[WiLT] Consultation on London Councils' funding processes (ex ALG)

[WiL Admin]

Consultation on London Councils' funding processes (ex ALG)
VSF Policy briefing 5 November 2006

The consultation

As London Councils (formerly the Association of London Government)
moves to commissioning as a way of funding the voluntary and community
sector, its funding processes will change. It is currently proposing a
two-stage application process with a simple initial (Stage 1) proposal
form. If groups successfully complete this stage they will then be
eligible for Stage 2, where they will have to provide more detailed
information.

London Council's is currently consulting on the draft Stage 1 proposal
form, the Stage 1 assessment criteria and the process for deciding
when one-stage assessment is appropriate. All of these are available
on their website http://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk. The deadline for
the consultation was 13th November 2006, but groups will also be able
to contribute through discussions and workshops at the Voluntary
Sector Forum's conference on November 30th 2006.

The draft Stage 1 proposal form

The draft Stage 1 proposal form is a relatively simple form comprising
of nine sections to complete detailing the organisation's status,
information about the proposed service, management and financial
information

Organisations are also asked to send copies of their Memorandum and
Articles of Association underlining the areas that state that the
organisation is not for profit, can work across more than one London
borough and can provide the proposed service.

The draft assessment criteria

There are 10 draft assessment criteria. Each can be scored either
"high", "moderate" or "low" and examples of the information needed for
each score are provided, together with the number of points this score
carries, where appropriate. It is proposed that proposals scoring 95
or more points will be invited to submit Stage 2 proposals.

The assessment criteria are relatively straightforward and cover
charities, companies and unregistered organisations. However, although

some of the criteria mention exceptions for new groups, there is an
emphasis on groups' experience. For example, draft assessment criteria
4 and 5 cover experience of delivering similar services and of working
with the target group and draft criteria 10 states that "London
Councils funding would not represent an increase of more than 33% in
the size of the organisation's external funding". Although these are
obviously desirable, there is a danger that groups providing new
services to meet newly identified needs will be disadvantaged.
However, it does ensure that a successful service is not rejected just
because it is not "new" or "innovative".

One- or two-stage assessment?

The final document is less than one page long and details the
conditions under which a one-stage application process would be more
appropriate.

This seems sensible as some voluntary and community organisations
working across London provide very specialised, unique services. If
these services were identified as meeting a specific London Council
commissioning outcome, there would be no competiton for the delivery
of such services. However, in most cases, London Councils proposes
that it will use a two-stage selection process and that officers will
be required to seek approval from the Grants Executive or Grants
Committee to use a one-stage process.

To contribute to the consultation

Your comments on the draft proposal form, assessment criteria and
process for deciding when one-stage assessment is appropriate should
be e-mailed by 13th November 2006 to
johnathon.gore at londoncouncils.gov.uk. Alternatively, you can attend
the Voluntary Sector Forum's conference on 30th November and
contribute to workshop discussions which will feed into the
consultation.

For more details about this consultation or the Voluntary Sector Forum
conference contact:
* Tim Brogden, Resource Officer, London Voluntary Service Council
* 020 7700 8115
* tim at lvsc.org.uk

London Voluntary Service Council, 356 Holloway Road, London N7 6PA.
info at lvsc.org.uk

Posted on WiLT blog at
http://www.freecharity.org.uk/~womeninlondon/?p=178