Service Specification
Service Review Title: Support for the Voluntary and Community Sector
Review Team Leader: Paddy Hillary, Policy Unit
Review Project Manager: Vicky Jolly, Chief Executive's Resources Group
Date: 27 July 2001
Departmental Lead Officer for Best Value: M Smith
1. Aim
1.1 Provision of support for voluntary and community bodies is not in itself a service. The County Council has stated that it recognises the significant part played by voluntary organisations in helping to meet the needs and improve the quality of life of all sections of the community. The County Council provides support to these bodies to help them in delivering their services which in turn helps the County Council to deliver its key aims and form an essential part of the County Council's own service mix.
2. Objectives
There are no stated corporate objectives relating to support for the voluntary and community sector. However, initial research carried out by the Review Team indicate that the objectives appear to be:
· To provide financial assistance to voluntary and community organisations to improve service delivery
· To provide other support such as accommodation, staffing, professional services, advice and guidance.
· To improve partnership working with voluntary and community organisations.
· To encourage participation particularly by young people, in local affairs and activities and promote good citizenship.
The lack of clear corporate objectives is a key issue for this Review.
3. Links to Corporate Strategy
3.1 Delivery of all 5 aims of the Corporate Strategy relies on a good working partnership with voluntary and community organisations.
3.2 In particular, aim 4 expresses the County Council's vision for its work with local organisations and the impact it expects this work to have on the people of Hampshire. Building partnerships, improving dialogue and encouraging participation are key priorities under this aim, and the desired outcomes are expressed as:
- improving relationships with voluntary and other public bodies to ensure
effective service delivery
- raising the profile of the County Council with local people
- increased participation in local activities
- encouraging young people to influence County Council decisions
The review will consider those outcomes to see if they reflect the views of Members and partners in relation to providing support for voluntary and community bodies
3.3 The Corporate Strategy also identifies a number of performance indicators intended to measure the effectiveness of delivery against these outcomes. Part of the review process will be to look at performance indicators and identify those that can give a time measure of delivery and impact and provide a framework for managing performance.
4. Other links
4.1 Compact
One of the measures in the Corporate Strategy is the development of a "Compact" agreement with voluntary and community organisations. The Compact was approved by the County Council in April 2001 and identifies the main issues and concerns for both parties in working together and provides a forum for discussion. A copy of the Compact agreement is attached. This will include work on funding protocols.
4.2 Community Strategy
The County Council is also working in response to the new duty to develop a Community Strategy and the power to promote economic, environmental and social well being in the area. Although this work is in the early stages, a key issue is the involvement and role of voluntary and community bodies in developing and delivering a Community Strategy for Hampshire and meeting local needs.
4.3 Public Service Agreements
The County Council has also started the process of developing a Local Public Service Agreement with the Government. Again, although at an early stage, issues of partnership with voluntary and community bodies are key to the process.
4.4 District Audit Report
In 2000, the District Audit undertook an audit of the County Council's processes for funding Voluntary Sector bodies. A summary of this audit states that:
- The County Council has extensive connections with the Voluntary Sector as a partner, purchaser of services and funder of a diverse range of activities. Funding, either through grants or service level agreements or both is provided through:
· Arts, Countryside, and Community, including Sports
· Education, including Youth and Early Years and Childcare
· Environment Group - Surveyors and Planning
· Archives
· Museums
· Social Services
· Community Development and Conservation
- On the basis of information supplied (unaudited) the estimate is that the
County Council made capital and revenue payments in 99/00 of over £36
million of which
· 14% was spent on grants
· 42% was spent via service level agreements
· 44% was used to purchase services for individuals via Social Services.
Taking £2500 as a threshold the vast majority of the grants budget is spent on
larger awards with only 7% spent on grants under £2500.
A summary of the conclusions and recommendations of the District Audit report are
attached. The review will form the County Council's formal response to
these recommendations.
5. Summary of existing provision
5.1 The review will undertake a complete mapping of activities undertaken in support of voluntary and community bodies and the policies and processes that support these activities.
5.2 In general, the County Council's support covers:
Grants:
i) The County Council can only make grants if it has the power enabling it to make the payment. These powers derive from a number of statutory authorities including the new power to promote economic, environmental and social well being. The list of statutory authorities is currently being reviewed as many have been affected by the recent changes in legislation.
ii) The County Council has, historically, made decisions on grant distribution through the Committee system with all main committees, Policy and Resources, Education, Social Services, Planning and Transportation and Recreation and Heritage, having budgets for grant funding. Each of these committees has guidelines, drawn up to reflect statutory needs and the will of Members, to help in allocating funds. As the new Leader and Cabinet structure is implemented, the decision making process for grant allocation, and the guidelines used, will need to be reviewed. A copy of current Policy and Resources guidelines is attached for information.
iii) In general, main programme committees like Education and Social Services made grant allocations in line with their main service areas and approved policies and priorities. They also included support for running costs for local organisations. Policy and Resources retained the flexibility to respond to a wide and diverse range of applications for support. These were generally one off, pump priming grants rather than support over time for running costs. In addition, P&R had responsibility for annual payments to voluntary bodies such as National Association of Citizen's Advice Bureau, Hampshire Councils of Community Service and Community Action Hampshire.
iv) Policy development and administration of grant allocation has been devolved to departments with no overall central management. The review will consider the need for a corporate approach.
v) A breakdown of grant spend (excluding purchase of services) in 2000/01 (unaudited) shows the following:
These figures represent totals paid by committees in 2000/01. About 84% are continuing grants and 16% `one offs'. The review will analyse the balance between the two to establish the impact of grants overall in relation to the County Council's stated aims.
The Policy and resources Committee grants included the following umbrella type organisations:
National Association Citizen Advice Bureaux 86 000
Councils of Community Services 276 000 rising to 309,000 in 01/021
Community Action Hampshire 211.000 plus £46,000 for accommodation2
Relate 25,000
Winchester Help Centre 12 500
1 Support now in line with national formula
2 Community Action Hampshire operate under a service level agreement of which a copy is attached
vi) For the first time this year, the County Council hosted a series of roadshows across the County with the aim of promoting the range of help available to local community organisations. The review will consider the effectiveness of this activity in increasing access to County Council grants.
Support in kind.
As well as financial assistance the County Council provides support in kind for organisations. In some cases this can provide a financial benefit. The mapping of activities being under taken by the review will complete a picture of support and attempt to quantify the cost to the County Council. This information is difficult to collect, but in general the activities include:
· Accommodation: the County Council provides long term accommodation for 8 main voluntary organisations (schedule attached). In addition, use is made by local groups of County Council offices and facilities for meetings and some services. In some cases, a nominal charge is made or subsidised rate is available. Community Schools are able to apply for a subsidy towards costs arising from use by voluntary organisations.
· Equipment: some provision of training and staffing, generally provided through grant aid. The Adult Community Learning Unit pays for a full time co-ordinator for partnership work. Legal and accountancy services are provided to some organisations and the County Council hosts 465 web sites for local organisations free of charge.
· The County Council appoints Members to some 130 national and local voluntary organisations. In addition, some departments have developed policies which require an officer or members appointment in relation to grant aid over say £25,000. Most departments have officers appointed to local management boards or boards of trustees for organisations which they support or work in partnership with.
The range and level of support given is decided at departmental level in line with service policies with no central approach or guidelines.
Community Support Service
The Community Support Service is based in the Arts, Countryside and Community Department. It has a staff of 3 and a budget of £456,000 which covers:
£ `000 | |
Community Grants Fund |
92 |
Annual Revenue Support |
140 |
Support for seconded staff |
92 |
Support to neighbourhood Initiatives |
80 |
Repairs to County properties |
30 |
Training Grants Scheme |
12 |
Other |
10 |
The aim of the service is to support Community Associations and Village Hall Trusts enabling them to provide a range of services locally in response to identified needs within their neighbourhoods. In particular the service provides increasing support for neighbourhood initiatives that focus on locally identified issues and the provision of community based solutions.
The key objectives are:
Supporting community action - |
By enabling the development of new organisations in areas where none exist or by assisting organisations to re-establish themselves |
Building local capacity - |
By supporting projects that enable people to identify and meet their own and other peoples' needs and as a consequence become more involved in their communities |
Grant aid - |
By providing financial assistance to these organisations to help them maintain and develop these community facilities and their activities. |
Advice and support - |
By equipping communities with the information skills they require to run their buildings and by encouraging good practice within those organisations. |
Collaboration & co-ordination - |
By encouraging and developing partnerships with other organisations in the voluntary sector and other statutory agencies in order to ensure the service remains appropriate to the stakeholders needs. |
6. Consultation
6.1 The review team is currently collecting information on consultation undertaken by
departments. Centrally, a major consultation exercise was carried out in 2000 with
voluntary bodies in relation to the development of the Compact. This included a "vision" day which explored key issues for County Council and voluntary bodies in working together. This information will be used by the review team
6.2 Over the last 2 years the County Council has held regular meetings with representatives of
the voluntary sector and attendees were asked to indicate in advance the issues they
considered to be of priority. These issues included:
· Funding and resources
· Best Value
· County Council strategies and policies
· Joint working and partnerships
· Other issues including volunteer recruitment, legislation, quality and workload.
No consultation has yet been carried out with Members or officers on the effectiveness of their activities.
The County Council has carried out consultation with hard to reach groups which gives some useful indicators to priorities.
7. Performance Data
7.1 There is currently no information available to allow benchmarking to be
carried out. The review will identify performance measures which could be
used for comparison purposes.
Some work has been carried out by Surrey County Council in co-operation with Crawley
Borough Council which compares spending, criteria, management processes and types of grant/concessions offered. This will be used by the review along with some work being carried out locally by a network of Hampshire authorities.
Information provided by Best Value inspection reports on other authorities who have carried out reviews of support for voluntary and community organisations is also available.
8. Competition and other providers
8.1 There are a number of organisations nationally and locally who provide support for
voluntary organisations.
These include:
The Prince's Trust
National Heritage Lottery Fund
Other local authorities
Local Voluntary Sector umbrella bodies (e.g. CAH)
European funding eg. European Social Fund
The review will consider the processes used by these organisations and involve them in consultation and challenge exercises to develop improvement options.
8.2 There is no traditional `competition' is this area. Voluntary sector organisations may be supported financially by many different funders for one project. If the County Council did not offer support, the overall level of funding could drop and would not necessarily be met from other sources.
8.3 For many voluntary sector organisations seeking funds for projects, the fact that the County Council has given financial support enables them to leverage support from other sources.
8 Community Foundations
8.1 There are also some early proposals for the establishment of a Community Foundation for Hampshire and the Review will consider the implications of this for grant distribution.
8.2 Community Foundations support the local voluntary and community sector, adapting the
model of the charitable trust to enable many donors to collaborate in creating a permanent
capital fund for their area that generates income for grant-making. These donors can include
individuals and families, companies, other charitable trusts and public sector bodies
8.3 The rationale behind the establishment of a Community Foundation is that it establishes an
independent and representative body which can receive donations for investment and make
decisions on grant aid for local voluntary and community organisations either in line with
agreed local priorities and issues or, if requested by the donor, for a specific purpose or field
of activity.
8.4 According to their national body, the Community Foundation network, the key functions of
the Community Foundation are to act as a fund developer by attracting donors, investing the
funds to maximise the available income for grants, receiving and making judgements on
grant applications and acting as a community focus. They can be flexible and responsive to
local needs and are transparent and accountable through the representative board.
9 Challenges facing support for voluntary and community organisations
10.1 There are number of challenges facing both the County Council in considering its support for voluntary and community bodies, and for those bodies themselves in the considering the direction and methods used for the services they provide.
10.2 For the County Council, Best Value and the developments of a Community Strategy have a direct effect on both the practical approach to delivery of support and the strategic direction and outcomes which the County Council's efforts should be supporting.
There is an additional challenge of identifying and analysis aspects of support from within
County Council departments.
10.3 For the voluntary and community sector there are concerns over funding levels, monitoring requirements and workloads, recruitment of volunteers and pressures on volunteers. The voluntary and community sector is also concerned about the impact of the Best Value process and are looking nationally at developing quality measures. Other concerns include:
· The diverse nature of the sector and the inequalities and anomalies created by the historically ad hoc nature of funding
· Increasing demand particularly from an ageing population and `fall-out' from Social Services prioritising which is picked up by voluntary sector
· Low unemployment levels means there are fewer volunteers.
16 July 2001