When the majority of people don’t get beyond a pass in their basic maths education and do very little further learning on numbers it should be of no surprise that most people struggle with finances.
Recently I was in conversation with a number of people (working in small (micro) voluntary sector organisations) about the impact a lack of number knowledge can have on small voluntary sector organisations. What I mean by this is the ease at which a commissioner needing to find quick savings can undo years of patient community building with a mouse click.
For example, small relative secure annual funding that is not tightly performance managed can be the difference between small voluntary organisations surviving and thriving. The organisation might use that funding as match funding for a larger bid, they might put it into reserves to be drawn down when times are hard, they might use it to fund volunteer training, transport or other basic costs.
And what does the commissioner get in return. They might get 100 volunteers providing mental health crisis home support to people at risk of a mental health breakdown. They might get volunteers regularly visiting vulnerable people living alone. They might get volunteers delivering medication, cooking for people, giving people lifts to appointments, accompanying people to events – such as sporting or cultural ones. Each of these micro volunteer support systems taking the pressure off the statutory sector and enabling the statutory sector to ‘get on’ with supporting and treating people with higher and more complex needs. As one commissioner said to me recently, ‘without the voluntary sector, our main services would fall apart.’
So looking at this through a simple cost benefit lens, a £5000 annual investment in a micro volunteer service. Just looking at the mental health crisis home support example. If those 100 volunteers were each offering 5 hours a week of support for 30 weeks a year (that a excludes pensions and employer’s national insurance) would cost about £171,600. That’s without looking at other additional costs such as training, travel, supervision and administration costs. Whichever way you look at the numbers that’s a significant cost benefit for a very small investment – without beginning to consider how the work that the volunteers do, contributes significantly to improving life outcomes for people with mental health needs. Keeping them out of hospital, out of other statutory services and enabling them to be more integrated into their local communities.
It can take many years to develop a micro community volunteer led support service. It might seem very invisible and not very valuable at a strategic level. But for local people and the wider community it’s probably the lifeline that keeps people well.
So the next time you need to make £5000 worth of savings in your spreadsheet, take a little time to think about what you actually get for that £5000. Ten years to develop, five minutes to destroy. £5000 saved £171,600 (and the rest) lost.
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