Magistrate Mary Lower set up the Nottingham Access Centre more than 30 years ago, as a safe, neutral and informal space where children could spend time with parents who were no longer living with them after a divorce or family breakdown. Since then, the charity has grown into the National Association of Children Contact Centres (NACCC), an umbrella organisation for 380 centres across much of the UK (excluding Scotland) and Ireland, supporting 13,000 children a year.
The transformation from small, local charity to nationwide organisation was helped when Lower’s work became one of the early winners of the Guardian Charity Awards in 1994. The awards were initiated to offer small and medium-sized charities across the UK a financial boost, specialised training and to put the winners on the map. Now in their 24th year, the Guardian Charity Awards 2016 open today for entries.
“Those awards not only help and motivate people. Don’t forget it was splashed all over our newsletter that went to our members. But it was also nationally recognised. It helped raise NACCC up to another level; to an office, staff and more resources,” says the current chief executive, Elizabeth Coe. “The Guardian awards are the sort of thing that really helps to raise awareness and funds.”
Although Lower, now 82, was too ill to be interviewed, she is still president of the NACCC, which like so many small charities was conceived in a very determined individual’s home: in this case, Lower’s bedroom. The first contact visits she organised took place in her local church.
“Her legacy is very important to an organisation that keeps children in contact with parents who are separated,” explains Coe, a former social worker and probation officer. “We know the damaging effects of children not having parents in their life. The government spends around £7m on family and relationship support, but it costs the country billions.”
The NACCC operates as an umbrella organisation for two kinds of contact centres. There are 170 that are run entirely by volunteers, and the remainder are known as supervised, meaning they are run by professionals such as social workers. These supervised centres offer support for families as a result of a court order and “usually if there’s harm to the child or there’s been domestic violence or drug and alcohol abuse”, says Coe. The NACCC ensures that the 2,000 staff and thousands of volunteers in these centres are fit to work with children and have appropriate training by running Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks, and developing national standards and accreditation.
The charity’s evolution mirrors that of the voluntary sector overall, which has lost more than £3.8bn a year in grants from government over the last decade. Coe has had to develop a business strategy (“it’s essential to show the scale of what the charity does and what it needs to keep going”), and the supervised, professionally run centres have to go through a competitive bidding process for service delivery contracts from Cafcass, which represents children in family court cases, and councils’ child protection services when seeking funding. It employs 10 staff and has a turnover of £500,00.
“The NACCC’s grown tremendously because there is a desperate need for what we do. In the earlier days, money was much more free flowing. We’re now in very, very tight circumstances. We’re constantly having to cut our budgets and show government our cost savings,” Coe says.
Faced with a plateau in funding and rising demand for their services, many charities feel that the impact of austerity is reaching a point where services may soon become unviable.
“There comes a point where you can’t cut any more and at the same time give people the service they need. The knock-on effect for families [of centres closing] would be considerable,” admits Coe. “I would pull the plug if we get to the point where we’re providing a rubbish service.”
“Would the centres continue to be safe,” she asks, “if we didn’t offer accreditation and training, how would the centres notice the signs of domestic violence, coercive control, and grooming of children?”
But budgetary constraints aren’t the only challenge facing charities. Following the high-profile collapse of Kids Company, and headlines about poor fundraising practices, inappropriate data sharing and damaging commercial relationships, trust in charities is at the lowest level since records began in 2005, according to Charity Commission research published last week.
However, the chair of the charity commission, William Shawcross, acknowledged that smaller charities enjoy higher levels of trust than their bigger counterparts. That is certainly true of the children contact centres and those who work in them, which Coe says are far more likely to be trusted than if they were run by the state or private sector, precisely because they are independent charities, unmotivated by profit or electioneering.
“Families appreciate the contact centres because they have no vested interest,” Coe says. “They’re on nobody’s side. They build up fantastic levels of trust. For the first few months of separation most parents can’t see the wood for the trees. The centres help them through that, while helping children hold on to vital relationships.”
Since NACCC won its Guardian charity award, it has gone from strength to strength despite many of the obstacles put in its way. Meanwhile, the awards have gone on to recognise and celebrate the trust, value, altruism and innovation of hundreds more grassroots charities that are alleviating social problems in their communities and beyond. In addition to providing a huge public benefit, these winners are also delivering massive financial benefits for taxpayers.
“We offer an essential service for very little money. If we weren’t there, the government would have to pay someone else for it, and they would cost far more than us,” says Coe.
How to enter
The Guardian Charity Awards 2016 are open to small and medium-sized UK charities. Entrants will be credited for innovation and evidence that they have learned from other charities. In addition, they will need to demonstrate impact, the potential of an award to boost the charity’s sustainability or growth, and an overall contribution to social welfare.
The five winners will each receive £3,000, an iPad Mini, courtesy of Jigsaw24, a year’s free membership of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, a trustee training course with law firm Bates Wells Braithwaite, tailored advice from the small charities’ support organisation FSI, and a personalised communications package from Media Trust.
Judges include Jane Asher, president of the National Autistic Society, Lynne Berry, chair of Breast Cancer Now, and Joe Irvin, chief executive of Living Streets.
The closing date is 19 August 2016. The winners will be announced at an event in London in December.
To enter go to theguardian.com/charityawards
