Young Brent Foundation Space To Grow Report

Young Brent Foundation
Market Research Report & Findings
Summary
This report provides the results of a market research and online survey across
Young Brent Foundation members. The survey was independently conducted
from November to December 2017 by researcher Jean Collingwood of Ingenious
Group with support from NCVO and Big Lottery Funding. NCVO is an approved
provider for Big Potential, a Big Lottery Fund, a grant fund which aims to raise
awareness of the social investment market and support VCSEs who want to
prepare themselves for social investment. The survey provides a snapshot of the
key features of Young Brent Foundation members’ needs for activity or office
space for lease, hire or rental.
Background
The survey follows on from a more comprehensive piece of research reported in
Young Brent Foundation's Needs, Challenges and Opportunities Report carried
out in 2017 by Ingenious Group. The report, commissioned by Young Brent
Foundation (hereafter YBF) with support from Oak Park Development
Corporation (OPDC) and The Goldsmiths' Company identified the issue of space
as one of the greatest challenges affecting YBF’s members.
Space To Grow research was designed to further explore the nature and context
of members SPACE needs, acting as an exploratory study and snapshot to
provide a picture of needs at the time and with further potential to lay the
groundwork for more detailed, comparative or longitudinal research in the
future.
Target Audience
Approx. one-third (28) of YBF’s 90 members took part in the survey. These were
largely small to medium sized Voluntary Sector Organisations, working with
young people aged 0-25 in Brent.
Limitations, Methodologies & Evaluation
Sample Size
Longitudinal effects were not possible due to the time-limited access to YBF’s
membership and the timeframe in which to conduct the survey. A third of the
YBF’s membership as a sample is a reasonable sample and statistically sound.
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It is recognised that the outcomes of the survey, carried out using standard
methodology through an online and telephone survey, is not all-encompassing –
in that is does not report on all YBF’s ninety members, nor all their unique and
specific space needs.
Self-reported Data
Online surveys with anonymity offer greater take-up and participation; however,
self-reported data by its nature cannot be independently verified. It is not
known, for example, if responses to budgets and turnover questions were based
on members’ working memory and recall or, alternatively, drawn from actual
accurate data as contained in banking and budgetary management reports etc.
Members also generated a large amount of free text data in their responses,
which provided significant insight into the nature of their space needs. This,
however, could not be analysed into meaningful data and so is instead included
within sections of the survey, shown as captured, to provide added value and a
degree of detail and context.
The aims of the Space To Grow Survey and Report
The survey and findings aimed to help better understand and explore the
unique requirements of YBF members and their needs for different types of
space.
§ Delivery Space
The distinct features and frequency of YBF members’ Space needs to deliver
their Young People focused activities and/or services.
§ Organisation Management Space
YBF members’ unique needs for spaces to base their operations. This included
the nature of the members’ work and the impact on operating and opening
hours. It also ranked buying criteria of rental or leasehold spaces, their budgets
and restraints.
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As part of this, the research aimed to forecast and inform any likely demands for
Community Hub spaces, including The Roundwood Youth Centre and other
community hub-type spaces, across the Borough.
The research provides insight into the size, scale, prospective occupancy and
tenancy levels and members’ buying criteria for both office venue and facility
hire. It contrasts and compares other venue options more widely across Brent
and in other local Boroughs, and identifies alternative Community Hub buildings
and venues, reporting on price points and their potential to generate income.
The overall aims were to support a realistic forecast of the potential rental
capacity of The Roundwood Youth Centre and other alternative Community
Hubs located in Brent, and predict their likely occupancy levels in different
configurations and scenarios for 2018 and over the next five years.
The survey and study specifically reports on:
1. YBF members as potential customers and their propensity to rent and/or hire
space at Roundwood. It considers the likely levels of interest in relocating to The
Roundwood Youth Centre and/or other similar broad-based youth hubs – hubs
defined as community places with a wide range of services all under one roof.
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2. Members’ buying criteria, ranking their priorities and features in order of
importance. This informs their purchasing decisions and preferred locations,
and considers features, accessibility and other key drivers so that future
“marketing offers” can be closely targeted to meet identified needs.
3. Unit price points: It identifies members’ current price points and compares
with those of other community office rentals and spaces on offer, median price
points and benchmarks.
4. Purchasing volumes of both rental room hire and room income for The
Roundwood Youth Centre and the likely level of space required each month by
Young Brent Foundation Members.
5. Potential Purchasing Frequency (to inform and forecast the likely overall takeup
of room and venue hire each month, to support income generation).
6. Budgets to contrast and compare against median benchmarks and allinclusive
prices of similar community-focused activity and rentals in the Borough
of Brent and other Boroughs, based on comparative community market pricing.
7. Identifying other alternative means of generating income, either from
commercial activities or from other community-focused voluntary organisations
that have utilised community space, to subsidise their social activities and/or
grow their income.
Introduction: YBF Member Services.
Organisations having incomes ranging from zero to five million pounds.
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Young Brent Foundation members deliver a wide range of services, activities and
interventions and work with young people and their families across the Borough
of Brent with turnovers from zero to five million. From a base of 86 members
with known turnovers at the time, the survey and study took place.
23 YBF Member organisations had turnovers under £10,000
11 YBF Member organisations had turnovers between £10K and £20K
18 YBF Member organisations had turnovers of £20K to £100K
22 YBF Member organisations had turnovers of £100K- £250K
6 YBF Members had 250K- 1 million
6 YBF Members had two to five million pound turnovers.
This suggests a large pool of potential YBF members have significant size and
scale to act as prospects, either as Anchor Tenants or rental customers, with
40% of members turning over £100K to 5 Million.
YBF members can also add significant added value to deliver community goals in
addition to acting as tenants. Combined YBF's membership delivers a wide
spectrum of services and interventions as can be seen. Many bring with them,
large-scale support and resources, drawn down from their much larger national
or parent body. YBF members include The Prince’s Trust and Skills Training UK.
Other members provide niche and vital areas of specialism and local know-how,
like Ms Rose Blossom, YES and Sport at the Heart. Combined members reach
young people and their families across virtually the whole of Brent’s community.
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1. Members’ Propensity to Relocate to Roundwood Centre
The results show that The Roundwood Youth Centre was the single most
attractive Community Hub venue that 35% of YBF members would relocate to.
55% selected “Other” in their response, including 30% of members who would
consider relocating to more than one of stated options and who specifically
named The Roundwood Centre in their free data text response.
This suggests demand for The Roundwood Youth Centre is far greater than 35%.
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Largely those who selected “other” appeared either to do so because they were
already situated either in a purpose-built space, or because they were subject to
contracts or established linkages. For more information, please see below.
“The wards I work with are under Barnhill and Fryent, therefore the community
space most nearest is Chalkhill Centre.”
“We cannot relocate as we are based within Brent Carers Centre on Willesden
High Rd.”
“We already have a purpose-built centre for our activity.”
“Currently we are based outside of Brent however if we had the space we could
replicate our programme in Brent.”
“SWAY currently is based in Wembley NW10 1Qb.”
“Stonebridge pavilion to carry out activities - no office space.”
“These are all a bit far away from where we are. Willesden Green is ideal.”
“The centre of the borough is best as my membership is from across the
borough
Our supplementary school has been based in Wembley for the last 30 years so
we really can't move from here.”
“All the above but Granville is where we are moving to in 2018.”
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2. Question: Please tell us which of the two spaces are the most
problematic? Finding an office or base space OR finding space to
deliver activities and services?
Overall, 40% of members considered there to be a shortage of affordable and
suitable space for both office and activity rental in Brent.
Respondents struggle with finding appropriate space for activities and matching
this office space with delivery space.
Members looking for space to deliver young people activities accounted for
more than double of those who were seeking space to act as a base.
A quarter of members selected “Neither” kind of space being a problem,
meaning that the other three-quarters have issues with space.
Free text data spaces allowed respondents to tell us more about their space
needs and provided useful context.
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Storage space continued.
Space for storing paperwork, sports and musical equipment featured highly
throughout the survey in free text data sections. It was consistently raised as an
important issue affecting members, even those who were unable to relocate,
and was particularly prominent for activity based organisations who needed
space to store their equipment. It equally featured in the responses of those
seeking out office rental space. The scale of the demand for storage was
significant and suggests that there may be a strong market demand for standalone
storage space that should be considered within Community Hubs.
“We have no core funding and need cheap storage and cheap venue hire to hold
workshops or young people”.
Our main challenge is Storage Space to house the musical instruments we must
use.
§ Continuity of finding regular spaces was a consistent feature in free text
data sections.
“We were using the Yellow Pavilion to deliver our services but the building is
always occupied by other groups. We have no regular funding to hire buildings.
We need a regular base to provide a continuous and reliable service”
§ Finding office space and activity space together in the same location:
“It was challenging finding the appropriate space for our young people/girl’s
fitness class, I think community spaces are few and far between. It would help to
have an office space to rent in the same venue as when needed.”
Other responses were wide and varied and drew on respondent’s specific
requirements. An indicative selection of free text data responses is shown
below.
“WE NEED SOME WHERE AFFORDABLE ACCESSIBLE AND RISK ASSESSED.”
“We need rooms where we can hold peer support, forums and training sessions.
Enough space for around 20 people, tables and chairs, room to move around in
as well, With electrical points for equipment - ideally with Wi-Fi.”
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“There is still a shortage of reasonably priced space in Brent”
“Training venues for workshop and outside activities, e.g. Pitches”
“We meet in a very crowded Church Hall in Willesden Green. Which has been
negotiated at a rent of £26 per night.”
“We have just lost 2/3s of our space as young people's activities are not seen as
important. The space is in what was a youth and community building before the
youth service in Brent was scrapped in March 2016”
“I work from home but it is invaluable to have a presence in the borough for my
team of young people to prepare and plan sessions”
“We need a music/dance/photography studio and performance space that
audiences can attend.”
“Office space for at least 5 workers.”
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3. Question Please detail the size of office your office space needs each
month?
§ Overall results suggest that most respondents have modest size needs,
with less than 10% of all respondents seeking 10 or more desk spaces.
§ Just under half (45.15%) of members need one to two desks spaces.
§ Almost a third (30.77 %) of members wanted 5 to 10 desk spaces.
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Results of Members buying criteria - all space hire.
.
4. Question: Which specific features and/or services do you consider
most important to you, when renting Space?
The most important features of office or venue rentals considered by members
was
Ø Location (30%)
Ø Safety of staff and the people they work with (20%)
Ø Reliable Wi-Fi (15%)
Ø Good transport access (5%)
30% of members who selected “other” said in free data response sections that
“all of the feature options were of equal importance in their buying criteria.”
Other options which were included but not selected in responses were:
• Easy in and out contracts & terms
• Mail handling service
• Appearance
• Flexible add-on to main rental, e.g. shared meeting rooms
• Sharing of resources with others
• Flexible payment methods
• Parking space
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It’s worth noting, however, that storage space was not a feature or question
option for this selection as it was not foreseen.
5. Question: What type of space do you most regularly need to deliver
your activities?
The results showed that the greatest demand for the type of space members
needed were:
Classroom/training room 30.00%
Desk office space 10.00%
Large hall 15.00%
Outdoor sports 10.00%
Indoor sports hall 5.00%
Dance studio 5.00%
Nursery play area 5.00%
All the features below were not selected and so rated as 0.00%:
• Kitchen
• Café
• IT suite
• Large conference meeting room space
• Breakout rooms
• Stage area
• One-to-one interview space
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6. Question: Please provide the numbers of hours, per week, you
currently rent space to deliver young people activities?
From a total of 22 responses to this question there was a wide variation in
weekly space hire needs for activity, ranging from 1 to 50 hours per week.
Responses were divided by the number of responses to provide an average
across members.
2 @ 1hour
1 @ 2 hours
1 @ 4 hours
1 @ 6 hours
1 @ 10 hours
2 @ 12hours
3 @ 16 hours
50% a total of 11 organisations with an average hire of 7 hours a week.
4 @ 20 hours
1 @ 21hours
4 @ 24 Hours
2 @ 30 hours
1 @ 42 hours
50% a total of 11 organisations with an average of 27 hours a week.
Overall the average number of hours hired by members to run their activities is
17 hours a week.
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7. Question: Please provide an average monthly spend on space hire to
deliver your activities?
It is worth noting that some respondent organisations fed back in the free text
data sections that due to the varied nature of their work with young people and
their families throughout the year, and often in one or more capacity, and in
delivering a wide range of services, they were unable to separate their office or
core base organisation costs or requirements from that of their activity space
needs, or readily distinguish which proportion of their hire costs or operating
hours are spent purely on delivering young people activities.
A single member entered £80,000 as their average monthly spend on activity
space hire. This was largely out of step with all other findings and considered
more likely to be an annual figure or an inaccuracy. If applied to data
calculations and included, it would falsely inflate the average spend overall for
respondents. It was therefore set aside to enable us to reach a reliable average
monthly sum.
The average monthly spend for members surveyed and spent on space hire to
delivery their activities each month in Brent was £1,527 or £18,324 per annum.
8. Question: Please provide your Annual available budgets for office
rental?
This question received a mixed response with only nine respondents providing
budgetary sums specifically for office rental.
v Two-thirds of respondents to this section were not currently or actively
considering a relocation.
v Some considered that they had no available budget and/or would need to
raise funds.
v Some struggled to separate out their office base cost from their activity
space costs.
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The average sum of all available budgets for each member spend for office
rental space averaged out at £9,775 per annum, per organisation.
Respondents provided more insight, with some emerging themes and features:
“Use of small office interview rooms in case of Sports England bid, to meet and
mentor families. A facility to use photocopying, printing, laminating and
administrative work.”
“We need accessible affordable and relevant premises where it feels like a
community and clinical setting.”
“Long term onsite storage with a large hall are the main considerations for us.”
“We will continue to need space quarterly peer support, forum and training - we
hope to be able to continue to provide a Summer and Christmas Party. We aim
to grow the peer support so will eventually need two peer support groups per
quarter to deliver to a wider age range.”
“Classroom/Training rooms”
“SWAY is currently based at St John's Community Centre”
“The space would have to accommodate community dinners, training young
people, volunteers on work experience and office space”
“We need office desk space but also need occasional meeting rooms at
extremely low cost or preferably free.”
“Pitch hire & occasional training room.”
“It is not just the weekly space it is the one-off events or sleepovers that create
the problem.”
“We need space for our young people to run around make noise be creative
without disturbing anyone.”
“We are a relatively new Charity and have developed a range of projects to
support the informal educational needs of young people. We are applying for
core funding which will help us to build our brand. We have run sporting
activities during the summer, black history workshops and the debating project.”
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“We want to use space according to funding, projects and skill set of staff.”
“As a supplementary school, we need to be able to run our classes. Plus, we
need to access cheap and accessible venues for extra curricula activities.”
“Need a decent office space for 5-9 workers.”
“Large hall apace to run children's activities. We will need this during school
holidays.”
“Need regular safe space for up to 36 students training.”
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Young Brent Foundation Members
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