Welcome to the latest briefing (and in a brand new format) from your Voluntary Sector Forum. The briefing is to update you on all the areas and issues the forum has been working through on your behalf. Members of Voluntary Sector Forum Steering Group (representatives of VCS groups from across the borough) continue to lead on work on your behalf – to ensure your interests are represented and fed into local structures and partnerships.
We have tried to keep this update short and snappy – but if you would like to know more detail about any area covered in the briefing; then please do clink on the links for more information or please do get in touch!
The Steering Group
R&C Voluntary Sector Forum
Adult Social Care Provider Engagement Workshop
Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council held a provider engagement workshop on the 16 January 2013 at the new Tuned In building. The purpose of the event was to outline the strategic direction of Adult Social Care and launch the newly developed ‘Market Position Statement’.
The session began with an overview of the strategic direction the local authority are taking and an outline of the new directions it is exploring, which includes:
- Proactive work alongside other Council departments and partners supporting communities to provide the solutions which work for them to enable people to live and age well.
- Exploring outcome based commissioning
- Enabling providers to have more influence over design and delivery of services as long as the agreed outcomes are achieved.
They also presented their vision for developing the market, including the potential to develop a Provider Forum, a provider development programme and customer engagement & consultation.
A presentation on Supply & Demand started with some key information about ‘understanding our borough:
- Increasing numbers of older people, particularly the over 85’s
- Increase in the number of people with dementia
- Ageing population of Carers
- Number of adults with a learning disability, physical disability or mental health problem to decrease
- Number of older people with functional mental health problems to increase, we will also see increase in the number of older people with learning and physical disabilities
- Demand for older peoples services will not be matched by resources
This was followed by a clear statement on what the local authority see as being the way forward; ‘There needs to be a significant change in culture in terms of the expectations we have of our residents and the way the council operates to enable people to do things for themselves, rather than doing things for people.’ This shift would cover areas such as Prevention, Extra Care & Sheltered Provision, Carers, Reablement & Enablement, Care at Home, Day Opportunities, Transitions, Supported Housing & Move on and Nursing, Residential & Respite Care.
This event was very much the starting point for the culture shift the authority want to achieve and was a intense, engaging and challenging session.
Our local voluntary and community sector is a huge provider of services and resources that support our most vulnerable residents and it is vitally important that both our service users and our sector shapes the local commissioning priorities and polices, as well as ensuring we can maximise on local opportunities through commissioned services.
As this work moves forward we will keep you up to date with the latest developments and opportunities for you to get involved.
‘Working Together’ – The Refreshed Redcar & Cleveland Compact
As a result of the new Equalities Act and the appointment of Compact Champions from the public sector and VCS (Voluntary & Community Sector) within the Borough, we have refreshed the attached ‘Working Together’ – Redcar & Cleveland Compact.
We are interested to hear any views you may have about the content and format of the document, together with any issues you wish to make in relation to the Compact. The Compact is OUR agreement about how we work together – it is important that you understand and agree the principles we work within.
The consultation period commences at the beginning of January 2013 and ends on the 25th March 2013 – we would appreciate it if you can also circulate this information to any other relevant organisations for their consideration.
If you have any views or comments please forward them to Val Mitchell at Val.Mitchell@redcar-cleveland.gov.uk
or Mal Fitzgerald ‘Working Together’ – Redcar & Cleveland Compact Network Chair mal@rcvda.org.uk
Police & Crime Commissioner – Police & Crime Plan
The newly elected Police & Crime Commissioner recently held a consultation event at Police Headquarters on the draft Police & Crime Plan and Budget. The event was attended by a number of voluntary and infrastructure organisations, as well as public bodies like probation services, police, local authorities and Community Safety Partnerships. The production of the plan is a statutory requirement of the Police and Crime Commissioner. The plan identifies five key priorities:
- Retain and develop Neighbourhood Policing
- Ensure a better deal for victims and witnesses
- Divert people from offending with a focus on rehabilitation and the prevention of reoffending
- Develop better coordination, communication and partnership between agencies to make the best use of resources
- Respect and value those who deliver community safety services and encourage good community and industrial relations
The event used workshops to look at each priority and pose a number of questions:
- What actions do you feel the PCC needs to take to develop this priority?
- How can your organisation assist in delivering this priority?
- Are there any key actions, which are not already taking place, missing from the Police and Crime Plan relating to this priority?
Feedback from these workshops will be fed into the consultation process and Cleveland Safer Future Communities Network continues to work with the Police and Crime Commissioner on behalf of the sector to ensure the sector is viewed as an essential partner for the PCC in the development and delivery of community safety activity.
To subscribe to regular updates on from the network please contact: norah.sanders@mvdauk.org.uk
Connecting Together for Change Update
The members of the Voluntary Sector Forum Steering Group continue to work with our public sector colleagues to progress the priorities outlined in the Connecting Together for Change Work Plan.
Community Asset Transfer
RCVDA is working with key officers from Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council to support local organisations to develop community based activity and how local resources can be secured to support the delivery of these activities where needed. Three key pieces of work have been identified to support local organisations. The first piece of work we have agreed is the joint production of a simple guide for groups who may be thinking about securing or using local resources and buildings. This will be a basic introduction for many people on Community Asset Transfer and the Right to Bid as outlined in the Localism Act.
Secondly we are hoping to develop a training session for groups who are developing ideas and projects and want to start thinking about constructing their business case and support with this area of work. Finally we will be supporting the local authority in a review of their Community Asset Transfer policy and seeking the views of VCS organisations who have had some experience of being involved in the process.
Employment opportunities and the Voluntary and Community Sector: 7th March at Whale Hill Community Centre 9.30 to lunchtime
An Event to explore how we can make the most of what the voluntary sector has to offer in partnership with others to address the support we can give to those looking for work in our borough.
Voluntary and Community Sector Organisations can host apprenticeships.
We probably do not know enough about what apprenticeships are offering and feel a bit concerned that we have part of a job but perhaps not a whole job for and apprentice. We would like to explore if there are was the some of the larger voluntary groups can offer an apprentice an opportunity to work across a partnership of voluntary organisations.
Are we making the most of the opportunities to bid for contracts
An opportunity to share how groups are faring in contracting for services and are there things we can learn from one another.
Are we making to most of support for Social Enterprise?
An opportunity to find out more about how social enterprises are developing in the current climate and the impact they are able to bring
Voluntary and Community Organisations offer ideal placement for volunteers to support them in being job ready.
Are we all making the most of the opportunities to help people develop the basic skills which prepare them for work and give them a reference. How do we market this support and can we make more of it by partnership work?
You will receive your invitation to this event very soon – look out for it in your inbox and book your place!
The state of the voluntary sector in Redcar and Cleveland
We now have the results of the survey recently conducted in the voluntary sector. The headlines of the survey show:
Income and expenditure
Unsurprisingly 77% of groups report their income as staying the same or decreasing with 79% reporting their expenditure as staying the same or increasing. However 16% report both an increase in costs and a reduction in their income.
Staffing levels
36% of respondents report a decrease in staffing levels and the ratio of full to part time staff has switched significantly since the 2010 survey with much fewer full time posts.
Volunteering
31% of groups are utilising more volunteers for the delivery of services and 49% have maintained the number of volunteers with the majority of groups having between 11 — 20 volunteers.
Volunteering continues to provide a vital economic contribution to the borough and a conservative estimate based on the volunteer hours reported by a relatively small number of respondents is in the region of £530,000.
Service users
Respondents to the survey reflect a significant increase in the number of local people accessing their service. 61% are working with more service users and 31% of groups are working with the same number of beneficiaries from the previous year.
Working Together: The Redcar and Cleveland Compact.
Awareness of the Compact within the VCS and public sector partners is significantly higher than anticipated. Encouragingly respondents from the public sector have a high confidence level that the Compact can improve relationships between public bodies and the VCS. Responses from the voluntary and community sector reflected less confidence than our partners but the level was still relatively high at 54%. We have included direct quotations from both the sector and partners at the end of the report to reflect some very encouraging examples of working together.
We will be using the information that the Council hold about contracts and grants to reflect the changes in financial support and income groups have experienced from the local authority over the last three years to provide a much fuller picture of how things are changing within the sector locally.
To add this information, we are also encouraging groups to complete the Surviving or Thriving survey being conducted across the North East by VONNE and you can complete you questionnaire on line by the survey monkey link http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/survivingorthriving2013 this will help us tell the story of the impact of what this means and if groups are Surviving or Thriving
Or you can complete a paper copy and send it back in a freepost return envelope which you can obtain from:
TVRCC on 01642 213852 or Unit 2a Cadcam Centre, High Force Road, Riverside Park, Middlesbrough, TS2 1RH
Do please complete the questionnaire if you haven’t already as it will help us make the cast for the needs of the voluntary and community sector in the North East.
Closing date for completion of the questionnaire is 1st March.