March 2005
Emperor's new clothes?
Partnership working is a good thing and brings real benefits - yes? Some commentators are sceptical, believing that costs often outweigh benefits. The Treasury's Public Services Productivity Panel suggests that too many partnerships have been created, addressing the wrong problems. Are they right?
Partnership working has proliferated over the past 10 years. Regularly, both by requirement and by choice, agencies are working together to respond better to the complex needs of clients or to tackle issues which straddle organisational or geographical boundaries.
Rocket Science is currently working with a wide range of partnerships across the UK - from Local Strategic Partnerships and New Deal for Communities in England to Community Planning Partnerships and Social Inclusion Partnerships in Scotland. Some are enthusiastic and productive while others are suffering from frustration and stagnation. Our experience is that most partnerships don't invest enough time in understanding each other, clarifying their objectives and reviewing their achievements - and that the majority find it difficult to demonstrate their success. Too many partnerships focus on 'process' benefits; measuring the partners' perceptions of achievements and success without fully considering the views of clients or service users.
Many partnerships have inappropriate structures, involve the wrong people (who are not well supported by their organisations) and fail to clarify or review their purpose and objectives. On the whole the default position - if we have a problem, let's create a partnership - leads to the wrong choice of structure. In many situations there are better structures than partnerships to achieve results. Partnerships tend to be an inefficient way of achieving short-term goals, because it takes a great deal of time, effort and nurturing to create true collaboration.
Some partnerships end up trying to control their members' actions. Others manage to create real strategic clarity which frees up their members to get on with their job confident that their activities will contribute to the achievement of the strategy.
There are different types of partnership: strategic, operational and project-specific. Whatever their type, they need to change all the time. They need to play different roles as they evolve, require different styles of leadership at different stages and need constantly to scan their surroundings and respond to changes in policy, practice, roles and events.
So what's a partnership to do? Our experience suggests that a "quick-fix" or general toolkit can contribute to refreshing or refocusing a partnership but it is unlikely to be able to solve the problems facing a partnership. Rocket Science is developing new ways of engaging with partnerships, providing guidance through well-informed facilitation and development sessions which ask challenging questions of partnerships and their members, aiming to achieve added value and genuine mutual advantage through collaboration.
For more information on our recent partnership research contact: David McNeill. If you would like to know more about support for partnership development contact Richard Scothorne
Positive Approaches
Having a positive experience of family life (whatever the structure) and feeling connected to school are essential to the health of young people. Targeting health information on single issues can actually widen the health inequalities gap.
These are just some of the key messages from Approaches: Young People and Health, a major conference organised by NHS Health Scotland and YouthLink Scotland, with a little help from Rocket Science.
Over 250 delegates from all over Scotland attended the Approaches conference held in Glasgow, 24-25 January 2005. They included policy makers and practitioners from local and national, statutory and voluntary agencies in areas such as health, education, social work, mainstream youth organisations and specialist services for socially excluded young people.
The aim of the conference was to look at young people's health and well-being in a broad-based, holistic way. Five themes were identified as central to young people and health: (i) Young people's transitions, (ii) Supporting young people's mental health, (iii) Towards a young-people friendly health service; (iv) Social inclusion and health; (v) Communicating health messages to young people. 37 workshops (over 70 presentations) and four symposia provided valuable information and insights into these areas.
Interactive electronic surveys revealed a significant increase in participants' knowledge about health issues and the work of other organisations as a result of attending the conference.
Don't worry if you missed this event: a conference report is being produced. If you would like to receive a copy please send an email to Gary Wilson of NHS Health Scotland, gary.wilson@health.scot.nhs.uk
If you want to know more about how Rocket Science can help you to organise a similar event please contact Debbie Adams
Streets Ahead in Liverpool
Liverpool has been selected to work with Government on a Full Employment Plan for the city. The aim is to achieve full employment within 5 years by narrowing the gap between Liverpool's current employment rate (63%) and the national rate (75%). Rocket Science is working with Liverpool's Strategic Employment Partnership which has the massive task of helping an additional 42,000 people into jobs.
The Liverpool Strategic Partnership is already using Neighbourhood Renewal Funding (NRF) to develop and test the kind of integrated model of employment service it will need to exploit the projected economic growth in the area over the next five years. This includes reaping the economic benefits of Liverpool's status as European City of Culture 2008.
Streets Ahead is just one part of an NRF funded Flexible Employment Programme, a pilot initiative being delivered over a two year period 2004-6. The Programme pilots and 'rolls out' new interventions aimed at engaging the most disadvantaged client groups and moving them closer to or back into the labour market.
Streets Ahead is primarily an outreach project and represents a multi-agency partnership approach between JobCentre Plus and Liverpool City Council, as the lead agencies, working through the local regeneration infrastructure including the city's 5 JET (Jobs, Education, Training) partnerships. Streets Ahead teams visit homes, schools and community centres in priority neighbourhoods to promote the services offered by all partners via leaflet drops and follow-up visits. The multi-agency nature of the project means that residents are able to access a wide range of advice and different support services through a single point of contact, either from their own homes or at a local community facility.
There are already many success stories. For example, in the South Central area, a lone parent who had secured a job three months previously was in danger of losing her job because of a breakdown in her child minding arrangements. Streets Ahead referred her to a lone parent adviser at Jobcentre Plus who was able to help her claim working tax credits. She retained her employment and is now £185 a week better off, with her child in registered child care while mum is working.
Rocket Science have been working with the five Streets Ahead partnership teams to create a year-long learning and development programme, shaped entirely by the front-line staff following a residential event in February. The programme will support closer partnership working and address the issues most pertinent to the staff, including practical approaches to understanding each partner agency better; learning more effectively to help the hardest to reach clients; measuring the impact of these interventions, and promoting Streets Ahead's work.
For further information contact: John Griffiths
Mentor me
Having (or being!) a mentor or befriender can improve confidence, enhance skills and change a person's outlook on life - and it doesn't cost the earth. Just look at our practice example from our recent evaluation of the Better Neighbourhood Services Fund for vulnerable young people in Dumfries and Galloway.
In Dumfries and Galloway several projects in the Better Neighbourhood Services Fund used either volunteers or sessional staff to fill the role of mentors or befrienders. They were assigned to young offenders in the Youth Justice Project and to vulnerable young people in the Befriending Project.
The approach adopted by these projects was to build support and services around individual young people and their needs. In practice this involves meeting or talking to the young person at a time and place of their choosing - alternating between cafes, car rides and phone conversations.
The young people appreciated having someone to talk to, and the chance to get out and do things. In some cases the mentoring relationship brought about changes in the way the young people thought about life - and effected their self-esteem and behaviour. One young man stopped offending and found other ways of dealing with the difficult relationship he had with his mother. Another young person felt her confidence increase and found it easier to speak to people.
As well as the young people who received services, the people who were involved in supporting the young people also benefited: being involved helped one person to realise a career in social work was worth pursuing.
In terms of value for money, a large number of young people were supported on the basis of moderate budgets. In the Youth Justice Project, sessional staff were paid by the hour - the minimum wage or slightly more, and the 'Befriending Project' used volunteers to deliver its services to vulnerable young people.
When using mentoring as an approach there are pitfalls and challenges. Disclosure processes can be frustrating and time consuming. It can also take a lot of time and energy to find appropriate mentors, and they subsequently need to be adequately supported to retain them. There can be difficulties with appropriate succession and bridging systems when mentors leave and new ones have to be found.
In Dumfries and Galloway, however, not only the young people who were on the receiving end, but also those who gave their time would probably say that those challenges are worth overcoming for the enormous difference the service can make to the people involved in it.
For more information on Rocket Science evaluations contact Debbie Adams To hear about the local project in Dumfries and Galloway contact Margaret McIllhinny, margaretmc@dumgal.gov.uk
Is there life beyond ESF?
According to the UK Voluntary Sector Almanac, voluntary organisations now receive nearly 40% of their income from government contracts. But two key grant funding sources - the Single Regeneration Budget and European Social Fund - are coming to an end. What next for the organisations which continue to depend on them?
The government's drive to reform our public services continues apace. Its desire to create a more mixed economy in everything from housing to healthcare, employment services to recycling, is having a major impact on the country's voluntary sector. Initiatives at all levels of the state - from the DTI's Social Enterprise Unit to individual local authorities' compacts with the third sector - are encouraging community and voluntary sector organisations to embrace a more business-like approach.
A sustainable, long-term business plan represents Nirvana for many voluntary organisations where a profit-making aspect of a project can be linked to its social aim (for example, using profitable training courses to supplement childcare provision for those attending the courses). In such instances, projects are released from the treadmill of payment per output and put in control of their own finances. They can also secure additional help from new funding sources such as Futurebuilders that offer long-term loan finance for improvements to the voluntary sector's support infrastructure.
While this is a positive development for some, there is a lack of recognition that this route is not suitable for everyone, and threatens to create a two-tiered sector. Large charities and voluntary organisations with the capacity to take advantage of the government's 'marketisation' of public services have successfully bid for contracts. However, a huge swathe of the sector finds the contract culture an anathema and continues to rely on relatively small annual grants in order to maintain their community work. At the same time, there is mounting uncertainty over the future of two key grant-funding sources which have been the lifeblood for many organisations over the last decade - the Single Regeneration Budget (ending in 2006) and the European Social Fund (ending in 2007).
Rocket Science is currently working with the London Development Agency to help identify and plan alternative routes forward for SRB and ESF-funded projects including: becoming more self-sufficient through income generation; mainstreaming project activity within the statutory sector, or securing alternative funding. A dissemination event to share the findings of this action research project will be held in London on 26th April 2005, for further information, please contact Ruth Evans
Skills - fit for purpose?
Rocket Science has designed a self-assessment tool to help individuals evaluate how far their skills, knowledge and behaviours match those they feel they need in order to do their jobs really well. Because the self-assessment tool can be applied to employment in particular sectors, it has the potential for rolling out by Sector Skills Councils and across the Learning and Skill Council network in order to support evidence-based workforce development plans.
Each skills self-assessment tool is designed in conjunction with those currently doing the job and is customised precisely to reflect the personal attributes and technical knowledge required for them to excel in their field.
Rocket Science first developed the concept of the Skills Self-Assessment Tool in conjunction with the London Voluntary Service Council's Second Tier Adviser Network (STAN). STAN is a membership network dedicated to improving the quality and coordination of support provided by second-tier advisers to voluntary and community organisations in London. STAN had identified a need for a Workforce Development Plan that accurately defined and addressed the workforce development challenges facing second-tier advisors and provided a basis for focusing resources and action upon particular skills gaps and shortages.
We designed a scorecard-based tool, focusing on nine areas of performance against which development workers should strive for excellence, taking into account the expectations of both clients and funders.
Developed on a Microsoft excel platform, the tool provided STAN with a user-friendly and intuitive method for surveying its members quickly and cost effectively and the means to create powerful, graphical images of results to demonstrate trends.
The process of designing a SSAT and using it to survey a network or sector of the workforce is an effective way to:
Identify the key skills, knowledge and behaviours required for doing the job well;
Assess the specific workforce development needs of a sector or network;
Convert qualitative perceptions into quantitative scores which can be used to compare different aspects of performance across different parts of the workforce;
Provide a benchmark which pinpoints strengths and weaknesses, and those areas which require particular effort if they are to improve - this provides a robust evidence base for an action plan; and
Measure improvements or "distance traveled" over time in improving performance in specific areas.
Our clients tell us that the process of completing the survey using the SSAT has proved thought-provoking, engaging, and fun for users. Most importantly, it has made people think about their own learning needs, and has, therefore, become a key tool in the drive to improve performance.
Contact Janice Renowden
Arts action
Research conducted by Young Scot, on behalf of the Scottish Arts Council, has culminated in the development of a £20,000 Arts Action fund for young people. How were the views of over 1200 young people analysed and taken forward to result in such a fantastic outcome?
Rocket Science designed the final stage in the consultation: a residential event for 30 young people to make recommendations on the findings of the research undertaken by Young Scot. Rocket Science worked with Young Scot to design and develop the event. The young people analysed the initial findings and added to the debate, making recommendations for future actions. One of the key recommendations was the need to fund young people's ideas. The announcement of the £20,000 Arts Action Fund, funded by the Scottish Arts Council, shows how appropriate involvement of young people can affect change.
Expressing Themselves - the final report of the consultation - was published 2 March 2005. The report details the outcome, and includes feedback from young people collected throughout the consultation. Key findings from the research show:
most young people in Scotland believe the arts are creative and fun
most young people take part in or attend arts activities
there are a number of different things which influence young people's decision not to take part in arts activities
young people have lots of ideas about how to improve the arts in Scotland and make them better for young people.
If you or anyone you know is interested in applying for this fund, or for more information, please contact the Arts team at Young Scot by emailing arts@youngscot.org. If you would like a copy of the report please go to: http://www.youngscot.org/loudandclear/index.asp?id=37&sr=826&a=d
For further information on Rocket Science's knowledge on supporting this type of initiative please contact Debbie Adams
Relax
'Very worthwhile content and a relaxed and friendly learning environment' was just one of the positive comments we received from satisfied delegates after our recent training course on Mainstreaming. Next up - learn about Developing and Managing Financial Systems, or find out more about our other training opportunities. E-mail Ruth Evans or click here
What date is it?
Here's this month's quiz: Disney is negotiating with the Russian government to buy the embalmed body of communist leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, with the intention of putting it on display in a controversial new attraction at Euro Disney. What date is it?
Christmas quiz results
Congratulations to David Anderson of East Dunbartonshire Council who guessed that Johnnie Walker received an 'haute couture' make-over. As it was Christmas when we ran this quiz, a prize is winging its way to you.