Content: 
1. Voluntary Value Conference
2. CLESP Membership hits 70 organisations
3. CLESP In Action: Preparing To Bid
4. December SFA Tenders: Your Views Urgently Sought
5. SFA Tenders: An Improvement for Social Purpose Organisations
6. Accessing ESF Through the Work Programme
7. Government challenged to do more for social purpose organisations
 

Welcome to the nineteenth European Social Fund (ESF) bulletin for Voluntary and Community Organisations (VCOs) in the South West Competitiveness area.  This bulletin summarises the opportunities for VCO engagement with ESF.

As we were unable to circulate the August ebulletin this email also includes articles from the August ebulletin.

2.    CLESP Membership hits 70 organisations

Within the last month, 70 voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations have been confirmed as members of CLESP. All are based in the South West, have an active interest in skills, and want to use joint-working to access the larger skills, learning and employment contracts on offer. New members are welcome – for a membership pack and form http://www.learningcurve.org.uk/Aboutus/News/newsclesp

3.    CLESP In Action: Preparing To Bid

Forty-one CLESP members are working together to assemble a region-wide bid to the SFA’s £7.7 million ESF tender for beneficiaries aged 16-19 not in education, employment or training. This is the first bid that CLESP will submit, and CLESP is confident of a strong application. Learning Curve is the lead and accountable body for the bid, the deadline for which is 25 November. It’s not too late to express interest in being involved if you’d like to – see the tender specifications to see whether you ‘fit’ with the specifications: http://www.learningcurve.org.uk/adviceandinfo/voluntaryvalue/esftenderingsw.htm and email simon@southwestforum.org.uk asap.

1. Skills for Business (with focus on apprenticeships for the 19-24 age group, and those already with a  Level 2 or level 3 qualification)
2. Skills for the workforce
3. Skills for the low carbon economy (likely to be a stand-alone tender, as well as a cross-cutting theme)
4. Skills for Digital Britain (likely to be a stand-alone tender, as well as a cross-cutting theme)
5. Leadership and Management

But now, consideration is being given to tendering on the basis of sub-regions: so there might, for example, be one tender for Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Swindon which covers multiple themes from the list above. This would be repeated in 5 other sub-regions. The Voluntary Value project is interested in the impact this might have on the ability for voluntary and community organisations to engage with the tenders, and seeks your thoughts by return of email by 24 November.
 

5.    SFA Tenders: An Improvement for Social Purpose Organisations

One new change which benefits small providers is that the SFA no longer requires the prime providers in a contract to deliver 51% of outputs. Previously, this rule had discriminated against consortia bids, and meant that the majority of outputs (or ‘starts’) were held in the hands of large providers who were big enough to bid. This rule will affect mainstream SFA contracts as well as the SFA’s ESF contracts, and the Voluntary Value project welcomes the change.

6.    Accessing ESF Through the Work Programme

You will be aware that the Government intends to launch the Work Programme next year as a single unified welfare to work programme replacing a wide range of existing programmes, with delivery starting in summer 2011.

The national consortium for the third sector, 3SC, is bidding into the Work Programme, and would like all organisations interested in being a sub-contractor to complete an Expression of Interest form. Although the deadline was 10 November, expressions of interest received after this date will still be considered. See http://www.3sc.org/news/item.asp?n=11463

7.    Government challenged to do more for social purpose organisations

The amount of money that flows to social purpose organisations through ESF (2007-2010) amounts to just 12.7% of all ESF money in England, according to a new report by the Third Sector European Network.  To increase this access for social purpose organisations, the report recommends the following:

• Focus part of the ESF programme on most economically and socially excluded groups
• Remove barriers to TA access
• Promote consortia
• Improve the sub-contracting environment for small to medium size ‘third sector’ organisations
• Expand the Community Grants Programme
• Use the EU funds to deliver the Big Society agenda
• Allow for local match funding including volunteer time
• Reinstate national projects in the ESF programme

And specifically, the report challenges the Office of Civil Society to:

• Work to improve the procurement processes
• Work with the sector to find a solution to the Technical Assistance challenge
• Explore potential for the OCS to be an accountable body/managing authority/cfo for civil society
• Work across relevant Government Departments to make access to funding easier and simpler.
• The OCS could take an active role in the negotiations of the next structural funds programme for instance by instigating sector wide consultations to be fed into relevant Government Departments.

This bulletin was prepared by Simon Charters, Regional Coordinator (SWF), and enabled through support from the ESF and South West Regional Development Agency. It has been distributed by Voscur. Your feedback on the style and content of the bulletin are very welcome – please contact Simon directly on simon@southwestforum.org.uk / 01392 823758.