Infrastructure National Partnership Conference 2010 - ideas wanted
Submitted by Kate Damiral on Mon, 23/08/2010 - 11:19
The Infrastructure National Partnership is organising its second conference for chief executives and senior managers of infrastructure organisations on Monday 6 December 2010, in London.
This conference will explore groundbreaking support solutions for frontline organisations. Set against the realities of tighter budgets and the potential for charities and community organisations to play a major role in the Big Society, those providing advice and support to the sector face a huge challenge. How can infrastructure organisations respond to the continued need for services by developing innovative support that enables civil society to flourish?
To make the event as successful as possible, we need your ideas.
- What do you think of the draft programme (see below)?
- Can you suggest speakers for the panel discussion or any of the workshops?
- Do you know of any frontline organisations willing to talk about the support they have received – or haven’t received?
- Who would you like to see featured in the ‘meet the innovators’ session?
Please feed in your ideas by posting your comment below, emailing: inp@ncvo-vol.org.uk, or calling me, Kate Damiral, tel: 020 7520 2540.
Update: The INP Conference 2010 is now open for bookings.
Here’s the draft programme:
A Flourishing Future? Radical ideas for supporting civil society organisations
10.30 Welcome: INP Chair
10.40 Keynote: minister – Nick Hurd? [to be invited]
Conference challenge: to develop a response to the minister based on session discussions during the day. INP member policy officers to co-ordinate 5-point response.
11.00 Plenary panel discussion: What challenges does the Big Society pose for infrastructure?
Panel members outline their position [5 mins each]
Panel member ideas: Third Sector Research Centre, CLG representative, frontline org unconvinced of the need for support
11.20 Table discussion of panel’s ideas
11.40 Q&A
12.10 Launch of new INP network (open to all infrastructure bodies)
12.30 lunch
1.30 Workshops
A: Risky business – how to scope and implement innovative services.
B: Mix ‘n’ match – exploring how different types of infrastructure organisations and support providers from the private and public sectors can work together to provide the best services and help frontline organisations find what they need.
Speaker/case study ideas: Capacitybuilders’ conversations with the Lions/Rotaries, Young Foundation/CDF public sector support scheme ideas
C: Understanding needs – how well do infrastructure organisations really understand the needs of their frontline clients (with particular consideration of different communities of interest/practice)?
Speaker/case study ideas: TSRC on research techniques, Young Foundation unmet needs study
3.00 refreshments
3.20 Meet the support solution innovators: 4 or 5 speakers presenting 3 x 10 minute concurrent ‘soap box’ pitches (3-4 min pitch then Q&A). Delegates choose which ideas to listen to. 1 or 2 soap boxes available for delegates to sign up to on the day to pitch their own idea.
4.10 Response to minister and wrap up
4.30 close
Whereas the outline programme has a good structure, I think, given the participation of government Ministers/officials, we need to be far more closely focused on the role of infrastructure in supporting the specific measures on which government is relying to 'generate' the Big Society.
For us, the focus is on the Right to Build, the Right to Buy, the Right to Bid, and the dominance of referenda as a means of delivering on local aspirations as well as indicating assent/dissent to local statutory spending/investment. These initiatives are set to change the relationship between local authorities and communities and are therefore highly relevant to the role of local infrastructure bodies. Perhaps these topics (which are mainly related to CLG initiatives), can be explored within a workshop?
Another suggestion would be to have a debate on "community organisers and local infrastructure bodies - conflict, duplication or complementarity". By the time of the conference, we might have more information from the initial 4 Vanguard communities as to what it is that they are being offered that a) they feel they need and b) isn't provided by current infrastructure bodies. Perhaps we might be able to use a representative from one of the 4 communities as the front line input to the morning session? (I could potentially supply suitable contact details for two out of the four)
Thanks Sylvia. We've got a conference planning meeting tomorrow and I'll feed your ideas in.
It is good idea to have a minister to open the event as this will encourage people to attend. (There is a danger that the minister will have to duck out at short notice so a back up is needed.)
The last part of the day is very 'fluid', I think that some delegates will leave at the 3:00pm break, especially if they have traveled a distance. This can mean that those left wonder why they have stayed.
We would suggest a strong finish, so that people going away from the conference at the end feel that some definite conclusion has come out of it, especially if that conclusion relates to a specific strategy that infrastructure would adopt to support government policies.
Would re-shaping the post-lunch workshops so that they have appropriate outputs for general debate, leading to the strong finish be the way to do it?
GRCC.
Just had a bit more feedback from Ila Chandavarkar, Chief Officer at MENTER:
"I think the proposed programme is good. I particularly like Workshop C in terms of different communities of interest and the support solution innovators. The main concern that I am not sure is reflected as yet in the programme is the growing emphasis on the VCS solely as a service deliverer with little development of ideas to support infrastructure/advocacy and little discussion on what impact this could have on the sector and the “hard to reach” communities it currently connects with. I think Age Concern had a great deal of experience in the issues round being both service provider and advocate.
This has been further reflected in the idea that the VCS must get more business-like (Nick Hurd comments), paid on results and infrastructure funded by giving front line organisations money to purchase services – so we all have to sell ourselves more. This isn’t quite Big Society. Perhaps it is more “can VCS infrastructure provision benefit from learning from the private sector – what changes will this bring”. Maybe this could be a fourth workshop?"
Regards
Ila
Kate, not sure if it is interesting/still relevant, but a recent discussion on twitter between @watfordgap and @mrdaveconroy on how effective (not to mention popular) social media surgeries had now become begged the question of whether this approach could be extended to other forms of capacity building. This is something that the INP (and NCVO) might want to consider.
Thanks Karl - sounds like it could be a good candidate for the 'support solution innovators' session. I'll look into it...