Young Lancashire

A case study of a large, voluntary, community and faith sector partnership.  August 2010.

Young Lancashire co-ordinated the development of a consortium of voluntary, community and faith sector organisations from across Lancashire in response to a new Lancashire County Council (LCC) funding programme called the Commissioned Outcomes Programme (In 2009 the name changed to Commissioned Outcomes Funding or COF). The funding came through LCC's Young People's Service and was split in to three Key Priority Areas (KPAs), namely; Information, Advice and Guidance, aimed at NEET young people, (Not in Education, Employment or Training) Open Access (i.e. general positive activities) and Targeted Support (i.e. specific groups of young people, e.g. Young Carers, BME etc). It was felt that a consortium of Voluntary, Community and Faith Sector (VCFS) organisations, which deliver across the county, would be both an effective way to deliver the programme's outcomes, and stand a better chance of being awarded funding than if individual organisations had applied on their own. There are currently 37 delivery partners and 6 non delivery partners in the consortium.

As well as the organisations standing a better chance of successfully bidding for funding, the partners also recognised that there were a number of other benefits to them as a result of joining the consortium. These included; support with the monitoring and administration requirements from Young Lancashire (YL), support with delivery and good practice if necessary from YL, the opportunity to work with and develop links with other VCFS organisations from across the county, being part of a network that shares information and opportunities. This has been extremely valuable to an number of small organisations who have little experience of funding applications and managing grant funded projects.

All the organisations involved in the consortium are from the Voluntary, Community and Faith Sector in Lancashire. There are large and small organisations, voluntary groups, charities and social enterprises. The uniting factors are that all the organisations work with young people in Lancashire, they are all members or registrants with Young Lancashire (an infrastructure body and non delivery partner) and they all satisfy a quality health check to ensure the legality, safety and quality of delivery.

The consortium is co-ordinated by Young Lancashire, though all decisions are made democratically with the members of the consortium. Initially, the partners had to submit a letter of intent and satisfy a 'quality health check'. The letter of intent prevented them from applying for COF money outside the consortium. The consortium has quarterly meetings to share information, good practice and network. There is also a values statement created by the partners. 

Young Lancashire facilitates the consortium right through from compiling the value statement to co-ordinating the monitoring and returns process. However, all decisions are taken democratically with the agreement of a majority of partners.  Young Lancashire represents the consortium with the funder, Lancashire County Council, and has a service level agreement with the council. Individual organisations then have a service level agreement with Young Lancashire outlining their work with young people.  

The consortium was supported by Young Lancashire as a non delivery partner. Lancashire County Council, the funder, have also been supportive of the consortium as the organisations within the consortium are embedded within their local communities and can reach young people who might otherwise have no access to opportunities.     

Key learning from Mr Harvey Hamilton –Thorpe, Programme Manager, Young Lancashire

A recent, independent evaluation has taken place and the initial feedback has been very successful. In particular groups have avoided being in competition with each other - i.e. it's been win-win rather than one organisation getting funding at the expense of another, the administration of the funding has been handled centrally easing the burden on small organisations and the fact that they deal with a partner who is supportive rather than directly with the funder. Overall the consortium is working well and is now in the third year of delivery.

Key challenges:As previously mentioned, some of the delivery partners had little or no experience of delivering funded projects and so completing the monitoring and returns paperwork proved very challenging, particularly at the beginning.

• The number of consortium delivery partners increased in the second and third years of delivery with funding staying at the same level or decreasing slightly, this meant the amount awarded to individual organisations reduced.
• The third challenge for organisations lay around the fact that this funding was not designed to meet full costs. This was particularly challenging for the medium to large organisations with higher overheads. 
• The size of the consortium is now one of the most restricting factors. Capping the number of partners would keep the consortium both effective and efficient. It may create other problems, such as who to include and not include. However, this may be solved, in this case, by having a number of district wide consortiums rather than one county wide consortium. 

Having Young Lancashire as a non delivery partner has meant the smaller groups have had support throughout the whole process. They have also learnt from other groups at the partners meetings and through the links they have made. 
Many partners who have been with the consortium since the start are now in a position to make stronger bids, on their own or with others, to other funding streams. It has also been suggested that once this round of funding has been completed, the consortium may disband to form smaller, perhaps district wide, consortiums to remain as flexible and competitive as possible. Also, a number of partners who delivered in previous rounds of funding are now non-delivery partners as it was not cost effective for them to continue delivering. However, they have remained involved as they get other benefits from being part of the consortium. 

Top tips:

• Keep things as consistent as possible so all partners are treated fairly and understand the reasons for any decisions that are made.
• Set a limit for the maximum number of partners (depending on the type and scope of the project) and what to do when this number is reached.
• Discuss and agree with the funder beforehand how they will treat the consortium, i.e. as one large provider or as a 'collective' of small providers. The monitoring and returns requirements may be different for each.

The organisations involved in this consortium are:

Young Lancashire, Lancashire County Council, Activate Arts, After Adoption, BLAG, Bodies in Motion, Bridge Project (The), CEEP, Child Action North West, Chorley RUFC, Club 2000+, Community Action Group, CSV Training & Enterprise Lancashire, Fishwick Rangers YDS, Girls’ Brigade, Grove Community Association (The), INTACT, Jamea Masjid Youth Club, KEY, Kickstart to Discovery, Lancashire Education Business Partnership, Lancashire Wildlife Trust, Lancaster & District YMCA, Leyland Project (The), Marsh Community Centre, More Music, Moor Nook YDS, NCBI Lancashire, New Vision Community Action Group, Participation Works North West, Prescap, Progress Employment Support, Red Rose Sports Club, SLEAP, Safespace (PAC), Signposts Multi Agency Resource Centre Ltd, SoldOut Youth Works, Wheels Within Wheels Ltd, Youth Action @ Hyndburn, Deafway, Foxton Centre (The), Groundwork Lancashire West & Wigan, Groundwork Pennine Lancashire and Preston United.