Open letter to commissioners – VCFSE sector instability warning

The Greater Manchester VCFSE Leadership Group have written an open letter to Greater Manchester Commissioners calling for urgent action to support and protect the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise (VCFSE) sector following years of systemic underfunding, recent disinvestment, delayed commissioning decisions, and new financial pressures.

Read the key messages and examples briefing here for a summary of the open letter.

You can use this to advocate on behalf of our sector and make sure our voice is heard!

The Greater Manchester VCFSE Leadership Group have asked commissioners to commit to the following:

• Adopt a full cost recovery model including inflation-linked funding adjustments built into contracts as standard. Alongside this, where our full costs are being taken into commissioning decisions with a value for money assessment, ensure a level playing field by not comparing our full organisation costs with salary-only in-house contracts.
• Urgently finalise and communicate your commissioning intentions for 25/26 to the sector. Communicate rationale and at what scale (GM, locality and neighbourhood) decisions are made.
• Make long-term contract and grant arrangements. Offer multi-year contracts to VCFSE organisations to help you scale up and deliver GM’s Live Well ambitions effectively
• Work with the sector to understand and mitigate risks of disinvestment, underfunding, and commissioning delays. Prioritise commissioning decisions that protect and grow the VCFSE ecosystem by mitigating risks when keeping services in-house within NIC-exempt institutions.