Voluntary, Community and Faith sectors

The Local Strategic Partnership has a strong history of working closely with the Voluntary, Community and Faith Sectors in Wirral. To ensure the VCF Sector is properly represented, the LSP has allocated 12 seats at the table for its members to become actively engaged.

Wirral Council has a history of supporting and working closely with all of the Local Infrastructure Organisations (LIO) within the borough. Until 2008, Wirral supported five LIO these were; Bebington CVS, CBED, Heswall CVS, Hoylake CVS and Wirral CVS. In April 2008 all the LIOs in Wirral, with the exception of Wirral CVS, joined together and formed Voluntary and Community Action Wirral (VCAW). VCAW is the Council’s preferred LIO partner.

The LSP and all its partners are committed to engaging the communities in Wirral in a real and meaningful way. The partner agencies are currently working to develop a Comprehensive Engagement Strategy for Wirral and a refresh of the Community Engagement Toolkit adopted by the LSP in December 2006.

Voluntary and Community Action Wirral (VCAW)
VCAW have offices in Bebington, Hoylake and Wallasey. The coming together of the four, well established organisations ensures that VCAW has more power to represent, support and develop the third sector in Wirral. The strong local presence that has been developed by each CVS in their local community will also be maintained under VCAW, to ensure that the views of local communities are heard and well represented. The new, more efficient organisation will be better placed to win new funding with its Wirral wide remit and this will lead to the creation of new services and exciting opportunities for local people.

The VCAW core functions are:

• Support
• Development
• Liaison
• Representation
• Partnership
• Good Practice
• Volunteering.

To find out more visit the VCAW website

Wirral Third Sector Assembly (Previously The Network)
VCAW hosts the Wirral Third Sector Assembly. The Assembly provides a platform for community engagement and empowerment. It is not a service provider but exists to support and facilitate the VCF Sector role at the LSP.

The Assembly can be contacted on 0151 645 4038.