There has been a 15 per cent drop in the number of partnerships between the private sector and community charities working  with children and young people, according to a Community Matters members’ survey.

The survey, which involved 68 community groups working with children and young people, found that while there was 20 per cent growth in partnership working with local authorities between 2011 and 2012, the opposite was true with the private sector for the same period.

Further, the survey also suggested that a large number of respondents were unfamiliar with the concept of National Citizen Service, with 52 per cent stating that they were not involved due to a lack of knowledge about how to link in with the service.

Some 28 per cent of respondents stated that the National Citizen Service programme was not applicable to the young people that they work with.

Grants accounted for a substantial amount of funding for those surveyed – 30 per cent of organisations’ primary funding and over 40 per cent of secondary funding.

The survey noted that the increasing move to commissioning had led to only a small increase of almost 5 per cent in organisations funded primarily through service delivery contracts between 2011 and 2012.

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