Home Reach – Community Recycling Network Scotland (CRNS)

Name of key contact: Ian Gulland

Address: Suite 27, Wellgreen Place, Stirling FK8 2DZ

Tel. 01786 469002

Email: iain@crns.org.uk

Web address: www.crns.org.uk

In a nutshell

At CRNS we work across Scotland. Our members are voluntary organisations involved with community-based recycling. We managed the development of Home Reach, a Public Social Partnership (PSP). PSPs are a new way of designing and delivering public services. The PSP approach was used to design and provide emergency furniture services for people who are homeless.

For this PSP we brought together three recycling projects: Beulah, RECAP, and St. Patrick’s Furniture Project with North Lanarkshire Council. We hoped to learn more about PSPs by actually forming one. And to increase opportunities for voluntary organisations to win contracts from the local authority. It was also important that we design a service which provided emergency furniture packs and helped to recycle furniture.

This work was part of the Social Economy Scotland (SES) programme. SES was a Development Partnership funded by the European Community’s EQUAL initiative

What are the issues?

• Voluntary organisations are often short of resources.

• They may also duplicate each other’s work.

• Officers who procure services may not understand the benefits of working with the voluntary sector.

• Voluntary organisations do not always feel in a strong position to compete for contracts.

• Vulnerable or disadvantaged individuals or families moving into Council tenancies often have no furniture and cannot afford any.

• Tenants leaving a tendency may not have anywhere safe store to store furniture.

• Too much waste is going to landfill. Good quality but unwanted furniture forms a significant part of this. Local authorities have a responsibility to reduce this.

What we did

We spent some time talking to North Lanarkshire council with the support of Forth Sector before getting started. Forth Sector are a social enterprise who use their own experience to provide support to other organisations. They initially advised on how to go about setting up a PSP. Later in the pilot, they chaired the Steering Group and helped to work out the costs for the services. We appointed a Development Officer who was responsible for coordinating and supporting the organisations involved in the PSP. The work of the PSP was directed by two separate groups – the Steering Group and the Service Design Group.

The Steering Group was made up of representatives from four departments within the Council including Housing, Social Work, Economic Development and Community Services (Waste Management).

The Service Delivery Group included representatives from the three voluntary organisations already involved in recycling, to design a service which would satisfy the needs of the services users. They met with service users, local authority staff and other agencies to help with this.

The development officer worked with both groups, initially acting as an intermediary. Meetings between the groups helped the work move forward in a joined-up way. As development progressed the two groups worked more closely together.

The PSP developed three key services:

• Providing emergency furniture packs – for vulnerable or disadvantaged individuals or families who are moving into Council tenancies, possibly when being re-housed or moving from homelessness

• Storage of furniture when a tenancy ends suddenly – if a tenant leaves property behind, if they suddenly end a tenancy or are evicted, the Council has a responsibility to log, pack and store the items for 6 months.

• Permanent furniture packs for people who are not eligible for Community Care Grants – these are for individuals and families moving into new local authority tenancies. They are not eligible for emergency packs or grants which can be spent on household goods but cannot afford to buy furniture.

Our outcomes

• The three voluntary organisations have increased their confidence, and overcome their concerns about their ability to provide these services.

• The consortium has provided 300 packs within time and budget. This has generated over £200,000 of income for them and created the equivalent of 12 full-time jobs.

• There is now much better communications between the service delivery organisations and North Lanarkshire Council.

• Senior staff from different departments at the Council - Housing, Social Work Planning, and Environment Services - have been involved and committed.

• Services for tenants have improved. Those who receive permanent furniture packs can now choose their own furniture.

One great thing – working together to change attitudes

The best thing about this pilot has been how attitudes have changed. In the past voluntary organisations were not generally seen as being professional or effective. The way Homereach has operated and the high quality service provided has helped change this.

Lessons learnt

• It takes a long time to build a PSP to the point where it can start to bid for contracts.

• Because Voluntary organisations are often able to be more flexible than local authorities, they may be able to move developments forwards at a faster pace. But ultimately development on both sides has to move forward together.

• Voluntary organisations may need a great deal of capacity building support and resources. Ours required more than we had predicted.

• The role of development officer in coordinating activities, meetings and support is central to the success of a PSP.

• It is important to be clear about the roles and responsibilities of the Steering Group and the Service Design Group, particularly in the management of the project.

• Good communication between the two groups is essential as they need to work closely together and know what each other is doing.

• When forming a PSP it is important to make sure all of the organisations involved are allowed to pursue other activities when appropriate. And that throughout any joint work they still keep their own different identities and ethos.

• It may take time to find the right legal structure for the organisations who are coming together to provide the service.

• It is important to know the situation and how things work within the council. Internal barriers can be the biggest hold up to development of the work.

• Using the PSP approach requires funding for the development phase and any ongoing development of the PSP, for example the staff costs of a development officer. Organisations should also take account of the costs of allowing staff to be involved in the long process of building the PSP when there is no short term financial benefit.

• Other costs may include training costs to each organisation to make sure they have the right skills to deliver public services.

• Full cost recovery should be built in from the start.

What next

• One of the voluntary organisations (RECAP) will establish Homereach as a trading arm which will sub-contract work to the other two organisations. The CRNS has been supporting them to do this.

• The CRNS will continue to provide support throughout this tendering process.