When Worlds Collide: Researching and Evaluating the Voluntary Sector’s Work with Offenders

Abstract

Government and statutory sector agencies gain considerable value from securing voluntary sector involvement in the delivery of services to marginalised, hard-to-reach groups. Meanwhile, many voluntary sector organisations (VSOs) accept government and statutory sector funding because it provides a level of financial security which (in theory) ensures a reliable service to their clients. Until 2014, in the case of services for offenders in England and Wales, this was usually achieved by contracting out specific aspects of service provision to VSOs. From now on it is more likely that VSOs will be the junior partners in commercially led consortia or subcontractors to such consortia. In either situation, the funding services provided by VSOs are increasingly requiring evidence of success and effectiveness, which many VSOs are ill-equipped to provide. This chapter considers some of the consequences of the new requirements for VSOs to ‘prove’ their worth. It argues that the very characteristics which make involving the voluntary sector in service delivery attractive to funders also make them hard to evaluate in the sorts of ways which government and other funders increasingly require.