainable – governance, fundraising, quality standards, partnership and demonstrating

impact.

In 2014/15 we provided 305 one to one advice sessions to organisations (with funding as ever the most pressing

issue); delivered 18 training sessions on a number of topics and represented the sector on at least 22 strategic partnerships

or groups. We also continue to administer the Sutton Community Fund and distributed 27 grants totalling £155,644 to

enable organisations to deliver work beneficial to the local community.

Partnerships have been a major focus of our work during the year, demonstrating the value and importance of

organisations working together to respond to challenging times. We have supported Sutton Together (the voluntary sector

consortium) to win 3 major contracts and develop proposals for a Care Delivery Partnership. We also enabled the

development of new partnerships - Arts Network Sutton, Sutton Theatres Trust and Sutton Esteem. We have also prioritised

building the good relationships between the voluntary and public sectors in Sutton, with ongoing Compact meetings and

key areas of work around commissioning and the Developmental Assets Framework. The strength of our partnership was

confirmed once again by the winning of a second national Compact Award in 2014 for innovation.

Our plans to develop The Grove (Carshalton) into a Voluntary Sector Hub were given a boost in December 2014 when

we learnt that our first stage bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund had been successful. This was a real achievement and gives us

the funding and time to develop full proposals for a second stage bid in 2016 (fingers crossed!).

SCVS has also achieved significant successes in other areas. In partnership with the Volunteer Centre and five other

voluntary organisations we won the Infrastructure Support and Capacity Building Fund contract which secures our core

funding for the next 2 – 4 years and in 2014/15 we developed a new membership offer to increase our income generation

potential. We were delighted to achieve PQASSO Level 2 early in 2015 which, along with the NAVCA Quality Award, verifies

that we are a well-run organisation delivering high-quality services.

As ever, my thanks to the staff of SCVS, my fellow trustees and all our partners and supporters for all their hard work

and commitment that has made these achievements possible and I look forward to another successful year with SCVS.

Denise Crone, Chair of SCVS Board of Trustees

1965 - 2015

1965 In 1965 the inaugural

meeting was held of the

Sutton and Cheam Council

of Social Services… later

to become SCVS. From

then we have gone from

strength to strength...

1967 In July 1967 a

Voluntary Service

Bureau was set up at

West Street, opening

initially on Mondays

and Wednesdays

only.

1974 1st April 1974 – The Sutton

Council of Social Service

becomes the Sutton Council

for Voluntary Service (SCVS)

1971 In 1971 the new Priory

Crescent Bureau (Cheam

and Worcester Park) was

established and a Bureau

organiser Mrs Frances

Watt was appointed

1978 Carshalton

Voluntary Services Bureau

was established at ‘The

Lodge, Honeywood Walk,

Carshalton, Surrey

1981 Assorted fundraising events

took place to raise money

for the International Year of

Disabled People. Total

amount raised - £10,000

1976 Stringent economic

measures affecting the

Statutory Services inevitably

meant that the services

offered by the voluntary

sector came into their own.

1966 June 30th 1966 –

First AGM of the

Council of Social

Service, with 80

people attending.

1982 Gordon Lambert retired as

Chairman of Sutton Council

for Voluntary Service after

ten years. Sutton

Bereavement Service set

up.

1985 The Voluntary Sitting In

Service was established

by SCVS and Victim

Support Scheme was set

up.

1990 SCVS celebrated 25

years of supporting

Sutton’s voluntary

sector.

1987 Entering the world of

technology—the first

computer was installed at

West Street.

1995 SCVS moved to

Unilink House.

1984 A pilot scheme for

Homestart was started in

Sutton by Marion Moss.

1998 Sutton Community

Transport was

established.

1997 SCVS became a

Company Limited

by Guarantee.

1993 £50,000 was

received from LBS

to purchase three

vehicles for use by

the community

sector.

2003 SCVS launched its first

website.

Sutton Compact

principles agreed.

2000 Sutton Community

Fund launched.

2015 SCVS celebrates 50

years of supporting

the voluntary sector in

Sutton.

2004 Granfers Community

Centre officially

opened.

2013 The first Sutton

Trustee of the Year

Award was awarded to

Muriel McIntosh.

2005 SCVS celebrated 40 years

with a ‘Movers and Shakers’

event. South London

Voluntary Sector Learning

Consortium was

launched in

September.

2007 SCVS attracted funding for

the Sutton Multi Agency

Refugee Alliance public

exhibition.

2006 The first birthday of the

highly successful Play

Network was celebrated

with its 85 members.

2009 By 2009 Sutton LINk,

set up by SCVS, had a

membership of 250

voluntary

organisations and 290

individuals.

2011 CPS Payroll a

successful trading arm

with over 100 clients

by 2011.

Developing Our main area of work is providing

support to voluntary organisations

covering every aspect of running a

charity or small community group.

Supporting Joint Working During 2014/15 SCVS supported a number of

significant projects, encouraging voluntary

organisations to work together to establish new

services in response to local need, or to secure public

sector contracts.

We worked on a focussed

piece of work to develop

Sutton Arts Council into a

strong and well governed

charity, now known as Arts

Network Sutton.

We supported the

development of Esteem

Sutton, a partnership of 7

VCOs working with children

and young people, to

develop and promote

emotional wellbeing in

schools.

SCVS led on a significant

piece of work for Sutton

Together to develop a Care

Delivery Partnership in

response to the Care Act.

SCVS worked with Sutton

Together Partners to enable

them to win three contracts

with a combined annual

value of £872,000.

We supported arts

organisations to form a

Theatres Trust to bid to run

London Borough of Sutton

theatres in Sutton.

Training

In 2014/15 we provided 18 training

sessions for 123 staff, volunteers and

trustees of voluntary organisations.

These ranged from a crowdfunding

workshop to safeguarding, emergency

first aid and developing a fundraising

strategy.

Quality Standards

SCVS supports organisations to work towards the PQASSO

quality standard, which is the most appropriate quality mark

for small organisations and is recognised by the Charity

Commission.

In 2014/15 we supported two organisations (Refugee and

Migrant Network, and Jigsaw4U) to successfully obtain level

one PQASSO accreditation; one organisation to successfully

prepare for their assessment and a further six organisations

to work towards PQASSO.

Helping organisations

generate income

SCVS supports voluntary organisations (through one-to

-one advice, training and brokerage/group support to

achieve greater financial stability.

In 2014/15 bespoke support for business planning was

provided to 6 organisations; fundraising strategy and

business planning was discussed at our forums, and

SCVS involved the sector in various commissioning

activities.

Connecting

One of SCVS’s core functions is to make sure that voluntary and

community sector organisations in Sutton are well informed about

national and local policies and developments, funding

opportunities, consultations and relevant training and events. We

do this by providing information through our website

(www.suttoncvs.org.uk), bi-monthly newsletter the Networker, e-

bulletins and social media, as well as through one to one advice

sessions, emails and through our forums and events.

The Networker

During 2014/15 five

editions of our newsletter

The Networker were

produced.

Networking One of the ways SCVS promotes join working is

through our forum/network meetings. These

also offer an important opportunity for sharing

information, receiving updates from the public

and voluntary sector, and a chance for

organisations to comment on and influence

local strategies.

In 2014/15 there were:

2 Voluntary Sector Forums

4 Health, Wellbeing and Social Care Networks

4 Children, Young People and Families

Forums

2 Social Enterprise Networks

2 Small Groups Forums

Which altogether were attended by around

300 people.

Trustees’ Week 2014 In November 2014 we held our second annual event especially

for trustees as part of Trustees’ Week 2014. The networking event

was attended by more than 50 trustees from across Sutton.

During the evening the second ’Sutton Trustee of the Year

Award’ was presented to Mavis Peart, Chair of Sutton Mencap, for

her excellent work as a Sutton trustee.

“ feel deeply honoured by it because I know that there are

hundreds of trustees who are just as effective as I am and I think

that’s why I feel very touched by this particular honour and I think

we are very fortunate in Sutton as there are so many people who

are willing to work in charities not for what they can get out of it

but because they want to be useful and do some helpful work in

the community.

I particularly think the effectiveness of the trustees in Sutton

is because we are all involved with SCVS and their amount of

knowledge and advice helps us to be effective when we run our

charities.”

Mavis Peart, Nov 2014

Influencing SCVS makes sure that Sutton’s voluntary and community sector

organisations have their say on key developments and decisions made

that affect them, both at a local and a national level, so that their views

have real influence.

SCVS currently represents the sector on 22 strategic groups

including the Health and Wellbeing Board, One Sutton Commissioning

Collaborative, Safeguarding Adults Board, Safer Sutton Partnership,

Children’s Trust and Local Safeguarding Children Board. For all of these

groups SCVS sought input from the voluntary sector beforehand and

fed back afterwards.

July 2014 saw the launch of Sutton’s voluntary sector consortium — set

up so that voluntary organisations in Sutton would have formal

arrangements and agreements in place to work together more efficiently

and effectively.

By March 2015 Sutton Together had grown to 14 full members and

9 associate members.

Since its launch the Consortium has won three contracts (annual

value of the three contracts is £872,000), developed a Care Delivery

Partnership in response to the Care Act and developed a response to four

other opportunities including the Information and Advice Contract and

the Health and Social Care Volunteering Fund.

Sutton Compact Much of the work promoting and championing the

voluntary sector takes place through the Compact—

the agreement that underpins the relationship

between the voluntary and public sector.

In 2014 , for the second year running, the Sutton

Compact won a Compact Award, the national awards

from Compact Voice, highlighting Sutton as one of the

best examples of local Compact work in the country.

We were nominated in two categories;

Innovation and Impact, and we took home the Impact

Award for our work on infrastructure support and the

capacity building fund.

Funding Sutton Community Fund

SCVS administers the Sutton Community Fund which since 2000 has allocated small

grants to the VCS to deliver work of benefit to the local community.

During 2014/15 three funding rounds were held and 26 grants were awarded

totalling £155,643. A wide range of projects received grants in the last financial year, including Sutton

Community Farm who received funding to construct an improved compost toilet, that is

fully accessible hygienic and comfortable for all visitors to the farm.

SCVS delivered free workshops to support VCOs applying to the fund and helped 12

individual organisations to complete their applications, and all these bids were successful.

ASSHH grants

In 2014/15 SCVS also administered a small grants scheme (amounts of up to £500)

on behalf of the Adult Social Services. During the year 14 grants were awarded

totalling £6,647 mainly to support small community groups working with

vulnerable adults eg. Sutton Seniors Forum.

Pro Active Sutton Physical Activity and Sports

Development Fund

The Pro Active Sutton Physical Activity and Sports Development Fund was a grants

funding programme, financed by Sutton Council and Public Health and

administered by SCVS. It supported projects that improve the take up and

maintenance of physical activity and sport by Sutton residents.

The Programme awarded 16 grants totalling £15,280. The successful

projects included Nordic walking sessions, the upskilling of staff to deliver sports

activities, yoga classes, exercise classes for people with cardiovascular disease, chair

based exercises and running club sessions.

Creative Payroll Solution (CPS) Ltd

The trading arm of the Charity, CPS Ltd provides

bespoke payroll services to voluntary organisations in

Sutton and beyond. The company continues to grow

despite the challenging economic circumstances and

in 2014/15 ran payroll for 122 organisations.

Since 2013 SCVS has been the

support organisation for

Healthwatch Sutton, Sutton’s

consumer champion for health and

social care., working in partnership

with SCILL who deliver the

information and advice service, and

Sutton CAB who deliver the

independent complaints advocacy

service.

A sustainable future In 2014/15 significant progress was achieved in developing SCVS

as a highly effective, sustainable infrastructure organisation.

A new membership offer was researched and developed, and

launched in April 2015. Meanwhile the community accountancy

service was revised and a new model developed to increase the

income generation potential.

We have also continued to generate income from running

training sessions and offering some admin services, and from our

community accountancy and payroll services

Accountancy services

During 2014/15 we generated

income by delivering accountancy

services to 22 organisations, as

well as providing free

management advice for small

voluntary and community

organisations.

Over the last year Sutton Centre for the Voluntary Sector (SCVS), in partnership

with Volunteer Centre Sutton and the Friends of the Grove, has continued to

work with our partners on exciting plans to transform Grove House, Carshalton

into a heritage and voluntary sector hub for the local community.

Grove House is a Victorian mansion situated at the heart of the Carshalton

Conservation Area. Built around 1840, the house is an important feature of the

local landscape and is one of the only surviving Victorian country houses in the

area. In recent years it has been occupied by Sutton Council, but in the past it

was home to generous local philanthropists who positively contributed to the

development and wellbeing of the community by supporting local charities and

other organisations.

We plan to:

Restore the house – open up approximately one third of the ground floor

for community and heritage activities and use the rest of the building as a

base for voluntary organisations and volunteering.

Open the house to the community to access its heritage and use its

facilities.

Keep the house in community ownership as a local asset.

Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF Bid)

The partnership has been successful with a first stage bid to the HLF which

provides funding and support to carry out further planning and preparation to

develop detailed plans and costs for the building and activities.

These will enable us to submit a second stage application in the Spring/

Summer of 2016 in order to secure funding to carry out all the work. This will

again be a competitive process and we are not guaranteed success, but Sutton

has a good track record with HLF bids and we will do everything we can to

produce the best possible application!

Grove House project

The next 50 years…. SCVS has played a key role in Sutton over the last 50 years. We have supported and

developed the voluntary sector, started new organisations to meet local need, ensured that

community voices are heard in the places where local decisions are made, and campaigned

for voluntary organisations and the people they support. So what challenges will we face

over the next 50 years? What will life be like for the people of Sutton in 2065 when SCVS celebrates 100 years? And how will SCVS adapt

and thrive to achieve our vision of ‘A strong and pro-active voluntary and community sector improving the lives of

people in Sutton’?

Whether you believe we are heading for a disaster caused by massive population growth and climate change, a

better world through rapidly developing technological solutions and advances in healthcare (or somewhere in between),

we know for certain that the voluntary and community sector will continue to play an essential role in our society. In any

future scenario local people will come together to meet the needs of their community, and some of these groups will

become voluntary organisations and charities. We can be sure of this because there will always be ‘need’, and because

throughout history people have always come together to improve their communities and the lives of others by taking

action or donating time or resources.

We know that the need will change because the population of Sutton is already changing – it is increasing and becoming

more diverse ethnically; the number of older people (65+) is predicted to rise by almost 21% by 2022; and by the same date

the number of younger people (0-19) is set to grow by 17.5%. The current priorities of reducing health inequalities, building

strong communities, developing the economy and environmental sustainability look likely to remain. However, the way society

responds will be challenged over the next 50 years by changes to political systems, the development and increasing use of

technology, how the economy develops and what happens in the public sector.

As a result voluntary organisations will change, as they have done over the last 50 years, some will no longer be relevant

by 2065 and will have closed, but new charities will emerge to meet the needs and challenges of the 2060s. These

organisations will need to be supported to survive and thrive by a charity like SCVS that understands their challenges and

aspirations, just like the organisations that were emerging in the 1960s. In a more complex world the need for an organisation

that can bring the voluntary sector together to develop partnership solutions and speak with one voice, and to advocate on

their behalf, will be even more critical.

So, we may be replaced by robots, operating from a floating building above Grove Park and be called the South London

Centre for the Voluntary Sector, but I predict that SCVS will still be relevant and needed and celebrating 100 years in 2065.

Susanna Bennett, Chief Executive, SCVS

Our Accounts

Unrestricted

funds (£)

Designated

funds (£)

Restricted

funds (£)

Total

funds (£) 2013 (£)

Total incoming resources 303,330 - 325,678 629,008 640,272

Total resources expended 303,105 23,277 270,001 596,383 695,798

Net incoming (outgoing)

resources before transfers 225 (23,277) 55,677 32,625 (55,526)

Gross transfers between

funds (10,000) 10,000 - - -

Net movement in funds (9,775) (13,277) 55,677 32,625 55,526

Total funds bought forward 96,946 368,421 84,139 549,506 605,032

Total funds carried

forward 87,171 355,144 139,816 582,131 549,506

Statement of financial activities for the year ended 31st March 2015

The financial statements have been produced in a format to comply with both

Company and Charity Law and the full document is available on request.

SCVS Chief Executive – Susanna Bennett

Development Team Manager – Toni Walsh

(to March 2015)

Development Officers – Tom Strannix (to

Nov 2014), Razia Sattar, Hilary Chisnall (from

Dec 2014)

Finance Manager – Glory Sivaraja

Community Accountants – Helen Varley (to

May 2015), Laura Corney (from June 2015)

Communications & Marketing Co-ordinator

– Claire Avery

Office and Grants Manager – Jackie Parr

CPS Ltd (Payroll Services) Payroll Officer – Karen Adorjan

Payroll Assistant – Melanie Brannan

Healthwatch Sutton Manager – Pete Flavell

Outreach & Engagement Officer – Pam

Howe

Admin, Comms & Marketing Assistant –

Sara Thomas

Trustees

Jeffrey Cashier

Denise Crone (Chair)

Neil Frater (Vice-Chair)

Candida Goulden (from Nov 2013)

Paul Harper

David Jones (to Nov 2014)

Jenny Sims

Nick Walsh (from Nov 2014)

Sutton Centre for the Voluntary Sector Granfers Community Centre, 73-79 Oakhill Road, Sutton, Surrey, SM1 3AA

Tel: 020 8644 2867

Email: enquiries@suttoncvs.org.uk

@SuttonCVS

www.suttoncvs.org.uk Company Limited by Guarantee registration No. 3336660 Registered Charity No. 1063129 (registered in England and Wales)

The team

SuttonCVS