west of england consortium

The VCSE Forums develop and strengthen the VCSE sector by:

• Enabling all organisations or groups to come together and address key issues;
• Working in partnership to create a representative voice that will achieve effective outcomes.

Membership of the Forums is open to any VCSE organisation or group working in Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

VCSE Forums:

• Are membership led;
• Act as a powerful collective voice for the VCSE sector in dealing with statutory bodies;
• Are a platform for collective consultation within the VCSE sector and with external bodies;
• Promote working together in order to improve services delivered by VCSE organisations;
• Are the formal bodies that each VCSE Steering Group reports to;
• Will hold at least three meetings per year and will be based around a particular issue(s) of importance to the sector within each of the authority areas.

VCSE Steering Groups

VCSE Steering Groups are the working executive of the VCSE Forums. Members sit on the respective LSP in each authority area.

VCSE Steering Groups actively identify and promote the interests of the VCSE sector and act as the main focus for feeding into strategic partnerships. They also act as a mechanism for bringing local infrastructure and frontline organisations together.

VCSE Steering Groups:

• Are VCSE led and managed locally;
• Are ratified by the respective Voluntary Sector Forum;
• Act as a pre-meeting to LSPs;
• Have an agreed format for representation to LSPs;
• Have a meeting timetable that lines up with LSP meetings;
• Report back to each VCSE Forum meeting;
• Report back to West of England Consortium through the Consortium Coordinator.

From here on in VCSE is shortened to VCS when discussing Forums and Steering Groups.