Building our plan for the future

We're developing a long term strategy for the future. It will map out what we will need to do to make progress towards our vision, purpose and aims for the future.

In summer 2008 WRVS chief executive, Lynne Berry, set in motion a range of activities to build the long term strategy for the future. She put together a small team of managers to do the development work. They were supported by some consultants who were asked to go out to get the views of service users, staff and volunteers and test these with external stakeholders.

The executive board and trustees established four principles that the strategy would be guided by:

Guiding principles

1. We should concentrate on the kind of practical volunteer powered support which enables older people to maintain their dignity and independence.
2. Our services should derive value from being part of a national organisation.
3. We should focus on ways in which we can achieve optimum outcomes.
4. We need to have a financially sustainable model.

To build the plan we listened to WRVS regional managers, project managers and volunteers about the work we do now. We wanted to know what works well, what prevents us from doing more and what we can do to improve the support we provide to older people.

We then looked at what services older people will want in the future, listening to people who are older now and will be in the future.

And we looked at how the world around us was changing. How the governments in London, Cardiff and Edinburgh intended to improve life for older people, how health and social care was changing and what sort of support would attract funding from local government, the NHS and other sources in the future.

The team has been using this research and feedback to develop the strategy.

There are some things which are already clear from the work so far that are unlikely to change:

A long term plan
National organisation delivering locally
Providing what older people want
Integrating our services
Recognising devolution
Improving awareness of WRVS