GM VCSE Leadership Group Economic Vision

The GM VCSE Leadership Group have devised an ‘economic vision’ for Greater Manchester; they hope this vision will guide future conversations in the VCSE, private, statutory sectors and in communities.

The Vision:

They instigate a need to explore alternative approaches to economics by adopting something more progressive.

They propose an inclusive economy that prioritises the needs and interests of all of society and the environment, in contrast with only the interests of corporate power.

They argue that Covid-19 has further exacerbated and harshly exposed the deepening inequalities in Greater Manchester and that now is the opportunity to address these inqualities through empowering communities and society members, organising work and time and combating environmental issues further.

A new, inclusive econonmy

The focus on profit and gain that is currently ingrained in our economic culture prospers at the expense of our happiness & wellbeing. A new, inclusive economy however would be based on the following core values:

• Equality & human dignity

• Solidarity & community

• Autonomy & liberation

• Stewardship of environment

Pragmatics:

• An inclusive economy would need to encourage community engagement in economics, as opposed to economic development decisions being solely down to professionals & agencies.

• Greater social ownership of wealth; through communtity and locally owned businesses etc.

• A need for a Green New Deal: secure a fairer society and safe climate by transforming the economy.

• Social & mission-led businesses would receive positive noteriety.

Full vision available here

2017 General Election: What can the next Government do to support charities?

The next government has a big role to play in supporting the VCSE sector, volunteers, and catalysing wider change in the country. NCVO have published a manifesto with five key asks from the next Government. They are:

Making it easier and more rewarding for people to volunteer

• Allowing employers time off work for volunteering
• Providing a support fund to address barriers to volunteering for people with disabilities.
• Recognise the difference that volunteers make to their communities
• Strengthening volunteer development and management

Supporting local communities for a generation to come

• Create income-generating endowment funds
• Put more assets in community ownership

Facilitating charities and volunteers to support our public services

• Services such as the NHS should be asked to set targets for the management and development of volunteering
• Senior public service leaders should be asked to become volunteering champions - raising greater awareness

Enabling people to develop their skills and employment opportunities

• Replace European Union programmes that help people get back to work
• Make it easier for unemployed people looking for work to volunteer

Giving everybody a stake in post-Brexit Britain

• Ensure the right to stay of EU national is resolved without delay
• Simple and effective visa requirements should be put in place to enable people from overseas.
• In the voluntary sector alone, around 5% of staff are non-UK EEA nationals, with this proportion increasing at a higher rate in recent years than the private or public sectors

““Over the next few weeks, people across our country will be talking about their vision of what a good society looks like, what a more social economy looks like, and what post-Brexit Britain looks like. Our message to candidates from all political parties is that this is a good time to think about how we can support and encourage the people and charities who want to help in their communities.””

— Karl Wilding, Director for Public Policy and Volunteering at NCVO

These five areas all draw upon the idea of the next government acting as an enabler for the sector to develop and flourish even further. Charities and volunteers across the country and in all communities are already making a difference to people’s lives and changing things for the better. With the right support and opportunities, they can do even more.

For further details, NCVO's full manifesto is available here.

#VSNW16 Conference Round-Up: Community Powered Change

How will devolution transform communities? It won't, unless communities transform devolution!

Thanks to all delegates and speakers for a successful conference. It was at the excellent People’s History Museum in Manchester, a museum dedicated to the history of working people improving their lives. We thought this provided an excellent setting for the event (apologies if it was a little cold!)

If you missed the Storify collection of tweets from the day, you can view it on our Twitter. Thanks for the hundreds of tweets throughout the day - #VSNW16 was trending on Twitter!  

"People have a right to feel left behind, they have been left behind"

Jim McMahon MP, the Shadow Minister for Local Government, Communities & Devolution kicked off the event. While the Brexit vote showed people feel left behind, new ways for people to have more power and control need to be found – and the voluntary sector has a significant role to play here. Politics and public services should be redesigned, argued McMahon, and he challenged the sector to make sure this is grassroots led. ‘Don’t wait for permission – make devolution your own!’

"Inclusive Growth isn't inclusive unless it's reducing poverty"

Next we heard from Professor Ruth Lupton, who is head of the Inclusive Growth Analysis Unit, a joint JRF and University of Manchester project to track social prosperity.  While ‘inclusive growth’ is now entering the mainstream, ‘it isn’t inclusive growth unless it is reducing poverty’, and there is still a long way to go to deliver a truly inclusive economy. Lupton highlighted many sector led initiatives that can help: using social value, fostering social enterprises and implementing the living wage are all good starts. What is measured, counts,and Professor Lupton argued the sector needs a visible, credible voice on the economy. More widely though, social policies should be seen as investment too.  

As ever, we had a fantastic range of workshops throughout the day, delivered by colleagues from across the voluntary sector, public sector and think-tanks from the North West and wider, that gave attendees the chance to learn more about specific areas, and play a part in shaping policy, from Sustainability and Transformation Plans to social indicators.  

What does inclusivity look like? The theoretical and the practical

Delivering inclusive growth for communities was one theme for the day, and while CLES’s Matt Jackson had plenty of examples of ‘been and gone’ social projects, the economic development policy climate is changing, he argued. The voluntary sector used to be seen as an afterthought, but is now seen as a partner, and the centralised approach of the 80s, 90s, and 00s, is beginning to be replaced by place based approaches to local economic growth.

Professor Anthony Rafferty, also at the Inclusive Growth Analysis Unit, wanted to know how social success could be measured, and posed the question of whether it is better to use what data you have, or abandon it and seek new methods. Those present had the small workshop task of designing these to feed into the Inclusive Growth Analysis Unit!

Brexit and the implications for the voluntary sector

EU funding has supported many social inclusion projects, and Gill Bainbridge from Merseyside Youth Association gave practical examples of her organisation’s programmes supporting young people into work, through a wide lens approach. Network for Europe’s John Hacking suggested that, while EU funding may not be around forever, it is likely to continue to 2022. Nonetheless, a complete loss of European Social Funding could mean over 21,000 people in Merseyside losing out on life-changing support.

Assessing the sector's role in Sustainability and Transformation Plans

Over a third of VCSE organisations in the North West are involved in health and social care, and this was a popular workshop theme at the conference. Frances Newell, a patient and public partnerships specialist at NHS England gave an overview of Sustainability and Transformation Plans in England. Given the key role they have in delivering the Five Year Forward View, the lack of sector involvement thus far was an issue that came up and is likely to again.

Alternative and new approaches to improving health and social care

A practical model for health inclusion was outlined by Chris Dabbs, Unlimited Potential and Francesca Archer-Todde, Big Life, who presented the findings from the Realising the Value person and community centred care research project.  

Ben Gilchrist, VSNW’s Social Movement lead, and Chris Easton from Tameside NHS talked about how wider approaches to improving health can be achieved, in the context of their Social Movements for Health project with the Greater Manchester cancer vanguard. If you’d like to know more about the project or be involved, do contact Ben Gilchrist.  

How can we ensure the disempowered are represented? Exploring 'what works' in the voluntary sector

Transforming the voluntary sector was the task of those in the Engine Hall, and we heard from a range of perspectives: Anne Lythgoe, Salford Council, covered investment strategies for the sector, while David Beel discussed the sector’s inclusion in urban governance, with learning from cities across England and Wales. Whether the current model of devolution is more like ‘central government localism’ was his question, but in any case it was useful to hear from members voluntary sector partnerships in Liverpool City Region and Greater Manchester that have been spurred on by devolution processes, and have set out ambitious visions for their areas.

Policy silos and linking up the economic and the social

Delegates got a chance to hear about the emerging findings of the RSA’s Inclusive Growth Commission from Jonathan Schifferes, who is the RSA’s Associate Director of Public Services and Communities. Schifferes spoke passionately about linking up social and economic policy, and asked why the only focus is on infrastructure projects such as HS2. The task of the Commission is to join up the silos, and inject ‘inclusivity’ into governmental policy, said Schifferes. Building a shared agenda – across the voluntary sector, public sector, business, politicians, and wider society, was certainly a message that came through strongly on the day.  

"Let's use the energy in this room - and capture it for social and economic ends"

The conference finished off with a panel discussion on how ‘communities can transform devolution’, and what the voluntary sector’s role is. We were pleased to hear from Kathy Evans, Cllr Sean Anstee, Conservative candidate for Greater Manchester Mayor, Hal Meakin, from Youthforia, Cllr Jean Stretton, the GMCA portfolio holder for fairness and equalities, and Neil McInroy, Chief Executive of CLES.

Although all of the panellists came from different perspectives, many of the points raised suggested shared sentiments: the current political climate is unprecented, unstable, and unpredictable; but there are reasons to be positive, with inclusive growth and devolution providing opportunities for progress. Much more needs to be done, and Hal Meakin argued that young people are currently being left out. It was clear from the discussion that policy over the past few decades has largely not improved lives for many in the North, and if 2016 is to be a critical juncture that ends positively, the voluntary sector and communities need to be driving change themselves.

Jim McMahon MP - The voluntary and community sector has a key role to play in devolution

Jim McMahon MP, Shadow Minister for Local Government and Devolution

Labour & Cooperative Member of Parliament for Oldham West and Royton

It was a pleasure to address Voluntary Sector North West’s annual conference earlier this month at the People’s History Museum in Manchester. In thirteen years as a councillor and a year now as an MP, I have seen firsthand the difference that can be made by local people coming together to make their area a better place. The voluntary and community sector plays a vital role in making that happen.

I have also heard firsthand on the doorstep, ahead of the Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump, the sense that many ordinary people consider established politics to be an elite, distant and disempowering affair to which they cannot relate. People want and need a stake and a say in the way their society is organised. Too many people feel that they lack that voice. We need to address, not dismiss, this profound and prevailing sense of democratic deficit. Our centralist settlement currently leaves people feeling powerless. The voluntary and community sector, properly supported and mobilised, can help to fill that gap.

For devolution to be meaningful, it can’t just mean power passed down from Whitehall to the Town Hall: it needs to be passed down further still to communities themselves. Those communities can better exercise that power if they are well organised. The voluntary and community sector organises communities on the ground better than anyone else. So, part of the point of devolution must be to empower civil society, rather than hoarding power in the market or the state. Accordingly, the voluntary sector is absolutely right to look to harness devolution to give communities more of a say in the decisions that affect the lives of them and their families. The sector should be insistent in its demands to help shape devolution deals as they are struck and as they then unfold.

We all want to tackle poverty and reduce inequality. The best way to do that is to support more people into decent work. But a national, one-size-fits-all approach to helping people from welfare into work has failed. Devolution offers the best hope of a skills and employment offer that is tailored to the local job market and there is growing evidence that such an approach delivers results. In Oldham, the council has stepped in to fill the gap created by national contracted providers, supporting people into work. The council don’t receive any central government funding for this but they decided they weren’t willing to sit back while so many fell through the net. In just two years, over 3,000 people have been helped into work and a genuine partnership has been created with businesses, community organisations and the public services working together. When BHS closed and the shutters came down, as Sir Philip Green sailed off into the sunset, it was thanks to Get Oldham Working that every employee who wanted a new job had one lined up.

But Oldham also knows when to let go to, as was evident in the establishment of the Oldham Action Fund which benefited from a transfer of charitable trusts and historic dowries which brought together almost £1m of funding together for local voluntary and community sector groups to invest in long-term, sustainable funding.

It is true though that much of the discussion of devolution to date has been primarily economistic in character. That, to be honest, is a failing in our current politics in general. The voluntary and community sector is well placed to highlight the social dimension of devolution, deploying as it can the testimony of community members’ lived experience. People need to hear the stories and understand the relationships that matter, rather than forever merely looking at the graphs.

We rightly hear a lot about the pressing challenge of economic inequality in the world around us today. But the challenge posed by democratic inequality is no less stark. People do need money in their pockets, but they also need to feel that they have some influence over the environments in which they lead their lives. A cooperative approach to devolution, supporting the voluntary and community sector, offers the opportunity to level the playing field of our democracy.

We need to agree a compelling new settlement and give a greater voice to the people we came into politics to represent. And so, with any discussion on devolution, we must be open to new partnerships and, rather than see it simply as a transfer of responsibilities, we ought to see it as an opportunity to redefine how we govern, how we grow our economies and how we deliver the best possible public services. Devolution ought to mean politics done with people, not just for them. And that means we need you and the communities you help organise and empower together with us in the driving seat.

New survey looks at joint working between Jobcentres and VCSE organisations

VSNW has conducted a survey of VCSE agencies to understand the strength of relationships between Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise groups and Jobcentres, particularly where health and work initiatives are involved.

The results show that although there is some activity between the two, this is limited in most areas, and it is never at a strategic level.  The results also show divergent standards across localities, depending on individual relationships.

The five respondents unanimously agreed on three measures to improve joint working on health and work outcomes between Jobcentres and VCSE organisations:

• Co-working or co-location of Jobcentre Advisers with other community services
• New information standards to support monitoring of health and work issues
• More funding for specific VCSE-led services or initiatives to improve health and work together

The main barriers were mainly around Jobcentres having poor knowledge and understanding of VCSE services, and a lack of time and resources for both Jobcentres and VCSE organisations (shown below). 

VSNW conducted the survey on behalf of DWP’s Joint Health and Work Unit, who were interested in Health and Care Strategic Partners’ views on how well Jobcentres are working with VCSE organisations.

Warren Escadale, VSNW’s Chief Executive, commented: “At present, it seems evident that Jobcentres are not making the most of the holistic support on offer in the voluntary sector for the unemployed. However, it’s pleasing to see unanimity on measures to address this: co-working, improved information for Jobcentre staff, and specific funding streams for joint health and work initiatives.”

EU referendum: Potential implications for the North West

The North West Leaders Board, which comprises of local authority leaders from the region along with other representatives including VSNW Chief Executive Warren Escadale, have issued a report on the implications of leaving the EU for the North West.

It identifies a number of issues associated with the planned referendum, and the possibility of a vote to leave
the EU, that are of particular relevance to the North West. The report aims to inform debate on this issue in advance of the planned referendum, the outcome of which will have significant implications both nationally and locally. It also includes recommendations for reform should we remain in the EU.

There was also a recent NCVO paper on the referendum which you can find on their website - https://www.ncvo.org.uk/about-us/media-centre/press-releases/1334-ncvo-discussion-paper-explores-implications-of-eu-membership-for-charities?highlight=WyJyZWZlcmVuZHVtIl0=

Inclusive Growth analysis tool launched by JRF

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, in conjunction with the University of Manchester, has launched a new inclusive growth tool that monitors LEPs nationwide on both prosperity and inclusion.   

The initial report’s findings, which compare prosperity and inclusion scores for 2010-14 based on a composite of eighteen indicators, suggest that there is little correlation between prosperity and inclusion in the UK (see image below).

Figures for the North West LEPs indicate a mixed bag- while changes in both prosperity and inclusion in Cheshire & Warrington and Cumbria were better than average, Liverpool City Region and in particular Lancashire performed quite badly. Greater Manchester had a high prosperity score for the period yet it was in the bottom quartile for inclusion. 

The monitor will be updated by the Inclusive Growth Analysis Unit, which is a joint venture between JRF and the University of Manchester, headed by Ruth Lupton of the university. The GM VCSE Devolution Reference Group met with Ruth in May, and will be working with her to ensure that the voices of communities are adequately reflected in the unit’s work.

The tool will complement the RSA’s Inclusive Growth Commission and the Greater Manchester Growth and Inclusion Review, which have both launched recently. 

More information on the Inclusive Growth Analysis Unit can be found on the University of Manchester’s website.

The Economic and Social Benefits of Social Prescribing - The Rotherham Evaluation Report

The evaluation was carried out by Sheffield Hallam University on behalf of Voluntary Action Rotherham, and examined a three-year pilot programme in which GPs were allowed to refer people with long-term conditions to voluntary sector organisations. The report outlines the range of social and economic benefits that social prescribing has brought to the local community.

Social prescribing is a new term for non-medical services that aim to prevent worsening health for people with long-term health conditions. In recent years locality-based social prescribing services have increasingly been developed by health and social care commissioners to provide a mechanism for linking patients in primary care with sources of social, therapeutic and practical support in the voluntary and community sector. In Rotherham, the social prescribing service is delivered by Voluntary Action Rotherham (VAR) in partnership with more than 20 local voluntary and community organisations.

The annual evaluation report provides an assessment of the social and economic impact of the Rotherham Social Prescribing Service between September 2012 and March 2015. The results showed a reduction in demand for urgent hospital care, an increase in wellbeing and a range of positive, measurable social and economic benefits.

This information was previewed at the 2015 VSNW Conference in a workshop by Janet Wheatley from Voluntary Action Rotherham - a video of this workshop is available. In the video, Januet explains more about this work and some of the outcomes achieved.

Links

Rotherham Social Prescribing Summary Report
Rotherham Social Prescribing Full Evaluation Report

Autumn Statement 2015 - CEO Overview and Briefing

Warren Escadale, VSNW CEO, gives his early thoughts on the meaning of the Autumn Statement.

"I'm not giving credence to the newspapers' 'phew, it's a scorcher/end of austerity' description, as clearly that is just nonsense. I've reflected on the following:

• Devolution and the future of councils;
• Concern about the Office for Civil Society;
• The charity coin; and
• Investment in early intervention.

Devolution and the future of local councils Deal or no deal: devolution, and the expansion of the growth/reform formula, are coming to you! My recent presentation to One East Midlands is attached below and gives our thoughts on devolution.

Devolution - VSNW's perspective

Looking back on the Autumn Statement, I thought there was little mention of devolution. After all, we'd seen 38 devolution deal submissions in the build-up, and only news about Liverpool City Region and the West Midlands. I was wrong. In confirming the shift from grants to business rate retention for councils, it really couldn't have been a bigger Devolution Spending Review!

Self-financing councils, underpinned by council tax income (which is generally a far lower proportion of budgets in areas of deprivation e.g. 17% in Liverpool versus a national average of 40%), will mean local authorities will be necessarily focused on increasing business rates. Councils will be, and will have to be, the leading local economic agencies.

In turn, and alongside the additional 24% of cuts facing councils over the next four years, this will inevitably mean widespread roll out of large Combined Authorities (CA). Councils will need to formally take control of their local economies and learn how to juggle the effective geographies of economic strategy and of neighbourhood implementation necessary for increasing growth and reducing welfare cost (while continuing to be effective local leaders, supporting local communities).

The brackets are intentional. This is a fundamental shift for councils and if TS Eliot or Foucault had been interested in such things, they may well have described it as a disassociation of civic identity. Or... In Greater Manchester, because of the 10 local areas (assuming alignment of councils and CCGs), this is called the 10 + 1 model (of thinking, principle and delivery). The interests of the CA alongside those of the 10 localities.

The missing element in devolution, to date, is a coherent, connected, community strategy. A devolution strategy with devolution in its heart! And this is very much what we need, as a sector, to develop and what we, as VSNW and Regional Voices, intend to help develop.

Office for Civil Society

So, there are big challenges and opportunities facing our sector. A chance to redefine our purpose, show our worth and create something truly functional, community-centred, beautiful and life changing. Given this, we need a clear plan of investment in the sector's role championing communities, developing delivery models, facilitating greater community participation in health and social care, and connecting communities to effective economic development opportunities.

Amazing as the National Citizen Service and social investment can be, these are not investment strategies built around harnessing and catalysing sector potential, but about building from scratch. These are not sector-owned strategies or strategies that reflect what we could and must achieve on behalf of communities. From these strategies, you very well might not realise that there's a significant sector in the UK, that could provide big answers (like putting communities at the heart of devolution). The trouble is, it has gotten to the point where we're beginning to believe this too! I'm sorry to say this, but Office for Civil Society (OCS) policy around our sector has reached an all time low in investment, imagination, and practicality. There's lots of good reasons, and no doubt many our own fault, that outline how we got here, but this - right now - just can't be right.

We very much need an OCS with an effective third sector strategy and funding available for it! And we need to create the political space around OCS in order to help create this change.

Political capital

I think, linked to defining "devolution", that there's a vitally important case for developing a newer, more emergent strategy for the sector that better fits what we, and our beneficiaries, need.

Sometimes it is hard to credit but we seem to have political capital; I won't say 'influence' as that would suggest that we control our own political capital. There were a number of things that were allowed to influence the Chancellor. IDS, tax credits, the state of social services, the views of the leader of Oxfordshire County Council and possibly the charitable sector: no lottery fund transfer, relatively minor effective cuts to the Charity Commission, lots of mentions for charities in the Chancellor's speech etc.

There is an emerging new take on our role in compassionate conservatism which means there's an opportunity, nationally, for us to make a new case for the future of our sector. I think a campaign based on getting simple messages to MPs based on the lessons from the VCSE Review should be a collective priority.

Early intervention

Where is the investment in early intervention? We've all talked a really good game on prevention and early intervention. Scientists, politicians, voluntary and public sector experts, neurologists, psychologists, parents, one and all. We did really well. We all agreed with one voice. And yet, not only are we not investing in this in any coherent tangible way, we're cutting any chance of it.

I know there are a number of really significant pilot programmes (new models of care vanguards, Well North, NHS England's social movement call), but these are relatively small scale. Even the Better Care Fund, with its upstream integration intentions, does not represent substantial investment. In contrast, the disinvestment in public health - the closest we have to early intervention, with its embedded understanding of community-centred approaches - makes it difficult to see how we can shift to medium and long term answers.

If the Office for Budgetary Responsibility anticipates significant further funding due to better than expected economic growth, please let's spend a good portion of it on early intervention, prevention and genuine demand management strategies and services."

Briefing

We have also produced a briefing on the main Autumn Statement headlines for the voluntary and community sector and for local government