Social Value Lab is pleased to announce the launch of the new Partners for Change programme, an initiative designed to build local, positive relationships between Public and Third Sector partners and to tackle the barriers to intelligent commissioning head on.
The objectives of Partners for Change are:
- To bring about a shared understanding and improved communications between the Public and Third Sectors
To recognise barriers to engagement and how to overcome these. - To enable Public Sector Partners to gain a better understanding of what they can do to get more from commissioning and procurement processes.
- To enable the Third Sector to gain a better understanding of what opportunities exist and how to access them.
- To collaboratively develop and implement a Commissioning Improvement Plan.
The programme has been developed jointly by Social Value Lab and the Institute for Voluntary Action Research (IVAR). It is based on an established model, which has shown transformational results in more than 50 local authority areas.
The Partners for Change programme consists of:
- Three intensive half-day workshop sessions for mixed groups of 15-25 Public Sector Service Directors, Commissioning and Procurement staff, and representatives from leading Third Sector providers. The outcome of the sessions is a fully developed, action-oriented Commissioning Improvement Plan.
- Ongoing mentoring and advisory support to make progress in delivering on key actions around sustainable procurement and intelligent commissioning.
A fourth and final session, to take place after an agreed period of time to review progress against the Commissioning Improvement Plan and agree the next steps for partnership development.
The programme is now being delivered as part of the Scottish Government’s ‘Developing Markets for Third Sector Providers’ programme. Partners for Change can be tailored to the needs of individual public authorities, support through the programme is currently available free of charge to public bodies in Scotland.
For further information about the programme please contact Jonathan Coburn (Director, Social Value Lab) at jonathan@socialvaluelab.org.uk or on 0141 352 7419.
