The document discusses the importance of building mutual trust between public, private, and voluntary sectors, particularly in Southwark, which has a high number of third sector organizations. It outlines the approach of the Southwark council to support voluntary groups through a £1.5m Transition Fund aimed at helping organizations become sustainable amidst changing funding landscapes. Additionally, it highlights the Southwark Circle social enterprise model, which fosters community involvement and addresses issues such as social isolation and loneliness.

1. Charity Finance Directors’ Group
Building a relationship of mutual
trust between the sectors
Thursday 12 May 2011
Annie Shepperd

2. Building a relationship of trust
• Relationships between public, private, and voluntary
sectors have always been important
• Aim is now to develop relationships of mutual trust
• Focus on transformation – old order is under attack
• Encourage independence and resilience
• How does the old order respond?
• By contracting, the voluntary sector is competing like
the private sector

3. The Southwark Experience
• Southwark has twice the number of third sector
organisations per capita than the national average
• Some organisations have become dependent on
Council funding
• Some organisations changing – reinventing
themselves
• Some object
• Some delaying
• Some negotiating
• Some don’t or won’t survive

4. Our approach in Southwark
• What is our mutual purpose and how to have
mutual trust
• Transition Fund to support change
• Streamlining commissioning
• Regular liaison meetings
• Sharing premises, reducing costs
• Southwark Circle – the new model of social
enterprise

5. Transition Fund
• £1.5m over 2 years for organisations to
support change
• To support voluntary groups to transform
their organisations to be sustainable
organisations in the current climate
• Not intended to replace lost funding or cover
running costs for existing service delivery
• Challenge, what are we doing, why?

6. Transition Fund
• Development of fundraising strategies/funding bids
• Support with business plan development
• Enabling development of mergers and collaborations
• Enabling sharing of back office costs/shared services
• Development of initiatives that will support third sector
organisations to engage with the personalisation agenda
• New models of service provision/innovation/ doing it
more effectively and efficiently/ and realising savings

7. Commissioning
• Ongoing work to bring consistency across the
Council in how we approach commissioning
• Making the process simpler and removing
transactional costs
• Desire to commission more strategically and
avoid duplication
• Organisations are in competition with one
another (private sector does this well)

8. What we are doing well
• The Council has a quarterly VCS liaison meeting
• Strategic approach to our relationship with the VCS
• Also able to problem solve at an early stage
• Good mutual relationship
• Sharing intelligence

9. Change led and managed by the
voluntary sector
• Led by Community Action Southwark (umbrella
organisation for VCS)
• Collaboration and consolidation of community
premises
• Three tier model
- Hub and spoke
- Coordinated hubs and spokes
- Lattice foundation
• The voluntary sector facing up to the challenges

10. Southwark Circle – social enterprise
model
• Membership organisation
• Many things are provided as a service (e.g. DIY, walking clubs)
• Some things you contribute to financially (e.g. a meal is cooked for
you in your own home)
• Some things you pay for (e.g. trips out to the theatre, lunches,
cleaning)
• Its fundamental aim is to socially connect people through community
involvement and capacity building
• Self-selection and self-assessment
• People ask for practical help, but then become socially connected
• Tackling loneliness