The Prince Update - May 31st
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.
Third of employees will quit if flexibility is not continued after lockdown, report finds
A third of workers could leave their job if employers do not continue to provide for flexible working beyond the pandemic, a new report has found. A survey of 2,000 UK workers by Barnett Waddingham found 33 per cent of UK employees could be prompted to seek work elsewhere if their organisation did not allow them to work in the environment they chose – either remotely or in the office.
Comment: flexible work is something the EP Foundation is looking at under our Future of Work agenda - Elliot Bidgood noted Timewise stats in an EP Foundation blog last week on charity work and pay, suggesting that rising to unmet economy-wide employee demand on flexibility is an opportunity for the not-for-profit sector.
Lessons from the work-from-home experiment, and the future of Macmillan's office
“As the year went on, and many of our staff told us how beneficial they found working from home, the pandemic allowed us to think differently about what a return to the office might look like and how we can embed greater flexibility for all in the long-term“. Piece by Macmillan Cancer Support chief executive Lynda Thomas In Civil Society, explains why working out the best ways of working for its teams has been vital as they face up to the challenges ahead.
Groundwork joins the Enterprise Development Programme (EDP) as Environment Sector Partner
Community charity Groundwork is joining the EDP to support charities and social enterprises operating in the environment sector. The EDP is developed and funded by Access and managed by Social Investment Business (SIB). It provides a broad range of support for charities and social enterprises working in certain sectors in England, helping them to work up an idea for trading and expand or upscale their existing business or enterprise model.
Groundwork will work closely alongside the chosen environmental organisations, supporting them to become more financially and environmentally sustainable. These organisations will work collaboratively with Groundwork to develop a package of support to help them on their enterprise journey, with support including an enabler network, mentoring, group-based learning opportunities, training and support on applying for grants.
Comment: our sister consultancy Eastside Primetimers works on the EDP - read more here
Nationwide opens £4m grant programme for charities
Nationwide has invited charities to apply for grants of between £10,000 and £50,000, as the building society opens the latest round of its grants programme. Nationwide’s Community Grants Programme aims to tackle local housing issues by giving charities, community land trusts and housing co-operatives grants for programmes that “prevent people from losing their home”, “help people into a home”, and “support people to thrive within the home environment”.
This year Nationwide said it will cap the number of applicants at 40 per region, so 440 across the UK. It has done this so that around one quarter are successful, and to minimise disappointment for unsuccessful applicants. The fund will close to new applications when the cap has been reached, or at 11pm on 21 June if the cap is not reached.
Dropped merger talks: Fawcett Society/Young Women's Trust and housing associations PA/Accent
The Fawcett Society and Young Women’s Trust have decided against a merger, following six months of talks. The two charities started discussing a potential merger last November, to explore whether they could achieve greater impact on their “shared feminist agenda”. However, the boards of both organisations announced that they had decided not to merge, although the charities will continue “working closely with each other”.
The two charities had not found “enough evidence” that a merger would increase their impact. “These conversations have been positive, productive and useful, but after considerable discussion, we identified many advantages to merging, but ultimately did not find enough evidence that a merger would significantly enhance the impact the respective charities have and we will instead continue to work closely together as friends and partners.”
Meanwhile, PA Housing and Accent Group have abandoned plans for a merger that would have created a 43,000-home landlord. The merger proposition, announced in March, will not progress to the due diligence stage according to a stock market update this morning. An announcement from Accent said: “Whilst disappointing in terms of the opportunity this partnership would have presented, the focus for Accent will remain on delivering high-quality homes and services to our customers and communities.”
This announcement follows a similar breakdown in talks between Southern Housing and Sanctuary, which would have created the country’s largest social landlord with 130,000 homes.
Comment: not all merger discussions go the whole way, and nor should they if the fit isn’t right
Process Evaluation for the Life Chances Fund
DCMS commissioned ICF Consulting to undertake an evaluation of the Life Chances Fund (LCF). LCF was launched as an outcomes fund with up to £80 million, which aims to tackle complex social problems by helping people in society who face the most significant barriers to leading happy and productive lives in England. The LCF contributes to projects through payments by results contracts. These contracts involve social investors and are locally commissioned.
The report presents an analysis of progress to date, applicants’ experiences, early implementation, governance and performance management, the impact of Covid-19 on social impact bond (SIB) project delivery and learning for future programmes.
Kings Fund - Integrated care systems explained
Integrated care systems (ICSs) are partnerships that bring together providers and commissioners of NHS services across a geographical area with local authorities and other local partners to collectively plan health and care services to meet the needs of their population. The central aim of ICSs is to integrate care across different organisations and settings, joining up hospital and community-based services, physical and mental health, and health and social care. All parts of England are now covered by one of 42 ICSs.
Comment: this article explains in some detail how they work - important to understand the new commissioning/delivery landscape
Attempt to ban Kids Company trustees cost taxpayers £8m
Taxpayers face a legal bill for at least £8m as a result of the official receiver’s disastrous attempt to ban the Kids Company founder Camila Batmanghelidjh and seven fellow charity trustees from holding senior jobs, it has emerged. The bill follows a three-and-a-half-year legal case, in which a court threw out claims by the official receiver that Batmanghelidjh and former trustees of the charity failed properly to oversee Kids Company, causing it to collapse in July 2015. The size of the bill – coupled with the judge’s exoneration of Batmanghelidjh and scathing comments about the official receiver’s handling of the case – have led to questions on whether the case should have gone ahead.
Bates Wells have also commented on what lessons the case holds for the sector.
Charity Commission - Improving the Register of Charities
The Register of Charities plays a vital role in helping people make informed decisions about which charities to support. You can use it to check the 170,000 charities which are registered, download data for research, find out whether donations are being spent in the way they should, and search for charities that might be able to help you.
A new version of the Register was launched in September 2020. Feedback included users telling the Commission they wanted more search options, more detailed information on finances and an easier route to accessing bulk information, but they are continuing to implement changes to make it more user-friendly.
Check out the new version of the Charity Register at: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk
Resolution Foundation - Chart of the Week
From the Resolution Foundation - “Ignore all the personal score settling, the main takeaway from Dominic Cumming’s seven-hour testimony is an important truth that “tens of thousands of people died, who didn't need to die.” While some feel that is an unreasonable conclusion about the decisions regarding the first lockdown, it is unquestionably true taking the pandemic as a whole. We’ve previously shown how delays to the second hard lockdown alone may have led to over 20,000 additional deaths. And the deaths that followed our failures to lockdown early enough were far from equally felt. The old of course were most at risk. But the concentration of deaths in the poorest areas is shocking: the death rates in the most deprived parts of the country are around four times higher than in the least deprived areas, as this week chart spells out. That fact is an indictment of our unequal country, and our collective wish to forget that the last year ever happened.”
Comment: this set of facts about inequality cannot not be wished away, despite the vaccine euphoria