“I spent a week, it was like a dissertation”: Council told to help community groups crippled by paperwork
“Many times people just walk away because we put so much bureaucracy in front of them”
Long complex forms cause people to walk away from their community projects in Sheffield, a council meeting was told.
Paperwork was identified as a key issue facing volunteer groups at a Sheffield City Council committee meeting on October 7, discussing its latest community report.
The ‘when communities lead’ report makes recommendations for the council and other organisations to support collective action in the city.
Councillors discussed when the council should step in and help communities, and when it should “get out the way.”
Geraldine Houlton, a volunteer with Friends of Ellesmere Park in Burngreave, told the council chamber: “When it comes to filling in forms, you shouldn’t need a degree in form filling to be able to fill that in.
“I spent a week doing a gov.uk one, it was like a dissertation.
“Our treasurer has spent three attempts filling in a council one but it didn't work. We’re volunteers, we don't want to have to do that.”
“We want you in on that.”
Councillor Mohammed Mahroof said: “Many times people just walk away because we put so much bureaucracy in front of them.”
He said a common thing he hears within community groups is “I can't fill these forms in, I don't have the records, I've never done this before. But I have good intentions to do something for my community.”
“It repeats itself year on year. That's the biggest thing we need to do to engage further people into community work.
“The big players can fill the forms in, they can do the accounts and the references. But the smaller organisations, they can't do that.
“I've met quite a number of them who have disengaged as a result of it.”
Coin Mahroof said the community report was great, but was concerned as a “veteran” councillor and seeing many reports before that energy to improve things could fizzle out.
Imran Ali, who leads the Saalik Youth Project in Burngreave and other parts of Sheffield said things were moving in the right direction and felt the voluntary sector was coming together with the council as ‘we’ rather than ‘us and you’.
But he warned communities are going to be looking for delivery, and called for “multi-year funding”.
“Relationships do not happen over a week, a month or a year,” he said.
“If you are saying to people, this young man's been shot dead and I want you to turn around the rest of the 40 traumatised kids in a year.
“I am good, but I am not that good.”