Public service commissioners welcome collaboration and merger between civil society support providers

Research published by Capacitybuilders shows the majority of public service commissioners would like to see greater collaboration and merger between organisations that provide support and advice to civil society groups.

The findings of the report show that commissioners think mergers can deliver a positive impact across a range of areas including: simpler funding relationships and easier engagement with the voluntary and community sector. Support providers that have gone through a merger cite further benefits for themselves and for wider civil society, such as:

• increased job security for employees
• less confusion for frontline groups on where to access support
• improved consistency and quality of support services
• better able to represent civil society in their locality
• improved ability to secure public service contracts and other funding.

Jon Fox, Director of Strategy and Programmes at Capacitybuilders commented:

“Evidence shows that support providers are increasingly looking to merger and other forms of collaboration as a way of sustaining support provision during a period of increased demand for services and a tight public spending environment.

While the need to improve financial sustainability is a powerful and compelling motive, findings from this research suggest that merger is likely to present fewer challenges when organisations have a shared vision of improving the quality of support services as the primary driver.”

The full report is available here. A series of case studies looking at both successful and abandoned mergers between support providers will also be published shortly.