Network for Europe Update
Network for Europe have released their latest update pertaining to the Community Renewal Fund, which is a preparation for the UK-Shared Prosperity Fund:
UK Shared Prosperity Fund Update 8th March, from Network for Europe Cheshire, Cumbria, G Manchester, Lancashire, Liverpool CR
Headlines - Community Renewal Fund
CRF Prospectus Launched during Budget
List of Places
18 June deadline for bids
Late July - successful projects announced, first tranche paid 31 March 2022 Projects end, final payments
1st April 2022 UK Shared Prosperity Fund starts
Background
The last two Manifestos referred to the UK-Shared Prosperity Fund, which would replace ESF and ERDF monies from Europe. Little detail was available, and there has been no open consultation. The Spending Review of 25th November (page 37) gave a one page Heads of Terms, which referred to a £220m Pilot Programme for 2021/22 in preparation for the full UK Shared Prosperity Fund in 2022.
More details of this and associated funds were then revealed in the Budget of 3rd March, with the launch of the prospectus for the UK Community Renewal Fund (previously called the Pilot Programme) and the list of areas (the “Places”).
Further information on the full UK Shared Prosperity Fund will be available later this year. Although there was some consultation, with meetings of certain invited individuals a few years ago, there has been no open consultation, and despite requests, Partners have not been properly involved in these proposals. Consequently there will likely need to be some changes before the full Fund is rolled out.
www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-community-renewal-fund-prospectus
Briefly
Money will be allocated to projects in Places (local authority areas) - there are 368, see list. A hundred of these are referred to as Priority Places.
Each Lead local authority will ask for project proposals from the voluntary and community organisations, from local district councils, and from local education providers and then decide on a list for each Place and send it to the UK Government by noon on 18th of June. Maximum value of projects will total £3m per Place irrespective of its size.
Guidance for the Lead Authorities is not yet ready, but should be available soon.
The money has to be spent by the end of March 2022, and is almost all revenue (90%).
Central Government will decide which, if any, of the individual projects to approve. The funding will then be sent to the Lead Authority to distribute (one payment in advance, the other at the end of March). The intention is to pilot programmes and new approaches and provide capacity funding as we prepare for the UK-SPF. Bids should build on local insight and knowledge, project proposals should align with long term strategic plans for local growth, target people most in need and support community renewal, and demonstrate how they complement other national and local provision. Bids should consider working with the natural environment, and their contribution to a low carbon economy, as well as equalities impacts.
Our Government wishes to work directly with local Partners across the UK, putting people that know their places best front and centre in shaping decisions.
Places
The Lead Authority is the Mayoral Combined Authority, the Greater London Authority, County Councils or Unitary Authorities. A Combined Authority represents the individual Local Authority Places within it (so for Greater Manchester, each of the ten Local Authorities is a separate Place, with an allocation up to £3m each). Only the Lead Authority can submit bids to UK Government,
they will decide which bids to submit. The Lead Authority will receive £20k of capacity funding for each Priority Place, to help with bid co-ordination and appraisal.
This is a competitive process, Central Government will decide who gets funding.
The 100 Priority Places are said to be based on productivity, household income, unemployment, skills and population density, although the calculations have not yet been released. It seems an unusual list. It only includes St Helens in Liverpool City Region, Bolton, Manchester, Oldham and Rochdale in Greater Manchester, Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale in Lancashire CC and Barrow in Cumbria CC.
Bids
Innovative pilots and projects are encouraged. A few ideas are suggested.
Skills bids could capitalise on the needs of an increasingly green and digital world, they should be clearly distanced from other funding streams, and could include -
Work based training
Retraining, upskilling and reskilling Promoting digital skills and inclusion
Local Business bids could target under-represented groups and community-level interventions to increase opportunity for all, and could include-
Supporting entrepreneurs and enterprises to create more job opportunities Encouraging enterprises with innovation
Supporting decarbonisation
Communities/place bids may include, but are not limited to -
Feasibility studies for delivering net-zero and local energy projects
Exploring opportunity for promoting culture-led regeneration and community development Improving green spaces and preserving important local assets
Promoting rural connectivity
People into employment bids should act to reduce barriers to employment, provide local, tailored, wrap-around support to those furthest from the labour market, draw upon and enhance multi-agency delivery teams including the community and voluntary sector
Project could include, but are not limited to -
Supporting people to engage with local services Identifying barriers, using key-worker support Raising aspirations
Support with basic skills
Testing new initiatives
Bid Assessment
The 100 Priority Places will get priority, but all 368 places will be considered. This is a competitive process, not based on need. Central Government will decide who gets the money.
Projects will have to pass Gateway Criteria (see Prospectus), then Strategic Fit, Deliverability, Effectiveness and Efficiency (see pages 18-19 of the Prospectus - section 6). Government Ministers will then use their discretion to allocate the money to ensure a reasonable split between the four themes (skills, local business, place, employment support), ensuring due regard for Priority Places, and a balanced spread across Great Britain (presumably by geography, not need).
A Place could be allocated nothing, or up to £3m for the projects submitted.
Larger projects are preferred (£500k and upwards).
Fund Eligibility Rules and Guidance is not yet ready, and will be published soon.
Projects should fit with State Aid (soon to be called Subsidy Control) and procurement.
A project should have one lead applicant (grant recipient), but can have delivery partners.
Lead Authorities will set out their own requirements for bidding soon. There will be a common application form and appraisal process, but this is not ready yet. They will be published shortly.
Monitoring and Evaluation
All proposals have to set out their expected impact, and progress will be monitored against targets and milestones. Applicants should develop an evaluation plan costing 1%-2% of their award (min £10k). Projects to send evidence of achievements (qualitative and quantitative) to the lead authority, which will be responsible for monitoring. UK to set up Evaluation Networks, sharing good practice and developing indicators. Clearly evaluation will be important as we work together to plan the UK-SPF.
Some other Funds
Levelling Up Fund. Prospectus also launched with the 3rd March Budget. £4.8m for high value infrastructure. Delivered through local authorities, capital investment especially for ex-industrial areas, deprived towns and coastal communities, but open across the UK. Expect each local MP to support at least one local bid. Could be local investment in transport infrastructure, in regeneration and town centres, in cultural facilities. This first round of the fund is for projects that can start on the ground in 2021/22. Money allocated by the government based on competition for resources. Additionally, capacity funding for certain areas as in the list attached to the prospectus (calculations for the list to be revealed later). Further details of how this will operate from 2022/23 onwards to be set out later this year.
www.gov.uk/government/publications/levelling-up-fund-prospectus www.gov.uk/government/collections/new-levelling-up-and-community-investments
UK Community Ownership Fund. £150m for the local community to take over ownership of vital local assets, such as sports clubs, sporting and leisure facilities, cinemas and theatres, music venues, museums, parks, pubs, post offices and shops, to support the social wellbeing of local communities. Half the money to be raised locally, the rest from the Fund. Only community and voluntary organisations can bid. Up to £250k per project to help them buy local assets to run as community owned businesses (could be more money for sports). Prospectus to be issued soon, bidding open by June 2021. Some funding may be available for feasibility studies and capability building, or for initial running costs.
www.gov.uk/government/publications/community-ownership-fund
City and Growth Deals. Existing programmes.
Towns Fund. £3.6bn to support deprived towns, and now a further 45 deals
Plan for Jobs. Various current programmes, including Kickstart, plus FE support through the recent Skills for Jobs white paper.
UK-Shared Prosperity Fund
This replaces ESF and ERDF funding (so will cover £1.5bn a year) and is scheduled to start April 2022. It will fund projects supporting people and places across the UK, growing local economies and breathing new life into local communities.
While the Heads of Terms in November said the SPF would support investment in people/ communities and place/local business, the CRF Prospectus says the SPF will include a place based portion and a portion targeted at people most in need (pp 4-5). It is not clear if this represents a change. Later in the Prospectus (p8) it says CRF investment will be in in skills/local business/ communities and place/supporting people into employment. This may just reflect the developing ideas of what the Funds could be.
The Prospectus says they now intend to engage local Partners as they develop the Fund - it is not clear what this will mean (or if it just refers to the Devolved Administrations).
The Community Renewal Fund will support local areas to pilot imaginative new approaches and programmes that unleash their potential, instil pride, and prepare them to take advantage of the UK- SPF. Later in the year, the CRF will provide up to £14m for capacity building for local Partners to prepare for UK-SPF.
Organisations should get involved now.
Comments
Compare with the ESF and ERDF Reserve Funds in England. While ESF hoped for project calls from the LEPs, ERDF directly allocated funds to all the Local Authorities and all the Growth Hubs, and are about to announce a further round for LAs. The Community Renewal Fund seems to build on what worked for the Reserve Fund. It will be run by MHCLG.
Match funding (partial funding from the UK) was needed for European money, but of course is not needed here. However, there is a reference to “leverage”. It might be that some of this could come from Lottery Funding, as it is otherwise absent from these proposals.
The LEPs (business - local authority partnerships led by the private sector) are not part of these proposals.
If the £220m was shared equally between the 100 Priority Places, they would get £2.2m each (below the maximum £3m), and if the money was split equally between the 368 there would only be £0.6m per Place. Consequently many applicants could be disappointed.
The fund operates across the four countries of the UK (with different rules for Northern Ireland) - our report is focussed on England, in particular North West England.
Clarification on the Prospectus is available by email for two weeks (to 17th March). A summary Q&A will then be published.
Action
This is funding primarily for local authorities and local community and voluntary organisations, and it has to be spent quickly. While there could be a range of random projects submitted, it would seem to make more sense for a co-production between the LA and Third Sector to create a coherent and strategic set of projects, that fit with other local activities. Successful projects will be informed late July, with spend within nine months (to end March), and should cover skills, support into employment, local business and communities/place.
So there could be a significant amount for Social Capital - Community Grants (small investments into local third sector organisations, which could also pump-prime for UK-SPF). Business support could include start-ups and social enterprise, especially for women and BAME, connecting with and enhancing existing provision. There could be support to develop local running of community assets (pubs, post offices, music venues) to tie in with the proposed Community Ownership Fund. Funding could fill in expected gaps (or provide more wrap-around support) for NEET Young People and those furthest from the Labour Market, as well as those faced with unemployment/the end of furlough and the need to consider other kinds of work. Moving towards a locally based low carbon economy, and creating green jobs could be investigated. There is a need to be innovative and creative, and to test out and prepare the ground for the Shared Prosperity Fund next April.
#RespondRecoverReset Barometer survey is now open until 22nd March
Nottingham Trent University, together with the NCVO and Sheffield Hallam, are currently conducting the largest UK study exploring the impact of Covid-19 on the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise sector. The latest round to the survey is now open until 22nd March. The more organisations that take part in the study, the more impact this can have for the whole sector.
Click here to begin the survey
It is quick, easy and only takes a few minutes to complete. Each round the survey has a set of general questions, with some focussing on a theme (for example, this month we’ll be looking at the ways organisations may interact with local authorities). As a small thank you to everyone who takes part, each month there is the option to enter a draw to win £200, and a £2000 prize draw at the end of the project (see here for more info).
The research team at NTU, the NCVO and Sheffield Hallam are always looking at ways to make this project as valuable as possible. Their reports have been shared with decision makers, and the results of the study recently presented to an All-Party Parliamentary Group and DCMS’ Civil Society Stakeholder Group. Should you have more time to share, you can contact the NTU research team at CPWOP@ntu.ac.uk or visit the project page to discuss the project and discover more.
Cumbria CVS are Hiring
Cumbria CVS are hiring for a number of new positions:
Independent Chair – Cumbria Third Sector Network (PT)
Salary: Volunteer Expenses Closing date: 19th April 2021
Senior Manager – Finance and Resources
Salary: £33,799- £37,849pa Closing date: 19th March 2021
Health and Care Project Funding Officer (North)
Salary: £29,636 (FTE) Closing date: 19th March 2021
Senior Manager – District North (Carlisle and Eden)
Salary: £32,029-£34,788 Closing date: 19th March 2021
Communications Manager
Salary: £26,999-£28,878pa (FTE) Closing date: 19th March 2021
New Volunteer Expenses App
vHelp, the payment app for charities, is offering local charities supporting the Covid-19 vaccine rollout a free six weeks trial of its new expenses service for volunteers.
vHelp Expenses has been designed to quickly reimburse volunteers for expenses such as food and travel costs. The app-based service helps charities avoid having to add volunteers onto their payroll systems or manually process expenses claims.
Using vHelp, volunteers submit their expense claims on their mobile phones and, once approved by the charity, they receive payment into their bank accounts within 24 hours. Volunteers can also donate unwanted expenses payments back, allowing the charity to seamlessly claim Gift Aid.
The trial is funded by Innovate UK, the government-backed innovation agency.
vHelp is working with a range of local charities across the country.
To find out more, visit www.vhelp.co.uk or call 020 7117 2097
Covid-19 Vaccine Queries Answered in Several Languages
Sharing information and encouraging vaccine uptake is vital to help take control of the Covid-19 pandemic. The UK proudly is the home of citizens from a plethora of different backgrounds and mother tongues, and thus it is imperative that information as important as this, can be understood and digested by as many people as possible. This is a step in the right direction to addressing some of the inequalities that exist in our society.
AskDoc have a growing online resource of videos answering common questions about the Covid vaccines, translated into a range of languages. AskDoc put the health of the BAME community at the forefront of their mission, which aims to “engage, educate and empower the Great Manchester BAME communities”.
Please follow them on Twitter.
Green Space for Well-being
Green Space for Well Being
The Tidy Britain Group held a seminar on 1st March which explored the value of green space to well being and mental/physical house. Just occasionally a seminar will contain a nugget that makes one think “doh” (Homer Simpson style) as it is so obvious. This one was the nugget that Green Space is more than just parks and publicly owned/operated open space. It is gardens (that some of us have) and office/work space grounds that many of us have. What can we do about those?
Some of the obvious things are that we can ensure that they are litter free. In some cases this is difficult to achieve but we can all plan a litter pick just before grass cutting rather than let the machine shred what is there into zillions of little pieces. If we start doing that we are in a stronger position to argue for the local council to do likewise.
Is it possible to consider the planting in the spaces over which we have control? Bee friendly plants may work well. There are a number of places that are seeking to plant bee friendly plants on the edge of car parks as, sometimes, it is thought that bees and people are not a good mix. Pyracantha is a spiky plant that is excellent for crime prevention and provides valuable bird food just as winter draws on. You will need gloves to pick out litter from it.
There are large number of voluntary “friends of park” groups dotted around the country. How many of them connect with their local CVS (or vice versa). Could it be possible for every park to have a friends group? Some groups raise money for additional items in the park. Others provide a cohort of volunteers who can pick litter just before grass is cut; who can be stewards at events; who can encourage the use of the park to deal with well being and mental health issues in addition to the obvious physical benefits. Some friends groups run the catering concession. All should be valued by local councils.
The seminar highlighted the work of Birmingham City Council. Their web-site www.naturallybirmingham.org provides detail of what they are doing and what they want to do. They are seeking to create additional green spaces and have metrics to show shortfalls on a ward by ward basis. Your premises may be able to help to address any deficit in the area in which you are based.
As is the case with these things there were a lot of powerpoint slides showing huge levels of detail. If this article has prompted some thinking of how you can develop something around green spaces in your area please contact Andrew Rainsfor, our Research and Policy Officer: andrew.rainsford@vsnw.org.uk; slides can be forward which will save on some thinking time and signpost areas of good practice.
Community Spaces Facing Crisis
The pandemic has had significant effects on the sustainability of community spaces. The mind pictures bucolic village halls that just tick along – they always have and they always will. But, what of urban spaces? What of those spaces that have resulted from the Community Asset Transfer process that has operated for the past decade? What of those that have moved away from grant funding as they have transitioned into earned income? And, what about the bucolic village hall?
The report How Many Of Us Had Pandemic In Our Risk Register?, published by Community Matters in January shows that the situation for charities and other community groups was made more confusing by “shifting and contradictory guidance” from the government about how public buildings could be used during national and regional lockdowns. The rule of six has caused particular issues with social distancing requirements causing problems for user groups who now have to have fewer people attending – thus affecting the economics of the entire operation.
The report also warns that some of these charities were already running out of financial reserves by the time the second national lockdown ended late last year. A third lockdown was imposed this month (Jan 2021), which began after the data for the report was collected. This is going to make an already critical situation worse.
The report was compiled by Community Matters who surveyed 20 groups in England and Wales. These groups operate assets in their local communities, including sports halls, libraries and a former police station. The research showed that many charities chose to end some, but not all, of their activities
The report states that, during the first lockdown, charities reached a number of different decisions on how to adapt their work, “from complete closure to full-scale provision of a service to people in need”.
It was not all doom and gloom as the survey showed that “there were those who kept childcare provision open for key workers, those who took the opportunity of an empty building to get maintenance and work done on the property, from decorating to major renovation, and those who kept some services running remotely”. However, some respondents also commented that they had only managed to survive, financially, by raided reserves designated for ongoing repair and maintenance with improvements being kicked well into the long grass.
Plans to reopen were disrupted when new government rules were introduced, often at short notice, the report found. It said: “Shifting and contradictory guidance has created problems for a number of organisations, especially those with no paid staff or where staff have been furloughed. As plans have been made, so restrictions have changed again.”
It also noted that respondents “were particularly concerned about the confusing information about what the restrictions were that they are supposed to abide by, and were trying to keep up with issues around the ‘rule of six’ but also exemptions that applied to educational activities and voluntary and community sector meetings and gatherings”.
The research found that many charities had been “prudent” in using government schemes to maintain income during lockdowns. None had “never envisaged this situation being so long lasting. The data was collected as the second lockdown was in progress. There was some evidence of organisations reaching the near end of their financial reserves”. The situation has been made more acute for some community groups which have in recent years been “persuaded of the wisdom of generating their own income rather than relying on grant income”. In one reported case the number of invoices issued, in a typical month, has changed from approximately 100 to none. Income from community hiring; service delivery; hot desking and workspace and a community café all stopped. Some income has returned but not in the volume required. In some cases the possibility of handing the asset back to the local authority, or transferring it to another community body. The report does question what a new business plan will look like in that situation.
John Wilson, project manager at Community Matters, told Civil Society News: "As the country enters its third lockdown, there is tremendous strain on communities. The potential issue for community spaces is that, having taken the government's advice to heart and set out to generate their own income rather than being reliant on grants, [they] have struggled as they have been forced to close or opened for reduced hours. In normal times community spaces and centres form the beating heart of their locality, and often provide the only opportunity for social interaction amongst some of the older and more vulnerable members of their community. As we seek to return to whatever passes as normal in the future, communities will need to come together. To make this happen communities will need places to gather, and the crisis in funding for community spaces means that many may not reopen."
In the North West we have a huge range of community spaces. This report, at 38 pages, is lengthy but readable. It indicates some trends and data that may help funding applications. It provides reassurance, to trustees, that this is an unprecedented situation, and they must not berate themselves over forward planning. None of us expected this! It foretells a potential major crisis that will be in full flow as the year develops.
Community spaces in well off areas may well be rescued by “the big house in the village”; a medium sized legacy or even a community appeal to rebuild operational reserves. If the government is serious about “levelling up” then it needs to address this issue as a matter of urgency. The fabric of community life is at threat.
Following this report, Community Matters are asking for survey respondents to obtain more information about community spaces and Covid-19.
Pilotlight Race and the Voluntary Sector Report
Pilotlight have released their new report 'Learning and Listening for Mutual Action: surfacing and building the evidence base to support Black African, Black Caribbean, Asian and other Minoritised Ethnic led voluntary sector organisations', in which they explore and ask what the specific support needs of organisations in BAME communities and led by BAME individuals are. It is authored by Fancy Sinantha, an independent consultant, together with the support of Cornish and Grey.
The pandemic has cast further light on the level of inequality experienced in our society and especially in BAME communities. Thus, it is ever more imperative that we explore what is needed to minimise this inequality, especially across the VCSE sector. The sector itself is plagued with institutional racism, a critical subject explored by many of our speakers at VSNW’s Festival of North West Thinking, and a problem that needs to be triumphed. Pilotlight’s report recognises that ploughing money into these organisations despite being necessary, does not address these systemic issues, thus paving the way for their report questioning: what are the needs of these organisations?
Covid-19 Vaccine Comms Pack & Webinar
The Department for Digital, Culture Media & Sport have produced a Covid-19 vaccine comms pack to support VCSE sector organisations communicate correct information about the vaccines.
The pack includes:
Guidance and basic explanations answering “what is a vaccine?”
Comms assets and resources on vaccines they can use and share
Vaccine resources for British Sign Language users
Key messages on Covid-19 Vaccine Scams
Misinformation- assets and copy they can use to tackle misinformation on vaccines
You may also re-watch the recording of the ‘Facts about the Covid vaccines: Live webinar’ from 30th Jan.
Follow @HMGNorth for updates.
