Project Brief

Service review title: Support for the Voluntary and Community Sector

Review team leader: Paddy Hillary, Chief Executive's 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. Goal


1.1 To carry out a fundamental review of the County Council's arrangements for

providing support to the voluntary and community sector by February 2002.

2. Objectives

i) To compare the current arrangements and policy for providing support for the voluntary and community sector with that in other local authorities, public and private sector bodies in order to identify best practice.


ii) To identify stakeholders through consultation and consider the existing Compact consultation outcomes to develop a customer focus

3. Scope

3.1 This review will cover the full range of County Council activities related to the provision of support for the voluntary and community sector. This will include a review of the process for allocating grants and financial assistance, both centrally and within departments, and a mapping of activities undertaken across the authority in support including:

3.2 The review will not consider specific service level agreements or contracts to deliver County Council services as these will be reviewed individually as part of the County Council's 5 year programme. The review will however look at the policy and processes used in deciding when a SLA rather than a grant would be available. The review has also decided not to include the specific services provided by and role of community schools as this will be covered by the Education reviews. The award of financial assistance to individuals will also be excluded as individuals are not classified as voluntary or community bodies.

3 Constraints

3.1 The approach to this cross cutting review needs to take into account the fact that support for the voluntary and community sector is not in itself a service but is a policy of the County Council which impacts on all departments. It is accepted that the County Council needs a relationship with the sector, therefore the review will focus on what the nature of that relationship should be and how support should be delivered, including mechanisms for delivery and means of measuring outcomes.

3.2 The County Council's policy of supporting the voluntary sector helps to deliver the key aims of the Corporate Strategy, and in particular the aim of developing partnerships for strong communities. This means that the review will need to consider, as well as the processes and mechanisms for delivery, the desired outcomes for Members in terms of delivering those aims. For this reason a broad based team has been established involving representatives from the sector itself and the review will need to further involve Members to consider their views on improvements for this important policy.

4 Approach

4.1 A review team has been established consisting of representatives of County Council departments, representatives from relevant outside bodies and a staff representative. County Council departments are represented as follows:

The outside bodies currently involved are Community Action Hampshire, Havant Housing and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations. Ability to attend is a key issue and the team is currently seeking to increase involvement from the voluntary sector. It is also hoped that County Council Members will also be able to participate as part of the team. A core team, consisting of the Team leader, Project manager and Sue Wilson from Chief Executive's department who has been involved in the development of the Compact, will co-ordinate the review and ensure that it follows the approach outlined.

4.2 The team has met to carry out an initial EFQM review of the service and it has identified the key issues, areas for improvement and evidence required for the review. A summary of these findings is attached as Appendix 1. In general terms, the key areas on which the review will concentrate are:

4.3 A project plan has been produced to set out the time table to achieve these activities as follows:

Consultation - internal stakeholders
The initial EFQM review has started this process and it is intended to hold a workshop later in the year to involve other managers, and Members, within the County Council responsible for working with the voluntary and community sector.

Members involved in a representative role with outside bodies, or in the grant allocation process will also be consulted for their views on the process and desired outcomes. The exact nature of this consultation has yet to be agreed and we are awaiting the outcomes of the implementation of the new political structure.

The review will also involve the Compact Development Group who are responsible for managing the Compact process for both the County Council and the voluntary sector.

Consultation - external stakeholders
The team has carried out an initial stakeholder analysis as on attached matrix (Appendix 2). In discussion with Corporate Communications it is proposed that two forms of consultation are used; firstly additional questions will be added to the proposed Citizen's Panel questionnaire to establish public views on the work of the voluntary sector and the County Council's role, and secondly a number of umbrella bodies in the sector, along with selected grant/support recipients and those who do not receive grants, will be contacted through a one to one telephone interview intended to seek their views in relation to the issues highlighted above. It is expected that this work will cost in the region of £3000, although final details have yet to be agreed.

Work already carried out in relation to the Compact development and through MORI with hard to reach groups will also be used. It may also be possible to use Hantsweb as a means of consultation.


Comparison
There is no current information to compare our performance with that of other local authorities or other public or private sector bodies. Some work has been carried out by Surrey County Council in relation to their own review and this will be used where appropriate. The team intends to carry out an analysis of the most appropriate form of performance information for this review, informed by the consultation, so as to provide a framework for seeking comparison and benchmarking data.

Competition
The nature of the service being reviewed means that competition is more problematical. The team will be considering the work of other bodies who provide support for voluntary and community organisations, and the umbrella organisations themselves to see if there is any scope for developing a mix of in house and external provision. The question of whether the County Council should consider involving an external contractor to manage the process or whether there is a role for a Community Foundation in Hampshire will also need to be considered.

Challenge
An exercise will be carried out to test the current strengths and areas for improvement identified internally using the EFQM model. This will involve a workshop for representatives from the key stakeholders together with the team and Members. Information gained from the other phases of the review will be included and the event will employ the services of a trained facilitator. It is expected that this will cost around £1000.

5 Work by District Audit

5.1 In March 2001, District Audit presented a report of a review they had carried out onto the County Council's funding for the voluntary sector for the 1999/2000 financial year. The review was set against the background of:

5.2 The report's recommendations will be considered by the review team, and as part

of the challenge process, in order to produce a response to the District Auditor. A

copy of the full DA report is available.

6 Resources

6.1 Estimates are dependent on confirming the approach to the review, however it is expected that this will include:

- time spent by officers on the review team and other staff and member
involvement. These costs will be borne by the departments involved. It is

estimated that the review will take around 100 days.
- consultation with stakeholders as described above at an estimated cost of £3000.

- facilitated workshop for the challenge process requiring the services of
a trained facilitator for one day at an estimated cost of £1000.
- expenses for external stakeholders.

6.2 A budget of £4000 has been nominally identified to cover external costs.

7 Time table

7.1 A project plan for the review is attached as Appendix 3. The review is scheduled to present final options to Members in February.