December 2007
Goodbye 2007—Hello 2008
Well it's nearly that time again when we can down tools and take time out to enjoy the season's holidays with our friends and families. All of us at Rocket Science wish all of you a happy and prosperous new year. Instead of sending you all cards, we've made a contribution to Oxfam's Unwrapped programme, having purchased gifts related to learning and skills, financial inclusion and community regeneration.
Reflecting back over this year we would probably all agree that 2007 will go down as the year of reviews and change. Gordon Brown's accession to Prime Minister and the first SNP administration in Scotland herald an interesting year ahead.
Rocket Science predicts some of the challenges ahead:
- How local authorities identify and plan their support and capacity as they take on the local economic development agenda;
- The impact of an evolving political landscape on the delivery and shaping of public services in Scotland;
- The practicalities of implementing the 'Prime Contractor' model as the commissioning framework for welfare to work and related services;
- Refreshing local economic evidence bases to respond to the Comprehensive Spending Review and encourage more private sector investment in deprived neighbourhoods as government funding reduces;
- Learning the lessons from City Strategies Pathfinders as they approach the end of their pathfinder status towards the end of next year;
- Mapping, understanding and addressing regional and local disparities around financial exclusion, recognised as key contributors to worklessness and enterprise failure;
- Understanding the role of the Working Neighbourhoods Fund and planning the succession of NRF and LEGI programmes;
- Working with the Third Sector at all levels to deliver local services and programmes, and helping them to influence and respond to a complicated commissioning landscape;
- Where NEETS end and worklessness begins – understanding and responding to the needs of vulnerable young people during the transition from the youth to adulthood;
- Making sure that services meet the specific needs of each individual – the personalisation and service co-design agenda.
Rocket Science already has an inside track on some of these issues through the varied assignments we have undertaken for central, regional and local government clients over the past year. These include:
- Work for local authorities and RDAs in developing local and regional employability frameworks to join up the delivery of services around welfare to work clients (contact Richard Scothorne for more details)
- Mapping and assessment of business support and access to finance for social enterprise for the Office of the Third Sector and several RDAs (contact Andrew Carter for more details)
- Evaluating the effectiveness of multi-million pound grant and investment programmes for RDAs and charitable foundations (contact Alistair Grimes for more details)
- Work on service co-design and personalisation with Careers Scotland and employability clients (contact Richard Scothorne for more details)
Drilldown Event
We introduced Drilldown to key movers and shakers at an evening event in London last week with our guest John Talmage, Chief Executive of US based Social Compact. Drilldown is an analysis tool that offers an innovative approach to identifying and analysing the hidden assets of urban communities. The event marked two milestones for us. The first is that our feasibility study into adapting the US model for the UK is near completion and early indications are that we will have a UK version ready to roll out in 2008. The second is the establishment of our partnership with Social Compact to deliver Drilldown to UK clients, which has been a year in development.
If you would like to find out more about Drilldown click here or contact Caroline Masundire.
Reflections on 2007
Sports-led regeneration – the “great decade for British sport” starts next year!
Glasgow's winning the right to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games, just two years after London stages the Olympic and Paralympic Games, has confirmed that the next ten years will be an unparalleled period for major sporting and cultural events across the United Kingdom. Once the Olympic flame is extinguished in Beijing next summer, plans begin in earnest to ensure that we fully exploit the cultural and regeneration opportunities of hosting the world's biggest international sporting event. Creating the conditions for effective sports-led regeneration projects and the pre-requisites for securing a lasting legacy are critical not only to the success of the 2012 Games, but also to the hosts of the 2010 and 2014 Ryder Cups (confirmed), and those UK cities participating in the Rugby (planned), Football (planned) and Cricket (confirmed) World Cups in 2015, 2018 and 2019 respectively.
Rocket Science is currently working with representatives from the Further and Higher Education sectors across England to ensure that colleges and universities across the country maximise the collaborative opportunities to contribute to and benefit from the 2012 Games. This follows similar work we undertook for London's voluntary sector and Social Enterprise London to ensure that they too are positioned to input to and benefit from London's staging the "greatest show on earth." For further information on London 2012, please see the document that Rocket Science recently production-managed for the Mayor of London or contact John Griffiths.
Services to enhance local funding of the Third Sector
The Office of the Third Sector recently reported on the progress that has been made over the last year in implementing Partnership in Public Services: an action plan for third sector involvement.
Each year the public sector spends an estimated £10bn funding Third Sector organisations to deliver all kinds of public services - from drugs counselling to employment advice, from providing housing to childcare. Rocket Science is currently working with a range of clients in order to improve the commissioning process. This includes:
- Building the capacity of third sector providers using our Readiness Assessment Tool;
- Working with funders such as the London Development Agency to enhance their assessment of tenders using our Bid Assessment Tool (including for the new ESF programme for London, 2007-13;
- Advising local authorities on the realignment of community grants programmes in order to ensure greater strategic alignment with the requirements of new Local Area Agreements;
- Working with a number of independent funders and charitable foundations in order to help complement their investment with the public policy priority of tackling child poverty. Click here for more.
For further information on Rocket Science’s services to support third sector engagement in public service delivery, please contact John Griffiths.
Financial Inclusion
Rocket Science is currently working on two financial inclusion projects for the Regional Development Agencies in the South East (SEEDA) and East of England (EEDA).
The former is a financial inclusion strategy for the South East. The study explores the complex relationship that exists between affordability, making work pay for workless people, financial exclusion and capability. The strategy will require a comprehensive understanding of the factors which impact on both individuals and enterprises, taking into account a range of inter-related social and economic barriers, and provide a 'joined up' approach to financial inclusion and capability in the region.
Our work for EEDA aims to: map the level, intensity and location of financial exclusion in the East of England; examine available data on over-indebtedness in the region; assess current services and provision, highlighting promising practices, gaps or weaknesses, and future developments; and, look ahead at key drivers of change - national policy developments, demographic, socio-economic, technological factors and trends that may impact on this agenda in future. The objective of the research is to give partners a clear understanding of the areas and groups of people most affected by financial exclusion and high levels of debt, in order to address identified needs.
Contact Andrew Carter for more details.
Business Development for Social Enterprise
Rocket Science has just completed two pieces of work for the Scottish Government on social enterprise. The first involved looking at business support mechanisms and designing a tendering process to allocate 350K of support funds over the next 12 months, targeting enterprises below the threshold for the Business Gateway.
The second study looks at markets in which social enterprises operate and at the opportunities for, and barriers to, social enterprises expanding. It concludes that tough market penetration is limited, there are significant opportunities and that the barriers come from lack of access to capital and limited management skills, along with increasing competition from the private sector for public service contracts.
Contact Alistair Grimes for more details.
Living Landmarks
Rocket Science Director, Alistair Grimes was appointed as an independent expert on community development to support the BIG Lottery allocate £150 million through its Living Landmarks Programme. Other experts included Professor Michael Parkinson from John Moores University, George Fergusson, a former President of RIBA and Jonathan Goring, CEO of Capita. The programme invested £75 million in three projects in East Belfast, Cornwall and Falkirk and selected the four projects (Sustrans, the Eden Project, Sherwood Forest and the Black Country) for the £50 million People's Millions award which will be voted on by the public during December.
Rocket Science Update
Andy Myers joins us as Marketing Officer having spent the previous three years immersed in the magazine industries of the US and UK. He will be working on Rocket Science's marketing activities, including bringing you our bi-monthly newsletter!
Congratulations to Philip Leckie who wins £25 Vouchers for correctly naming the date of the first CSR – 1998. The vouchers are winding their way to you just in time for Christmas.
Seasonal Quiz? Or Festive interrogation through electronic client interfaces?
Fed up with consultant and public sector speak? We have made it our New Year Resolution to avoid where we can, the often used, vague and frustrating phrases that appear in publications and reports. No mean feat!
So we thought we would have a bit of fun by recreating famous song titles using our day to day language. Can you guess the titles? (Answers below)
Example: Initial analysis suggests a NEET problem – "Smells like Teen Spirit"
1. Encouraging the use of green spaces
2. Incremental additions to our physical infrastructure
3. Effective outreach and engagement
4. Facilitate partnership formation
5. Personal direction of travel
6. Community unrest is an unfavourable and inevitable outcome of disjointed service delivery
7. Euphoric and rapturous framework that is inherently non-conformist and iconoclastic in nature and design
Now, have a go yourself and come up with an alternative song title using public sector speak. Send your entry including the real song title to Andy Myers by 10th January 2008. The best entry wins £25 in Amazon vouchers – the judge’s decision is final!
1. "Park Life"
2. "Another Brick in the Wall"
3. "You Really Got Me"
4. "Come Together"
5."My Way"
6. "I Predict a Riot"
7. "Bohemian Rhapsody"