VCSE organisations deliver a wide range of services and support to local citizens. Some of this is commissioned by statutory bodies. We believe local VCSE organisations could and should be delivering more.
Local VCSE organisations are rooted in local communities, are trusted by them, and have tremendous skills, insight and flexibility. Commissioning local providers is also an investment directly into our local communities. Over recent years in Gloucestershire we have seen a number of delivery contracts being awarded to out of area providers following procurement exercises. In seeking to understand why local providers have not secured this work there is learning about both:
1) How the local VCSE sector can better organise, collaborate and be prepared for securing commissioned work.
- Competitive behaviours are counter-productive for the sector as a whole.
- With trust and a focus on shared vision we can harness the strengths and reach of a number of partners to present powerful propositions to statutory bodies.
- Partnerships are stronger when they are formed outside of procurement processes. Risk management is a significant consideration in the allocation of public funds – VCSE organisations need to do more to demonstrate stability and robust operations given the challenges the sector has in resourcing back office functions.
- VCSE organisations need to be laser-focussed on how they are meeting service specifications as they are competing with national organisations with dedicated tender-writing teams.
2) How statutory bodies approach commissioning such that local VCSE organisations are not disadvantaged against larger national providers.
- Procurement is a blunt process which will always favour larger more established organisations over smaller VCSE organisations.
- Commissioners need to build and use relationships with VCSE organisations more effectively if they want to see more local delivery.
- Creative commissioning (and the use of grant funding and bold use of procurement rules to enable direct awards), using alliance contracts for example, are essential if we are to level the playing field for local VCSE organisations.
- Effective partnerships need proactive management – commissioners need to do more to not only broker partnerships, but to help them flourish in delivery of contracts.
- There may be a useful role for national organisations to help develop local ones within a contract. This won’t happen without commissioners pushing for it, though.
Gloucestershire VCSE Alliance advocates to try and address these issues. Our ultimate goal is for Gloucestershire citizens to receive the best possible services delivered by locally-rooted organisations. Keeping more public sector resource in the local area will also support a more sustainable VCSE sector which benefits our communities and system.
Current Focusses and Opportunities
Short Breaks for Disabled Children in Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire VCSE Alliance are partners alongside Barnwood Trust and Gloucestershire County Council in an initiative looking at creating a broader range of short break support for disabled children and their families. An innovative project is trialling an approach which sees philanthropic and statutory funding combined, along with grant-making principles (with Experts By Experience central in decision-making) being applied to the allocation of contracts in a way that better develops the local market and learning about effective provision. We hope to see a better range of short break provision emerge, but also that we will identify better ways of commissioning that enable smaller VCSE organisations to get involved in service delivery.
Mental Health VCSE Forums
We are supporting ReThink Mental Illness in the establishment of district forums around community mental health support. Crucially we are advocating for these forums to be more than talking shops. Done right, these forums have the potential to build effective relationships between VCSE providers which could be the foundations for future alliances between local VCSE providers that could secure commissioned work in the future. Procurement processes (and to a degree grant funding too) tend to pitch VCSE providers against one another. Winning more work locally will have to involve stronger partnerships within the VCSE and better organisation of how a number of smaller organisations can combine their insight and capacity to deliver effectively.
Children & Young People’s Commissioning
There have been significant contracts let recently in Children’s Services. These have both seen local VCSE Providers secure prominent pieces of work, as well as seeing other local partnerships losing out to out of area national organisations. This provides both opportunities and challenges. We are feeding into the development of core delivery models – notably advocating that the logic model around establishing Family Hubs should have an objective to be re-commissioning as an alliance contract in the future which would bring local VCSE providers more formally into delivery models. We are also brokering the rebuilding of relationships between statutory leaders in Children’s Services and the leaders of VCSE organisations. Better commissioning outcomes will only come if we have a more relational (and less transactional) approach. Relationships have been strained in recent years, so we need to invest time and effort in rebuilding these.
Connected Gloucestershire Alliance
The ‘Connected Gloucestershire Alliance’ is an emerging movement for action. Responding to pressures in supporting an ageing population, a number of VCSE organisations are directly involved in providing care and support to older people. These organisations not only enable older people to have positive and meaningful lives, they are also key parts of the health and social care system. We are brokering conversations between VCSE Providers and health and social care commissioners to seek creative solutions that avoid failure in provision whilst safeguarding the wellbeing of our older population. The Gloucestershire VCSE Alliance are advocating for creativity and partnership in how we respond to this critical moment.
Useful links and publications
- Purposeful Commissioning Report 2024 (LGA, NCVO, Lloyds Bank Foundation) - A practical tool and a legal myth-busting guide. It is written to facilitate purposeful collaboration by setting out the full flexibilities of the Procurement Act and highlighting inclusive practice in the wider commissioning process.
- Keep It Local For Better Health (Locality) - How the ‘Keep it Local’ approach can support the shift to prevention, tackle health inequalities, create social and economic development, and embed the VCSE within health systems.
- Rebalancing The Relationship (ACEVO, Lloyds Foundation, NCVO) - Aims to contribute to the improvement, frequency, effectiveness, and spirit of partnerships between larger and smaller charities and social enterprises.
- The Plymouth Alliance - An example of an alliance contract awarded to a collaborative partnership of 7 organisations to deliver a range of services to those with complex lives.
- Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire VCSE Brokerage Framework - A new system-wide approach to enable a diverse range of VCSE organisations to deliver health and wellbeing improvements in local communities, through investment from Integrated Care System (ICS) health and social care partners.
Join us
Our members work together to make lasting, positive change within local communities. Membership is free for VCSE and statutory organisations delivering services in Gloucestershire. By joining us, local organisations become part of a wider community and are able to access a range of enhanced benefits above and beyond our usual fully-funded support. You can find out more on our membership page.
Work with us
We're always looking for new ways to collaborate and work in partnership with colleagues from the VCSE and statutory sectors, as well as local business. If you're interested in working with us and would like to explore this in more detail, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We also provide a range of hosting services for local groups & organisations that may need some 'back office' support. You can find out more about this support on our hosted projects page.
