Voice of the Sector

Providing a platform for third sector organisations in Falkirk to collaborate, have their voice heard, and engage with the Community Planning Partnership (CPP) and Statutory Partners.

Falkirk’s Third Sector Forums and Networks

CVS Falkirk & District facilitates several groups, forums and networks. The purpose of these is to provide Falkirk’s Third Sector the opportunity to discuss and debate issues, share knowledge, experience and practices, and to have a stronger, more coherent voice in the Community Planning process and beyond.

They are a space for the third sector to come together around a particular topic or issue, and share their concerns and experiences, while learning more about what others are doing and finding ways to work together.

Our team at CVS Falkirk is keen to keep supporting Falkirk’s third sector in building on the connections and collaborations made over recent years (specifically the COVID-19 lockdowns and ongoing cost of living crisis). To continue this work, we relaunched Falkirk’s third sector forums, redesigned to reflect the current needs of our sector, and our communities.

These forums and networks began meeting in autumn 2022, and progress the previous thematic forums, while also prioritising the issues we are all focusing on going forward, which have been exacerbated by the pandemic. They also align with the priorities identified in the new Falkirk Plan.

For further information, including all forum dates and dedicated webpages, please see the list below.

All meetings will be held 10am – 12pm, unless stated otherwise.

Community Leadership Network
- meeting on Wednesday 15^th January 2025, Wednesday 23^rd April 2025, Wednesday 13^th August 2025, and Wednesday 12^thNovember 2025.
Connecting Volunteering Network
- meeting on Wednesday 26^th February 2025, Wednesday 21^st May 2025, Wednesday 27^th August 2025, and Wednesday 26^thNovember 2025.
Falkirk’s Third Sector Employability Forum
- 2024: meeting on Thursday 12^th December 2024 (10am to 11am)
- 2025: meeting 10am to 11am on Wednesday 5^th February 2025, Wednesday 2^nd April 2025, Wednesday 18^th June 2025, Wednesday 13^th August 2025, Wednesday 8^thOctober 2025.
Forth Valley Social Enterprise Network
- 2024: meeting on Thursday 21^st November 2024
- 2025: meeting in-person on Thursday 6^th February 2025 (Clackmannanshire), Thursday 12^th June 2025 (Stirling), Thursday 15^th October 2025 (Falkirk)
- Please contact Tariq Mahmood for further information, by email: tariq@cvsfalkirk.org.uk
- a network promoting and supporting social enterprises across Forth Valley, facilitated by CVS Falkirk, CTSI and SVE
Funding Officers Network
- meeting on Wednesday 12^th February 2025, Wednesday 14^th May 2025, Wednesday 20^th August 2025, and Wednesday 19^thNovember 2025.
Health and Wellbeing Forum
- 2024: meeting on Wednesday 4^th December 2024
- 2025: meeting on Wednesday 4^thMarch 2025, Wednesday 4^thJune 2025, Wednesday 10^th September 2025, and Wednesday 10^th December 2025.
- a continuation of the COVID-19 Third Sector Response Forum, and the Community Care and Health Forum (CCHF)
Safer and Empowered Communities Forum
- 2024: meeting on Wednesday 20^th November 2024
- 2025: meeting on Wednesday 19^th February 2025, Wednesday 28^th May 2025, Wednesday 3^rd September 2025, and Wednesday 3^rdDecember 2025.
Voluntary Sector Children’s Services Forum
- 2024: meeting on Wednesday 27^th November 2024
- 2025: meeting on Wednesday 12^thMarch 2025, Wednesday 11^thJune 2025, Wednesday 17^thSeptember 2025, and Wednesday 17^thDecember 2025.

Why Attend the Third Sector Forums

Engaging in the various forums will ensure your group has:

a voice in influencing decision-making and public policy, and creating change for the people you support
networking opportunities with peers to agree joint actions and services
a platform to communicate with Community Planning
the opportunity to be involved in influencing the agenda locally
up to date information
the knowledge to take part in consultations
access to training
the ability to participate in local initiatives from public sector partners

Please note that you do not have to attend all 8 forums; we recognise that all our colleagues in the sector are incredibly busy, and you should only attend the meetings you feel will best benefit you in your role, and the people you support.

Our Role at CVS Falkirk

Part of our role as the Third Sector Interface (TSI) for the different towns and communities of the Falkirk Council area is to support the local third sector to be strong, resilience, and help groups and organisations connect with each other, while making their voice heard at different decision-making levels (both local and national). One of the ways we do this is by facilitating the third sector forums.

In addition to organising the forums and handling different administrative duties, CVS Falkirk will support and mentor anybody who wants to become more actively involved, eg. chairing a forum or representing the third sector at partner meetings.

We also attend other groups to represent the interest of the sector and communicate about policy and developments, including (but not limited to):

Community Planning Partnership
Public Partnership Forum
Children’s Commission
Community Safety Group

To find out more about this range of groups and their activities, and how you can participate, please contact us.

COVID-19 Third Sector Response Forums

Regular third sector forums were postponed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic; instead, we introduced the new COVID-19 Third Sector Response Forum, which met monthly (and more) during the pandemic, and the Compassionate and Included Communities Forum. We also supported the Falkirk Food Providers Forum during the early days of the pandemic.

The final meeting of the COVID-19 Third Sector Response Forum was in June 2022.

Information on all these meetings, including associated papers and minutes, are archived on the dedicated page: COVID-19 Third Sector Response Forums.

Previous Third Sector Forums

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, our team at CVS Falkirk facilitated a number of thematic forums, based on the priorities and outcomes identified in the Falkirk Strategic Outcomes and Local Delivery (SOLD) Plan, which was in place 2015 – 2020 (and followed by the Falkirk Plan, running 2021 – 2030).

Some of these forums have been redesigned to better reflect the new Falkirk Plan, and the needs of our local communities and sector; however, their previous pages have been archived and are still available to view, in the interests of transparency and providing information to our communities.