People and Places- what are they worth?
People and places – what are they worth?
This article has drawn significantly from one written by Stephanie Corking, People Director and co-owner at business consultancy firm, Laws of Attraction. Her article appeared on thebusinessdesk.com on 10th March 2021.
The pandemic has been tough for many employees: new working environments, disrupting routines, changing roles and responsibilities, long term friends that have been made redundant and for many, being furloughed and not working for long periods. All of these may have created worry and uncertainty with many colleagues. Now, your people are your biggest opportunity and will be crucial to reviving the fortunes of the region’s individual businesses, towns, cities, and the economy as a whole. Therefore, an investment in your people (now more than ever), could be the smartest ‘post covid’ move you can make.
There is much talk currently, amongst both large and small business owners, of the post-covid recovery plan. Strategies, agendas, objectives, and detailed plans to get consumers back to our brands and spending again have been the talk of many a zoom call up and down the country. And for many businesses, the PM’s announcement of the UK roadmap on the 22nd of February has resulted in a flurry of activity for ‘return to work’ plans and how to welcome their customers with open arms when the doors are eventually allowed to reopen.
Whilst many have spent the last 6-9 months continually revaluating their operations, the focus is now on strategic priorities, learning from the lessons of responding to uncertainties and capturing the changes (and opportunities) of the last 12 months to move forward.
The same level of thinking should have taken place within the VCFSE sector as well. There is a danger that we may have been wrapped up in too much “here and now” and have left inadequate space for the “tomorrow and beyond”.
The effects of COVID-19 on the sector are profound and unprecedented. While retailers must work through operational and tactical considerations to re-open retail stores VCFSE bodies have wider issues to consider as well. These do create an opportunity to re-examine who you are as an organisation, considering:
• Customer — How has your customer evolved during and after the crisis? What are their expectations, needs, behaviours, and priorities in this new environment? In purely commercial terms a customer is the one that pays the bill. We have service users who may not be customers in the strict sense. To change a service to reflect the needs of the service user without consulting the customer is a very dangerous strategy indeed.
• Brand — What is the purpose of your operation, and how can you best serve customers? Do you need to evolve your value proposition to stay relevant? If so, how? Who are the stakeholders with whom you have to consult?
• Product — What are the key, best-selling products and services? Is it the right time to consider new categories, new services, and new business models? This style of thinking is sometimes seen as “not sector appropriate”. In a world where financial resources will be finite and variable customer focussed thinking will be of paramount importance.
• Store — What is the impact on the store channel, its role, and the corresponding operations? How do you keep your customers and associates safe, while playing a new role in customers’ lives?
• Digital — How do you keep what you have developed and worked without ignoring those who cannot access digital for whatever reason.
(Deloitte)
However, what is missing from that list above is People…
It has been no surprise that HR functions have been at the core of managing change in the past 12 months. And now, as leadership teams begin to mobilise the operational plans, how do we ensure that employee engagement stays high on the agenda to ensure customer engagement stays ‘high’ on the high street?
Recent surveys have told us, that overall, most companies did a good job of addressing their employees’ physical and emotional needs during the working from home and lockdown periods, ensuring they met the basic needs of safety, stability and security. However, as we approach the next phase, those needs are evolving and the need for a sophisticated return-to-work strategy that focuses on employee wellbeing, managing stress as well as motivation, listening and encouraging innovation from your teams and overall employee engagement are all things that should be high on the people agenda.
So how should HR functions be adapting and realigning their people strategy and how does this link to the North’s post covid recovery strategy? Stephanie observes,
“Developing a human-centric people strategy that has relationships at its heart and the ability to evolve consistently to support the corporate strategy, enables improved employee wellbeing and business performance.
In the majority of client conversations, we have had recently, I’m often surprised to hear that HR teams feel they haven’t done enough to develop their post covid strategy, in line with the business strategy, and then communicate, engage and inspire their colleagues across the business so that they fully understand that the people are the intrinsic part of getting customers back through the doors”.
66% of HR functions develop people strategic plans that are not linked to the organisation’s corporate strategy.
Our regions voluntary sector operations have an opportunity to improve the employee experience during the return-to-work phase. The good news is, we have the tools to achieve that. Advancements in employee listening platforms, pulse surveys, two-way communication channels mean that leaders can now address employee experience in a data-driven and targeted way. By using the data to drill down on which groups of employees need more and varied types of support, they can also tailor their communication styles and actions that create feelings of wellbeing and build relationships across the workforce.
In a recent survey, 87% of highly engaged employees said they are less likely to leave the company they are work for compared to their counterparts. There is a danger of complacency creeping in here. Someone leaves and there are plenty of people seeking work at present. We need to ascertain why some one is leaving and try to improve the areas that they highlight. Exit interviews are important and valuable if they are acted upon. There is more cost to recruitment than the price of the advert. Think about lost productivity; time to read applications; to interview or even creating the new job description in the first place. An employee walking out of the door because they see somewhere better to work (and it isn’t always about money) is probably money and value walking out of the door as well.
However, the fundamental key to success is that leaders and managers are responsible and accountable for the employee needs to help them thrive during the return.
Employees will be looking to the leadership teams and line managers for both strategic direction and emotional support (after all the most important relationship you have at work is with your boss), whilst customers will be looking to businesses’ front-line employees to deliver a safe, engaging and enjoyable return to the quality operations that they are used to.
In summary, having a ‘leader led’ approach to employee engagement (it’s not just an HR thing) will be your quickest win to mobilising your workforce and ensuring your returning customers continue to come back as the Northern and wider economy reopens and your employees feel safe, inspired and engaged.
March 2021 – with huge thanks to Stephanie Corking.
The VCSE Sector Voice
One of the complaints that is increasingly being heard is that the VCSE is seemingly side lined. This is being said so frequently that it is more than just a perception. One of the ways of being heard is to use avenues that are open to us. One such avenue is here:
Setting the agenda on infrastructure investment across the North | TheBusinessDesk.com
If as many of us as possible participated in this survey a voice may be heard. If we do not then the sector voice will not be heard. At the very least, participation puts down a marker to build on the relationship that VSNW is developing with The Business Desk. There are 24 questions, most of which are multiple choice and, at first glance, business orientated. However, there is an “other” box in most of them where comments can be made.
The VCFSE sector in the North West will surely have opinions on all of these. Please air your views as soon as possible.
Walking Away from Funding Agreements
Funding thoughts – walking away from a contract/funding agreement
At first glance the article below, reproduced from Route One magazine, has little to do with VCFSE groups. Route One is an industry leading magazine for Bus and Coach Operators and the article relates to electric buses in Northern Scotland and South Wales.
“Two projects to introduce battery-electric buses have been terminated and the grant funding involved returned to the issuing body.
Orkney Islands Council (OIC) has withdrawn from the Scottish Ultra-Low Emission Bus Scheme (SULEBS). It was awarded £618,325 from the first SULEBS round towards five battery-electric buses and their associated infrastructure.
No reason has been disclosed for the change of heart, with OIC saying that “a live related tendering exercise” precludes it from stating why. It has not submitted a bid to the second round of SULEBS. Transport Scotland was notified in February that OIC did not wish to take up the grant. The money has been reallocated to the second round of SULEBS.
Additionally, Stagecoach South Wales will not take up the £2.84m it was awarded in 2019 through the Ultra-Low Emission Bus Scheme. The money was to go towards 16 battery-electric buses and their associated infrastructure at Caerphilly depot.
A Stagecoach spokesperson says that the decision was made in 2020 not to progress the work in Caerphilly (pictured). They add that the plans were reviewed “due to the ongoing impact of the pandemic and… funding uncertainty.”
The lessons that we can pull out from this article apply to all VCFSE groups in the North West and beyond. There are times when circumstances change and it is not sensible to continue with a plan. It may well cost more than it will generate (every pun intended). Here Stagecoach indicate that the pandemic has changed things and they are reviewing the business in South Wales so may not need the new vehicles – irrespective of then being (and associated infrastructure) subject to a substantial tranche of funding.
In the month that the Llangollen Steam Railway (a volunteer driven body) has filed for receivership – a decision caused by cost over runs on engineering contracts for which they tendered – we all need to look long and hard at what it costs to deliver a contract or commissioned service. If it costs more to deliver than it produces in income the shortfall has to be found from somewhere. Some organisations will have reserves, shop income, a significant donor base or even be part funded by legacies. Others will not be so well funded. If difficult decisions are postponed in order to continue to provide a service there is a danger that, in the medium term, the service can no longer be provided because the organisation does not exist. If the cost hike in a new commission is too great there is a high risk that a new service provider will not be commissioned, on grounds of affordability, with the result that the people you serve will be left high and dry with nothing in terms of current support.
Sometimes we have to be cruel to be kind and learn from the commercial world. If we don’t we cease to operate and that provides support and assistance to no one.
Andrew Rainsford
VSNW
March 2021
Climate Action Fund Open
The National Lottery Community Fund have opened their 2nd round of the Climate Action Fund (CAF). It’s aim is to aupport communities across the UK to help tackle climate change.
The second round focus on supporting medium-large scale projects focusing on waste & consumption. they encourage place-based, community-led partnerships to apply.
Overview:
Area
UK-wide
Suitable for
Community-led partnerships
Funding size
We’re offering two types of funding in this round - development funding and full awards. The maximum grant size for development funding is £150,000. For full awards, the maximum available is £1.5 million.
Total available
Around £8 million to 10 million is available for this second round of funding. We expect to make 12 to 15 awards in total in this round, and to award more development grants than full awards.
Application deadline
5pm on 8 April 2021 for your initial idea. If you get to the next stage, we expect the rest of the application process to take six to eight months.
The Baobab Foundation
The Baobab Foundation has been newly created as a mechanism to secure long-term funding for black and ethnic communities and for those organisations that support them. It has been set up both as a response to the impact of Covid-19 and the murder last year of George Floyd.
Health inequalities are rife in the UK and across the world; BAME communities have been affected disproportionately throughout the global pandemic and it is imperative that this is addressed. Baobab’s vision envelopes transferring power and agency to those organisations who are often issued with less funding; they plan to be led and govered by the very same. Their inspiring vision is to have created this new organisation by the end of Summer 2021 and launch with £5-10million in grant funding by the end of the year. Their longer-term prospectus aims to raise £1billion in endowed funding which will help with adminsitering £50million in funding per year.
They have monthly meetings for members, which is expanding quickly, including many regional and national black and ethnic minority organistions and networks. They are continuing to gain support and traction from charitable funding, corportations and philanthropists.
They do however, still need help and assistance from local infrastructure organistions to reach to every nook and cranny across the country.
They are asking if each CVS could aim to target 5-10 black and ethnic minority community organistions in their networks to become members.
Please contact Jermain or Yoanna for more information.
This is a wonderful and much needed vision, a fantastic tool which will be invaluable as the UK addresses the extensive inequality and racism experienced by many communities.
Network for Europe Update
Network for Europe have released their latest update pertaining to the Community Renewal Fund, which is a preparation for the UK-Shared Prosperity Fund:
UK Shared Prosperity Fund Update 8th March, from Network for Europe Cheshire, Cumbria, G Manchester, Lancashire, Liverpool CR
Headlines - Community Renewal Fund
CRF Prospectus Launched during Budget
List of Places
18 June deadline for bids
Late July - successful projects announced, first tranche paid 31 March 2022 Projects end, final payments
1st April 2022 UK Shared Prosperity Fund starts
Background
The last two Manifestos referred to the UK-Shared Prosperity Fund, which would replace ESF and ERDF monies from Europe. Little detail was available, and there has been no open consultation. The Spending Review of 25th November (page 37) gave a one page Heads of Terms, which referred to a £220m Pilot Programme for 2021/22 in preparation for the full UK Shared Prosperity Fund in 2022.
More details of this and associated funds were then revealed in the Budget of 3rd March, with the launch of the prospectus for the UK Community Renewal Fund (previously called the Pilot Programme) and the list of areas (the “Places”).
Further information on the full UK Shared Prosperity Fund will be available later this year. Although there was some consultation, with meetings of certain invited individuals a few years ago, there has been no open consultation, and despite requests, Partners have not been properly involved in these proposals. Consequently there will likely need to be some changes before the full Fund is rolled out.
www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-community-renewal-fund-prospectus
Briefly
Money will be allocated to projects in Places (local authority areas) - there are 368, see list. A hundred of these are referred to as Priority Places.
Each Lead local authority will ask for project proposals from the voluntary and community organisations, from local district councils, and from local education providers and then decide on a list for each Place and send it to the UK Government by noon on 18th of June. Maximum value of projects will total £3m per Place irrespective of its size.
Guidance for the Lead Authorities is not yet ready, but should be available soon.
The money has to be spent by the end of March 2022, and is almost all revenue (90%).
Central Government will decide which, if any, of the individual projects to approve. The funding will then be sent to the Lead Authority to distribute (one payment in advance, the other at the end of March). The intention is to pilot programmes and new approaches and provide capacity funding as we prepare for the UK-SPF. Bids should build on local insight and knowledge, project proposals should align with long term strategic plans for local growth, target people most in need and support community renewal, and demonstrate how they complement other national and local provision. Bids should consider working with the natural environment, and their contribution to a low carbon economy, as well as equalities impacts.
Our Government wishes to work directly with local Partners across the UK, putting people that know their places best front and centre in shaping decisions.
Places
The Lead Authority is the Mayoral Combined Authority, the Greater London Authority, County Councils or Unitary Authorities. A Combined Authority represents the individual Local Authority Places within it (so for Greater Manchester, each of the ten Local Authorities is a separate Place, with an allocation up to £3m each). Only the Lead Authority can submit bids to UK Government,
they will decide which bids to submit. The Lead Authority will receive £20k of capacity funding for each Priority Place, to help with bid co-ordination and appraisal.
This is a competitive process, Central Government will decide who gets funding.
The 100 Priority Places are said to be based on productivity, household income, unemployment, skills and population density, although the calculations have not yet been released. It seems an unusual list. It only includes St Helens in Liverpool City Region, Bolton, Manchester, Oldham and Rochdale in Greater Manchester, Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale in Lancashire CC and Barrow in Cumbria CC.
Bids
Innovative pilots and projects are encouraged. A few ideas are suggested.
Skills bids could capitalise on the needs of an increasingly green and digital world, they should be clearly distanced from other funding streams, and could include -
Work based training
Retraining, upskilling and reskilling Promoting digital skills and inclusion
Local Business bids could target under-represented groups and community-level interventions to increase opportunity for all, and could include-
Supporting entrepreneurs and enterprises to create more job opportunities Encouraging enterprises with innovation
Supporting decarbonisation
Communities/place bids may include, but are not limited to -
Feasibility studies for delivering net-zero and local energy projects
Exploring opportunity for promoting culture-led regeneration and community development Improving green spaces and preserving important local assets
Promoting rural connectivity
People into employment bids should act to reduce barriers to employment, provide local, tailored, wrap-around support to those furthest from the labour market, draw upon and enhance multi-agency delivery teams including the community and voluntary sector
Project could include, but are not limited to -
Supporting people to engage with local services Identifying barriers, using key-worker support Raising aspirations
Support with basic skills
Testing new initiatives
Bid Assessment
The 100 Priority Places will get priority, but all 368 places will be considered. This is a competitive process, not based on need. Central Government will decide who gets the money.
Projects will have to pass Gateway Criteria (see Prospectus), then Strategic Fit, Deliverability, Effectiveness and Efficiency (see pages 18-19 of the Prospectus - section 6). Government Ministers will then use their discretion to allocate the money to ensure a reasonable split between the four themes (skills, local business, place, employment support), ensuring due regard for Priority Places, and a balanced spread across Great Britain (presumably by geography, not need).
A Place could be allocated nothing, or up to £3m for the projects submitted.
Larger projects are preferred (£500k and upwards).
Fund Eligibility Rules and Guidance is not yet ready, and will be published soon.
Projects should fit with State Aid (soon to be called Subsidy Control) and procurement.
A project should have one lead applicant (grant recipient), but can have delivery partners.
Lead Authorities will set out their own requirements for bidding soon. There will be a common application form and appraisal process, but this is not ready yet. They will be published shortly.
Monitoring and Evaluation
All proposals have to set out their expected impact, and progress will be monitored against targets and milestones. Applicants should develop an evaluation plan costing 1%-2% of their award (min £10k). Projects to send evidence of achievements (qualitative and quantitative) to the lead authority, which will be responsible for monitoring. UK to set up Evaluation Networks, sharing good practice and developing indicators. Clearly evaluation will be important as we work together to plan the UK-SPF.
Some other Funds
Levelling Up Fund. Prospectus also launched with the 3rd March Budget. £4.8m for high value infrastructure. Delivered through local authorities, capital investment especially for ex-industrial areas, deprived towns and coastal communities, but open across the UK. Expect each local MP to support at least one local bid. Could be local investment in transport infrastructure, in regeneration and town centres, in cultural facilities. This first round of the fund is for projects that can start on the ground in 2021/22. Money allocated by the government based on competition for resources. Additionally, capacity funding for certain areas as in the list attached to the prospectus (calculations for the list to be revealed later). Further details of how this will operate from 2022/23 onwards to be set out later this year.
www.gov.uk/government/publications/levelling-up-fund-prospectus www.gov.uk/government/collections/new-levelling-up-and-community-investments
UK Community Ownership Fund. £150m for the local community to take over ownership of vital local assets, such as sports clubs, sporting and leisure facilities, cinemas and theatres, music venues, museums, parks, pubs, post offices and shops, to support the social wellbeing of local communities. Half the money to be raised locally, the rest from the Fund. Only community and voluntary organisations can bid. Up to £250k per project to help them buy local assets to run as community owned businesses (could be more money for sports). Prospectus to be issued soon, bidding open by June 2021. Some funding may be available for feasibility studies and capability building, or for initial running costs.
www.gov.uk/government/publications/community-ownership-fund
City and Growth Deals. Existing programmes.
Towns Fund. £3.6bn to support deprived towns, and now a further 45 deals
Plan for Jobs. Various current programmes, including Kickstart, plus FE support through the recent Skills for Jobs white paper.
UK-Shared Prosperity Fund
This replaces ESF and ERDF funding (so will cover £1.5bn a year) and is scheduled to start April 2022. It will fund projects supporting people and places across the UK, growing local economies and breathing new life into local communities.
While the Heads of Terms in November said the SPF would support investment in people/ communities and place/local business, the CRF Prospectus says the SPF will include a place based portion and a portion targeted at people most in need (pp 4-5). It is not clear if this represents a change. Later in the Prospectus (p8) it says CRF investment will be in in skills/local business/ communities and place/supporting people into employment. This may just reflect the developing ideas of what the Funds could be.
The Prospectus says they now intend to engage local Partners as they develop the Fund - it is not clear what this will mean (or if it just refers to the Devolved Administrations).
The Community Renewal Fund will support local areas to pilot imaginative new approaches and programmes that unleash their potential, instil pride, and prepare them to take advantage of the UK- SPF. Later in the year, the CRF will provide up to £14m for capacity building for local Partners to prepare for UK-SPF.
Organisations should get involved now.
Comments
Compare with the ESF and ERDF Reserve Funds in England. While ESF hoped for project calls from the LEPs, ERDF directly allocated funds to all the Local Authorities and all the Growth Hubs, and are about to announce a further round for LAs. The Community Renewal Fund seems to build on what worked for the Reserve Fund. It will be run by MHCLG.
Match funding (partial funding from the UK) was needed for European money, but of course is not needed here. However, there is a reference to “leverage”. It might be that some of this could come from Lottery Funding, as it is otherwise absent from these proposals.
The LEPs (business - local authority partnerships led by the private sector) are not part of these proposals.
If the £220m was shared equally between the 100 Priority Places, they would get £2.2m each (below the maximum £3m), and if the money was split equally between the 368 there would only be £0.6m per Place. Consequently many applicants could be disappointed.
The fund operates across the four countries of the UK (with different rules for Northern Ireland) - our report is focussed on England, in particular North West England.
Clarification on the Prospectus is available by email for two weeks (to 17th March). A summary Q&A will then be published.
Action
This is funding primarily for local authorities and local community and voluntary organisations, and it has to be spent quickly. While there could be a range of random projects submitted, it would seem to make more sense for a co-production between the LA and Third Sector to create a coherent and strategic set of projects, that fit with other local activities. Successful projects will be informed late July, with spend within nine months (to end March), and should cover skills, support into employment, local business and communities/place.
So there could be a significant amount for Social Capital - Community Grants (small investments into local third sector organisations, which could also pump-prime for UK-SPF). Business support could include start-ups and social enterprise, especially for women and BAME, connecting with and enhancing existing provision. There could be support to develop local running of community assets (pubs, post offices, music venues) to tie in with the proposed Community Ownership Fund. Funding could fill in expected gaps (or provide more wrap-around support) for NEET Young People and those furthest from the Labour Market, as well as those faced with unemployment/the end of furlough and the need to consider other kinds of work. Moving towards a locally based low carbon economy, and creating green jobs could be investigated. There is a need to be innovative and creative, and to test out and prepare the ground for the Shared Prosperity Fund next April.
#RespondRecoverReset Barometer survey is now open until 22nd March
Nottingham Trent University, together with the NCVO and Sheffield Hallam, are currently conducting the largest UK study exploring the impact of Covid-19 on the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise sector. The latest round to the survey is now open until 22nd March. The more organisations that take part in the study, the more impact this can have for the whole sector.
Click here to begin the survey
It is quick, easy and only takes a few minutes to complete. Each round the survey has a set of general questions, with some focussing on a theme (for example, this month we’ll be looking at the ways organisations may interact with local authorities). As a small thank you to everyone who takes part, each month there is the option to enter a draw to win £200, and a £2000 prize draw at the end of the project (see here for more info).
The research team at NTU, the NCVO and Sheffield Hallam are always looking at ways to make this project as valuable as possible. Their reports have been shared with decision makers, and the results of the study recently presented to an All-Party Parliamentary Group and DCMS’ Civil Society Stakeholder Group. Should you have more time to share, you can contact the NTU research team at CPWOP@ntu.ac.uk or visit the project page to discuss the project and discover more.
Cumbria CVS are Hiring
Cumbria CVS are hiring for a number of new positions:
Independent Chair – Cumbria Third Sector Network (PT)
Salary: Volunteer Expenses Closing date: 19th April 2021
Senior Manager – Finance and Resources
Salary: £33,799- £37,849pa Closing date: 19th March 2021
Health and Care Project Funding Officer (North)
Salary: £29,636 (FTE) Closing date: 19th March 2021
Senior Manager – District North (Carlisle and Eden)
Salary: £32,029-£34,788 Closing date: 19th March 2021
Communications Manager
Salary: £26,999-£28,878pa (FTE) Closing date: 19th March 2021
New Volunteer Expenses App
vHelp, the payment app for charities, is offering local charities supporting the Covid-19 vaccine rollout a free six weeks trial of its new expenses service for volunteers.
vHelp Expenses has been designed to quickly reimburse volunteers for expenses such as food and travel costs. The app-based service helps charities avoid having to add volunteers onto their payroll systems or manually process expenses claims.
Using vHelp, volunteers submit their expense claims on their mobile phones and, once approved by the charity, they receive payment into their bank accounts within 24 hours. Volunteers can also donate unwanted expenses payments back, allowing the charity to seamlessly claim Gift Aid.
The trial is funded by Innovate UK, the government-backed innovation agency.
vHelp is working with a range of local charities across the country.
To find out more, visit www.vhelp.co.uk or call 020 7117 2097