NOMS Co-Financing Organisation
Social Enterprise Programme
The past, the present
and the future
Introduction
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NOMS Co-financing Organisation and the European Social Fund (ESF)
have committed a total of £280m of funding over 6 years (Jan 2009 –
December 2014) to prepare and support over 120,000 offenders, in the
community and in custody, to access mainstream employment services
and ultimately gain employment.
•
The ultimate intention of the NOMS/ESF Co-financing programme is to
reduce the rate of reoffending
•
The funding provides a range of education and employment activities
which complement existing provision currently available in prisons and
probation as well as mainstream employment programmes such as
those delivered through Jobcentre Plus, the Work Programme and the
Offender Learning and Skills Service (OLASS).
•
Offenders on release from prison, including short sentence prisoners
are provided with support to help them secure employment.
Funding Structure
•
NOMS CFO presently contracts to 9 Prime Providers to deliver our services
to offenders.
•
During the life of the programme these Prime Providers have included
private, public and charitable organisations including Serco, SOVA and
Probation Trusts.
•
They cover 12 specific area in England. Using a system of sub-contracting
and spot purchasing.
•
Our Prime Providers have worked with over 120 Tier 3 organisations. These
120+ organisations include a large number of VCSE suppliers.
•
We have successfully worked with a “Payments by Results” model since the
project began in 2009.
NOMS CFO Target Group
Skilled, qualified but unemployed
Unqualified, unskilled
and unemployed
Unskilled, unqualified,
de-motivated, drugs /
alcohol issues,
behavioural issues,
debt problems,
accommodation
problems.
DWP…
SFA…
NOMS CFO
Hard to help group who are currently
not able to access mainstream
provision, and are therefore unable
to return to the labour market
NOMS CFO and the
Social Enterprise Arena
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NOMS first began using European money to develop engagement with the
social enterprise (SE) sector in 2008 and in April 2009, as the Co-financing
Organisation was formed, appointed its first Social Enterprise ‘Champion’
and latterly the Social Enterprise Team, who act as a conduit between the
SE sector and NOMS CFO.
•
We have also worked with the sector when dealing with mainstream NOMS
colleagues via our Social Enterprise Policy Group
•
Social Enterprise activity was funded via the Technical Assistance (TA)
stream of European funding and was specifically for development and
testing of new ways of interacting with offenders to reduce re-offending.
•
TA funding has also supported other engagement activity targeted at
offenders specifically with regards to sustainable development and crosscutting themes.
NOMS CFO & ESF Social Enterprise
Activity
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3 Broad strands of social enterprise activity:
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Action Research – an extensive programme of pilot projects which explored
new delivery methodologies and sustainable funding models
•
Infrastructure Development – work with sector bodies and others to create
and promote a vibrant and diverse market place including specific
Sustainable Development avenues
•
Regional and Pathway Investment – specific budgets for SE Investment
Zones in the targeted areas in England and other activity focused on
housing, diversity and other resettlement pathways
Action Research
To date we have funded:
29 individual projects to explore new delivery methodologies and
sustainable funding models.
Organisation we have worked with and funded include:
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•
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Beyond Youth- business case
Women’s Wisdom-competition
Work this Way-competition
Ubique – business case
Email a Prisoner – business
case
• Framework Housing competition
Infrastructure Development
•Supported Social Enterprise CJS development across England in
developing a regional engagement programme across the UK
•Enthuse the SE market to continue to work with NOMS CFO and develop
further avenues for procurement opportunities
•Enabling a greater visibility for NOMS CFO and NOMS mainstream in the
Social Enterprise market
•Listened to SE’s who wanted greater opportunities to engage with CJS
and NOMS, other than the traditional spot purchase or sub provider
avenue
•Consortia avenue explored by NOMS CFO to try and address these
requests by the market and facilitate greater market development for
essential rehabilitation services. Culminating in the Social Enterprise
Consortia Building exercise.
Regional and Pathway development
Areas within England are provided with additional Social Enterprise support.
These are South West and Cornwall
This funding totals approximately £0.5M of additional support which was
specifically to work with Social Enterprises in these areas.
There has also been additional action funding to highlight social enterprise
activity in the North West and Yorkshire & Humberside.
Activity in these areas include:
Green Future Building: Fish farms, BMX track for able and disabled, Floating
Café
Carlshead Farm: Horticultural qualification
Leeds Market Garden: Production of 10,000 plants for sale to councils and
general public
NOMS CFO
Social Enterprise Consortia Building
Programme
Social Enterprise Consortia Building Programme
As the NOMS CFO SE programme developed and following consultation with the social
enterprise sector it became clear that the sector felt disadvantaged when bidding
for Government contracts because of:
a)
b)
The size of the Government contracts on offer
The size of the typical social enterprise organisations (SME’s)
Because of this perceived impasse the Consortia Building Programme was developed.
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£1.5m to develop robust, self-sustaining consortia capable of delivering Prime, Tier
2 or Tier 3 contracts for public and private contracts within the CJS and outside.
•
This was to be accomplished by the provision of specific training and support
mechanisms which would assist the organisations to form legal consortiums which
would increase the supply chain for Government and private procurement
exercises.
Social Enterprise Consortia Building Programme
Benefits for NOMS CFO/ SE’s of the Consortia Building Programme
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Increase number of potential ‘primes’ in market, with particular focus on
consortia structures which are not grant dependent
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Improve the ability of the SE sector to participate in current and future
delivery of ESF programmes
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Increase SE presence within market/supply chains for a) NOMS CFO; b)
other CFOs; c) services supporting employability support for offenders; and
d) employability support programmes across Government departments
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Develop value or supply chains that also create environmental and social
benefit beyond that experienced by the participants themselves
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Incorporating social value culture into the governments delivery chain.
Social Enterprise Consortia Building Programme
Benefits for NOMS CFO/ SE’s of the Consortia Building Programme cont..
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Enable SME SE’s to participate in Government procurement rounds above
£100k lot value by becoming part of substantive consortium able to meet
the prime provider thresholds or alternatively as significant sub-contractors
•
Increase skill set of SE’s by facilitating consortia combining managerial and
administrative expertise, understanding of support mechanisms for client
group, ability to market offer, commercial acumen and experience of
compliance with ESF requirements
•
Support SE’s in articulation of wider social value of offer to public sector
commissioners
•
Test how enterprises and other organisations can work together to create a
‘value’ or ’supply chain’ that can offer offenders the opportunity to gain skills
and employment (supported by other multi-pathway interventions)
Social Enterprise Consortia Building Programme
The Successful Bidders
NOMS CFO Round 3
2015-2020
NOMS CFO Round 3 2015-2020
• Funding for Round 3 has been confirmed as
£131m for a 6 year offender assistance programme
• As part of the ESF 2014- 2020 programme NOMS CFO
R3 will commence in 2015
• Procurement will commence mid 2014… details TBC
• CFO contracts will be regional, within ESF constraints,
but will be managed at a national level
NOMS CFO Round 3 2015-2020
• Will continue to work with offenders both in
prison and upon release into the community
• Will ensure that it will provide delivery into
prisons which will best complement the aims of
The Rehabilitation Programme
• Work with offenders in the last 12-18 months of
their sentence … although we can work with
offenders up to 3 years before their sentence
ends
NOMS CFO Round 3 2015-2020
• Continue to target those furthest away from
mainstream activity and the employment market
• Focus on offender with multiple barriers and
extremely hard to reach groups e.g. offenders with
disabilities, over 50’s, BME groups and women
• Activity in R3 will be widened to include health,
training and work that strengthens appropriate
family links which will be in conjunction with the
DWP Troubled Families provision
NOMS CFO Round 3 2015-2020
• Payment will continue to be via a “Payment by
Results” process which has been working
successfully for NOMS CFO and its Prime
Providers since 2009
NOMS CFO Round 3 2015-2020
Consultation processes are under way and we are currently engaging
with:
• Prisons
• Probation Trusts
• Other CFO’s
• The Rehabilitation Team at NOMS
• Ministry of Justice
Local Employment Partnerships (LEPs)
ESF are clear that a strong relationship with the 39 LEP’s will be
important and NOMS CFO will implement a process allowing regular
liaison at local level to ensure that work is complementary to their
delivery for offenders.
• For further information please send emails to:
cfo-socialenterprise@noms.gsi.gov.uk
or visit our website at:
www.co-financing.org