There should be closer engagement between agencies compiling official statistics and voluntary sector organisations that use them, to better understand the needs of the sector, according to a monitoring brief from the UK Statistics Authority.

It suggests that one way to do this would be to create voluntary sector ‘champions’ within the statistical service who would be responsible for understanding and raising awareness of the needs of the sector.

Other options are to hold more regular meetings, increase contact through social networking and emails and the Royal Statistical Society creating a voluntary sector user group in its online forum StatsUserNet.

The agency produced the report to explore “how the voluntary sector uses official statistics, and how it engages with the bodies that produce them” and is based on consultation with sector bodies including NCVO, SCVO, Age UK, Third Sector Research Centre and RNIB.

In a letter to minister for civil society, Nick Hurd, the chair of the UK Statistics Authority, Andrew Dilnot, wrote: “We conclude that there may be a need for government departments to review together the adequacy, for their own purposes, of the statistics they collect about the voluntary sector.

"We see a shortage of regular and timely data in this area and we think it likely that this will inhibit the monitoring of the beneficial impact of the voluntary sector in its contribution to the Big Society and other government initiatives."

As part of public expenditure cuts, the government discontinued the Citizenship Survey, which collected information about volunteering and included organisations that were too small to be included on the Charity Commission’s database.

Statistics produced by the sector

The brief also raised the issue of statistics produced by the voluntary sector, especially those organisations involved in public service delivery as they will be required to release data on performance and user satisfaction.

It recommends the government should “ensure that sufficient information is made available by such organisations that a coherent national picture can be produced, and that the activities and outcomes of voluntary sector organisations can be compared with those of other organisations”.

The authority also concluded that, in the interests of public confidence, it would be beneficial for larger voluntary organisations that produce statistics used by others to follow a similar set of guidelines to the Official Code of Practice for government bodies.