Strategic Plan 2006-2009

Adopted by SOVA Board of Trustees on 26th September 2005

 

 

To Achieve Sustainable Growth to Build Stronger, Safer and more Inclusive Communities

 

 

Introduction

 

SOVA has always believed that communities should play a significant role in the resettlement of their offending members. The organisation was started by volunteers, for volunteers, in 1975 and from these very small beginnings grew the substantial organisation of today.

 

SOVA works in England and Wales as well as transnationally with the National Offender Management Service, the Prison Service, Probation Areas, Jobcentre Plus, Social Services, Youth Offending and Drug Action Teams and many other agencies. With these agencies we run a wide variety of projects and programmes using paid staff and volunteers including Employment, Training and Education, Peer Mentoring, Reparation and Mediation, Befriending, Basic Skills support and the provision of Appropriate Adults. SOVA works with a wide client group including offenders in the community, inmates in prisons, young people on youth offending orders, young people at risk of offending, asylum seekers and others.

 

SOVA now has some work that does not involve volunteers directly in service delivery; the environment in which we work does not always make that possible. However, we still actively promote work that does offer this involvement.

 

SOVA volunteers undertake a variety of tasks from the strictly practical to the provision of one to one mentoring. We seek too, to promote and increase the use of Peer Mentors, a way of working which offers much to the mentor as well as the mentee. All volunteers are carefully selected and trained to an accredited high standard; subsequently they are offered supervision and ongoing support. We believe that this care is owed to our volunteers who, while a very diverse group of people, all exhibit a remarkable generosity of spirit.

 

SOVA takes its services to many communities and in many diverse ways with the preponderance of its work remaining in the Criminal Justice System at all its stages. The very diversity of our work means that it is imperative that we hold to our core values, and work transparently with our staff, participants and purchasers.

 

SOVA is committed to sharing its expertise with its partners in the voluntary, private and public sectors to build stronger, safer and more inclusive communities. We believe that it is these values and this transparency that have enabled us to become a leading organisation in and across the three sectors.

 

In pursuit of this strategy SOVA must recognise that there will be considerable environmental change during its life. The commissioning and procurement environment will change substantially within this three years; certainly in Criminal Justice. Further than that there will be structural change within the institutions who have been our purchasers and partners.

 

These factors call for an overarching debate at staff and Council levels to determine how SOVA can maintain its values, safeguard its independence, realise its strategic aims and thrive financially during that fundamental change.

 

 

 

Key Strategic Aims

 

1. Raise SOVA's profile and increase its influence within the fields of criminal justice and social policy

 

SOVA has thirty years of experience of applying criminal justice and social policy to practical delivery. The organisation has, therefore, a great deal to offer policy makers. In order to achieve the strategic stature that the organisation should have, it needs to be known and respected at all levels of decision making.

 

Objectives:

 

1.1 Develop, implement and monitor an effective external communications strategy.
1.2 Develop, implement and review a strategy for effective representation at national, regional and local levels.
1.3 Identify and engage with key decision makers within the term of this parliament.
1.4 Lead, commission or engage research into the effectiveness of methods which reduce crime and promote social inclusion.

 

 

2. Promote SOVA as a key service provider in reducing crime and empowering communities.

 

SOVA is recognised as a key provider of effective programmes as well as training, research and consultancy services. In common with all voluntary sector providers, the continued success of SOVA relies on its ability to face the challenges of capacity, sustainability and risk.

 

Objectives:

 

2.1 Determine and implement a strategy for sustainable income to ensure the organisation's stability
2.2 Implement a strategy of full cost recovery
2.3 Promote SOVA as "an added value" organisation

 

 

3. Deliver effective and high quality services to all stake-holders.

 

SOVA has a good reputation for service delivery. Notwithstanding this reputation there are gaps in the organisation's ability to analyse the quality of its service across the whole of its work. SOVA wants to embrace more effectively the concept of involving its service users and other stake holders in its planning - a more diverse group of service users, partners and funders should make the practical elements of this substantially easier.

 

Objectives:

 

3.1 Safeguard the organisation's independence whilst taking the opportunities that public and government policies provide
3.2 Ensure the organisation continues to be fit for purpose
3.3 Maintain and develop the application and dissemination of best practice throughout the organisation
3.4 Effectively engage service users
3.5 Develop the delivery of more effective volunteer and mentor management.
3.6 Refine the organisation's risk management systems
3.7 Ensure the financial health and security of the organisation
3.8 Ensure H&S compliance with statutory and best practice obligations

 

4. Embed best practice in Equality of Opportunity and Diversity within the work of SOVA.

 

The organisation has always had a firm commitment to Equality of Opportunity and recognises the need to drive this forward to encompass the more proactive work required to promote diversity. Key to this will be resource identified for the Human Resources function.

 

Objectives:

 

4.1 Continuously implement and monitor the Equality of Opportunity and Diversity Policy.
4.2 Produce, implement and monitor a Human Resource Strategy.

 

5. Develop and demonstrate SOVA's commitment to lifelong
learning and best practice.

SOVA continues to benchmark its work against national standards and quality marks wherever these are relevant, so promoting its commitment to best practice and continuing development. The organisation's training programmes are of high quality and can be developed to offer enhanced access to training and qualifications for SOVA staff and volunteers and for other organisations.

 

Objectives:

 

5.1 To achieve the Skills for Justice Skillsmark training programme recognition and endorsement
5.2 To promote SOVA commitment to the key principles of the Skills for Life initiative in relation to both staff and volunteers
5.3 To identify the resources to support high quality training and access to qualifications and to ensure that consideration of learning and training requirements is embedded in all business planning
5.4 To offer training to other organisations and where appropriate access to qualifications

 

 

6. Demonstrate SOVA's achievements as a voluntary sector leader.

 

SOVA recognizes the value of effectively promoting its achievements to the outside world. To do this consistently and credibly the organisation needs both to widen its knowledge of the impact of the work on stakeholders, and analyse its management information in a consistent way in order to provide a base to argue for policy change and other improvement.

 

Objectives:

 

6.1 Expand and refine management information systems
6.2 Assess and improve organisational performance
6.3 Obtain and evaluate stakeholder feedback
6.4 Recognise and publicise SOVA's achievements
6.5 Evaluate SOVA's annual operating plans against the SOVA 06 -09 Strategic Plan

 

 

Conclusion

 

The growth of SOVA over the last decade, and therefore its ability to deliver its mission, has been substantial. The organisation is determined to continue to bring its services to a wide constituency of users, to take an active role in demonstrating the effectiveness and quality of those services, to extend its range of partnerships in all areas, and to take its rightful place in the formation of policy.

This Strategic Plan seeks to build on SOVA's achievements to date by recognising areas in which it could improve and develop its performance both internally and externally. SOVA believes that these things will give the organisation the profile and influence that it seeks and render it fit for purpose in times of challenge and change.