At the same time as we launched the latest Almanac, we also produced some analysis of the children and young people’s voluntary sector. This analysis, produced with the Children’s Partnership, is based on the same dataset and methodology as the Almanac, but focusing on those charities who work mainly with children and young people.
You can download the analysis from the Children’s Partnership website [pdf, 1.7MB]. A few key points stand out from the analysis:
- This sector is large – we identify 37,000 organisations whose core work is with children and young people, with total spending of £5.6 billion.
- The largest source of income comes from individuals (44%), but income from government is a larger proportion for these organisations than for the voluntary sector as a whole (42%). These organisations are also much more likely to receive funding from local government.
- In the year we looked at, 2012/13, this income from government fell by £150 million from the year before, while income from individuals had risen by a small amount.
As Karl Wilding points out in today’s Observer article, the financial pressure on local authorities means they may struggle to fund the non-statutory services that children’s charities often provide. The Almanac shows the financial pressures the voluntary sector faces, this further analysis of charities working with children and young people shows that those organisations face an even more difficult environment.
David Kane was formerly NCVO’s Senior Research Officer. He discusses open data and emerging trends in the voluntary and community sector and wider civil society. 
