A new landmark “State of the Sector” report to Warrington Council’s Executive board has revealed the town’s “Third Sector” is worth millions of pounds to the local economy.
Produced by Warrington Voluntary Action (WVA), the report follows the first review of third sector activity in the borough since 2007.
Katherine Fairclough
WVA reports that the economic impact of Warrington’s ‘third sector’ – that’s organisations providing social or environmental benefits on a ‘non-profit’ basis – now equates to approximately £51 million. The sector, which includes some 1,200 voluntary and community groups, charities, social enterprises, co-operatives and mutual, has a combined annual turnover of £38 million.
Restating Warrington Borough Council’s commitment to supporting the borough’s voluntary sector, deputy chief executive, Katherine Fairclough, said: “Warrington’s third sector is doing a remarkable job, delivering £8.5million worth of services on behalf of the council and many millions of pounds more to help build strong, active and resilient communities at a time when public resources are being stretched to the limit.
“We will continue to work with the sector so that together we can continue to meet the challenges facing communities and residents across the borough.
“I’d also like to pay tribute to the 14,000 or so local people who participate in regular volunteering activity each week to the tune of 151,000 hours. It’s an outstanding effort.”
Back in 2007 infrastructure support to the sector required improvement, grant funding streams were often difficult to navigate, commissioning of services too complex, and relationships between the third sector and council and partner agencies were sometimes disjointed.
Now, following several years of collective effort, infrastructure support is highly effective and Warrington’s third sector supports as many as 770,000 interactions with a wide range of local people all year round.
