General VCS Strategy and Policy Documents

 

This page includes links to download documents. Some links are to external sites. HLC cannot be held responsible for the content of documents produced by external organisations.

To download a document click on the link using the right mouse button and select the "Save target as" option. Some downloads will need Adobe Reader installed on your PC

 getacro.gif  Download Adobe Reader (external website)

 

ACEVO - CEO Toolkit

The CEO and Chair in Crisis - Positive Steps for Recovery

Download the Toolkit

 

"Measuring Social Value: The Gap Between Policy and Practice" published by Demos - New

Ensuring value for money in public service delivery is now a more pressing policy concern than ever before.

This report provides a snapshot of the third sector's ability to measure and communicate the social value of the services it provides. It also investigates the range of frameworks available for measuring social value and assesses progress made towards using these frameworks, particularly the Social Return on Investment (SROI) model currently being promoted by Government.

Based on a review of 30 charities and social enterprises of different sizes and working in different sectors, Measuring Social Value reveals a gap between the aspirations of policy makers for quantifiable measures of social value, and the ability of third sector organisations to measure and capture basic social outcomes.

It argues that the sector as a whole must achieve a basic and universal standard of outcome measurement before attempting to implement more complex and rigorous models such as SROI; and that such a universal standard would be both more viable and equitable for charities and useful to funders.

Download the Demos report "Measuring Social Value"

 

Mapping the Gaps (ACEVO) - New

ACEVO, the leading voice for Chief Executives in the third sector, has launched a major piece of research called 'Mapping the Gaps'.

The report explores the gaps that currently exist between the income generation needs of frontline organisations and the support available to them.

Download "Mapping the Gaps"

 

Cabinet Office Structural Reform Plan

Office for Civil Society Priorities

Each government department is producing a Structural Reform Plan to identify priorities for the first years of the coalition government and the Cabinet Office is one of the first to have published their plan. Included in this is the commitment to start work on the Public Bodies Bill in November 2010, through which government intends to abolish selected quangos.

Priorities for OCS implementation of the Big Society include reducing the bureaucratic burden on small civil society organisations, setting up the Big Society bank, and supporting philanthropy and charitable giving. The creation of mutuals, co-operatives, charities and social enterprises will be supported, alongside the right to form employee-owned co-operatives. Manifesto pledges around Big Society Day, Citizenship service and developing a community organisers scheme will be pursued.

One new priority is that OCS intends to begin consultation this July on improving 'infrastructure support' to front line organisations to deliver the Big Society which is a long-awaited opportunity to demonstrate the success that can be delivered by rural approaches to supporting community action.

Download the Cabinet office Structural Reform Plan

http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/414879/srp-cabinet-office.pdf

 

Workforce Wheel: Outcomes tool

How effective is your organisation's workforce?

The Workforce Wheel is a tool that takes an outcomes approach to all aspects of people management.

The Wheel is easy-to-use and aims to help voluntary and community organisations understand where they want to get to as they grow into their full potential. Effectively, it is a model of a high performing organisation with strong leadership.

The Wheel is intended to be used as a joint process involving a range of people - managers, staff, trustees and volunteers. It can be completed with an external facilitator, such as an advisor or development worker, or with an internal facilitator such as a trustee.

Upon completing the tool and identifying where you are as an organisation, you can then develop a plan to address the areas you are weakest in and build on where you are doing well.

The Workforce Wheel is one of a family of tools available from NCVO that take an outcomes approach to organisational capacity building. Others include Governance and Sustainable Funding.

Download the Workforce Wheel (.pdf, 405Kb).

 

Fact Sheet from Compact Advocacy

The Compact Advocacy Programme, offers help and support to third sector organisations on how to use the Compact to achieve a better working relationship with Government bodies. We have recently published an easy-to-read fact-sheet called Fighting the Good Fight: Effective Dispute Resolution Tactics that we think may be of interest to your members.

Download Fighting the Good Fight: Effective Dispute Resolution Tactics (.PDF - 67 kb)

Download Fighting the Good Fight: Effective Dispute Resolution Tactics - Text Only (.DOC - 29 kb)

Fighting the Good Fight: Effective Dispute Resolution Tactics is a single-page briefing that outlines effective ways for voluntary organisations or community groups to address and resolve disputes with public bodies. From prevention measures, to raising issues, to finding solutions, this briefing is a useful tool for any organisation that works with a public body.

 

State of the Third Sector Report

The third sector is poised for huge changes. There is an upcoming general election, government budgets are about to shrink, and the economy remains fragile. So research such as this, which tries to understand the dynamics and concerns of the third sector, is even more important.

Download State of the Third Sector report

 

Putting the Frontline First: smarter government

This paper was presented to Parliament by the Chief secretary to the treasury in December 2009.

The document declares, on page 27, we will release valuable public datasets and make them free for reuse. this will include:

  • Releasing health data such as the NHS Choices data
  • Consulting on making Ordnance Survey mapping and postcode datasets available for free reuse from April 2010 (see below)
  • Increasing access to and reuse of public transport data29 including the national Public transport Access node database, with information available to the development community by April 2010, providing live incident warnings and traffic camera images to googleMapsTM and increasing the number of gPs-enabled buses to cover 80% of journeys by 2015
  • Opening Met Office Public Weather Service data to include: releasing significant underlying data for weather forecasts for free download and reuse by April 2010, and working to further expand the release of weather data, while recognising all public safety considerations; releasing a free iPhone application to access weather data by April 2010; releasing a widget that enables other websites to deploy Met office supplied weather information by April 2010; and making available more information on Met office scientists, their work and scientific papers, free of charge
  • Publishing, by spring 2010, details of how the fiscal stimulus announced in the Pre-Budget Report 2008 has been spent, disaggregated to local level
  • Launching a public consultation early in 2010 to seek views on how we could publish further financial data so that it is user-friendly and accessible, with a view to putting a live system in place by summer 2010
  • Integrating ONS data with www.data.gov.uk from January 2010.

You can download the full paper by clicking on this link

 

Refreshed Compact is Published

A new chapter in partnership working between government and the third sector opened today with the publication of a refreshed national Compact.

The Compact is the longstanding agreement that sets out shared commitments and guidelines for effective partnership working between government and the third sector in England. The original Compact was agreed in November 1998 and this new version has developed following extensive debate and consultation.

This Compact highlights the shared principles which Compact partners should follow when engaging in partnership working, and records all the Compact commitments.

The agreement is accompanied by a smaller publication entitled ‘An introduction to the Compact'.  This contains general information about the Compact, explaining who it applies to, how to implement the Compact and resolve differences.

Download the Compact

 

Compact Knowledge Bank

Compact Knowledge Bank will include copies of local agreements, guidance and policy briefings. It will be a Compact Portal for Compact related research documents.  You will be able able to view all the Compact research documents, but also upload a document (Compact related) yourself which you think people may find useful.

The information has been submitted by organisations including the Commission for the Compact, the Office of the Third Sector and Compact Voice, which represents the voluntary sector's perspective on the Compact.

 

Third Sector Trends Survey

'Third sector organisations in Yorkshire and the Humber' briefing summarises initial findings from the Third Sector Trends Survey on the number, location and types of third sector organisations in Yorkshire and the Humber.

Download the Regional Forum's Summmary of the Initial Findings. 

 

Building Community Assets - A Practical Guide for Communities Considering Purchasing Land and Buildings

The Building Community Assets guide which highlights some of the achievements of third sector organisations in purchasing and developing community assets - land and buildings for the benefit of community organisations and the people they serve.

Download the Building Community Assets guide

 

NAVCA and IDeA guide to Comprehensive Area Assessment 

The much anticipated NAVCA and IDeA guide to Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA) is now available online.

Inside you'll find straightforward information about what CAA is, how it works in multi-tier local authority areas and how third sector organisations can contribute to it.

There's also information on the new public 'duty to consult' and 'duty to involve' and references to other resources for detailed follow-up.

It will be available to order in hard copy later this month but to read it now, sign up to ILP's Representation, voice & empowerment group on navcaboodle: NAVCA's social network (registration required).

 

Third Sector Foresight (NCVO) - Future Focus publications 

Future Focus is a series of introductory pocket guides to help organisations understand important trends that may impact on them in the future.

They are aimed at small and medium sized VCOs, but should provide a useful analysis for all VCOs interested in their external environment.

There are six guides within this series (download by clicking on the link):

Future Focus 1 - What will our funding be like in 5 years time? (PDF 2.55 mb)

Future Focus 2 - What will our volunteers be like in five years time? (PDF 1.78 mb)

Future Focus 3 - How will we use new technologies in five years time? (PDF 669 kb)

Future Focus 4 - How is local democracy changing? (PDF 1.1 mb)

Future Focus 5 - How are social attitudes changing? (PDF 1.4 mb)

Future Focus 6 - What will the UK population be like in 5 years' time? (PDF 2.64 mb)

 

New guidance to help cut red tape for third sector organisations

Charities that receive public funding have to account to government funders for how they spend it and should show the impact they have achieved with it.

But the cost of producing this information must be proportionate to the risks and benefits involved. Cutting unnecessary red tape can free up time and money that would be better spent focusing on the key services charities and others provide. The term for achieving this balance and avoiding poor practice is ‘intelligent monitoring'.

The NAO guidance, Intelligent Monitoring - an element of Financial relationships with third sector organisations, provides practical, step-by-step help for government funders.

Alongside this, OTS has launched its Principles of proportionate monitoring and reporting. The aim of the principles and guidance is to lessen the unnecessary burden of monitoring on charities and voluntary organisations. The OTS' principles commit Government departments to understanding the cost of reporting for third sector organisations and to working closely with them when establishing monitoring requirements. The principles will apply to all new funding streams.

Angela Smith, Minister for the Third Sector, said:

"Across public services, we are sweeping aside the barriers that hold back the third sector's potential to play a central role in modern public services that respond to the needs of individuals. The new monitoring principles and guidance will save charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises time and money that can be spent on doing more good for those who need support.

Charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises have particular strengths like reaching out to the most disadvantaged people, taking risks and finding new innovative ways of doing things. This announcement is one step in a programme of reform to bring the third sector's strengths into public services."

The Principles of proportionate monitoring and reporting were produced as a response to a report by New Philanthropy Capital (NPC), funded by OTS, called Turning the Tables: Putting Charities in Control of Reporting in September 2008.

Intelligent Monitoring - an element of Financial relationships with third sector organisations

Principles of Proportionate Monitoring - [PDF 64kb, 2 pages]

 
 2009 Refreshed Local Area Agreements in the Humber

I&DeA has published details of the 148 LAAs that have completed their 'review and refresh' procedure

You can download the refreshed agreements from the 4 Humber Local Authority Areas by following the links below:

East Riding of Yorkshire

Kingston upon Hull

North East Lincolnshire

North Lincolnshire

Comprehensive Area Assessment - NEW

Charities are urged to use new Comprehensive Area Assessment system to hold local government to account.

All indicators in the National Indicator Set, including NI6 (participation in volunteering) and NI7 (the environment for a thriving third sector) will be assessed in all areas, not just in localities where third sector indicators are included in the LAA.

The CAA, Comprehensive Area Assessment, aims to provide clear and impartial information about how well local public services are performing. For the third sector it can provide information on whether progress is being made towards the development of an environment for a thriving third sector; whether third sector expertise feeds into decision-making, and whether the third sector is able to play its full role in delivering services for the whole community, including disadvantaged or vulnerable groups.

The CAA is an important opportunity for the third sector in holding local government to account and it will be important for the sector to take a coordinated approach to engaging with the CAA locally, in order to most effectively have their contribution heard.

According to the Audit Commission, "Successful implementation of CAA will necessitate collaborative working between local councils, local partners (including the third and private sectors), the inspectorates, government offices in the regions, regional improvement and efficiency partnerships and others."

Download the Comprehensive Area Assessment: Briefing for the third sector

Public Services and the Third Sector: Rhetoric and Reality

House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee, Eleventh Report of Session 2007-08. Government is commissioning ever more public service delivery from organisations in the third sector-charities and other not-for-profit organisations, as well as social enterprises. In this report, our first since acquiring responsibility for scrutinising third sector policy, we have attempted to assess the impact of that policy approach. In particular, we have tried to look not just at the effect on government and on the sector, but more importantly the effect on service users and the public at large.

Download "Public Services and the Third Sector: Rhetoric and Reality"

The Follow up to Rhetoric and Reality 

Download the Participation in Public Services Action Plan - Two Years On

Working in a consortium: A guide for third sector organisations involved in public service

In Partnership in Public Services: An action plan for third sector involvement the Government acknowledged that, at their best, third sector organisations - especially those rooted in local communities - have an expert perspective on the needs of local people and how best to provide services that meet those needs.

This is why in the action plan a number of commitments were made to reduce the barriers that third sector organisations often face in tendering for and delivering public services. It is recognised that as well as sub-contracting, forming a consortium is another way in which smaller organisations can get involved in the delivery of public sector contracts.

This guide aims to provide information relevant to a wide range of third sector organisations but it will be of particular interest to smaller charities and local third sector groups.

Download Working in a Consortium: A Guide for Third Sector Organisations Involved in Public Services

GOYH Corporate Plan 2008-2011

The Government Office Yorkshire and Humber have published their Corporate Plan for the the region covering the next 3 years.

Download the GOYH Corporate Plan 2008-2011 (PDF - 514 kb)

Destination 2014 Strategy

This strategy is the result of the consultation programme Capacitybuilders ran from December 2006 to March 2007. It takes full account of the various views expressed and is designed to indicate the way forward for Capacitybuilders in relation to the ChangeUp programme as a whole.

Download Destination 2014 Strategy (PDF - 718 kb)

Volunteering Hull (Hull CVS)

A strategy for the future of volunteering. The Strategy is one of the first attempts by an English city to use a partnership approach to promoting and sustaining volunteering and improving the volunteering experience for everyone in the community.

Download Volunteering Hull (PDF - 1.3 mb)