The Prince Update - August 23rd
Richard Prince shares his regular horizon scan of the sector news, flagging up developments, new funding and opportunities in the social sector for portfolio careerists and others to be aware of.
Sector news
Peabody and Catalyst merger: how the country’s second-biggest housing association will work
At the end of last month, it was announced that two of London’s biggest housing associations, Catalyst and Peabody, were in talks about a merger. The partnership, if agreed, would create a 104,000-home landlord, the second-biggest in the country.
Peabody approached Catalyst, and it will be Catalyst that joins it as a subsidiary if the deal goes ahead next April, before being fully integrated afterwards. The deal was driven largely by shared “strategic priorities” and the geographical fit between the organisations. Catalyst is split into two divisions: Catalyst London and Catalyst Counties. Peabody holds most of its homes in London, with a particularly high number in the inner boroughs of Hackney, Islington and Greenwich. The merger would mean the new larger group has full coverage around London and the majority of the surrounding counties. The biggest thing they feel they can improve through the expanded organisation is the service delivered to residents, with this being a key theme throughout their communication on the proposed merger.
Pension fund commits £45m to London-focused investment fund
A London borough’s pension fund has moved £45m into a dedicated investment fund aimed at creating social and environmental benefits within the capital. Launched in 2020, The London Fund is a partnership between LGPS investment pools London CIV and Local Pensions Partnership Investments. The two pools this week announced the second close of the fund, with a £45m investment from Haringey Pension Fund taking total committed assets to £145m. The fund focuses on investments in assets including build-to-rent and affordable housing, community regeneration projects, digital infrastructure and clean energy.
Comment: social investment by pension funds at scale would transform the sector
Social investment in action: some case studies
· London Early Years Foundation used social investment to expand its early years nurseries in London.
· Freedom Bakery raised investment from seven investors using the Social Investment Tax Relief to grow their prison-based social enterprise.
· Commonweal Housing used social investment to buy properties to support an innovative new project for formerly homeless people.
See the details at: https://www.goodfinance.org.uk/latest
NPC - Evaluating the Building Connections Fund
In 2018, NPC was asked to lead the learning and evaluation partnership for the Building Connections Fund, an £11.5 million joint initiative by the government, the National Lottery Community Fund and the Co-Op Foundation to reduce loneliness. They gathered evidence to improve the evidence base on loneliness, which will be used to inform longer term policy and funding decisions. The partnership supported grant holders with evaluation through a programme of online guidance, workshops, and tailored assistance.
The Part 1 report details findings from data collected before March 2020, while the Part 2 report details findings from the developmental evaluation, which spanned two national lockdowns.
Many small charities ‘now face an uncertain future’
The focus on short-term, emergency funding in 2020 is now making it difficult for charities to address long-term problems, which have been made worse by the pandemic, according to new research by the Lloyds Bank Foundation. Charities have also reported increased competition for grants and contracts in the last year, while complex issues led to higher costs for charities to deliver their services. “While charities have welcomed the emergency funding, they consistently stress that what they need, especially now, is longer term funding. Short-term funding is problematic for service development and staff retention as well as financial sustainability,”
Government to examine £2m it spent on consultants
The government has pledged to examine the value for money provided by spending £2m on consultants to assist with assessing bids made by charities for emergency funds. A report from the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee in June criticised the government for failing to provide “a clear rationale for spending up to £2m of taxpayers’ money on the consultancy firm PWC to assist with the assessment of bids” for more than £500m of emergency funds offered to voluntary sector organisations during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. The PAC report also concluded that the government had no information on where more than £100m in emergency Covid-19 support for charities had been spent.
The Charity Commission’s research into public trust remains a quagmire
Andrew Purkis critiques the Charity Commission's latest public trust research. The original intentions behind the Charity Commission’s research into public trust and confidence were understandable. But the actual result has proved unconvincing, year after year. The article examines some of the difficulties and concludes that the research is entirely uncritical of the beliefs and opinions it is reporting. It is as if, as Baroness Stowell came very near to expressing, the public must always be right. You must try to interpret what they say into something sensible and useful, even if it is ill-informed. This vast gap between the often poorly informed views of “the public” and universal, useful lessons for such a diverse sector as charities, is the quagmire into which the Commission and its researchers fall together year after year.
Comment: this is a very good article and well worth a read
2. Charity careers and future of work
ACEVO and NCVO join forces to support charities on flexible working
A new working group to look at the issue of flexible working in the charity sector is being launched by membership bodies NCVO and ACEVO with support from Starfish Search, an executive search firm.
The issue of flexible working has become all the more crucial due to the rise in home working during the pandemic. A recent survey of charity professionals found that 90% wanted flexible working to continue long-term, and 43% said that they would never apply for a job that was entirely office-based. Yet, the research also raised concerns, with 72% admitting they worked longer hours at home and that boundaries between home and work were a challenge. The working group will address some of the barriers and stigma about flexible working as well as sharing examples of good practice across the sector. It will be chaired by Becky Hewitt, former CEO of Changing Faces, and will include up to ten members from across the voluntary sector who have a diversity of experiences and views to share. The group will report their findings later this year, which will include signposting to key resources on flexible working to support voluntary organisations.
Looking For a New Job? Stats Show There’s Never Been a Better Time
More than one in three people (38%) are looking to change jobs in the next year or so, per CharityJob. Nearly half (45%) of HR decision-makers and hiring managers fear their employees are just waiting for things to settle down before they jump ship.
But if you want to work for a charity, you should try to beat the rush. There are more job vacancies than ever before, over one and a half million job adverts in the UK. Not only this, but competition is as low as ever. All this means that there’s never been a better time to land a new job.
