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Email us: info@cabad.org.uk

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Our Strategic Direction

Building on Impact. Setting our Future.

Some of you may remember back to spring 2025 when we asked you to complete a survey and assist us in setting the future strategic direction for Community Action Bradford & District and redesigning our services to support this.

We really appreciate those of you who completed the survey and spoke to us in other ways. We enjoyed going through your responses, reading your feedback, understanding what you value about our services and what you’d like us to improve and deliver more of.

What did we do with your feedback?

  • We analysed your responses, in great detail, preparing a report with common findings
  • We held a facilitated staff and trustee strategy development day
  • We brought the draft strategic direction to weekly staff meetings to aid further development
  • We finalised our strategic direction and have implemented some additional services to better meet community need

We turned it into our latest impact report outlining what people thought of our services and how we will take that forward.

An overview of our strategic direction:

Who are we?

We are the Charity for Charities. We are an organisation that helps to build up other third sector organisations. We are a support hub offering crucial advice and guidance to the VCSE sector.

What is our purpose?

Our purpose is to support, develop, enable, advocate for, and inform the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector.

What are our values?

Accountability.

A purpose that is clear and understood; celebrating success; doing the right thing (and admitting if it goes wrong); services that are clearly explained and accessible for the local VCSE sector.

Bravery.

Doing things even when they are hard, to have an impact; stretch ourselves, challenge ourselves and others (when appropriate); adopt a fail-fast approach – try and fail rather than not try.

Integrity.

Doing what we say we will do; being open, transparent and inclusive. We are collaborators and partners, not your competition.

What are our key strategic drivers?

Collaborations and partnershipsMore productive partnerships: considering why, the purpose and who we partner with
Defining a good partnership: we will develop partnering criteria and model good partner behaviour
The development of partnerships will come from across the whole staff team
Support and capabilityA clear and flexible offer to the sector
Ensure that our staff team has the skills and knowledge to deliver our services
Keep up with technology to support service delivery
Early planning of services
A high quality consultancy offer
Financial sustainabilityHorizon scanning for grants / contracts for ourselves and for the sector
Expanding our footprint (as an organisation and in partnership)
We will develop a business / strategy package for the sector
Skills and services matrix, playing to our organisational strengths and recognising where gaps exist
Greater visibility around our actions and services

What is our service offering?

There are three levels of service depending on the needs of your organisation. These are:

  • Universal service: delivered as an information giving service, signposting to other organisations or support such as self-serve resources from our website, telephone triage. Standardised, up-to-date information which is easily accessible.
  • Standard service: group or one-to-one support as a free or low-cost service. Training packages delivered either face to face or online.
  • Enhanced: bespoke / tailored package of support. This could be a blend of paid for training and consultancy support. We may collaborate with other organisations to provide tailored packages of support.

What support is available for my organisation?

It means, we are committed to doing more for VCSE organisations and being needs/demand-led. Read on to find out what we have developed so far.

We have implemented a whole suite of Getting Started workshops, 1-1.5 hour workshops on 8 different topics. These are free for organisations with an annual income of £100,000 or less, and just £20 for organisations whose annual income is £100,001 or more. These are aimed at new or small VCSE organisations to equip them with the essential skills required to run a VCSE organisation.

Each workshop will run quarterly. This has been made possible by the income earned by the hard work of our charity’s trading company, Bradford Community Payroll and Accounts.

We have also implemented a more comprehensive training programme, covering topics like safeguarding, support and supervision, time-management and business planning. These courses are 2.5 hours and cost just £40 per person – again, part of our commitment to upskilling at a cost which is affordable to VCSE organisations.

We have set up a Chairs’ and Trustees Network in response to a request from the sector. This is designed as a space for VCSE board members to come together, offer peer-support, exchange information and get support in their governing roles. This is part of our commitment to supporting good governance across the district. The network is open on a West Yorkshire basis, which demonstrates our commitment to expanding our footprint.

We have funded 6 additional days of support from our Development Officers exclusively for grassroots groups with an annual income under £100,000. This includes:

We are offering 3-months of free payroll services for VCSE organisations with an annual income under £100,000 through our trading arm, Bradford Community Payroll and Accounts. Please contact them, quoting EasyStart to take up the offer!

Alongside all of this support, we are continually adding and expanding our service offering as needs or demands come to light. If there is anything you think you would benefit from, that we don’t currently offer, please email us at info@cabad.org.uk with your suggestions.

Agency For Good

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