Enable-Solihull have published the findings of a study on Personalisation which will be of interest and value to anyone affected by these changes to funding of Social Care.

The report is available to download, below.

Personalisation survey Feb 2011

How many times have you come across small gestures of generosity, the help and support that changed somebody’s life? We all experience and know about it. The nice neighbour who holds our spare keys in case we get locked out, the person on the bus or in the queue who starts an encouraging conversation on a bad day, the many nice smiles strangers give us, the neighbour who takes our parcels in when we are at work.

Come and visit us at http://volunteeringinsolihull.blogspot.com/ and add your stories of small acts of kindness that have made all the difference.

Read Dave Pinwell’s blog about the Mexicans then read this.

The following is an extract from a report by Regional Action West Midlands (RAWM) and the West Midlands Learning Strategy Group on the VCS in the West Midlands. Where we have data we have included a Solihull perspective.

Makes you think!

Myth – All staff in the VCS donate their time; nobody is paid a wage

Not true. Over 51,000 people are employed in the West Midlands VCS. 64% of them are full time employees. In Solihull there are around 1000 paid staff helped by over 3000 volunteers.

Myth – Lower than industry average pay means lower than industry average skills

Not true. It is estimated that 31% of paid workers in the sector are educated to degree level or above compared to 35 % in the public sector and only 15% in the private sector. The VCS employs fewer paid workers with no qualifications than either the public or the private sector.

Myth – Staff and voluntary and community organisations are well-meaning but amateur

Not true. 11% of the VCS workforce have professional backgrounds and 13% have associated professional or technical backgrounds. That’s higher than either the public or private sectors.

Myth – Everyone who works in a charity provides hands-on services directly to people in need

Not true. Almost half the employees in the VCS are in professional, technical, managerial and administrative occupations.

Myth – Working in a charity you don’t need a high wage, training and development or a career path because the rewards for working in the sector are purely altruistic, doing good for others

Not true. Although many people opt to work in ethical organisations, they will not remain there if there is no opportunity for career development and progression. Many people begin their career in the VCS.

Myth – Only older middle class people volunteer

Not true. Volunteers have very wide backgrounds. People are likely to volunteer in projects to which they have already got a connection or empathy with. Lots of young people do voluntary work and it attracts people from all backgrounds.

Myth – Volunteers don’t cost anything

Not true. Volunteers need to be trained, managed and supervised. They are entitled to receive legitimate expenses (travel costs, uniform etc). Retaining experienced volunteers is the best way of keeping costs down. They need to feel appreciated to remain motivated.

Myth – Volunteers take away jobs from paid staff

Not true. Volunteers work alongside paid staff and do jobs and tasks that simply would not get done without their extra pair of hands or particular set of skills.

Myth – Volunteers are unskilled and cheap labour

Not true. Volunteers come with a lifetime of skills and experience and are valued as members of the delivery team.

Myth – Staff in charities don’t know how to manage large contracts for public services

Not true. In 2006/07 the sector delivered £7.8 billion worth of public service contracts, with contracts making up 65% of the sector’s income from statutory sources involving activities in health, social care, education and training, and housing to name only the main ones.

Myth – The voluntary sector isn’t interested in quality

Not true. And far from it. It’s quality that the sector really delivers well on. It is highly customer focussed and many organisations have quality systems in place such as Investors in People, ISO, Ofsted, PQASSO, etc. The voluntary sector is more customer and outcome focused than any other sector.

Myth – Charities run on grants, unlike the private sector which has to compete for and earn its money the hard way

Not true. Grant Income makes up a surprisingly small part of sector income. Around 17% in Solihull. Contracts & SLA’s make up a further 12%. This means that over 70% of the money is generated by the sectors own efforts in trading, fundraising, donations, etc.

Myth – You can’t put a value on what the voluntary sector delivers

Not true. You can but its not easy. Estimates at a national level say that for every £1 invested, the sector delivers between £3 and £6 worth of social, economic or environmental benefit. It will vary from organisation to organisation but will always be positive. No one has ever said they were worse of by using the services of a voluntary organisation.

Myth – The private sector costs less than the VCS and is more efficient

Not true. Voluntary and community organisations are just as cost effective as the private sector providers, largely because they have large reserves of goodwill and can call on volunteer support. Voluntary and community organisations are usually very efficient as a result of years of experience of delivering services with limited staff. Likewise they know how to give splendid value for money given years of experience of delivering on limited budgets.

Myth – Charities don’t have enough legal and financial expertise to take responsibility for legally binding contracts with financial implications

Not true. 5% of Solihull’s VCS have incomes in excess of £1 million per annum. They are managed by Trustees with a wealth of experience and professional qualifications. Where they need expertise, they can get it

Myth – At most there are a hundred or so voluntary & community organisations in Solihull.

Not True: At SUSTAiN we know over 600 organisations and we dont claim to know every one! Some research indicated as many as 750 might be working quietly away.

The VCS in Solihull employs over 1000 people – making it a significant employer in the borough – and has over 3000 volunteers. They provide services to over 130,000 people a year – or almost two thirds of Solihull’s population.

Add up all those who work for, volunteer for, support or use the services of the VCS in Solihull and at least 70% of the population would notice if these particular Mexicans left town.

Did You Know - as well as the ‘care’ services you might expect, VCS organisations also provide Grass Cutting, Free Range Eggs, Park Benches, Websites, IT Training & Equipment, Garden Fencing, Transport Services, HR Support, Conservation, Sports Clubs, Video Production, Animal Welfare and a whole lot more besides.

If you want to know more, contact SUSTAiN on 0121 711 3148 or 0121 770 8222 or email info@solihull-sustain.org.uk. Or, you can download our Solihull Groups Directory

With thanks to RAWM who provided much of this.

There has been a spate of activity around the issue of commissioning of public services and the transition funds available to support VCS organisations faced with cuts in public spending.

• Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Hurd has launched a green paper looking at ‘Modernising Public Sector Commissioning‘ which is aimed at Increasing the role of charities, social enterprises, mutuals and co-operatives in public service delivery. More details here

• The Social Value bill that requires local authorities and local strategic partnerships to engage more with social enterprise and the wider VCS and requires a clause in tender documents asking for social value to be taken into consideration is progressing well through parliment. See our Social Value post for more details.

• The Big Lottery will be managing the governments £100 million ‘Transition Fund‘ to help VCS organisations who are faced with cuts in public spending. See our Transition Fund Briefings post for details. The briefing event is already oversubscribed but at least 3 people from Solihull will attend and further details will be advised. We understand that the deadline for applications could be as soon as 21 January. Expect it to be very competitive and, like the briefing event, also oversubscribed.

• The Leader of the Council and Chairman of the Solihull Partnership Governing Board and the Council’s Director of Commissioning and Compact Champion for the Partnership, have issued a really significant letter to commissioners across the Partnership. It sends a clear message to all those responsible for contracting with our sector in a time of great uncertainty. Read Dave Pinwell’s blog post on this.

All of this, in a time of uncertainty, is positive news that steps are being put in place and support given that demonstrates the value that Charities, Voluntary Organisations, Community Groups and Social Enterprise can contribute to society. Let’s hope we can all weather the storm in the meantime.

There are several areas of support SUSTAiN can offer in addition to this:

The range of services we currently offer through various funding streams. See our Support section for details.

A range of resources & fact sheets to download from our Resource section

Our VCS promotional video project that will demonstrate the value you provide. We need your help in making this video

A marketing workshop – in particular to assist those facing an end to block contracts and growth in the use of Personal Budgets. Tell us when it best suits you to attend.

For anything else, just pick up the phone or drop us an email. Contact details here.

Yesterday the Office for Civil Society launched the Transition Fund to help charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises which deliver high quality public services to be more resilient, agile and able to take opportunities presented by a changing funding environment. BIG Fund (non-Lottery funding operation of the Big Lottery Fund) will administer the fund.

The Transition Fund is for civil society organisations delivering public services who receive a large proportion of their income from taxpayer funded sources and expect to experience significant reductions in that income.  More information, including detailed eligibility criteria and the application form, are available at www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/transitionfund or email enquiries@bigfund.org.uk

Application forms are available for civil society organisations with an income of between £50,000 and £10 million where:

• at least 60% of their income is from taxpayer funded sources
• at least 50% of their total income is for the delivery of public services in the  following areas – health and social care; homelessness; education and training; offender rehabilitation; welfare to work/ employment services; children and families; debt counselling and legal advice
• their free reserves are equal to or less than the cost of running the organisation for six months
• they have evidence, or significant reason to believe, that between April 2011 and March 2012 they will experience a reduction of at least 30 per cent of the taxpayer-funded income received for the delivery of public services in England.

The closing date for applications is 21 January 2011.

(PS: We now appear to be the ‘Civil Society’)

More details are emerging on the Big Society and what it will mean.

Detailed below are some of the latest highlights.

Comprehensive Spending Review

The Government promised a bigger role for the civil society sector (another name for the Voluntary & Community or Third Sector) with the announcement of £470 million over the next four years to support capacity building in the voluntary and community sector to deliver the Big Society. This includes:

• An endowment fund to assist local voluntary and community organisations
• Funds to pilot the National Citizen Service and a Community First Fund to support local and community organisations
• Establishing a Transition Fund of £100 million to provide short term support for voluntary sector organisations providing public services, and
• The Big Society Bank to bring in private sector funding in addition to receiving all funding available to England from dormant accounts.

However, there will be cuts of 19 percent to the public sector purse over the next four years estimating a total £81bn of savings and expected job losses to the sector of 490,000.

Main focus of Big Society Bank is Young People
Tim Loughton, the Junior Children’s Minister, told the National Council for Voluntary Youth Services’ annual conference that the majority of the funds of the Big Society Bank will be to benefit young people. It is estimated that the Big Society Bank, estimated to be in the region of £400m, should be up and running by June 2011. The money will be available through grants, social loans and social impact bonds, for both national and local projects.

Green paper on public service commissioning
Nick Hurd, the Minister for Civil Society has announced a green paper suggesting ways in which public service commissioning could be reformed to benefit the voluntary sector is shortly to be published. This will be accompanied by an online consultation on the proposals to be completed by the end of the year. An OCS spokesman said: “The green paper will look at what the government needs to do to make sure civil society can take advantage of the new opportunities from the big society agenda”.

Big Society strategy for charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises
The Civil Society Minister, Nick Hurd, published the Building a Stronger Civil Society document outlining the Government’s strategy for voluntary and community groups, charities and social enterprises. The document has three objectives. It sets out the scale and nature of the opportunities being made available to civil society organizations; spells out the practical measures the Government is taking to support the sector; and publishes a consultation document alongside.

Plans in the strategy include:

• Reducing red tape for small organisations,
• Giving local communities the right to buy or bid to run community assets, and
• Modernisation of public service commissioning so the most efficient and effective charities can get a fair chance to bid for public contracts.

Consultation Document

Consultation Response

NCVO chief executive outlines how the sector could respond to the big society vision
Sir Stuart Etherington, chief executive of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, suggests the big society “should be about the state and civil society working together and supporting each other through the different roles they play”. He calls for an overhaul of infrastructure for front-line organisations. Read what he says here

Health and safety regulations to change to allow more risk
In response to Lord Young’s review of health and safety regulations, the Government has announced changes backing his recommendations. These include replacing the current system of risk assessment with one of ‘risk-benefit assessment’; creating a single consent form for school trips to reduce the bureaucracy involved; and scrapping of the Adventure Activities Licensing Scheme.

Localism

A couple of interesting debates:

A paper by the Local Government Association details their reasons for calling for local budgets to be available for all places that want them, not just in pilot areas. Read ‘Local Budgets: Building the Big Society from the Neighbourhood up‘

The Decentralisation Minister, Greg Clark, stated the Decentralism and Localism Bill would include a new right of contestability, which will allow organisations to challenge councils on the running of services if they think they can do them better or for less money. Further information is available here

Details are emerging on what impact the Governments Spending Review might have on the sector. Opportunities, risks, challenges and certainly change. The highlights to date are:

On the up side

• £470 million over the next four years building the capacity of the voluntary sector to deliver the Big Society.
• A £100 million transition fund to help service delivery organisations that have low levels of reserves and high dependence on public funding.
• Additional funds to pilot the National Citizen Service and a Community First Fund to support local and community organisations.
• The Government will set proportions of services to be delivered by independent providers, including voluntary sector groups, in adult social care, early years, community health services, pathology services, youth services, court and tribunal services, and early interventions for families most in need.
• The Big Society Bank will receive all cash from dormant accounts, and the Government will “work with the financial sector, the voluntary sector and community groups to develop innovative equity investment opportunities in public services”.
• Museums and other cultural institutions will be allowed more flexible use of money raised independently and will be able to establish trust arrangements that enable them to generate more funding from private sources.

On the down side

• A reduction in funding to councils of 7.1% per year for four years.
• The Cabinet Office budget will be reduced by 35% in real terms, from £280 million in 2010–11 to £200 million by 2014–15.
• The Charity Commission’s budget will be cut by more than a quarter to £21.3 million by 2014/15.

Issue 3 of the Putting Solihull People First Newsletter has updates on a number of important projects that aim to increase access to, choce and control of social care for clients, their families and carers.

It includes articles on

• The new Reablement service
• The trust’s work to support the development of Personal Assistants
• The work of the Personal Budgets Task Force

Chelmsley Wood CAB now has new opening times:

• Monday 10am-3pm
• Tuesday 10am-3pm
• Thursday 10am-3pm
• Friday 10am-3pm

From 1st October visits will be by appointment by calling 0121 779 6707 and going through a short assessment interview.

For more information see the Chelmsley Wood CAB flyer.

Changes to current legislation will be in force from October. It’s important we all understand what the changes are and put in place any required amendments to policies and working practices. Do you, your staff, and volunteers understand what the changes will really mean?

Changes which are important to note are:

• There will now be nine Equality Strands in total along with a public duty on socio-economics.
• Discrimination also has new additions which are association, perception and arising from disability.
• Who has responsibility for the above has also been clearly defined down to charity shops, clubs and internet-based services.

This means that it is even more important for third sector organisations to be more inclusive and to recognise that difference should not be excluded.

SUSTAiN will be offering support and guidance throughout the coming months but in the meantime, if you want more details about the legislation or specific support with changing your Equality practices please contact Gulbag Singh on 0121 711 3148 or email gulbags@solihull-sustain.org.uk.