Review of VCS Infrastructure Support Services in Solihull

2

Review of VCS Infrastructure Support Services in Solihull.

18 October 2012

Version 2

Martin Honeywell

07785-995613

This report was commissioned by Faisal Hussain, Head of Community and Voluntary Relations at Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council. It is part of the Review of VCS Infrastructure Services conducted prior to retendering the 2008 VCS Infrastructure Support Services Contract.

Acknowledgements

I am very grateful to all those who participated in this work for their generous allocation of time and their openness and frankness in conversation. It is privilege to have been able to learn so much about the VCS infrastructure work in Solihull and the efforts SMBC is making to support that work.

There are many sincerely held and often divergent views on the issues under consultation. In formulating the recommendations, I have drawn on both the range of views expressed and on experiences and lessons learned in other areas.

The full list of those interviewed and those who took part in the workshop sessions is included in the Appendices at the end of this report.

Martin Honeywell

Contents.

1. Purpose of this Report...... 3

2. The Executive Summary gives the headlines of the Report...... 3

3. Recommendations. This section outlines in full the recommendations that arise from the interviews and workshops...... 5

4. The Review Process and Summary of Findings. This section outlines the process of the review, including the workshops and the individual interviews. The Summary of Findings gives a brief overview of some of the discussions that took place as part of the Review process. Appendix One gives the full version of those discussion...... 10

Appendix One is the Draft Report (“Summary of Views From Workshop and Interviews”) that was drawn up after the first workshop and after the individual interviews. This is the report that was presented to the second (validation) workshop for discussion. It gives a full report on all the issues that were raised in the review process...... 14

Appendix Two lists all those who participated in the Review Process...... 22

(The report in Appendix One “Summary of Views from Workshop and Interviews” is itself a summary of a fuller document that lists all the evidence provided by participants in the workshop and interviews. This document, entitled “Full Evidence from Interviews and Workshops” is available from Faisal Hussain at )

1.  Purpose of this Report.

In January 2008 following an open, transparent and competitive tendering process (for the first time in Solihull for infrastructure support services) the Council awarded the Third Sector Infrastructure Support Contract to a new provider Solihull SUSTAiN, a subsidiary of Colebridge Trust. This contract will end on 31st March 2013 and therefore the Council will need to secure provision of ‘new suite’ of services from 1st April 2013.

Solihull MBC commissioned an independent external consultant to complete a review of infrastructure support services provision for Solihull. The scope of that work was to engage and consult relevant local Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) stakeholders and key commissioners to;

·  Understand which components of infrastructure support services they require in order to assist their future capacity building, growth & development, sustainability and transformational aspirations.

·  Understand what they want from the delivery of infrastructure support services to the wider VCS in Solihull and what a transformed sector would look like.

·  Support stakeholders to identify and agree a preferred approach or model for the delivery of infrastructure support services. For example;

·  To understand whether infrastructure support services should be delivered in a traditional manner or not

·  To understand whether infrastructure support services should be delivered in a single combined contract or broken up into lots

This Report and its recommendations are the outcome of the review process.

2.  Executive Summary

The VCS in Solihull is developing positively. It has moved on from a period of lacklustre progress and it is now effective, trusted and operating as a valuable partner to SMBC across a range of service provision.

A great deal of good infrastructure work is taking place. All agree that excellent, coordinated and innovate infrastructure support is vital to the development of the sector over the challenging three to five years ahead.

Infrastructure work across the Borough can be better coordinated and more integrated. Infrastructure work is both;

·  generic (in that it provides services to all those who support VCS organisations)

·  and specific (in that those services cover a wide range of areas; e.g. financial support, governance support, safeguarding support, support to move ahead on the personalisation agenda, fundraising support etc.)

Better coordination and integration will lead to better services and more efficient

service delivery.

An agreed Framework for the Provision of VCS Infrastructure Services, co-designed by all commissioners and by representatives of the VCS (including infrastructure providers and users) is recommended. This Agreement will require;

·  All commissioners and providers to work to integrate infrastructure services into a coherent and efficient provision.

·  All commissioners to identify all infrastructure elements of their commissions and to contract and manage those elements via one point of contact.

·  All providers to outline the practical steps they are taking to integrate or join up (through partnership arrangements) their services with other providers and the effectiveness and value for money of their approach.

The Framework Agreement will cover the VCS Infrastructure Contract that is the subject of this Report.

The VCS Infrastructure Contract will be offered in six lots (with an indicative percentage value attached to each lot.) Bidders will be invited to tender for one, several or all lots. In line with the Framework Agreement, tenders will be invited from individual organisations or from groups or consortia that propose working together to provide lots.

The VCS Infrastructure Contract will have clear and specified outcomes for each lot. Providers will be required to achieve those outcomes and to evidence that achievement.

As a first step in integrating the commissioning of infrastructure services, the current review of contracts that have been moved back into SMBC from the Care Trust will include reviewing the implications of the Framework Agreement on all elements of those contracts that involve VCS infrastructure support.

Processes are being set in place to;

·  Co-design the Framework Agreement,

·  To support infrastructure providers to understand and work with the recommendations in this report

·  To support commissioners in the application of the Framework Agreement to contracts they manage.

3.  Recommendations.

A. Strategy for the commissioning of infrastructure services.

For the Sector

Respondents to the consultation agree that the VCS in Solihull is developing and growing. The need now is to move on from good enough progress to great progress – accelerated transformation. The consultation process indicated the need for two key strategies;

a.  That leaders in the sector, in addition to developing their own organisations and sub-sectors, raise their vision and work together to develop the scale, the culture and the quality of the sector as a whole

b.  That infrastructure providers across the Borough come together under an agreed strategy and develop an integrated, coordinated and coherent set of infrastructure services for the whole sector. They would then develop concrete plans to integrate their services with other providers and to win economies of scale by working together. In the longer term they would look to the integration of infrastructure service provision under whatever organisational arrangements were most efficient and effective.

This would be done under an agreed Framework for the Provision of VCS Infrastructure Services.

For SMBC.

The consultation indicated that SMBC should work towards the implementation of a strategy to support the integration of VCS infrastructure services across the whole sector. This means that all funding for infrastructure services, no matter from which commissioning area it comes, should in the first instance, operate under a Framework Agreement. That agreement would

·  Recognise the generic nature of infrastructure services while recognising the wide range of specific services included

·  Specify the need for infrastructure providers to work together to provide a coherent, integrated and coordinated service

·  Generate the expectation that organisations providing infrastructure services funded by SMBC would move together over the period of their current contracts to integrate their services This will entail working together to see how services might be provided more effectively and more efficiently by, for example, combining some of their activities, sharing back office functions, sharing staff and delivering some services jointly.

·  Support that evolution process by moving towards a commissioning process that would lead to the integration of infrastructure services. This means, that over time, all commissioning of VCS infrastructure services (from whatever part of the Council and within whatever contract,) will be subject to the Framework Agreement and will be administered centrally via one point of contact.

This would be done under an agreed Framework for the Provision of VCS Infrastructure Services.

B. Services to be commissioned and outcomes against which to evaluate performance.

The current commission will be the first to operate under the Framework Agreement. The Framework Agreement will have as its aim the provision of quality services that meet the needs of the population of Solihull. It will require all those who win contract(s) to commit to and show plans for evolving services into an integrated sector wide infrastructure support service.

The current commission will be broken down into six lots.

Lot 1. Leadership, representation, intelligence and communications.

This lot entails;

·  the provision of support for the VCS Reference Group and VCS attendees at Council decision making forums

·  Maintaining a communications system across the sector.

·  Generating and collecting data from the sector and producing the two yearly State of the Sector Report (the first to be produced within six months of the contract being taken.)

·  Supporting the development of the leadership and culture of the Sector in ways that enhances its growth in size and quality.

·  Establishing and developing effective working relationships with the private sector

This provision would be funded by this commission and would also be expected to raise additional funding from other sources.

Outcomes would include;

·  The presentation of a State of the Sector Report, in a way approved of and recognised by the VCS sector and Council, within six months of the contract.

·  Presentation of a State of the Sector Report every two years thereafter.

·  Putting in place and regularly communicating across the sector, ensuring an (at least) two weekly e-mail newsletter updating

·  Administering at least four meetings of the VCS Reference Group per annum, an annual conference and supporting up to 10 VCS leaders on SMBC decision making forums. The quality of that support will be measured by an annual “survey monkey” type survey of the quality of the representatives participation and the quality of the admin support provided to the representatives.

·  Establishing and running a VCS leadership development programme for 20 VCS leaders in the Borough.

Lot 2. Support to communities and new and small organisations.

This lot entails;

·  The provision of support to communities and to new and very small organisations, a service mainly provided free at the point of delivery.

·  This would include face to face development assistance,

·  training programmes,

·  assistance with fundraising

·  professional advice.

Organisations providing these services would work closely with those providing support to existing and larger VCS organisations and may generate shared training programmes and development support activities. This provision would be funded by this commission and would raise additional funding from other sources.

Outcomes would include;

·  Number of community groups supported

·  Number of hours of support provided

(including face to face hours and training hours.)

·  Number of new organisations formed (particularly from under-represented communities of interest)

·  Quality of support provided as reported by clients using an agreed feedback form.

Lot 3. Recruitment and placement of volunteers.

This lot entails;

·  The provision of support for the recruitment and placement of volunteers.

·  This provision could be for a coordinating or brokerage services enhancing and extending the work of existing volunteer recruiting and placing organisations,

·  Or it could be for the face to face recruitment of volunteers.

Whatever approach is the basis for the tender, it would need to show outcomes in terms of the numbers of volunteers recruited and placed. This provision would be funded by this commission and would be expected to raise additional funding from other sources.

Outcomes would include;

·  Establish a Borough wide system for reporting numbers of volunteers recruited and placed per year.

·  Estimate the hours worked by volunteers and calculate the total volunteer contribution in £s, using the minimum wage as the hourly volunteer rate of contribution.

·  Growth in the value of volunteering across the Borough each year.

·  Quality of support provided as reported by those recruiting and placing volunteers

·  If appropriate, the numbers of volunteers interviewed, recruited and placed by work directly funded by this commission.

·  Link in /support existing volunteer forums or networks to ensure a more coherent approach to volunteering across Solihull

Lot 4. Support to SMBC and to those bidding or wishing to bid for SMBC contracts.

This lot entails

·  Supporting SMBC in ensuring that all SMBC commissions maximise the benefit they deliver to communities in Solihull (including social value benefits). For example, suggesting employment opportunities for Solihull residents, maximising sub-contracting possibilities for local organisations in very large contracts, maximising training opportunities in very large contracts for local residents

·  Sharing information about new and prospective commissions with relevant VCS organisations

·  Supporting VCS organisations to bid for commissions (either individually or in consortia.)

·  Supporting VCS organisations to win sub-contracts from large developments in the Borough or from large commissions

This provision would be seed funded from this contract, but would expect to become a self-funding service over a period of time (both by charging SMBC and VCS clients for services and by external fundraising).