As the Chair of Third Sector Leeds, I believe it will be challenging to build back better and future-proof the Third Sector to strengthen the fabric of society in Leeds. This is because the number of volunteers and charities is declining due to government funding cuts in public and health sectors, as shown though our local data in our Leeds State of the Sector report.
 
However, our 3,000+ strong Third Sector Leeds is mature and is supported by two strong infrastructure organisations, Voluntary Action Leeds and Forum Central, and has worked in partnership work with Leeds City Council, health partners and the private sector over many years. We also have a huge asset in Leeds Community Foundation, working tirelessly with local businesses. This infrastructure support is vital for any city or region and something any future government should consider investing in, working with the Sector to evolve the model and tackle inequalities in communities.
 
As a Sector, we have produced our Leeds Third Sector Strategy co-designed with communities and working with the public sector and health to mitigate the impact of central government cuts on communities.
 
Leeds and West Yorkshire, through devolution, can tackle the problems if funding is spent locally and partnerships with knowledge of people and place are harnessed to deliver unimaginable change. Ring-fenced budgets and unprecedented cuts over the last decade have hugely impacted councils up and down the country.
 
Over the past few months, TSL has been lobbying for change on four key messages and meeting with Members of Parliament to play our part in influencing change and policy. We continue to work in partnership with local authorities and health partners as they make difficult decisions. We look forward to building on and further developing our links with the West Yorkshire Mayor as level four devolution progresses.
 
Our ambitions around social value, complimented by local work on becoming a Marmot city and the West Yorkshire NHS Integrated Care Board becoming the first ICB nationally to sign up to Keep it Local (which all 5 local Authorities in the ICB had already committed to) is a key roadmap for us to work together to see partnerships with the private sector grow. I was delighted to attend the opening of the new Arup Office on behalf of the sector and hear the Chair and speakers plans for working with communities and aspirations for the city and region. We need more businesses to work with the Sector's social value aims and through the Community Foundation to narrow the growing inequalities and challenges.
 
Leeds's strong public, private, and third sectors have had so many successes working together, and I believe we can collectively weather the next two years and offer significant change for future generations. The key to this is in working together, and ensuring we use our robust partnerships. 
 

TSL work hard to influence local decision making with local authorities and health partners. Recently, members have asked for TSL's support in lobbying central government, and building relationships with MPs to influence the next government to ensure communities in Leeds are supported.

Working through our third sector networks, TSL has compiled four key messages that we believe need to be heard at a national level, which you can download below.

A group of TSL members met on Friday 8 March with MPs Stuart Andrew (Conservative MP for Pudsey) Alex Sobel (Labour Co-op MP for Leeds North West) and Hilary Benn (Labour MP for Leeds Central). The agenda covered all four key messages, and some key points from the discussion included:
 

• TSL members outlined the need for a longer extension of the Household Support Fund than the recently announced 6-month extension, and stressed the pressing need for more dedicated investment and intervention in tackling the root causes of poverty
• TSL members highlighted the barriers for organisations in becoming a housing association, and suggested there should be a 'fast-track' option for organisations who were already providing supported housing services
• TSL members asked about empty city centre buildings and how these could be repurposed as social housing to help meet the city's needs
  • MPs agreed that funding was needed to increase the intervention rate of brownfield sites
• TSL members highlighted cuckooing as a critical issue for housing providers, and stressed the need for specific legislation making the act of cuckooing illegal
  • MPs suggested the upcoming Criminal Justice Bill review may be the place for them to raise this
• TSL members questioned the level of scrutiny that private businesses providing public sector services are under, which is perceived to be disproportionately less than the scrutiny of VCSE providers and was felt to be linked to opportunities to profiteering
  • MPs were very aware of this debate and were engaging with the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Health partners to have discussions around this inequity, and the lack of uplift for third sector providers
  • MPs requested examples of this happening to aid their ongoing work

As part of Third Sector Leeds' work to build partnerships at a regional and national level, and to further our campaigning and lobbying work, some members have suggested we explore links with Locality.

Locality is a national membership network supporting local community organisations to be strong and successful. Locality have released a manifesto with several messages that align with TSL's collective views. Other national Locality campaigns include 'We're Right Here,' a movement to create a Community Power Act, and 'Keep It Local.'

Social value is one of the three priorities you voted for us to work on this year from the Third Sector Strategy.

What do we mean by ‘social value?’
“Social value” refers to the activities carried out by a business or organisation receiving public money that supports the long-term wellbeing of the communities they are working in and with. This could be through:

• Directly giving money to third sector organisations
• Sharing time, skills and resources with the third sector
• Sourcing staff or goods through the third sector

What would we like to see happen?
The third sector in Leeds set out a collective ambition around social value in the Third Sector Strategy:
In Leeds, partners agree that social value activities should be delivered with and through the third sector. Leeds has a clear set of co-designed priorities for where social value activity will have most impact. There are clear routes for larger organisations to be matched with opportunities that create social value, and to see the impact this has.

What's next?
Third Sector Leeds will be hosting a social value round table in May, bringing together key people from across the local authority, health, private sector and third sector to hear about examples of effective social value activity, and collectively agree on what they key gaps are in Leeds. This might be a social value fund, a brokerage service, or something else.

At the last TSL Leadership Group meeting, we heard from Leeds City Council on the Leeds Local Plan 2040. This plan sets out economic development in the city for the next 16 years, and includes housing, transport and land.

The council have carried out some initial engagement, and are now working up some options to go out and consult with communities on. Look out for the consultation over the summer!

• Partnerships
• Commissioning and funding
• Social value

• Last week saw the launch of a new paper Women's Work, which has been produced by the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES), in partnership with the Women’s Budget Group and Leeds City Council. The paper summarises the findings of a pilot project in the city, which explored how gender inclusion can be more central to the development and implementation of local economic strategies.
• Young Lives Leeds recently asked members to share their monitoring data, and produced a report highlighting the impact of third sector organisations in supporting children, young people and families. Read the report here.
• Leeds has one overarching strategy, which is called our Best City Ambition. This strategy is being refreshed, and you can read it here.
• Business For Good is a new West Yorkshire programme focusing on supporting more alternative businesses (cooperatives, social enterprises and more) to establish, succeed and grow. Find out more about support and funding available here.
• Leeds Digital Volunteering Partnership are hosting a Digital Trustees Matchmaking Event on 28 March, open to potential trustees and organisations who would like to meet them. Register here.