South London ChangeUp Infrastructure Development Plan

Improving Services that support voluntary and community groups in South London

In order to develop and consult on the South London sub-regional ChangeUp Infrastructure Development Plan a steering group was formed in June 2005 and has as its members:

Steve Phaure
Croydon Voluntary Action
(representing the SLCVS Partnership)

Christine Seaman
South London Partnership

Andy Norrell
Merton Volunteer Centre
(representing volunteer centres)

Kate White
Superhighways Project

Patricia Anderson
Merton Unity Network
(representing BME networks)

Mary Francis
Learning & Skills Council London South

Ray Field
South West London Strategic Health Authority

Rachel Fryatt
SL CVS Partnership – workforce development

Jacqui Finn
SL CVS Partnership

Sub-regional Activities

The sub-regional plan will develop and extend the work of the South London CVS Partnership which has a well established track record. It will support some of the joint work between the Volunteer Centres and also to strengthen links between Black and Minority Ethnic networks.

Strategic but local

This principal underpins all the work being developed at a sub-regional level. It recognises the value of developing sub-regional strategies to respond to shared needs and issues – but ensure the diverse needs of the sub-region are met through the local delivery of activities. Local delivery ensures activities are accessible, appropriate and responsive to the needs of each borough.

Case Study

ICT Superhighways - Developing ICT capacity on a sub-regional level.
This builds on borough level ICT initiatives and provides a very cost effective model of delivery through the expansion of the Superhighways project. Goals are to base an ICT support worker in each CVS; develop ICT volunteering; integrate ICT capacity building with other CVS development work; develop plans to meet the sector’s ICT training needs and to look at income generation as a way to sustain service delivery. This has links with the London wide ChangeUp ICT project co-ordinated by LASA. Superhighways recently carried out a feasibility study to see if a social enterprise model can help it become more sustainable. ChangeUp is funding some work to take forward recommendations from this study.

At a sub-regional level:
• Strategic policy development
• Model policies and procedures
• Expertise
• Training Co-ordination

At a local level:
•ICT development workers providing technical advice
• Support and training to local groups

Proposed Activities:

To implement the sub-regional Workforce Development Strategy. Funding from ChangeUp and the LSC has been used to employ a manager to take this forward.

To develop and implement a Human Resources Strategy for the sub-region to deliver a co-ordinated strategic service of best practice HR management to frontline organisations. ChangeUp funded an HR specialist to prepare this strategy.

Developing a CVS Model of Excellence. This will build the capacity of each member CVS in the South London CVS Partnership so that they can deliver high quality services to a consistent standard and explore opportunities for greater collaboration and maximise effective use of CVS resources.

Developing use of the SLCVS Partnership Capacity Checking Framework. This will implement the model developed by CVS staff in supporting voluntary and community groups to develop action plans for making service improvements and show fitness for purpose.

Promoting good practice in Volunteering. The Volunteer Centre Network has been funded to do some mapping and work to explore opportunities for collaboration across VCs for enhanced provision of good practice advice and support to front line organisations.

Development support for Black and Minority Ethnic networks to link up more across the sub-region. Croydon BME Forum has coordinated bringing the 6 borough based BME networks together and develop terms of reference and development plan for the next year. This project also links up with the regional ChangeUp project being supported by MINET.

Promoting Social Enterprise, particularly by building capacity of CVS to integrate advice and support in their work.

Rolling out training on full cost recovery.

Widening participation in Learning and building the capacity of the VCS and LSC to work together. Development of a consortium and capacity building support to help organisations to improve their learning services.

The initial plan has been developed and will continue to be updated. It will be subject to annual reviews and developments. To view the plan: Click here...

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