Funding Cuts and the VCS
We are faced with significant spending cuts. On May 24, the Chancellor, George Osborne, outlined more than £6.2 billion of spending cuts that will take effect this year, and further detail was unveiled in the Emergency Budget (external link to NCVO website article) on 22 June. Over the summer the Government will undertake a comprehensive review of its spending commitments for the next five years. The outcome of that review will be announced in the Budget in the autumn.
All of these cuts are sure to include some significant reductions across the voluntary sector - at least one third of the sector's income is exposed to risk. There are a number of resources and tools available to our sector to assist to prepare for and engage in this process. This page will be updated with more links over the coming weeks.
Click on the headings listed below to find out more.
Please contact Kate Tayler, Chief Executive, at the Forum on 01347 825710 or email kate.tayler@nyyforum.org.uk with any comments you may have. Do keep in touch with your local support and development organisation as well - these are the district based 'CVSs', contact details are available from the find local support page.
In our recent discussions with NHS NYY about in-year cuts to their funding for some voluntary sector organisations, we stressed the importance of early information about 2011/12 funding. NHS NYY has agreed to provide this.
The letter from Sue Metcalfe (available to download below) explains the position regarding 2011/12 funding. We have been told verbally (although this is not reflected in the letter) that they will enter into 2 year funding agreements for 2011 – 2013.
NHS NYY letter to VCS from Sue Metcalfe re Commissioning 29 11 10
NHS NYY intends to carry out a ‘value for money’ review of the organisations it currently funds, and confirm funding for April 2011 by the end of December 2010. The voluntary sector budget is to be reduced by 4% overall, but that cut will not be applied equally and some organisations may have funding withdrawn following the review.
North Yorkshire organisations – reduction in North Yorkshire County Council Adult and Community Services funding for 2011/12
We learnt last week that the NYCC ACS budget for voluntary sector funding is expected to be reduced by around 10% next year.
This reduction is likely to affect many of the same organisations that may be affected by the NHS NYY budget reduction.
Again, it is expected that the cut will not be applied equally, and some organisations are likely to have funding withdrawn.
We do not yet have firm information about the decision making process or timetable.
What you can do:
- If you have received requests for monitoring information from either NHS NYY or the relevant local authority (City of York Council or North Yorkshire County Council Adult Services) – make sure that you have returned the necessary information. The value for money review may be based on this.
- Can you evidence the value of what you do? You may want to provide other information that demonstrates how what you do is good value for money – e.g. outcomes information, case studies, etc
- Can you reduce your costs? EVERY organisation should be looking now at any savings you can make, either individually or through collaborative working, in order to maintain services to your users.
- There are some useful resources on the ‘funding cuts’ page of our website or contact your local support and development organisation for advice.
NHS NYY 2010/11 funding cuts
Despite our co-ordinated efforts, and a considerable amount of support from local MPs, various national organisations, and the involvement of Government Ministers, NHS NYY has not yet changed its mind about cutting funding to 17 organisations in the current financial year, most with only 1 month’s notice. Whilst we recognise the need for NHS NYY to make savings, this approach is highly damaging. As a direct result a number of local services will be closed or reduced.
For the record, we dispute the claim in Sue Metcalfe’s letter that ‘infrastructure organisations took the brunt of the cuts’, as over half the financial value of the 2010/11 cuts to voluntary organisations is being taken from front line services, having a direct impact on individual people using those services.
Health service provision in York and North Yorkshire is to be debated in Parliament on Wednesday, and this will include discussion of the current cuts to voluntary sector funding.
Kate Tayler
Chief Executive
North Yorkshire Forum for Voluntary Organisations
Tel 01347 825710 Mobile 07738 456782
Email: kate.tayler@nyfvo.org.uk
22-10-2010: NHS NYY cuts to voluntary sector funding
This week the local voluntary sector support and development organisations in North Yorkshire and York received one month’s notice from NHS North Yorkshire and York of their intention to end our current year funding on 19th November.
This decision affects our support services to local voluntary and community groups, and a counseling service run by one of the support and development organisations. There has been no consultation about this decision.
We have taken advice, and requested further information from NHS NYY about the background to this decision. You can see the correspondence below:
NHS NYY Adrian Snarr letter 19 Oct 10 (page 1 of 2)
NHS NYY Adrian Snarr letter (page 2 of 2)
NHS NYY Jayne Brown letter - actions to reduce financial risk 20 10 10
NYFVO Funding cuts reply letter to Adrian Snarr 21 10 10
We understand that some front line voluntary sector organisations providing services to individuals have also received notice of the ending of their funding, although we have not been able to obtain information about which organisations are affected.
If your organisation has received a notice letter from NHS NYY, we would like to hear from you. Please contact the chief officer of your local support and development organisation or NYFVO – contact details available via find local support.
You can also get very useful advice from the Empowering the Voluntary Sector Project - www.navca.org.uk/services/
As far as we know, if you haven’t received a letter then your NHS NYY funding is not currently under threat.
Kate Tayler
Chief Executive
North Yorkshire Forum for Voluntary Organisations
Tel 01347 825710 Mobile 07738 456782
Email: kate.tayler@nyfvo.org.uk
2 August 2010: Changes to North Yorkshire County Council Adult and Community Services funding for voluntary sector organisations
Please see details below from Seamus Breen, Assistant Director - Commissioning and Partnership at North Yorkshire County Council, regarding the process for agreeing reductions in current year Adult and Community Services funding to the voluntary and community sector.
Further to my letter of 1st July when I informed voluntary and community organisations of the need for NYCC Adult and Community Services (ACS) to make savings of £300,000 in our funding to the sector in the current financial year, and invited you to make proposals about how these savings could be achieved: I am now in a position to provide further information about our decision-making process.
Initial decision-making
Adult and Community Services are meeting on 10th August to assess the current position and make initial decisions about how the savings can be made. I would therefore strongly encourage you to contact me before 9th August if you have any further suggestions which we should take into account in our decision-making.
Notification
My intention is to contact those organisations which are directly affected by our decisions, before the end of August. This will notify you of our intended changes to your current funding, and give you notice of when the change will take effect. This notice period will be in line with the terms of your existing funding agreement, and will give you time to make any necessary changes to your service delivery before the date of the change.
I will also write to you if your current year funding is not affected.
It is possible that we may not be able to complete our decision-making by the end of August. If that is the case, I will contact all organisations again through NYFVO’s networks to inform you of the new timetable.
Consultation and impact assessment
If we are making changes to your funding this year, you will have an opportunity to respond to our decision and provide information about the impact of the changes. This consultation period will close one month after we have notified you of our intention to change your funding. We may make changes to our decisions if the consultation provides new information about the impact of the cuts. However given the size of the budget reduction we have to implement, it is inevitable that some valued services will be reduced.
2011 and beyond
You will be aware that substantial further cuts in public sector funding are likely to be announced in the Public Sector Spending Review in October. I am keen to continue discussions with the sector about how the needs of vulnerable people can best be met in this challenging environment, through exploring how money could be saved and services improved through collaborative working and service redesign. I would be pleased to hear from any organisations with proposals for different ways of working that may generate savings in 2011 and beyond.
I will be meeting with the sector at a series of locality meetings in late September/October (being organised through the local infrastructure organisations), and will also be considering how wider discussions about the sector’s role in service delivery can be initiated. In the meantime I would encourage you to seriously consider what opportunities may exist for collaborative working, and to approach your local infrastructure organisation or NYFVO for help and advice with this if you need it.
Seamus Breen
Assistant Director - Commissioning and Partnership,
Rm 255 County Hall, Northallerton, North Yorkshire. DL7 8DD
Land Line: 01609533622
seamus.breen@northyorks.gov.uk
If you would like help or advice regarding the implications of this for your organisation, please get in touch with your local support and development organisation - contact details here or contact the Forum.
**North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) funded organisations only**
At a meeting of the Voluntary Sector Liaison Group on 22nd June, voluntary sector local support and development organisations (LSDOs*) were informed by Seamus Breen, Assistant Director Commissioning and Partnership, that Adult and Community Services (ACS) intend to cut £300,000 from existing voluntary sector funding agreements in the current, 2010/11 financial year. This was explained as a result of substantial reductions in this year’s Government funding to the County Council. They expect that further cuts will be necessary in future years. The LSDOs agreed to help pass on the information to voluntary and community sector organisations.
What ACS are doing:
The briefing below (and download) from Seamus Breen provides background information on overall budget cuts and some information about how ACS will decide on how the voluntary sector cuts will be distributed. In brief:
1. They are inviting organisations to suggest how savings could be made. This could be from individual funding, or from ‘efficiencies’ achieved through collaborative working between organisations. You are asked to feed any proposals for savings back to ACS through your local support and development organisation (LSDO).
2. ACS will also look themselves at options for reducing voluntary sector funding, taking into account:
a. ACS priorities and the most critical needs of adults in the community
b. The amount of funding that organisations receive and their potential capacity to ‘deliver efficiencies’
c. Areas of service which are regarded as ‘desirable’ rather than ‘essential’ in the light of Government funding cuts
d. The risk that some service provision may cost more in the medium term if cuts are made now.
They will explore this during July, and then provide further information to the sector.
What NYFVO and LSDOs* are doing:
We are acting as an information channel between ACS and voluntary sector organisations.
Providing this information page on our website.
We will send out further information as it becomes available.
We will support voluntary sector organisations that are or may be affected by cuts, through our information and advice services and through bringing organisations together to consider collective responses.
What you can do:
If you receive ACS funding please get in touch with NYFVO and/or your LSDO – email alex.etchells@nyfvo.org.uk or see the link below. This will enable us to send on further information to you as quickly as possible and to co-ordinate a collective view from the sector to feedback to ACS.
Please tell us:
*Organisation; contact name; email address; phone number.
*What services you are funded to provide, in what areas.
And, if possible:
*Whether any savings in your current funding are possible.
*Whether you would consider collaborative working to achieve savings.
*What effect cuts in your funding would have on your service users.
*Whether you can think of savings that could be possible in ACS-delivered services, if delivery was transferred to the voluntary sector.
Any information that you provide will be shared between NYFVO and LSDOs to enable us to have an overview of the situation, but will not be shared with anyone else without your consent.
* Local Support and Development Organisations (LSDOs) were previously known as ‘local infrastructure organisations (LIOs)’. You may know yours as the local Council for Voluntary Service (CVS), Voluntary Action, or Community Care Association (CCA). A full list of these and the areas they cover can be found on the Find local support page of this website.
Kate Tayler, Chief Executive
North Yorkshire Forum for Voluntary Organisations
Tel 01347 825710 Mobile 07738 456782
Email: kate.tayler@nyfvo.org.uk
***************************************************************************
From: Seamus Breen, Assistant Director - Commissioning and Partnership, NYCC
Date: 1st July 2010
Subject: Reduction in Public Expenditure and its effects VOL Sec supporting Adult Services
Following ACS Executive Meeting this am Cllr. Chris Metcalfe, ACS Portfolio Holder and Derek Law, Corporate Director, authorised the downloadable briefing to go out to North Yorkshire Forum for Voluntary Organisations (NYFVO) and the Local Infrastructure Organisations (LIOs) as representatives who come to our liaison meetings with the Voluntary Sector. They, as infrastructure organisations, in turn agreed at our last joint meeting to use their various bulletins and communications to bring the briefing to the attention of the front line voluntary organisation services they support.
We are encouraging the sector to contribute proposals for reductions in costs this year. Should these proposals be insufficient to meet the required targets then a decision making framework for delivering reductions in costs is outlined in the attached document.
We cannot at this stage say for certain what the effects will be next year and the year after and must together await the Comprehensive Spending Review in the Autumn.
While regretting the need to consider reductions in Voluntary Sector budgets within this financial year the ACS Directorate, in reconfiguring and transforming how it delivers its own services, see the possibility of new opportunities for service delivery being made available to third sector.
Reduction in Public Expenditure: downloadable briefing from NYCC & ACS
Seamus Breen
Assistant Director - Commissioning and Partnership,
Rm 255 County Hall, Northallerton, DL7 8DD
Land Line: 01609 533622
seamus.breen@northyorks.gov.uk
Support - Tina Handley
Tel: 01609 532535
tina.handley@northyorks.gov.uk
Access your county council services online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at www.northyorks.gov.uk
North Yorkshire County Council.
NAVCA (National Association of Voluntary and Community Action) provides information and resources on funding via its website; resources include a Funding resource list, guidelines for Challenging a funding cut, along with links to Other websites that provide funding resources and lists of funders, and lists of procurement publications and procurement websites.
The dedicated Recession Resources and Support page continues to provide information and guidance as the economic recession continues to challenge the local third sector as demand for services rises whilst funding gets tighter.
cutswatch.org.uk has been set up to provide guidance and support to third sector organisations through public spending cuts. The site aims to provide up-to-date news, case studies, guides and information on how to positively deal with spending cuts, along with links to useful events and services.
The website also has information on how organisations can negotiate with funders, challenge poor funding decisions and demonstrate their impact.
You can access the site at www.cutswatch.org.uk
The Empowering the Voluntary Sector (EVS) project (hosted by NAVCA) has produced a special edition of its newsletter to provide information about challenging cuts. The newsletter gives information about the processes and remedies that voluntary organisations and community groups can use when challenging cuts.
The EVS project combines the expertise of NAVCA, Compact Advocacy, based at NCVO, and the Public Law Project. This expertise makes this newsletter an invaluable guide on how the Compact, public law and equalities duties can be used when challenging cuts.
Terry Perkins, NAVCA's Public Law training Officer, said "The Government has announced significant cuts to most departments' budgets, and all local authorities are making cuts to public services and grant programmes. Already voluntary organisations around the country have been affected and there will inevitably be those whose entire funding is cut.
"This guide will help give those affected information about challenging those cuts.
"However, each situation is different and this should only be used as a general guide."
Specific advice for individual cases should be sought from the EVS advice team, from NAVCA's website.
You can download a copy of the newsletter below:
EVS Newsletter, special edition July 2010
The Collaboration Benefits programme provides training and support to help community and voluntary groups develop strong and successful partnerships.
Collaboration Benefits is itself a partnership between bassac, Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE), Community Foundation Network (CFN), and the Institute for Voluntary Action Research (IVAR).
Working in partnership with other organisations can help you save money, provide a better service and work more efficiently. You can collaborate in many ways – from sharing office space to bidding together for contracts. Partnership working can strengthen your organisation, broaden your horizons, and give you new skills and knowledge.
The programme offers a range of support and resources to groups thinking about collaboration. Visit the website to download free publications such as
- Getting Ready for Collaboration
- How effective is your partnership: a diagnostic tool
- Success Stories
- Participant-Passenger-Prisoner
You can also find out about training and free consultation and support.
The Collaboration section of bassac's website also provides guidance on types of collaboration and why you may consider collaborative working.
To find out contact details for your local Funding Adviser, dates of forthcoming funding training courses, access funding factsheets and keep up to date with the latest funding news visit the website: