News
Managing in Tough Times FREE Workshops
There are strategies emerging locally and nationally to support the sector through the recession. However, many organisations are already facing hard choices through changes in funding. On behalf of West of England Consortium, Social Enterprise Works have developed a workshop and resources to help you navigate through difficult times. These workshops have been further extended from last year to have a focus on collaboration in a commissioning environment. For More Information (Click )
We are looking for two new voluntary and community sector reps working on mental health issues in B&NES to join the Mental Health Provider Forum. The B&NES Mental Health Provider Forum meets six times a year. (For More information)
Champions learning scheme 2009-10
- The Care Forum has been selected as a "Learning Champion" by the National Association for Voluntary and Community Action (NAVCA).
- With funding from the Children's Workforce Development Council (CWDC) our Bristol and South Glos CYP networks are able to host a learning visit to share our experience of supporting third sector organisations to engage in workforce development through VCS representation.
- If you are a local or sub-regional third sector infrastructure organisation and are planning to support third sector organisations and would like to learn from our experiences contact louisehudson@thecareforum.org.uk or lucyrowe@thecareforum.org.uk ( 0117 958 9337.
- You will be offered a grant of £500 to participate in a learning visit. Visit http://www.navca.org.uk/stratwork/children/cwdc/grants/ to find out more about the scheme.
- Another element of the grant will fund the development and piloting of a robust framework for the monitoring and evaluation of The Care Forum's management of and support to the children and young people voluntary and community sector (VCS) representatives on the multi-agency partnerships in Bristol and South GloucestershireBristol City Council's consultation on its draft VCS infrastructure support commissioning strategy:
Bristol ChangeUp Consortium's response
The Care Forum has written a response to the Council's draft strategy on commissioning voluntary and community sector infrastructure support. At a meeting of the Bristol consortium on 17 December 2009, it was agreed that all members of the consortium support and endorse this paper. The paper is therefore a response from the Black Development Agency, Social Enterprise Works, The Care Forum, Volunteering Bristol and Voscur.
Most of the points made in the response are generic to the sector, however, some are specific to health and social care.
When you have read the response, if you have any queries please contact Kate Oliver, 0117 958 9336, kateoliver@thecareforum.org.uk
The official consultation period has now closed, but if you would like to make any further comments please direct them to Keith Houghton, keith.houghton@bristol.gov.uk
Understanding commissioning for voluntary and community organisations, by Rebecca Hardwick, Care Services Improvement Partnership (CSIP)
The first edition of ‘Understanding Commissioning' was published in November 2008 to capture the learning from the programme delivered in conjunction with The Care Forum between February and March last year. Times have moved on, not only for society in general, the third sector, health and social care but for the itself.
From the end of March 2009 CSIP ceased as a national organisation. From April the South West Development Centre has been commissioned by the South West Strategic Health Authority in partnership with the Deputy Regional Director, Adult Social Care and Partnerships. The South West Development Centre is running three programmes to improve health and well being in the South West. These programmes are:
• Children and young people
• Mental health and wellbeing, and
• System development
Third sector issues and involvement will become incorporated into the mainstream for the Development Centre's service improvement role. To reflect these changes this report has been rebranded and website/contact addresses updated. The first report was very well received across the health and social care communities of the South West and further afield. Used by many public sector agencies and third sector providers, it has become a useful reference guide and workbook.
When these sessions were first delivered, there was very little in the public domain about being on the brink of economic recession. But now that we are it is important to consider the impacts of this within the report. In times of recession, organisations often pull back from working together and investing (financially and personally) in their relationships. There is much fear in the sector currently about the negative impact of the recession on funding streams (whether grant or commissioned) and many organisations are finding themselves seeing a very gloomy future. So in this edition is included a chapter at the end specifically addressing the issues relating to the economic downturn, the third sector and health and social care.
Amongst all this, the need for small to medium sized third sector organisations to understand the context of health and social care commissioning increases. This second edition aims to provide an easy to use guide to help organisations to develop and to be ready for the challenges of the months and years to come.
‘Understanding commissioning for voluntary and community organisations'
Download the report in portable document format (PDF 7.4 MB)
South Gloucestershire Local Involvement Network
South Gloucestershire City Council appointed The Care Forum as the host organisation for the Local Involvement Network for South Gloucestershire. There is a temporary steering group in place and it has met once since The Care Forum became the host organisation.
The South Gloucestershire LINk will soon be constructing a separate website and a link to this will be available from The Care Forum website
Bristol Local Involvement Network
Bristol City Council appointed The Care Forum as the host organisation for the Local Involvement Network for Bristol. An ‘interim' steering group has been set up to make sure that the LINks activities can take place from October 2008. The ‘interim' steering group has met twice since the host organisation The Care Forum, was appointed in May.
The Bristol LINk will soon be constructing a separate website and a link to this will be available from The Care Forum website.
Legislation up-date
The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill, which includes provisions for establishing LINks has recently completed its Committee stage in the House of Lords. Parliament has now adjourned for summer recess, but when it reconvenes in October, debate on the bill will continue. It is expected to have been passed by both Houses of Parliament by November, after which it will become statute. Transcripts of the debate can be found online on the Hansard Website under the debates that took place on the 23rd July: http://www.parliament.uk/publications
On the 31 July The Audit Commission published their report "Hearts and Minds; commissioning from the voluntary sector". The report looks at the extent and nature of the voluntary and community sector's (VCS) delivery of public services, the locally perceived impact of government efforts to build capacity and the current state of commissioning and procurement practice.
Engagement on Long Term In-patient Mental Health Facilities
B&NES Primary Care Trust mental health commissioners are asking for your views at their very early stages of thinking about the best way to provide in-patient mental health services in B&NES into the future. Your views and those of mental health service users and carers, alongside the views of staff, clinicians and managers, will be an important test of opinion on which to build and shape their ideas and eventual proposals. Even though any change will not take place for at least 2 years previous feedback from the B&NES community has shown that in order to make sure services succeed in meeting future needs, it is important to work together right from the beginning and before ideas and solutions are generated. This questionnaire is the start of that process. The questionnaire and information see here is for voluntary and community groups and for service users and carers. Please make sure as many service users and carers see it and fill it in as possible. Your feedback and questionnaires should be sent to: Andrea Morland, Mental Health Change Programme Manager, Trust HQ, St Martin's Hospital, Clara Cross Road, BA2 5RP or by e-mail to andrea.morland@banes-pct.nhs.co.uk
What is expected from the VCS
The report makes it clear the each partner has responsibilities in improving the designing and delivery of local services. The VCS have to be better at understanding their costs and submit bids that are of a high quality and are fully costed. They should be informed of commissioners service objectives and ensure that their bids are appropriate to these objectives. VCS organisations have got to be much more self aware, be clear about what makes them special and why they offer ‘value for money'. It is important that VCS organisations are able to work with public bodies, regulatory organisations and improvement agencies to develop a consensus about how to measure value for money.
Intelligent commissioning
A great emphasis is put on what the report describes as ‘intelligent commissioning'. Commissioners should be part of a consultative regime that seeks to understand what their users need. They should recognise the expertise of the VCS and involve them in identifying those needs. Commissioners should understand the need for having sustainable services, balancing the need for short term efficiency with the longer term outcomes of community projects. Value for money measurement should shift from the current focus on inputs, outputs and unit costs towards more long-term measurement of outcomes and effectiveness. Public bodies should engage with VCS in the planning of services and in the design of the commissioning process.
Government help
The report quotes from the HM treasury report; ‘The future role of the third sector in social and economic regeneration' (2006) that ‘the government wants to ensure that the third sector is at the heart of reforms to improve public services as contractors delivering services, as campaigners for change, as advisors influencing the design of services and as innovators from which the public sector can learn'.
In order that this is not just a worthy statement, the Audit Commission includes recommendations that regulatory bodies and central government play their part in making this happen. They should ensure that commissioners are given access to guidance and best practice around procurement and are assessed for the effectiveness of their commissioning and procurement. The government needs to ensure effective communication of their aims and ensure that initiatives such as the Local Area Agreements (LAA) are used to improve relationships between the VCS and local bodies.
Further information and the full audit commission report can be obtained from http://www.theauditcommission.gov.uk/
To order a paper copy call (0800 502 030 (stock code GNR3400))
To view the new Strategy for Smoke Free Homes in Bristol document click
Mental Health Bill
Charities and groups representing health professionals have warned that the government faces a bitter fight over its mental health bill. The new bill will introduce supervised treatment in the community to ensure that patients comply with treatment when they are discharged from hospital and enable action to be taken to prevent relapse. There will be a new definition of ‘mental disorder' and the treatability test will be removed. There will be new rights and extra protection for people with serious mental disorders not covered by existing legislation. However the Mental Health Alliance, which brings together 78 organisations including charities, the Law Society and the Royal College of Nursing, declared the measure "flawed and profoundly disappointing". See the bill at http://www.dh.gov.uk/
Bristol Community Engagement Report
The Bristol Community Engagement Report produced for the Bristol Partnership is now on the Publications Page. View Report
Disability Equality Scheme (DES) helps to break down barriers.
Avon and Somerset Police are launching a new scheme this week aimed at ensuring disabled people are treated equally. The Disability Equality Scheme (DES) will be officially launched this Wednesday, November 29 by Deputy Chief Constable Stephen Otter at police headquarters in Portishead. The scheme has developed from the introduction of the Disability Discrimination Act 2005, which comes into effect this December. This places a disability equality duty on organisations such as the police, to ensure people with a disability have an equality of opportunity in both the services the organisation provides and as employees of the force. View this story on their website >
Strong and Prosperous Communities
The new White Paper is the latest step in the Government’s agenda for the modernisation of local government.
It has new proposals for devolving power and significantly strengthening local government’s leadership role in local areas. The paper also outlines plans for improving partnership working as well as providing a major expansion of opportunities for local people to influence local decision-making. The White Paper explicitly recognizes the importance of the relationship local government has with the voluntary and community sector.
You can see the white paper at www.communities.gov.uk
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