Cluster Development The cluster development work will target four sectors, which have been identified as areas of market opportunity and could enhance the commercial viability of social economy organisations. The approach will be to develop clusters in the following sectors:
Childcare
Social care
Community Safety
Environmental / Recycling
The Lanarkshire Quality Standard This pilot aims:
To better understand the current level of Local Authority purchasing from the Social Enterprise Sector in Lanarkshire
To agree minimum standards for enterprise in entering into contractual arrangements
To identify market opportunities in public service delivery for the social economy sector
To increase partnership working between the local authority and social enterprise
To demonstrate “added value” which can be delivered through engaging with the social economy sector
Discussions have taken place regarding quality and impact within childcare cluster and this will be progressed through the EFQM/Big Picture toolkit with childcare organisations. This work will develop over the next couple of months.
Research is being undertaken to identify a baseline and to identify barriers/opportunities for procuring with the Local Authority. Again this is around the four identified growth sectors and will be a mixture of desk top research and focus group discussion with procurers and enterprises. This will inform the cluster development and Lanarkshire Quality Standard.
Aiming High – North Lanarkshire is aimed at sustainability of the Out of School Care Sector through supporting up to 28 organisations through this recognised quality route. This is a partnership arrangement between NLC, Childcare Partnership, Social Economy Team and SOSCN. Twelve sessions will be run over a 12-month period, covering the 16 Quality Standards of Aiming High which must be met in order to attain the award.
Each session will focus on specific quality development areas and will include:
Definition and explanation of the standard
Performance indicators
Evidencing the standards
Cross-referencing
Bench-marking progress
Identifying additional support needs
Networking opportunities
Mentoring support
Three events using the Big Picture Took were undertaken to test the tool in North Lanarkshire and to support organisations through the capacity building process - an individual action plan has been developed for each as a result of each session;
Baseline research has been completed and the EKOS report (copies available on request) has been finalised.
Good progress has been made with the planned bespoke training courses and short seminars which were developed by the team. All events held to date have been very well received with positive feedback. Participants were particularly satisfied with additional exhibitors element of the S2S Sales and Networking event.
ICT Best Practice - 18 organisations attended
Forming and Operating Consortiums - 10 organisations attended
Succession Planning - 12 organisations attended
Funding - 18 organisations attended
Social 2 Social Trading Event - 16 organisations plus exhibitors.
The Social-to-Social trading event was the first ever Lanarkshire exhibition to showcase local products and services from a variety of sectors represented by 30 social economy organisations.
The supplier development programme continues to promote public sector procurement. This is another area where implementation of support for the sector is having significant results.
Work is ongoing in the development of a series of 6 briefing papers which will be posted on our web-site as they are produced. This work is being carried out by EKOS who are updating baseline procurement figures for the North Lanarkshire SEO's contracting with NLC.
In partnership with NLC Procurement team a booklet on contracting with the local authority linked to the Lanarkshire Standard is being developed.
