Agenda item - Presentation(s)

Presentation by representatives from Community Works – Third Sector Commission – an evaluation of the first year of the programme.

46.1    Jessica Sumner, Chief Executive Officer at Community Works and Brian Pote-Hunt Director, Ottoway Strategic Management Ltd gave presentations giving their respective perspectives in relation to the Third Sector Commission, evaluating the first year of the programme. Their presentations comprised two elements, namely, in relation to Commissioning Process itself which would cover the timeframe 2017 – 2020 and an Evaluation of the first year findings.

46.2    It was explained that the services funded by the Third Sector Investment Partnership (TSIP) had supported those organisations who had been recipients in understanding the opportunities for collaboration between different types and structures of organisation. There had been many different types of collaboration, the importance of culture and the relationship built up which had been tailored to individual organisations had been very important; it was not all about money and outputs. It should be noted that of the third sector funded organisations 73% had used 4 or more Community Works services, 12% had used 6 or more services and delivery across the programme had exceeded projections in many areas and 35,959 beneficiaries had benefited from the work by funded organisations (42% over targeted numbers. A mentoring programme was in place to assist in guiding recipients through the process and that had been considered to be valuable and had been very well received.

46.3    integral to evaluation of the first year findings had been a used in order to give a context to the evaluation process itself, primarily these had been: the impact on partnership on value for money and social value; the impact of partnership working; meeting the strategic priorities both of the city council and its partners; the impact of collaborative commissioning on the city council and the effectiveness of contract monitoring.

46.4    The headline findings of the first year evaluation had been very positive, the Third Sector Commission had impacted on a wide cross section of the community and had been able (due to its flexibility) to focus on people with multiple and complex needs, these had in some instances been greater and more complex than had been anticipated at the bidding stage; had been a mechanism for providing strong leverage in accessing funding opportunities; had resulted in a high level of funding to beneficiaries and a strong level of subsidy to beneficiaries. Overall£.24m had been allocated to the third sector which had generated £6.27m. In terms of activity outcomes the target had been 25, 283 but 35,959 (142%) had actually been achieved which had reached 12.6% of the city’s population, with 144,660 sessions of activity having been provided.

46.5    Following the presentation Members had the opportunity to ask questions before proceeding with the remaining business of the meeting. The Chair, Councillor Daniel, commended the work which had been done during the first year of the programme and the direction of travel going forward.

46.6    RESOLVED - That the content of the presentation be received and noted.