06/10/2009 – Capacity building the third sector should avoid a ‘one-size fits-all’ approach
New research published by Capacitybuilders highlights the importance of identifying the support needs of third sector organisations through effective diagnosis and avoiding a 'one-size fits-all' approach to support provision.
Outlining the key factors that make support effective, the research found that most important was the extent to which support could be tailored to organisations' needs. Whichever broad model of delivery was used, it was the ability of providers to adjust methods and content of support to meet specific needs that seemed to be key.
In addition the research found that 'tailored support' did not always need to be one-to-one, and could be effectively tailored to a group if the aim and purpose of support was clear and if the group had common needs, and if the provider understood the issues that third sector organisations and their users were facing.
There were, however, questions raised about 'whose need' support was being tailored to, and how to identify needs. The research found a strong perception amongst providers of support and other stakeholders that third sector organisations themselves – particularly smaller or newer organisations – could not always identify their own needs effectively, and that a key role for capacity builders was to help them to do this.
There were also concerns about how sustainable the benefits were of providing support, because of high staff turnover within the sector. There was also some evidence that the effectiveness of support could be limited if it was provided 'at the wrong time' or to groups that were not appropriate recipients.
Finally, in choosing a provider, the issue of 'who provides' seemed more important than the model of provision. There was evidence that skills and knowledge of the provider were important in ensuring successful outcomes of support, but that other factors, such as trust, also had a key influence on third sector organisations' choice of provider. This suggested that brokerage of support, or signposting to appropriate providers, was an important role for capacity builders to play in order to avoid duplication of provision and ensure good outcomes for third sector organisations.
The research Testing Different Models of Support and accompanying case studies, are available here.