Voluntary and Community Sector Infrastructure and Support Policy Framework

Overview

The Department for Communities has put forward draft proposals to support a thriving Voluntary and Community Sector in Northern Ireland through a commitment to continued government investment in sector infrastructure and to improving the way that government works with and for the sector.

The proposals are geared towards the achievement of a clear ambition for what joined up government support can help achieve in the sector, underpinned by shared values and practices which aim to support the relationship between government and the sector.

The Department is seeking views on these draft proposals through this questionnaire. If you are responding on behalf of an organisation, we would ask that only one person from each organisation submits a response.

The opening questions in this questionnaire relate to the renewal of a ‘concordat’ agreement between Government and the Voluntary and Community sector through The Joint Forum.

The remainder of the questions relate directly to the draft proposals for continued government investment in sector infrastructure.

We would advise that you read the draft proposals in detail before responding to this questionnaire.

You can also share your views by attending one of our scheduled events or by sending a submission to: vcsinfrastructure@communities-ni.gov.uk.

You can find out more information about our events, including how to register, on our website.

For this consultation, we may publish all responses except for those where the respondent indicates that they are an individual acting in a private capacity (e.g. a member of the public).  All responses from organisations and individuals responding in a professional capacity will be published.  We will remove email addresses and telephone numbers from these responses; but apart from this, we will publish them in full.  For more information about what we do with personal data please see our consultation privacy notice in Annex 4 of the framework.

Your response, and all other responses to this consultation, may also be disclosed on request in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR); however all disclosures will be in line with the requirements of the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (UK) 2016/679.

If you want the information that you provide to be treated as confidential it would be helpful if you could explain to us why you regard the information you have provided as confidential, so that this may be considered if the Department should receive a request for the information under the FOIA or EIR.

In order to facilitate the survey, Citizen Space, which is not operated by DfC, is used as a data processor. Details of Citizen Space's privacy policy can be found online at Citizen Space Privacy Policy.