Co-designing a new third sector funding scheme in Argyll and Bute

Change Management

Beginning in May 2011, the department held four events as part of a collaborative process between the Council as commissioner and the third sector organisations as service providers to discuss:

how the Council and providers could work more collaboratively in the future;
how a new grant allocation system could be jointly developed that was appropriate for this new context.

The first event in May 2011 was attended by representatives of Argyll and Bute Council, Argyll and Bute Social Enterprise Network, Carnegie UK, and 26 providers of children and family services. Independent facilitation for the event was provided by Governance International.

Mark Lines (Service Manager), Anne Paterson (Quality Improvement Manager) and Arlene Cullum (Social Enterprise Team Leader) were present throughout the event and gave a very frank summary to participants of the current financial context of the Council and the need to change the way the Council and third sector organisations worked together.

Participants mapped the existing funding processes, the problems they often encountered, and their priorities for improvement. Key issues highlighted included:

Timescales for the process were too short, with applications being made as late as January, which didn’t take into account the need for early budget decision making within third sector organisations.
There were heavy demands for paperwork, with some forms being duplicated and having to be re-submitted annually. Participants suggested moving away from a ‘steam driven’ system to an online process, with a central database, so that information would only need to be provided once.
Application forms could be improved if designed with local organisations.
Months sometimes passed between organisations being told that their application was successful and then getting a contract and receiving funding. Payment (or even part-payment) of funding when the grant was awarded would be a major improvement.
Each organisation should have a named contact who would liaise with the Council.
Third sector organisations wanted the Council to acknowledge the time pressures that the application process placed upon local organisations, and to take steps to alleviate this. In particular, organisations should be fully informed of progress, deadlines. should be clear (and adhered to), and decision making timescales should be shortened.
One of the strongest messages was that the third sector would like funding to last for more than a year to enable improved planning, stability and efficiency.

At this May 2011 event, participants also discussed the steps that local organisations could take to respond to the reduction of funding, and how they could work more collaboratively between themselves and with the Council.

A key part of the May 2011 event was that participants suggested the criteria they believed the Council should used when making funding decisions. These criteria included:

the match between the organisation’s activities and the Council’s service priorities ;
the outcomes targeted and the organisation’s capacity to deliver these ;
adherence to the principles of GIRFEC/Early Years Framework ;
financial viability ;
quality of service delivered ;
impact achieved.

The consultation day made it clear that the new funding system should include:

a more streamlined and efficient grant system;
funding being more closely aligned to service priorities;
greater focus on outcomes;
no limit to the funding requested ;
support to groups so that they could better consider what they wanted to provide and how that would meet service priorities ;
stronger personalisation of Children and Family Services.

To further improve the funding process three more workshops were held between the Council and local third sector organisations, undertaking work to implement the decisions taken. These workshops focused on redesigning the grant process, agreeing a suitable time line, considering assessment criteria, redesigning the application form and agreeing the supporting documentation which would be required.