North East Lincolnshire Council have just issued information about the above, upcoming review.
Their news release, entitled “New chapter dawns for North East Lincolnshire’s ‘not for profit’ sector” is available to read on the authority website here, or can be downloaded as a .pdf here.
Voluntary Action North East Lincolnshire (VANEL) welcomes this review, which comes at a critical time for both the public sector with its ever reducing budgets and the voluntary and community sector with the ever increasing demands for its services. We have been making the point for some time that the public sector needs to develop a clear, robust and effective strategy for its relationship with the local voluntary sector and its volunteers. Equally, the voluntary sector needs to develop a clearer and more effective response to the rapidly changing circumstances that we all face. We are hopeful that this review will assist in achieving these two mutually beneficial aims and we intend to participate fully and would encourage our members and friends to do the same.
Allen Young, VANEL Chair commented that “it’s great to hear that the council and its partners are interested in “co-production” and the provision of a “total service” as that is exactly what our organisation has been delivering as it has adapted itself to meet the changing needs of both its clients and funding partners”. Paula Grant, VANEL Chief Officer added “we have a great track record in developing nationally recognised locally focussed programmes in partnership with our members and friends and having our work accredited to meet national quality standards of which we are all very proud.”
We look forward to taking part in the review as we strongly believe that we have much to contribute to all future delivery options.
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Wording from NELC:
A new approach to maximise opportunities within North East Lincolnshire’s voluntary, community and social enterprise sector is to be developed in consultation with the sector next month.
This review aimed at making the most of resources available across the entire sector, is being jointly led by North East Lincolnshire Council, the local Clinical Commissioning Group and Humberside Police.
A range of issues affecting the sector will be examined and look to move away from the traditional public sector-led service delivery, as councils and other organisations face increasing austerity cuts.
Included in the review will be:
• The current state of play and effectiveness of the “not for profit’’ sector in North East Lincolnshire
• The capacity of current organisations with a track record of delivery to undertake more activity
• The potential of organisations to move from grants of service level agreements to contracts and/or managed loans
• The potential of social enterprises which the sector can support
• Best practice models locally or elsewhere which can be utilised to help communities.
Cllr Ros James, portfolio holder for Citizens and Inclusion, said that the sector receives financial and other support from the public sector, in addition to successfully bidding for grants totalling many more hundreds of thousands of pounds. “We need to look at a 21st century model to make the most of the terrific people who work in this sector,’’ she explained, “but we also need to take into account the reducing capacity of the public sector to deliver and directly fund this vital activity.
“To do that properly, we need to gather the views, ideas and most importantly, the aspirations of everyone involved and see how we in the public sector can best marry those ambitions with our own, of creating a successful economy and vibrant communities.
“It is hoped that the review, which will be led by a prominent organisation in the field, will help draw up a plan to create a new infrastructure for the sector and develop a series of options for delivery.
“We look forward to support from the sector in contributing to the success of the review to build a sustainable infrastructure for the future benefit of North East Lincolnshire.’’ added Cllr James.
Cathy Kennedy, deputy chief executive of the Clinical Commissioning Group said:
“Our health and social care services have long benefitted from some fantastic support from volunteers, and we see this becoming increasingly important over coming years as we seek to meet the ever increasing needs of our communities and people from tightening funds”.
Tony Forbes, chief superintendent of Humberside Police said:
“We have a long tradition of dedicated, hardworking people who contribute a huge amount of valuable time and effort to make our communities stronger, safer and healthier, we are conscious that we must not lose their goodwill and support. However, we recognise that in the current environment every part of our work needs to be reviewed, including volunteering, to ensure we are capturing and maximising what is working well as well as considering if there are opportunities to work more cohesively to maximise the benefit to local people.
It is hoped the consultation will take place during April 2014 with a report and recommendations expected by July 2014.
Background note to editors
The council is in the process of reviewing all services that it currently provides through its savings programme. This review is initiated by the need to drive forward the move to creating a stronger economy and stronger communities and in particular by promoting and developing co-production as an approach. Co-production has at its heart citizens as assets which means that the public sector should actively engage citizens in the design and delivery of services which enhance their wellbeing, with a focus on preventative rather than intervention based activities.
A co-production approach will create a bigger ‘cake’ of resources with not just public sector staff and budgets, but also service users, families, neighbours, voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations and the wider community in a ‘total service’ which releases new energies and skills. It means that commissioned services and self-organised support can work alongside one another rather than operating in isolation. It should also enable the move away from grants and service level agreements to contracts and payment by results.