Proposed criteria for Voluntary and Community sector investment 2011-12
On 9 March 2011 Manchester City Council approved its budget for the coming year. The budget sets out how the Council intends to make £109 million of savings over the next financial year, rising to £170m in 2012/13.
The Directorate for Adults is expected to contribute to the necessary savings. As part of the overall strategy for bringing expenditure in line with the budget settlement, funding levels for all schemes presently funded within the Voluntary and Community sector will be considered.
Services provided by the Voluntary and Community sector currently include:
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Carers' Grant funded services
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Wellbeing Grant funded services
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BME meals services
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Physical Disability services (including services for people with HIV/AIDS)
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Learning Disability services
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Older People's Services
(Those services provided under Supporting People funding are being considered separately, in line with their own budget position).
It is not felt appropriate to impose a blanket percentage reduction across all third sector organisations. Instead we are proposing a methodology be used to enable a fair allocation of resources to all Voluntary and Community sector organisations and to ensure priorities are given to strategically relevant services. This is subject to consultation and may change.
Achieving value for money - proposed methodology
Cost/quality criteria
It is proposed to assess "quality" and "cost" to determine value for money and to use the results of that assessment to determine funding priority.
Assessment - quality - 50 marks
It is proposed that consideration be given to:
(i) Strategic Relevance - 30 marks
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Does the service contribute to Manchester 's Community Strategy?
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Does the service deliver a statutory duty i.e. a service to a customer with assessed needs under Fairer Access to Care?
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What evidence exists to support the ongoing investment in services, and potential cost benefits?
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Does the service contribute to the following?
- Tackling worklessness
- Preventing dependence and supporting independence and self-determination
- Prevention and early intervention
- Personalisation
- Supporting families and adults with complex needs
- Supporting recovery from crisis
(ii) Performance - 20 marks
- Provision of monitoring / performance information
- contribution to outcomes evidenced by performance information
Assessment - costs - 50 marks
It is proposed that consideration be given to:
- Are there services which could be available elsewhere, or through other means which can be delivered more cost effectively?
- How does the cost of provision compare to providers of similar services compared to outcomes? This will be based on unit cost per head
Weighting
In order to evaluate value for money, it is proposed that quality and cost is weighted equally 50-50. Each individual element will also be weighted
Equality Impact Assessment (EIA)
Manchester City Council recognises the duty to assess the impact on equality of our services, functions and policies, with particular regard to race, gender and disability.
It is recognised that an Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) should be an integral part of service planning to be carried out whenever the Council plans, changes or removes a service, policy or function.
Equalities issues as well as the criteria for investment will be considered as part of the consultation process
Once the criteria have been applied proposals for commissioning and decommissioning services will be subject to a detailed Equalities Impact Assessment to be taken into account before any final decision is made in order to reduce the risk of a disproportionate impact upon any group.
The Voluntary and Community sector is funded through different funding streams, at different levels and with different strategic priorities. Some services meet the needs of customers where the Council has a statutory duty as a result of a care assessment, others support statutory provision. Other services are defined as preventative and have been commissioned as a result of evidence that shows a cost benefit to the City's economy. A proposed methodology has been devised to take into account these differences.