Your Say on Government Covid Funding
An enquiry into the government response to the Covid-19 pandemic is yet to be announced, however pandemic piecemeal investigations have begun. The Committee is calling for evidence now on how well funding provided by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and the HM Treasury was distributed.
The Commitee want to hear your evidence, your views, your point of view.
What ever your thinking is, the government want to know. We don’t know if they will listen or what will result from your submission. What we do know is that if nothing is said, nothing will happen.
'Reshaped by the pandemic: the way forward for charities': The Barclay's Report
Barclay’s have released a report exploring the challenges the VCSE sector are facing during this pandemic, which includes the promotion of successful stories of how groups have evolved and adapted in the current climate. A further example of the sector’s strength and resilience.
This is the report’s key takeaway findings:
“Charities need to continue to respond to the lessons of the pandemic and make the flexibility and innovation they’ve shown over the past year ‘business as usual’.
Given the seismic changes the sector is experiencing all charities should consider the following key points:
Review revenue streams and look to diversify income. Do you have sufficient free reserves to meet unexpected financial stresses? Consider your existing reserves policy – will your reserves ensure you can meet future unexpected demand?
Strengthen your position by clarifying your core purpose, mission and objectives and ensure they are well communicated to beneficiaries, donors, staff and volunteers, as well as wider society.
What are the opportunities for your charity? Have you identified them and set a plan to meet them? Are you seeking out productive new partnerships and collaborations? Are you getting the most from your existing donors and taking advantage of opportunities to attract new donors?
Embrace technological change and new ways of working. Look at the possibilities the move to digital offers. Ensure you have a trustee with digital expertise to support your wider strategy.
Well- being of staff and volunteers should remain front of mind. Consider how future working patterns will be affected by ongoing social distancing and the long-term impact this may have on wellness. Are you taking steps to ensure equality, inclusion and diversity are part of your organisation’s DNA?
Regularly review your governance structure to ensure you have robust processes and policies to protect and strengthen your organisation.
What is the impact on your charity of the environmental, socialand governance (ESG) agenda? Sustainability has come to the fore during the pandemic – have you thought about the impact on and role of your organisation?”
The Cheshire & Merseyside Health & Care Partnership Ethnicity Profiles Report
In collaboration with NHS England and Improvement, Public Health England & Champs Public Health Collaboative, C & M Health & Care Partnership have implemented a research project to provide an in-depth understanding of the impact of Covid-19 has had on BAME communities.
By producing this report, it is hoped that the information learnt will help bolster wellbeing and reduce health inequalities across the regions. With these new insights, interventions will be able to be more targeted and effective for different ethnic groups.
With this report, each locality will have a better understanding of the ethnic makeup of their population so that place-based interventions can thrive. Place-based interventions are thought to provide more thorough and efficeint care. Professor Chris Bentley, a Non-Executive Director and Wirral Community Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust has discussed the benefits of place-based approaches to health inequalities; watch his presentation here.
The full ethnicity profile report is available now to read.
Attracting & Retaining a Talented & Diverse Workforce Event
Covid-19 has highlighted the crucial role of the local public sector in keeping society going. Despite this, renewed talk about public sector pay freezes, and the perception of some that local public sector work is stuffy and inefficient, poses a real challenge to the effective recruitment of the next generation of skilled and motivated workers. This, combined with the phenomenon of demographic ageing across the economy, risks a potential skills shortage in some of our most socially valuable jobs.
In this webinar, colleagues are invited to learn about some of the innovative strategies and techniques being deployed across the sector to deliver effective apprenticeship schemes. This event is an opportunity to hear best practice examples of apprenticeship schemes that work to effectively attract, retain, and develop a talented workforce. We will also consider how you can make your organisation more attractive to prospective apprentices and some of the key benefits and support available when choosing to recruit via an apprenticeship route.
You will have the chance to ask questions to peers and leading practitioners on these topics.
Apply to attend here.
25th March 11.30-13.30 CET.
People and Places- what are they worth?
People and places – what are they worth?
This article has drawn significantly from one written by Stephanie Corking, People Director and co-owner at business consultancy firm, Laws of Attraction. Her article appeared on thebusinessdesk.com on 10th March 2021.
The pandemic has been tough for many employees: new working environments, disrupting routines, changing roles and responsibilities, long term friends that have been made redundant and for many, being furloughed and not working for long periods. All of these may have created worry and uncertainty with many colleagues. Now, your people are your biggest opportunity and will be crucial to reviving the fortunes of the region’s individual businesses, towns, cities, and the economy as a whole. Therefore, an investment in your people (now more than ever), could be the smartest ‘post covid’ move you can make.
There is much talk currently, amongst both large and small business owners, of the post-covid recovery plan. Strategies, agendas, objectives, and detailed plans to get consumers back to our brands and spending again have been the talk of many a zoom call up and down the country. And for many businesses, the PM’s announcement of the UK roadmap on the 22nd of February has resulted in a flurry of activity for ‘return to work’ plans and how to welcome their customers with open arms when the doors are eventually allowed to reopen.
Whilst many have spent the last 6-9 months continually revaluating their operations, the focus is now on strategic priorities, learning from the lessons of responding to uncertainties and capturing the changes (and opportunities) of the last 12 months to move forward.
The same level of thinking should have taken place within the VCFSE sector as well. There is a danger that we may have been wrapped up in too much “here and now” and have left inadequate space for the “tomorrow and beyond”.
The effects of COVID-19 on the sector are profound and unprecedented. While retailers must work through operational and tactical considerations to re-open retail stores VCFSE bodies have wider issues to consider as well. These do create an opportunity to re-examine who you are as an organisation, considering:
• Customer — How has your customer evolved during and after the crisis? What are their expectations, needs, behaviours, and priorities in this new environment? In purely commercial terms a customer is the one that pays the bill. We have service users who may not be customers in the strict sense. To change a service to reflect the needs of the service user without consulting the customer is a very dangerous strategy indeed.
• Brand — What is the purpose of your operation, and how can you best serve customers? Do you need to evolve your value proposition to stay relevant? If so, how? Who are the stakeholders with whom you have to consult?
• Product — What are the key, best-selling products and services? Is it the right time to consider new categories, new services, and new business models? This style of thinking is sometimes seen as “not sector appropriate”. In a world where financial resources will be finite and variable customer focussed thinking will be of paramount importance.
• Store — What is the impact on the store channel, its role, and the corresponding operations? How do you keep your customers and associates safe, while playing a new role in customers’ lives?
• Digital — How do you keep what you have developed and worked without ignoring those who cannot access digital for whatever reason.
(Deloitte)
However, what is missing from that list above is People…
It has been no surprise that HR functions have been at the core of managing change in the past 12 months. And now, as leadership teams begin to mobilise the operational plans, how do we ensure that employee engagement stays high on the agenda to ensure customer engagement stays ‘high’ on the high street?
Recent surveys have told us, that overall, most companies did a good job of addressing their employees’ physical and emotional needs during the working from home and lockdown periods, ensuring they met the basic needs of safety, stability and security. However, as we approach the next phase, those needs are evolving and the need for a sophisticated return-to-work strategy that focuses on employee wellbeing, managing stress as well as motivation, listening and encouraging innovation from your teams and overall employee engagement are all things that should be high on the people agenda.
So how should HR functions be adapting and realigning their people strategy and how does this link to the North’s post covid recovery strategy? Stephanie observes,
“Developing a human-centric people strategy that has relationships at its heart and the ability to evolve consistently to support the corporate strategy, enables improved employee wellbeing and business performance.
In the majority of client conversations, we have had recently, I’m often surprised to hear that HR teams feel they haven’t done enough to develop their post covid strategy, in line with the business strategy, and then communicate, engage and inspire their colleagues across the business so that they fully understand that the people are the intrinsic part of getting customers back through the doors”.
66% of HR functions develop people strategic plans that are not linked to the organisation’s corporate strategy.
Our regions voluntary sector operations have an opportunity to improve the employee experience during the return-to-work phase. The good news is, we have the tools to achieve that. Advancements in employee listening platforms, pulse surveys, two-way communication channels mean that leaders can now address employee experience in a data-driven and targeted way. By using the data to drill down on which groups of employees need more and varied types of support, they can also tailor their communication styles and actions that create feelings of wellbeing and build relationships across the workforce.
In a recent survey, 87% of highly engaged employees said they are less likely to leave the company they are work for compared to their counterparts. There is a danger of complacency creeping in here. Someone leaves and there are plenty of people seeking work at present. We need to ascertain why some one is leaving and try to improve the areas that they highlight. Exit interviews are important and valuable if they are acted upon. There is more cost to recruitment than the price of the advert. Think about lost productivity; time to read applications; to interview or even creating the new job description in the first place. An employee walking out of the door because they see somewhere better to work (and it isn’t always about money) is probably money and value walking out of the door as well.
However, the fundamental key to success is that leaders and managers are responsible and accountable for the employee needs to help them thrive during the return.
Employees will be looking to the leadership teams and line managers for both strategic direction and emotional support (after all the most important relationship you have at work is with your boss), whilst customers will be looking to businesses’ front-line employees to deliver a safe, engaging and enjoyable return to the quality operations that they are used to.
In summary, having a ‘leader led’ approach to employee engagement (it’s not just an HR thing) will be your quickest win to mobilising your workforce and ensuring your returning customers continue to come back as the Northern and wider economy reopens and your employees feel safe, inspired and engaged.
March 2021 – with huge thanks to Stephanie Corking.
The VCSE Sector Voice
One of the complaints that is increasingly being heard is that the VCSE is seemingly side lined. This is being said so frequently that it is more than just a perception. One of the ways of being heard is to use avenues that are open to us. One such avenue is here:
Setting the agenda on infrastructure investment across the North | TheBusinessDesk.com
If as many of us as possible participated in this survey a voice may be heard. If we do not then the sector voice will not be heard. At the very least, participation puts down a marker to build on the relationship that VSNW is developing with The Business Desk. There are 24 questions, most of which are multiple choice and, at first glance, business orientated. However, there is an “other” box in most of them where comments can be made.
The VCFSE sector in the North West will surely have opinions on all of these. Please air your views as soon as possible.
Walking Away from Funding Agreements
Funding thoughts – walking away from a contract/funding agreement
At first glance the article below, reproduced from Route One magazine, has little to do with VCFSE groups. Route One is an industry leading magazine for Bus and Coach Operators and the article relates to electric buses in Northern Scotland and South Wales.
“Two projects to introduce battery-electric buses have been terminated and the grant funding involved returned to the issuing body.
Orkney Islands Council (OIC) has withdrawn from the Scottish Ultra-Low Emission Bus Scheme (SULEBS). It was awarded £618,325 from the first SULEBS round towards five battery-electric buses and their associated infrastructure.
No reason has been disclosed for the change of heart, with OIC saying that “a live related tendering exercise” precludes it from stating why. It has not submitted a bid to the second round of SULEBS. Transport Scotland was notified in February that OIC did not wish to take up the grant. The money has been reallocated to the second round of SULEBS.
Additionally, Stagecoach South Wales will not take up the £2.84m it was awarded in 2019 through the Ultra-Low Emission Bus Scheme. The money was to go towards 16 battery-electric buses and their associated infrastructure at Caerphilly depot.
A Stagecoach spokesperson says that the decision was made in 2020 not to progress the work in Caerphilly (pictured). They add that the plans were reviewed “due to the ongoing impact of the pandemic and… funding uncertainty.”
The lessons that we can pull out from this article apply to all VCFSE groups in the North West and beyond. There are times when circumstances change and it is not sensible to continue with a plan. It may well cost more than it will generate (every pun intended). Here Stagecoach indicate that the pandemic has changed things and they are reviewing the business in South Wales so may not need the new vehicles – irrespective of then being (and associated infrastructure) subject to a substantial tranche of funding.
In the month that the Llangollen Steam Railway (a volunteer driven body) has filed for receivership – a decision caused by cost over runs on engineering contracts for which they tendered – we all need to look long and hard at what it costs to deliver a contract or commissioned service. If it costs more to deliver than it produces in income the shortfall has to be found from somewhere. Some organisations will have reserves, shop income, a significant donor base or even be part funded by legacies. Others will not be so well funded. If difficult decisions are postponed in order to continue to provide a service there is a danger that, in the medium term, the service can no longer be provided because the organisation does not exist. If the cost hike in a new commission is too great there is a high risk that a new service provider will not be commissioned, on grounds of affordability, with the result that the people you serve will be left high and dry with nothing in terms of current support.
Sometimes we have to be cruel to be kind and learn from the commercial world. If we don’t we cease to operate and that provides support and assistance to no one.
Andrew Rainsford
VSNW
March 2021
Climate Action Fund Open
The National Lottery Community Fund have opened their 2nd round of the Climate Action Fund (CAF). It’s aim is to aupport communities across the UK to help tackle climate change.
The second round focus on supporting medium-large scale projects focusing on waste & consumption. they encourage place-based, community-led partnerships to apply.
Overview:
Area
UK-wide
Suitable for
Community-led partnerships
Funding size
We’re offering two types of funding in this round - development funding and full awards. The maximum grant size for development funding is £150,000. For full awards, the maximum available is £1.5 million.
Total available
Around £8 million to 10 million is available for this second round of funding. We expect to make 12 to 15 awards in total in this round, and to award more development grants than full awards.
Application deadline
5pm on 8 April 2021 for your initial idea. If you get to the next stage, we expect the rest of the application process to take six to eight months.
The Baobab Foundation
The Baobab Foundation has been newly created as a mechanism to secure long-term funding for black and ethnic communities and for those organisations that support them. It has been set up both as a response to the impact of Covid-19 and the murder last year of George Floyd.
Health inequalities are rife in the UK and across the world; BAME communities have been affected disproportionately throughout the global pandemic and it is imperative that this is addressed. Baobab’s vision envelopes transferring power and agency to those organisations who are often issued with less funding; they plan to be led and govered by the very same. Their inspiring vision is to have created this new organisation by the end of Summer 2021 and launch with £5-10million in grant funding by the end of the year. Their longer-term prospectus aims to raise £1billion in endowed funding which will help with adminsitering £50million in funding per year.
They have monthly meetings for members, which is expanding quickly, including many regional and national black and ethnic minority organistions and networks. They are continuing to gain support and traction from charitable funding, corportations and philanthropists.
They do however, still need help and assistance from local infrastructure organistions to reach to every nook and cranny across the country.
They are asking if each CVS could aim to target 5-10 black and ethnic minority community organistions in their networks to become members.
Please contact Jermain or Yoanna for more information.
This is a wonderful and much needed vision, a fantastic tool which will be invaluable as the UK addresses the extensive inequality and racism experienced by many communities.