Sandwell Council of Voluntary Organisations - SCVO. Supporting the Growth of Community Action in Sandwell.

Customer Feedback

SCVO is always interested in seeking feedback from our clients as to the quality and relevance of the service we offer and provide. All feedback, both positive and negative, enables us to review our working practices, plan for the future and shape support to be most timely, appropriate and effective.

Each year SCVO has regular contact with over 1000 organisations active in Sandwell through our newsletter and events, and between 400 and 500 groups and organisations of all shapes and sizes from across the Voluntary and Community Sector access our support through one or more of our services.

In a recent Customer Satisfaction Survey, comments from customers have included:

‘SCVO have been very supportive to our organisation. All staff have been helpful and prompt in dealing with any queries our organisation have made’.
‘SCVO is a very good organisation to be associated with – always forward in delivery and planning of meetings – informative topics – well attended and extremely useful.’
‘The most helpful organisation in Sandwell’
‘Excellent customer care from SCVO personnel’.
‘SCVO have provided support to our organisation for many years and we appreciate the support and continued support we receive’
‘Apart from the formal services that SCVO market and offer to organisations, we really appreciate the willingness to deal with off the cuff issues and dish out loads of encouragement and information. The “nothing is too much bother” that your staff have really demonstrated over the last year, and that besides all the support that you provide – thanks so much’!

If you are a VCS organisation active in Sandwell and would like give feedback to SCVO, please click here.

Quality Awards

NAVCA

SCVO achieved the NAVCA Quality Award for infrastructure Organisations in March 2008. This Award provides a nationally recognised means of demonstrating that SCVO deliver high quality services to the local Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS)

The Award is an initiative of the National Association for Voluntary and Community Action (NAVCA), of which SCVO is a member.  NAVCA is the national voice of third sector local infrastructure organisations in England, and the Quality Award, launched as recently as 2006, is a quality framework which is subject to a rigorous, evidence-based external audit.

The Quality Award assessed SCVO against 21 outcomes across 5 Standards, looking in each case for evidence that SCVO had been able to provide or facilitate work that had made difference for VCS clients as well as for the Sector as a whole in both its service delivery and its partnership work.  The 5 Standards are:

Development, Support and Liaison:

1. The organisation pro-actively identifies needs in the local community and facilitates improvement in service provision to meet those needs.
2. The organisation assists local voluntary and community organisations to function more effectively and deliver quality 3. services to their users, members or constituents.
3. The organisation facilitates effective communication or networking and collaboration amongst local voluntary and community groups.

Representation and Strategic Partnership Work:

   4.  The organisation enables the diverse views of the local voluntary and community sector to be
        represented to external bodies, developing and facilitating structures which promote effective working
        relationships and two-way communication.
   5.  The organisation enhances the voluntary and community sector’s role as an integral part of local planning
        and policy-making.

SCVO involved a number of VCS representatives as well as statutory stakeholders from Sandwell MBC, Sandwell Town Teams, Sandwell Early Years and the Sandwell Partnership in the assessment and audit process.  The final audit report shows SCVO reaching the required performance level across all 5 Standards, with particularly high scores in Standards 2 and 3. 

Investors In People

SCVO is committed as an organisation to the principles and practice of continuous improvement. To this end we are using established and recognised quality frameworks as a guide and support towards our organisational development.

In early 2004 SCVO received recognition through the Investors in People Award, a national quality standard which sets a level of good practice for improving an organisation’s performance through its people.

 

Matrix

Since the year 2000 our New Deal employment programme has achieved outstanding levels of job outcomes for some of the most disadvantaged young people in Sandwell. During those years between 60% and 90% of those starting SCVO’s programme have obtained paid employment, making SCVO one of the leading providers in the country.

This performance was recognised in an outstanding inspection by the government’s Adult Learning Inspectorate early in 2004 and later that year it was confirmed that our grades had put us amongst the top Training Providers in the country for that inspection year and that as a result we would receive special recognition by being included in the Adult Learning inspectorate Annual Report. As a result of this, SCVO’s Employment and Enterprise Manager and Chief Executive were invited to the launch of this report at the British Library in London. This was a great achievement for all involved and underlined the quality and professionalism of the service provision.

In 2006 SCVO was awarded the Matrix Quality Standard.