The Organisation's Background
The Organisation’s Background
In early 2004 the Somerset Voluntary Sector Network Ltd (SVSN - a county-wide organisation, committed to supporting and strengthening the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) in Somerset) was awarded funding by The Somerset Learning and Skills Council to deliver a county-wide training and capacity building project. In August 2004 ViSTA was established as the training and capacity building arm of SVSN.
SVSN has continued to develop its work in Somerset and is a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity. SVSN has established a range of other infrastructure support services funded through The Change UP Programme including the Somerset Funding Advice Workers Network and the Somerset Volunteer Support Centre.
The original work plan for ViSTA was developed in response to “Working Together - A Strategy For The Voluntary And Community Sector And The Learning & Skills Council” - May 2004 and The HM Treasury Report “The Role of The Voluntary and Community Sector In Service Delivery – A Cross Cutting Review” - September 2002 (CCR). Both these policy initiatives continue to drive change across the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) and Public Sector and have been considered alongside others in producing ViSTA’s 3 year Plan.
ViSTA’s first capacity building programme has been available to volunteer and paid staff from Somerset’s VCS since January 2005 and was funded in the main through LSC co-financing (European Social Fund). During this period ViSTA has delivered training to over 900 individuals from more than 300 organisations. In addition to the main programme ViSTA developed a number of subsequent projects to offer specialist infrastructure support services to the VCS in relation to their education and training provision, performance improvement, governance and quality assurance.
During the last quarter of 2005 the ViSTA team undertook a full service review. This process included a facilitated Team Review, a Self Assessment Report (SAR against the criteria of the Adult Learning Inspectorate) and an independent mid-term evaluation (Appendix 1). The review highlighted a number of distinctive features which ViSTA will seek to maintain and develop further. These include being “an outward facing organisation”, keeping “well informed”, “demonstrating entrepreneurial skills and a commitment to quality” and “working effectively across organisational and sector boundaries ”. This document sets out the next phase of ViSTA’s development and explains:
-
How we plan to consolidate our activities and respond to our wider environment,
-
How we plan to secure a long term future for our work,
-
How we plan to structure our organisation and make the best use of our resources.
Telephone: 01458 259487 or 01458 253599