2021 State of the Sector Report findings revealed

source: BVSC
published: 12 July 2022

BVSC Director of Research Sophie Wilson gives an overview of the 2021 State of the Sector Report findings and what they reveal about Birmingham's Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise sector.

This week BVSC have great pleasure in presenting the 2021 State of the Sector Report.

With huge thanks to everyone who participated in the survey itself, or who took part in the interviews that were carried out, BVSC hope that you find the report as interesting as we have (and I apologise in advance for the length of it, but remember, a lot of it is pictures and graphs).

Sophie Wilson said; "There are lots of interesting findings in the report, and some big takeaways for us here at BVSC Research and the wider BVSC team. I thought it might be helpful to summarise these here."

Despite the concerns reported in our 2020 survey about the impact of the pandemic on the financial security of organisations in the sector, income and staffing levels have actually remained relatively stable. That is not to say there have not been significant challenges - around 15% of organisations reported that they had to make staff redundant during the year, and many reported having to significantly change, expand or extend their provision.

With increased costs of living, inflation rising (not matched with increases in contractual values) and the loss of significant funding streams (in particular the loss of the European Social Fund in 2023), as well as funders being seen to ‘pause’ after Covid-19 to re-assess their priorities, those challenges remain, and we need to keep a close eye on this over the coming months.

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