04
- CHAPTER 4.1
FLEXIBLE AND RESPONSIVE - CHAPTER 4.2
LEVELS OF CONFIDENCE - CHAPTER 4.3
EMERGING CHALLENGES - CHAPTER 4.4
ONGOING SUPPORT TO REALISE POTENTIAL
4.1 FLEXIBLE AND RESPONSIVE
The typically innovative ways in which community businesses adapt to prioritise the needs of those they support demonstrates the potential for the sector to continue making a significant ongoing contribution to community wellbeing and prosperity.
Flexible support
A majority of community businesses have long offered more than one service to their local community, frequently aimed at building local people’s health and wellbeing, skills, prospects and employability. Their flexible and sustainable business models enable them to adjust their approach in response to the kind of external challenges that are exacerbating the economic and social disparities in the areas where they operate.
Community businesses responded creatively and effectively to meet the growing needs of the community through the pandemic; the proportion stating that they primarily provide public-facing support services has increased by 10 percentage points since 2021, to 31%. This year, this includes rising demand from their community for support with the increasing costs of food and energy, while also facing increased operational pressures.
Community technology
Many have been exploring, embracing and in some cases developing their own community technology; hardware or software created or adapted by a business for the benefit of the community.[1] 57% of community businesses said that they improved their digital systems or processes in the last 12 months, 36% created or adapted new technology, and 31% digitised existing or introduced new digital services.
Base size = 1,008.
Community businesses typically needed staff to create or adapt technologies: only 27% of those with no paid staff participated in technology activities in the past 12 months. These actions typify the responsive and entrepreneurial approaches helping community businesses meet the growing expectations of their communities, and their own aspirations for development and growth.
Respondents who said their community business created or adapted new technologies to support their community were more likely than others to have recently opened a new line of trading activity, diversified their services or developed new partnerships and collaborations with other organisations. Those creating or adapting technologies also reported a stronger impact on digital and financial inclusion in their communities compared with others.[2]
Base sizes vary between 978 and 986.
Interviewees from organisations who had worked with digital technology in this way elaborated on these findings, and said their aim was to bring technology, and the benefits it can offer, to the community. Grange Welfare Association, for example, introduced a new system to record activity and automatically generate invoices for the local authority. This reduces the time required for financial administration and improves cashflow through effective processes.
We record and collect what they’ve done, any problems they’ve had, whether they’ve accessed any other facilities that we’ve got… We fill all of that in on a computer software package, and that is sent to the local authority on a four-weekly basis, to generate our funds. It’s a complete package where we record, report, and then produce invoices.
Grange Welfare Association
Some interviewees said they had used digital innovation to improve their services. Digital Woodoo adapted new house-building technology to reduce the environmental impact and cost effectiveness of social housing projects. It adapted an ‘off-the-shelf’ system, bought using Power to Change funding, and created a protoype building template. It donated a building to a local Scout group and is working with local schools and youth groups to build new hubs for the community.
We’ve offered this building to the community, and we’re also involved in another project… which links the school and the Scouts together to try and build a Scout headquarters for the district Scout movement. We’re just trying to give something back to the community.
Digital Woodoo
CASE STUDY |
COMMUNITY CARE CONNECT
CASE STUDY: COMMUNITY CARE CONNECT
Community Care Connect (CCC) provides advice, resources and tailored support to community anchor organisations and local authorities, supporting them to develop their own, place-based Carer Introduction Services.
CCC’s online platform enables people seeking care to find and employ their own care and support workers, manage their rotas, communicate with their care teams, engage in peer support and utilise safe billing and payment processes.
Using funding from Power to Change, Community Care Connect adapted and developed a rapid prototype platform in partnership with Made Open, who operate a similar community-based matching program. This platform has proved popular, particular for its potential to address significant gaps in care and to help build local care capacity:
We were making, on average, 1.6 care matches a week and within 8 months there were 1,000 hours of care happening every week, which we directly facilitated. It had so many other brilliant impacts as well. We started off with 4 or 5 carers on our database, we ended up on 40.
Community Care Connect intends to sub-license its community-focused platform to connect organisations and different elements of the care system (such as peer networking, good practice advice for carers, and training). This could improve the resilience and reach of voluntary sector social care by improving connections between local networks and the breadth of services offered.
The platform is currently being rolled out to new communities who want to develop their care provision and build better social care than is being provided by larger, profit-driven communities.
Bristol City Council want to roll the approach out across Bristol … they want to move away from commissioning large profit-driven multinationals to deliver their social care and start building up the capacity of the community sector to be able to move into that space, which is going to make their voluntary community more viable and make the whole system just a bit more resilient.
Evidence of impact in Bristol and other areas will be instrumental to Community Care Connect’s growth. Now the concept has been proven, the next step is finding investment to build a bespoke platform.
DRIVERS OF CONFIDENCE |
RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CONFIDENCE AND BUSINESS CHARACTERISTICS
We used ‘linear regression’ to identify patterns between community business confidence over the next 12 months and other survey responses. You can find out more about linear regression in the technical appendix.
Community businesses who took, or plan to take, certain actions expressed higher confidence than other businesses:
• Took action to boost trading revenue from existing sources in the last 12 months
• Plan to increase efficiency or reduce costs in the next 12 months
• Expect income from trading and/or grants to increase in the next 12 months.
Younger community businesses also expressed higher confidence than respondents from established businesses. We found no statistical relationship between confidence and total income: higher turnover community businesses are no more confident than those with lower turnover. Additionally, we found that neither size (by number of paid staff) nor scope (groups of people that benefit from the business’s services) influence confidence.[3]
4.3 EMERGING CHALLENGES
Although deriving income from a mix of trading income and grants is a key characteristic of the community business model, falling earnings and external factors driving demand are having an impact on the sector’s capacity and capability to plan with wholesale confidence. While survey responses captured the scale of concern about the cost-of-living crisis across the sector, feedback during interviews revealed the broad impact it was already having on the experience and expectations of community businesses, and the individuals they help.
At the time of the survey (June to July 2022), 77% of community businesses had reported an increased demand for support related to the costs of food, and 79% for support related to increase in the costs of energy. There was a strong correlation between the two.[4]
Base sizes vary between 762 and 788.
Community businesses serving economically or educationally disadvantaged people were a third more likely than others to experience greater demand for support with increases in food and energy costs. Those offering public-facing support[5] were nearly twice as likely to report increasing demand for support with the cost of living.[6]
In the community, more people are using the food bank-cum-larder and there are families facing hardship’ …
Kingsclere Community Association
Community businesses have seen significant increases in their running costs. Since 2021, the median income from surveyed community businesses has fallen 32%, and by 36% for median grant income. Anxiety is fairly widespread, 37% are less confident about their financial prospects and 69% of these cited the cost of living as a factor. Even 31% of those who felt confident about their prospects were still worried about the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on their business.
Our gas went up three times, it trebled. Electricity more than doubled. So, our utility bills already have actually increased our operating costs by over 25%…
Kingsclere Community Association
Costs have gone up, our fuel’s gone up to get our people to the hospitals and the doctors, all the appointments we take them to…
Hour Community
As well as increases in running costs, community businesses were also feeling the effects on their resources. Some volunteers reduced the time they offer in favour of paid employment elsewhere. Concerns about costs meant some community businesses feared they would have to lay off staff or reduce their hours. Falling income and higher costs have led some interviewees to make redundancies, and one had closed their café and shop.
We’ve just had an electricity bill actually and it’s more than doubled … So, yes, we’re just beginning to think, What do we do about that?
Hale Village Hall
Community businesses also struggle to increase staff pay to reflect the cost of living. For example, one wanted to offer staff the National Living Wage, but trustees felt unable to in the current economic conditions:
We’re now a couple of years behind the London Living Wage which I actually feel very uneasy about from an ethical point of view. I feel like we should be paying the staff the London Living Wage. [A senior manager] is leaving because she is a single parent and she is going to a job where she is paid more. The cost of living is having an impact on staff and she has had to make that choice … So it’s really having an impact on our team and then consequently the organisation.
Walthamstow Toy Library
In response to rising costs of food, energy, and other running costs, many community businesses reported reducing their services and increasing prices. One café, for example, simplified its menu and sought to minimise ingredient costs. Some reluctantly passed costs on to those using their services.
We’ve had to tell people that we’ve had to put our prices up. Because we can’t do anything else, if we run at a loss, then the charity won’t last.
Hour Community
Even though they knew it was unsustainable, a few relied on reserves to cover rising costs temporarily.
If we have to continue with an increased cost of living going on, and increased support for some of the projects we’re working for, we’ve got to be careful that we don’t diminish our reserves. In the longer term, it’s just not viable...
Kimberworth Park Community Partnership
Not only did interviewees describe how rising living costs were already directly affecting their community business, they also anticipated future struggles when local residents’ disposable incomes fall, particularly those whose revenue mainly comes from the community.
The cost-of-living crisis has only just really begun to be felt. I think this is going to be a very difficult winter. I think projects like ours are going to be needed more than ever, just to be there for the community, but it’s how we fund that. I see these type of projects as being like the life rafts […] More and more people are going to want to jump on as things get bad, but we have the difficult job of staying afloat during this time and still being there for the community.
Community farm
We’re starting to dry up for community group hires going into the latter part of the year […] When people start paying their heating bills and what have you, that’s when we’ll really start to notice it.
Kingsclere Community Association
One community hub felt clear about the scale of the challenge:
We haven’t even scratched the surface. As far as I’m concerned, this is 100 times worse than the pandemic, or [is] going to be.
Hour Community
4.4 ONGOING SUPPORT TO REALISE POTENTIAL
The sector continues to prove relatively resilient to external shocks, but our research findings show how the scale of current economic challenge means the sector’s need for help and support to maintain and grow services is broad and pressing.
Support priorities
The survey findings clearly show how seeking financial support remains a persistently high priority for community businesses: 61% wanted support to find and access sources of funding, with high value placed on receiving this support.
The other important areas of support in high demand from community businesses were help with measuring community impact, digital business processes, and strategic and business planning.
Base size = 1,015.
More than half of respondents wanted support with evaluating their impact on the communities they serve. This has been a priority in previous surveys, and community businesses shared how providing evidence of the impacts they achieve is important for supporting funding applications. One community business interviewee said their organisation negotiated a lower rent on their council-owned building because they could effectively calculate their social impact.
[Our] Leytonstone site is a council building and they use this … social impact measurement tool. They [the Council] calculated our rent based on our social impact and they were just like “Right, you’ve got a really high social impact”, so we pay a really low rent. I think our rent and our utilities per month are like £369. When you compare it to the old place, where they were asking us to pay £10,000 a month, it’s really good.
Walthamstow Toy Library
Despite lower prominence in survey responses, some needs emerged more clearly in interviews, including help with managing buildings, climate change and environmental sustainability. While help with relocating to a high street, regeneration and levelling-up are not areas addressed by the survey questionnaire, they did emerge as areas of interest and need during the interviews.
Climate action
Community businesses can benefit from additional expertise and funding to support their efforts to mitigate the impact of their operations on the environment. For example, by using grant funding to instal solar panels and buy electric vehicles. Interviewees felt they would benefit from reliable advice, particularly in the form of building audits, on how to reduce their carbon footprint and make small everyday changes, and some reported receiving such advice from local environmental hubs.
A few interviewees requested help with finding sustainable buildings with lower running costs. For example, inefficient lighting and heating systems that needed considerable maintenance can be barriers to reducing the carbon footprint of an existing building. Community businesses also sought more time to draw down grant funding, to allow for planning permission timescales.
It’s a 200-year-old listed building, so every time you touch something it costs four times as much.
Ware Arts Centre
Managing assets
Assets are often seen as a crucial enabler of impact, provide stability and a source of income. Most community businesses interviewed felt that long-term premises are important for providing a sustainable service to the community. The prevalence of buildings that are unfit for purpose, or those with high rents, prevents community businesses from providing such services; instead, they need the confidence of reliable cost-effective places to develop, adapt and expand a sustainable offer to the local community. Such community businesses would appreciate guidance on choosing more appropriate, long-term places from which to work.
We’re not fixed, we have to just go where we can […] we have got nowhere where we can set ourselves up and become impactful … if we had a facility in which we could do something, we could deliver no end of services and that would make an enormous difference.
Hour Community
High Streets
A few interviewees expressed interest in moving onto the high street, believing higher footfall would benefit their exposure and potentially increase revenue:
The high street is pretty dead … like a bit of a no man’s land. I think, for us, that visibility would be amazing … anything to do with family and children, it does have a real positive impact on an area.
Walthamstow Toy Library
Because there aren’t many libraries anymore, we have thought about wanting to be able to open up a children and young people’s library and that would be ideally placed on the high street.
Success4All, education centre
However, interviewed community businesses mentioned that they required financial support to relocate, or maintain a presence in a high street location:
If you gave me a blank piece of paper and money was no option, yes, I would have a presence, a shop, [on the high street] in which I could do something, even if I could sell bits and pieces and other things just to draw attention to what we’re doing.
Hour Community
Technology
Community businesses said they would welcome external advice about how to identify suitable technology that meets their specific needs. Customer-focused community businesses already recognise the potential benefits in software that can manage bookings, develop customer insight, and handle data-related tasks. However, despite knowing what they need, they did not always know where to turn for specialist technology support, nor where to source associated funding to implement any changes.
Interviewees said it was difficult to find funds and grants for updating out-of-date hardware and adding new functionality to software, and that such funds would appeal to a wider group of community businesses.
I definitely feel like I need support in choosing the CRM [Customer Relationship Management system] and I feel that we need some funds as well to be able to buy the package.
Walthamstow Toy Library
Small community businesses
Community businesses identified that it was essential that communities and community businesses are involved in decisions that influence their local areas, including influencing how spending decisions are made.
If [government] want to change things, they’ve got to involve communities because that’s where … the power in terms of people power sits. That’s the only place they’re going to [hear from the] workforce, and it’s directly from communities.
Community Care Connect
The interviews revealed that the smallest community businesses needed help with accessing and applying for support and funding. This might be through raising awareness of available funds or training to build skills in developing effective funding bids. Some interviewees from smaller organisations said they lacked resources to dedicate to grant applications. One community business hired a bid writer to apply for funding, who was paid on a commission basis. Smaller organisations felt there was unequal access to funding pots like Levelling Up, because larger organisations have better networks to learn about funding opportunities, and more resource and experience for applying.
Cost of living
Since the main concern arising from the cost-of-living crisis is financial instability, it follows that community businesses would benefit from financial support in the round. This support need not be ‘aid’ and might come in various forms, including advice on how to generate new forms of revenue, or with shaping an offer and pricing it correctly.
We don’t get any money for the green prescribing, but we do the green prescribing type service. What we’re struggling with is not pitching it too low or too high price-wise. Help around that sort of thing would be helpful.
Community farm
Footnotes
[1] https://www.powertochange.org.uk/our-work/our-programmes/community-tech/
[2] See Table 5 in the Technical Appendix in Section 5 for further detail on the logistic regression (logit) results.
[3] See Table 1 in the Technical Appendix in Section 5 for further detail on the multiple linear regression results.
[4] There is a strong relationship between reported demand from the community for support associated with the costs of energy and costs for food (Pearson test = 0.78, significant to the 0.01 level). This means most respondents reporting an increase in demand for support with energy also saw the same increase for support with food.
[5] Community businesses categorised as offering ‘public-facing support’ include those saying their main activity was: health and social care services; training and education, information, advice and guidance, and employability support; youth services; housing services; education and education support; or childcare.
[6] See Table 3 in the Technical Appendix in Section 5 for further detail on the logistic regression (logit) results. The logit model accounts for 18% of the differences between respondents who say demand for their community for support associated with the costs of energy increased and those who do not. Logistic regression (logit) estimates the statistical likelihood that one group will respond differently to another for all questions placed in the model.