Quality and performance improvement

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National Support for front line services

National Suppport for second-tier organisations

PQASSO

Community Links Bromley is keen to establish a PQASSO (Practical Quality Assurance System for Small Organisations) network.

There are a number of Bromley organisations working on PQASSO and some have approached us keen to work with other local organisations.

A PQASSO network can help you share your knowledge and experiences with others. For example you could:

share examples of policies you have produced and find out if others have produced policies you are working on in the future
gain useful hints, tips and experiences on how to get the most from PQASSO

Interested? Contact Philippa Leary on (020) 8315 1918 or email Community Links Bromley.

Give your finances an MOT with the Accountability financial health check service

Accountability is offering free financial health checks for voluntary and community organisations.

The health checks - called Financial Feet Finders - consist of a comprehensive financial review, conducted by a community accountant from the Accountability partnership. The review will take approximately half a day and are conducted at your place of work. You will need to prepare for the review and have organisational and financial documents available.

For details please contact Maroof Adeoye at Community Links Bromley, email Maroof Adeoye or telephone (020) 8315 1919.

National Suppport for front-line services

Advice UK provides specialist support for free, independent advice centres and through the Hub, has researched scenarios and issues for the future of the advice sector.

bassac offers a range of performance improvement support for community-based multipurpose organisations.

The Black Development Agency helps black and minority ethnic communities in the South West of England to build their skills and capacity using a range of performance methodologies.

Charities Evaluation Services provides training and consultancy on monitoring, evaluation and quality; leads the National Outcomes Programme; and produces publications, including PQASSO, the sectors most widely used quality system.

Homeless Link provides a range of support on outcomes for organisations working with homeless people.

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations offers a range of support to third sector organisations on performance, including a dedicated website www.strategy-impact.org.uk and direct consultancy.

The New Economics Foundation (nef), a think-and-do tank, has developed a range of resources and tools for performance management in the third sector, including DIY guides, toolkits, and research reports online.

Real Help for Communities: Volunteers, Charities and Social Enterprises (posted 10/02/09)

Real Help for Communities: Volunteers, Charities and Social Enterprises is a government action plan for the third sector in the difficult economic climate. The plan seeks to cover 2 main aspects.

The first of these is immediate support – a grant programme - to the sector in dealing with increased pressures, but also to support volunteering as a way back into employment. Small and medium sized organisations are recognised as being at most risk.
The plan also looks at more structural issues – improving collaboration, joint working and overcoming inefficiencies – recognising this has real costs at any time let alone currently.

There is a set of Milestones in the action plan – go to Real Help for Communities: Key milestones [PDF, 49KB, 3 pages] and the full document can be downloaded at Real Help for Communities: Volunteers, Charities and Social Enterprises [PDF, 269KB, 44 pages] CLB among others continues to gather evidence of the impact of the recession on demand for services local groups face. Please also take time to answer the simple questionnaire. [Word 32 kb]

The plan has a number of initiatives:

Meeting Demand for Services and Tackling Unemployment

Up to £10 million investment in a volunteer brokerage scheme for unemployed people to create over 40,000 opportunities for people to learn new skills and give back to communities through volunteering. The plan specifically says these will be work-focussed volunteering opportunities. There is a strong link to the welfare reform agenda. The main purpose is getting the participants back into employment rather than long term commitment to organisations' work - though if well supported many will stay. It is thought that at the moment that even where expenses are reimbursed cost pressures are putting people off.
A £15.5 million Community Resilience Fund will be available for small and medium sized groups in local authorities most at risk of increased deprivation. Where these are is not defined. Research has shown that 4 services are facing increased pressure - employment, legal and financial advice, mental health support, and family breakdown. Priority will be given to organisations dealing directly with recession related issues - debt, family breakdown and skills development. The fund will be available from April 2009. There will also be work undertaken by the Office for the Third Sector to improve commissioners' engagement with small and medium sized providers - who find it hard to find information about and so take part in commissioning processes and available tenders.
A national campaign to raise awareness of the Government's commitment to pay all invoices within 10 days, which will improve cash flow for small organisations.

Strengthening the Sector now and in the future

A £16.5 million modernisation fund to help with the cost of mergers, partnerships and moves to more efficient sharing of back office functions for at least 3000 third sector organisations. Funding for organisations will be available from summer 2009. This has long been an issue which government has sought to promote. This is further recognition that the initial stages of mergers or consortia development actually have real costs for organisations.
A £0.5 million investment in the School for Social Entrepreneurs to double the number of people it trains to become social entrepreneurs, particularly those working in deprived communities.

The action plan is based on the principles from the NCVO summit on the economic downturn, co-chaired by the Minister for the Third Sector, Kevin Brennan, in November 2008. The principles are:

Helps achieve economic growth, equality and social mobility
Delivers real help now and in the future for individuals, families and communities
Ensures as many resources as possible are directed into frontline services
Encourages third sector organisations to work together to provide help now and in the future
Provides a rapid response to current and emerging needs

National Suppport for second-tier organisations

bassac leads the National Support Service on collaborative working.

Charities Evaluation Services runs the National Performance Programme which supports and strengthens the effective work done by local and specialist infrastructure. Services include training, mentoring, information provision and campaigning.

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations leads the National Support Service on responding to social change. It has also overseen the development of PERFORM, a strategic planning framework for organisations providing infrastructure support to frontline organisations.

The National Association for Voluntary and Community Action supports local infrastructure organisations with internal quality issues and offers five outcome based Performance Standards which cover the delivery of infrastructure services. NAVCA members can be externally assessed against the Standards to gain the NAVCA Quality Award.

Page updated: 28 November 2008