Strengthening the Sector work is led by Community Action Bradford & District and Participate. Together, these organisations are providing development support to Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations that directly divert citizens from statutory health and care services.
During the first year of this programme, the organisations that were eligible for support were selected by the commissioners of the contract. Now, going into our second year, we are building on our learning and using a data-and-insight-driven approach to select the groups we approach to offer support.
In year one of this programme, we found that organisations that were able to dedicate time to the support offer were the most successful. This year, we are concentrating on organisations where our support will have a meaningful and tangible impact on health outcomes; an indicator for this is a minimum turnover of £50k, i.e. the ability to employ staff who can work with us. We have used data software (MyCake) to identify groups over this income level, delivering health and care services. MyCake takes data from a range of public sources, providing a detailed picture of the VCSE sector and using the data to compile a resilience rating for each organisation.
The number of groups meeting these criteria is more than 400. So, using MyCake data, local intelligence, insight provided by local partners and commissioners, as well as our own insight, we have prioritised around 80 organisations that we will approach to offer support. Working with our contract partners and commissioners, we will also be taking referrals through the year over and above this initial list of 80.
To receive support, organisations must align to more than one of the following criteria:
- Already be or suitable to be engaged with neighbourhood locality working and/or Community Partnerships.
- Already or suitable to engage in cross-sector collaboration.
- Already or suitable to participate in VCSE consortia/partnership/collaborations.
- Able to develop the skills/have the skills to understand and use population data (drawn from Reducing Health Inequalities programme).
Participating organisations will undergo an organisational diagnostic to identify the priority areas that need addressing. Following this, a development plan will be provided. Resources for the development plan are provided through a mix of development officer time and/or fully/match-funded specialist support.
Please note that organisations that have been selected for support through the Activation contract will be contacted by an Activation partner. Failure to deliver on the criteria above and/or to meaningfully engage with specialist support could result in your support being withdrawn.
Other Support
If you are not contacted and offered support through this contract, you can still get in touch. Community Action offer a range of 1:1 support; there is a free support offer for organisations with an income under £100k and a charge for advice/support if your income is more than this threshold. You can also get in touch to be signposted to an array of free resources and advice online.
Visit https://cabad.org.uk/development-officers/ to find out more about their other support.
Please contact info@cabad.org.uk with any enquiries.
