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Delivering the Vision
TSEN Seminar ‘The next European Social Fund Programme: Delivering
the Vision’ was successfully delivered on 30 November in London.
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Delivering the Vision
| TSEN Seminar ‘The next European Social Fund
Programme: Delivering the Vision’ was successfully delivered
on 30 November in London. With the new ESF programme well under way TSEN invited to this one day seminar, a number of key players to share their vision for Third Sector involvement in the next six to seven years. The event attempted to open the discussion, and offer possible solutions, between the Third Sector and relevant parts of Government on the delivery challenges that still lay ahead for Third Sector organisations; issues on which we hope to work together with Government to ensure the Third Sector can fully participate in the new Programme. 
The event confirmed, first of all, consensus around the importance of the Third Sector in the new ESF Programme as described in the English Operational Programme for European Social Fund giving commitment to the most disadvantaged groups in society and the special role the Third Sector will play in reaching them. However, the emphasis on sustainable employment outcomes is much greater in the new programme. The new commissioning landscape will be dominated by larger, fewer contracts, more so in the case of DWP, based on the ‘payment for outputs’ recommended by David Freud, more suitable to large, national and international organisations rather than small, local third sector organisations which are, no doubt, embedded in disadvantaged communities and have a deep understanding of the barriers some groups face in being active or included. Interestingly, speakers at the event from DWP and ESFD noted that the Freud Report has not been taken on stock and barrel by Government. For instance, there will be a recognition that certain costs, i.e. overheads will need to be paid, even though only part of contracted outputs are delivered. For the new ESF Programme to succeed in meeting its stated objectives of assisting the very disadvantaged to move out of inactivity and into sustainable jobs, the Third Sector input is needed. We celebrate this fact. 
In the foreseeable future the third sector can be involved in four different ways: 1. In partnership with other third sector organisations (consortia) as illustrated by John Bruce from Northamptonshire Autistic Society, where a number of like minded organisations have come together under specific themes of mental health and learning difficulties. Together they are stronger than as single organisations in this new commissioning landscape and together they can ensure that all funding goes to help users rather than having to be subject to expensive top slicing. But it is not all about money: more importantly it is about providing a local service to meet local needs by local organisations. We hope to see many more of these types of arrangements developing in the future. 2. Through Sub-Contracting Arrangements: This is likely to occur where a large contract has been awarded to a Primary or Lead Contractor. Very often such contractors are private simply because they are better placed to cope with back loaded payments and the risk that entail. Third Sector Organisation can be sub-contracted to deliver ‘specialist services’ as DWP tends to call them. There have been some challenges with these arrangements in the past where unrealistic outputs and prices are set; or where the partnership with between the prime and the third sector org is simply on paper. We have seen many cases brought to the attention of the Compact Advocacy Group and we are delighted that the Managing Authority for ESF has recognised that CFOs must abide to the good practice set in the Compact and this extends to the sub-contracting level too! 3. Through smaller tenders The LSC informed the participants that Third Sector Organisations will be able to apply for a part of a tender to work with a specific target group. Although the first tendering round will result in 3 years contracts there will be further opportunities in the years to come, starting from 2008-09, with smaller tenders, fitting around the LSC annual business cycle and with longer leading times. 4. Through Community Grants Small grants of up to £12,000 will be made available to small third sector organisations to engage with and encourage inactive people to move closer to the labour market or other mainstream provision. Such progress will be measured by soft rather than hard outcomes. Community Grants, co-financed by the LSC, will be managed by Grant Co-ordinating Bodies. Making Commissioning work for the Third Sector Alan Payne from ESFVON, Third Sector regional co-ordinators and TSEN members, provided participants and policy makers with a possible solution to make sub-contracting work for third sector organisations, especially small ones working with the hardest to reach. An innovative solution based on Low Volume Special Payments currently been piloted in the North East, which could potentially provide opportunities for small sub-contracts to deliver ‘first engagement’ activities. 
And finally we heard from IDeA and the Training Programme for Commissioners funded by the OTS up to 2011 which will seek to change the attitudes of Commissioners when procuring from the Sector and will develop an improvement plan for Third Sector bidding capacity by April 2008. The IDeA welcome thoughts and ideas on their programme. These can be forwarded to thirdsector@idea.gov.uk. Similarly DWP have just published the interim report No.3 on their Commissioning Strategy on which they welcome feedback. The report and details on how to feed your views can be found at: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/publications/dwp/2007/com-strategy/cs-interim-report-07.pdf. The final report will be published in February 2008. A full script from the Event and Powerpoint Presentations can be downloaded from the Document Library. 
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