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£65 million boost for Total Place and the Third Sector
25 March 2010
The budget statement, announced yesterday, supports the momentum
that is building behind the Government’s Total Place agenda and the
Third Sector’s role in this will be pivotal going forward. What are
the key issues facing local government and Third Sector
organisations as Total Place activity increases and how might
things be improved?
Third Sector organisations have been working in a ‘Total Place’
way with their statutory partners for many years but they have not
always worked in the most efficient and cost effective manner. No
one in the public or voluntary sector is under any illusion that
this will be easy but Total Place now offers the opportunity for a
review and improvement in the way both sectors work with each other
allowing serious economic and social issues to be addressed whilst
delivering more efficient services to people.
At a recent Third Sector conference, Sir Michael Bichard - who
has been instrumental in developing Total Place - was at pains to
highlight that both central and local government needed to up their
game in their dealings with the Third Sector. The current
fragmented, badly co-ordinated and wasteful system, combined with
the lack of innovation, means that services are not being delivered
sensibly and existing partnerships with the Third Sector are not
working as well as they should. More often than not, the Third
Sector is involved too late, policy is made and implemented and no
real consideration has been given to actually designing services
around people and consulting those best placed to know. The Third
Sector (and others) is left trying to work around policies that do
not necessarily fit the issues they are trying to resolve and that
makes it difficult to actually deliver the service effectively and
efficiently.
Sir Michael Bichard’s key message was to encourage local
authorities to work with the Third Sector more closely and benefit
from the Third Sector’s knowledge, flexibility and ability to
change and prevent behaviour to deliver a better service.
Brian Carr, Chief Executive of Birmingham Voluntary Service
Council, worked on the Birmingham Total Place pilot and said that
engaging the Third Sector was going to be a big challenge. He
pointed out that not only is genuine collaboration from the start
essential but setting up engagement mechanisms to help achieve this
is equally important.
What type of engagement mechanisms are we talking about? One
such mechanism, used in the Birmingham Total Place Pilot, could be
setting up a Third Sector Assembly that meets to discuss specific
issues and delivers clear recommendations that are acted upon.
Others could include using existing or creating new Community
Network Groups or Neighbourhood Forums, sharing and maintaining
information through active websites, or working collaboratively
with Local Infrastructure Organisations “Mapping” projects to
better understand what is involved, what is being offered and allow
intelligent commissioning.
Whatever form these mechanisms take, having specific and regular
links between the two sectors to exchange information and address
and work around issues must be the starting point.
Too often local authorities deal with the Third Sector on an
adhoc basis and there is lack of information and communication on
both sides which hinders productive and innovative ways of
working.
Ben Cairns, Director of the Institute for Voluntary Action
Research has been looking at the benefits of cross sector working.
The National Partnership Improvement Findings have made it clear
that there needs to be a better understanding between the Third
Sector and local authorities. Both sides need to stop looking back
and look forwards at ways of improving their communication. This
will build trust, improve knowledge, create innovation, increase
resources and produce better services and outcomes which would
enable some tangible changes in local communities to take
place.
The engagement mechanisms mentioned above are one way in which
this can be done but local authorities should also be encouraged to
find out more and maintain information about who can provide the
services they want. This will help to ensure that time is not
wasted and the right organisations are used. Equally the Third
Sector needs to improve the way in which it presents itself. It
needs to be clearer about the services it provides, consider in
more detail the impact its services have on other service areas and
be better at highlighting the added value that it provides.
Helen Bailey, Director of Public Services at H.M.Treasury,
recently hinted whilst speaking at the conference, that the
Treasury was willing to investment up front in exchange for savings
down the line but, Third Sector organisations had to be innovative
and much clearer in identifying the benefits they bring to the
table.
To actively encourage and start the re-engagement process
between local government and Third Sector organisations, £65
million is being given to the Regional Improvement and Efficiency
Partnerships (RIEPs) around the country with specific instructions
to engage with the Third Sector and think of better ways of
working. Irene Lucas, Director General of the Local Government
Regeneration Communities and Local Government Agency, actively
encouraged Third Sector organisations to start knocking on the
doors and engaging with their local RIEPs when she announced this
at the Third Sector conference. Finally, with a proposed second
stream of formal pilots in the pipeline and the pressures of the
new budget looming, local areas will need to think hard about how
to make the most of their Third Sector partners and the pressure
will be on to put into practice what was learnt from the first wave
of pilots.
Rob Whiteman, Chief Executive of the London Borough of Barking
and Dagenham, simply concluded at the recent conference that,
whilst there is much to do, if both sides “spend more time
together - changes can be made!”
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