NCVO public services news round up August 2015

Our monthly round-up focuses on the most interesting stories related to the voluntary sector and public services from the last month. If you have any thoughts, questions or challenges then please leave a comment below or tweet us @NCVO @NJ_Davies

Transforming Rehabilitation

Does your charity work in or alongside Transforming Rehabilitation? If so, please take the opportunity to influence decision makers in the Ministry of Justice and NOMS by taking our survey. This survey is the second in a monitoring exercise being run by NCVO, Clinks and TSRC.

The results of the first survey were published last week. The key findings were as follows.

• There is very little clarity about what services the voluntary sector will be delivering, or how they will be resourced to do it.
• The pace of change has been slower than many in the voluntary sector anticipated, leaving organisations in a state of limbo, waiting to see how or if they will be involved in service delivery, making strategic planning and staff retention difficult.
• A small number of larger voluntary sector organisations report having been able to secure contracts with Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) to deliver services.
• The level of National Probation Service (NPS) engagement with the voluntary sector is largely unknown and needs to be investigated further.
• The voluntary sector is reporting a sense of confusion amongst funders and commissioners around what CRCs and the NPS will resource. They report that some independent charitable funders and local commissioners are questioning whether they should fund certain interventions

Applications open for NCVO’s ‘A Day In The Life’ work shadowing scheme

NCVO’s work shadowing scheme for voluntary sector and civil service staff returns for its seventh year. The scheme provides a unique opportunity for staff from government and voluntary organisations to step into each other’s shoes for a day and learn about how the other sector operates.

The scheme is free for voluntary sector staff to take part in. Last year, 96% of voluntary sector survey respondents whose shadowing day took place said taking part was ‘very worthwhile’ or ‘quite worthwhile’. Applications close on 30 September.

Please contact workshadow@ncvo.org.uk with any questions.

Influence the future of health funding and partnerships

The Department of Health, Public Health England and NHS England have come together with the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector to coproduce a review of investment and partnership between the two sectors. The review will:

• describe the role of the VCSE sector in contributing to improving health, wellbeing and care outcomes
• identify and describe challenges and opportunities to realising the potential of the sector to contribute to these outcomes
• consult on options for policy and practice changes to address challenges and maximise opportunities, then develop final recommendations.

The review is currently gathering evidence and wants to hear from people and organisations from across England who are involved in improving health, wellbeing and social care. You can have your say through the online consultations, face to face or digital events.

Consortium masterclass – still places left

Are you thinking about or in the early stages of setting up a consortium? This consortium masterclass will be an intensive day outlining what voluntary sector and social enterprise organisations need to consider when establishing consortia, and the key determinants of success.

If you’re unsure about what all the consortium fuss is about then I recommend reading this excellent blog post by Lev Pedro and Neil Coulson. If you have time, scroll down to the excellent discussion in the comments

Compact Awards

Nominations are now open for the Compact Awards, the annual celebration of outstanding Compact working across England. Award winners will be chosen from groups, individuals, organisations and activities that demonstrate the very best of cross-sector partnership working. Winning an award can help you to gain recognition of your work, raise awareness of your local Compact and demonstrate your impact. Many past winners have also received press coverage locally, helping them to raise the profile of their organisations. Details of how to submit your nomination are on the Compact Voice website. The closing date is Monday 14 September.

Impact training

We have some places left on our Outcome and Impact measurement (10/11 Sept) course.

This course will give you a comprehensive and practical grounding in monitoring and evaluation. You will learn how to define and measure outcomes and also develop your own monitoring and evaluation framework, which you can start using straight away.

New resources on health commissioning

Involve Yorkshire and Humber have produced a set of resources on health commissioning covering the commissioning landscape, influencing commissioners and collaboration. This accompanied the masterclasses that NCVO ran in partnership with the regional infrastructure organisations, but are also useful for those that were unable to attend one of the events.