Response to Cutting Red Tape Consultation

The Cutting Red Tape review of local authorities is a government review led by the Cabinet Office, DCLG and BIS, working together with other government departments and regulators. They want to identify and remove unnecessary regulatory barriers to growth and associated costs placed on businesses by local authorities, while ensuring necessary protections are maintained, and also gather evidence of where regulation imposes unnecessary or avoidable burdens and costs on local government. More information on the consultation can be found on the Cabinet Office website.

NCVO are planning to submit a short response focussing on procurement barriers, applying for discretionary business rate relief, and volunteering issues. If you have any evidence or examples that you would like them to include, please contact Nick Davies at Nick.Davies@ncvo.org.uk by the end of play on 22nd April. The final deadline for submissions is 28th April.

If you would like any more information on this work, please contact Ann-Marie on 01928 593 111 or at alawrenson@haltonsthelensvca.org.uk.

VSNW and Compact Voice survey into cross-partnership working

Last summer, we conducted a short survey looking at cross-sector partnership working in the North West, in association with Compact Voice. We are now asking VCS organisations to complete a follow-up survey to assess if the level of partnership engagement has changed.

The five minute survey has seven questions and it will provide us with a valuable insight into the extent to which charities are engaged in the commissioning of public services, and how they are working with different commissioning bodies.

Commissioners include not only local authorities but also newer bodies such as Clinical Commissioning Groups, Police and Crime Commissioners and Local Enterprise Partnerships. The results of the survey will help us to identify the changes to partnerships with these bodies and the continuing support and guidance that is required to further improve their effectiveness.

The survey is available via the following link - https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/KPWVSX5. The deadline for completing the survey is 5pm on Wednesday 6th April.

Launch of Equality Delivery System for the NHS (EDS2): Guide to Engagement with the Local Voluntary Sector

The Race Equality Foundation, in partnership with the LGBT Foundation, Disability Rights UK, and Men's Health Forum have launched the Equality Delivery System for the NHS (EDS2): Guide to Engagement with the Local Voluntary Sector. This guide was commissioned by NHS England and was developed in collaboration with service users, voluntary and community organistions, and key stakeholders from Foundation Trusts, Healthwatch England, NHS Employers, CCGs and the Care Quality Commission.

This guide explores how the local voluntary and community sector can help NHS organisations to engage communities and, by extension, implement EDS2 better. The voluntary and community sector are often well-placed to help NHS organisations as they have links and expertise with specific communities that health services may have difficulties in engaging with.

An official launch of the guide is planned for April and a copy can be downloaded now from the Race Equality Foundation website.

Compact at Work - Creating a space for cross-sector dialogue in Warrington

In seeking to improve their relationship with the local voluntary sector, Warrington Borough Council created the new post of Third Sector Partnership Development Officer. The new role, managed jointly by the council and Warrington Voluntary Action, coordinates a Third Sector Network Hub, which hosts meetings of strategic importance to cross-sector relationships and ensures a positive dialogue is maintained between the council and the voluntary sector. 

This work led to a Local Compact Partnership Award nomination at the 2015 Compact Awards.  

If you have other stories or evidence of similar work, please let us know by contacting Helen Walker, Communications Officer at helen.walker@vsnw.org.uk. 

Link
Compact at Work - Creating a space for cross-sector dialogue in Warrington
 

Better Data - Making the Third Sector Case for Health Improvement

The report of the Better Data research into how the third sector and public sector partners can effectively utilise and share data has been published. It calls for a national approach to help third sector organisations to use data resources to meet the needs highlighted by the NHS England Five Year Forward View. The Better Data agenda was developed in conjunction with Public Health England and Regional Voices delivery partner One East Midlands to help third sector organisations use publicly available data sources.

In the current financial climate, the need for organisations to demonstrate their worth to commissioners has never been greater. The key recommendation, based on telephone surveys with the Regional Voices network of third sector infrastructure organisations and Public Health England colleagues, is the development of a national approach to equip third sector organisations to access, understand and apply available tools and resources including the PHE knowledge and intelligence gateway and NICE guidance. This could be achieved through awareness raising sessions, sharing of good practice and information, and building the capacity of the third sector to engage with public sector partners. 

Download the Better Data report.

New IPPR North Report - Too small to fail

How are smaller charities faring in the current climate, and how can they be helped to evidence their impacts and continue to serve their communities? Small and medium-sized charities are a vital part of civil society in Britain today, and with an income of around £7 billion in England and Wales alone they account for one-fifth of the sector’s income.

This report, the first in our programme of research on 'The Future of Civil Society in the North', reviews the available evidence on the value of small and medium-sized charities (those with annual incomes of between £25,000 and £1 million), and on how recent changes to public policy have impacted upon them. It draws upon evidence published by academics, thinktanks and third-sector organisations, as well as material gathered through a wider call for evidence issued as part of this project.

Smaller charities have considerable strengths: many are rooted or embedded in their local areas, and play a key role in building and nurturing social networks. They also boost local social capital by building local capacity and developing links both within particular communities and between them and other networks and bodies, and are considered uniquely well-placed to engage directly with those who are hardest to reach.

However, despite its valuable work, successive reviews have found little evidence of a distinctive ‘offer’ from the voluntary sector as a whole, or from small charities in particular, and there is a lack of rigorous evidence to support many of the claims that are made for it. Furthermore, while smaller charities can develop their own frameworks of evidence to help attract funding, their often limited capacity makes this a challenge, and there are limits to how some aspects of their work can be usefully quantified in any case. Those that are able to produce the most reliable and comprehensive evidence base are not necessarily those that are most embedded in their communities.

Against a backdrop of rising demand and the long-term reduction in grants in favour of contracts, the income that the voluntary sector as a whole receives from government has fallen, and smaller organisations have been hit particularly hard. At the same time, the nature of public service delivery has changed significantly since 2010, with a shift towards the use of competitive commissioning models in which all types of provider compete to deliver public services. There is compelling evidence to suggest that large organisations, including some large charities, are increasingly dominating the market for public service provision, to the detriment of small and medium-sized organisations.

Given these findings, this report presents the following recommendations.

1. Small and medium-sized charities should be offered more and better support from umbrella organisations to help them evidence their impact, and develop their capacity for monitoring and evaluation.
2. Commissioning and procurement teams within local authorities, clinical commissioning groups and other public agencies should be made more accountable for delivering social value.
3. In-keeping with its commitment to prioritising diversity of scale in its general procurement agenda, the government should pledge to increase the proportion of central government spending that goes to small and medium-sized charities, as it has done already for smaller private companies. Local authorities could also benefit from setting their own similar targets for contracting with smaller organisations in both the private and voluntary sectors.
4. Those organisations that have moved or are moving away from grant-giving in favour of commissioning or more complex forms of social finance should review the impact that this has on small and medium-sized charities that might not be able or willing to engage with such forms of funding, but may still provide greater social value-for-money than those that are more adept at bidding for funding and providing formal evidence of outcome improvements.

Link
Too small to fail: How small and medium-sized charities are adapting to change and challenges

VSNW sign letter to the Prime Minister on anti-advocacy clauses

Along with over 140 other charities, Voluntary Sector North West have signed a letter to the Prime Minister to express concern about the proposed 'anti-advocacy' clause that the government is proposing to include in new grant contracts from 1st May 2016.

More details about the proposed new clause can be found on the GOV.UK website - https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-announces-new-clause-to-be-inserted-into-grant-agreements. The exact phrase reads:

"The following costs are not Eligible Expenditure: Payments that support activity intended to influence or attempt to influence Parliament, government or political parties, or attempting to influence the awarding or renewal of contracts and grants, or attempting to influence legislative or regulatory action".

Many other groups have expressed concern about the impact of such a clause on the important work that many of us do in helping to inform government policy. Some of the details are still unclear about how the clause will actually work in practice.

The letter and full list of signatories can be found on the NCVO website - https://www.ncvo.org.uk/about-us/media-centre/press-releases/1249-charities-letter-to-the-prime-minister-on-anti-advocacy-clauses-in-grant-agreements

Two innovative Salford services selected for Realising the Value programme

Two Salford services dedicated to giving people the tools to make improvements to their health and wellbeing have been selected to take part in a national programme funded by NHS England.

Being Well Salford and Unlimited Potential (in partnership with Inspiring Communities Together) have been chosen as two of the five local sites selected to participate in the Realising the Value programme, led by Nesta and the Health Foundation, and in partnership with the consortium Voluntary Voices. Through the programme, the organisations will enhance their services across Salford whilst championing their innovative models for health and wellbeing.

The Realising the Value programme is focused on making person and community-centred approaches a reality and is about strengthening the case for change, identifying evidence-based approaches that engage people in their own health and care, and developing tools to support implementation across the NHS and local communities. On completion, the work of the participating sites will be shared. It will develop the participating services, and share them nationally as examples of how best to achieve the vision of NHS England’s Five Year Forward View. 


Being Well Salford
This project provides a team of coaches who work with individuals for up to 12 months on a one-to-one or group basis to make positive changes in terms of mood, weight, being active and smoking or alcohol intake.

Regarding taking part in the programme, Simon Kweeday, Assistant Director for Being Well Salford said: “We are really excited to be part of the programme. We look forward to learning more about how we can have a national influence, and how to further develop to continue to provide a first-class service to Salford residents.”

Being Well Salford was chosen due to its track record of transforming services – moving away from old-fashioned and expensive NHS models of delivering public health, and creating services that reach communities that are traditionally hard to impact creating effective, lasting change.

This is reflected in the service being presented with two awards recently, the Royal Society of Public Health presented a Health and Wellbeing 2015 award to Being Well Salford and Public Health Minister Jane Ellison MP recognised the service for its outstanding contribution to the public’s health – selecting it for the prestigious Public Health Minister’s Award.


Unlimited Potential
The Unlimited Potential services improve wellbeing by focusing on the strengths of local people, rather than their needs. 

For instance, one project is focused on improving the wellbeing of disadvantaged children by finding new ways of working with their fathers. This work led to Salford Dadz - a network of local fathers who have created male-friendly spaces where positive role models talk openly ‘shoulder to shoulder’, as well as taking part in fun dad-child bonding activities.

Unlimited Potential is working in partnership with Inspiring Communities Together, a local community organisation that works to engage older people and their carers - again, focusing on an individual’s strengths.

Chris Dabbs, Director of Innovation at Unlimited Potential said: “The opportunity to work with leading national organisations participating in the Realising the Value programme is one that we could not turn down. Having two of the five sites selected locally in Salford reflects the quality of innovation and practice that exists here in engaging with local people in the city.”
 
Realising the Value is a programme of work funded by NHS England and delivered by a consortium of partners including Nesta, the Health Foundation, Voluntary Voices (made up of National Voices, Regional Voices, NAVCA and Volunteering Matters), the Institute of Health and Society at Newcastle University and the Behavioural Insights Team. For more information about the programme, please visit the Realising the Value website.