ANNEX A
VCS Infrastructure Support - Early Spend Programme
A £6.5 million boost to the Community & Voluntary infrastructure
organisations across England to help them work together, communicate better
and have a stronger voice in policy-making was announced by Home Office
Minister Fiona Mactaggart in December last year.
The programme is the first part of the Government’s £80 million investment in
the country’s voluntary and community organisations to enable them to gear
up to help shape and deliver high quality public services.
“Early Spend” funding has been allocated to the East of England1 from both
the Home Office and Defra to support the development of this work across the
region. This ‘early spend’ is for funding up to June 2004. Both the Home
Office and Defra plan investment in the development of the infrastructure
beyond this early spend programme. Details of funding after June 2004 will
be announced shortly. The intention is to maintain synergy between the two
strands.
The Early Spend Programme aims to kick-start the development of sector
infrastructure and capacity building that supports the voluntary and community
organisations and helps them to engage communities more effectively;
including increasing involvement in delivering and shaping public services and
encouraging volunteering.
The programme is concerned with strengthening and improving existing
infrastructure and identifying and tackling ‘gaps’ in infrastructure and capacity
building services. It is also an opportunity to secure the commitment of
diverse funding agencies to the development of the VCS infrastructure.
Government Office for the East of England (GO-East) has convened an Early
Spend Advisory group to help administer the fund. The Advisory Group
currently consists of representatives from GO-East, COVER, MENTER, Rural
Action East, EERA, EEDA , VYSER and the Funders Forum. The Advisory
Group has agreed the following allocation of funds;

County consortia
Up to £40,000 per county (£ 240,000 in total) made available for the
development of six county level VCS infrastructure consortia to cover
shire county boundaries, including where appropriate Unitary
Authorities, and the development through the consortia of a county
infrastructure plan. Further details below.
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The East of England comprises the six counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex,
Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk and the four unitary authorities of Luton, Peterborough, Southendon-Sea and Thurrock
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
Bidding round
A minimum of £380,000 available through a bidding round for a limited
number of ‘development’ and ‘exemplar’ projects which will build the
capacity of the VCS infrastructure in the region. Further details below.

Mapping
Additional funding has been allocated by the Home Office via the
Government Office to carry out ‘mapping’ exercises in selected service
areas and localities. This funding may be used for mapping activity in
addition to the mapping work conducted by consortia, or development
or exemplar projects. A further announcement will be made on this
once a mapping strategy has been agreed.
County consortia
All county based VCS infrastructure organisations identified by the
Government Office will be invited to form a consortium of infrastructure bodies
within the county, including those operating at shire district and, where
appropriate, unitary authority level, to make a joint proposal as to how they
plan to strengthen support for voluntary and community organisations,
community capacity and volunteering within the area. Consortia will need to
demonstrate close collaboration between the known generalist support
agencies within the VCS within each region. Additionally it will include
representation from specialist infrastructure groups. If any gaps of
representation are identified, concerted efforts will be made to fill these gaps.
Up to £20,000 per county is available from Defra during the initial period (to
25 June) and up to £20,000 from Home Office Early Spend. Members of the
partnership should agree to work together to develop the proposal and to
nominate one of their number to receive the funds on their behalf.
Initial funds for the period January – June 2004 are for forming the
consortium, establishing needs, creating a framework-work for identifying and
drafting delivery proposals. They will not support permanent posts or setting
up of major projects – funds are for development of feasibility work to inform
the development of longer term initiatives. The following types of activity
could be supported during this development phase:
 Sharing of good practice, including successful agencies supporting the
development of improved infrastructure in weaker areas;
 Identifying local needs, gaps and duplication;
 Increasing collaboration and strategic working between infrastructure
agencies, including on policy work, information and services; and
building more effective links between generic and specialist
infrastructure;
 Establishing service delivery consortia or partnerships, including those
that bring together large and small organisations to build knowledge,
capacity, and funding/procurement opportunities
 Further development of initiatives that are already demonstrating
success;
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 Development of proposals for new or reconfigured capacity building
services and initiatives, including use of feasibility studies or piloting,
‘market testing’ demand, research, consultation, and consultancy;
 Feasibility or ICT projects that develop co-ordination, coherence or web
based resources, including for information and advice services and
learning materials.
The funding available is an amalgam of both the Defra and Home Office
Infrastructure early investment programme. The consortia will be invited to
put forward proposals for integrating and strengthening local infrastructure
within their area. The plan will need to focus on rural, urban and rural/urban
interface areas and issues. The Government recognises that there is a rich
mix of urban and rural activity and organisations on the ground and has no
wish to promote artificial divides between town and county. For this reason
the consortium will need to consider the infrastructure provision for both town
and county if the consortia wants the full £40,000 for development.
Consortia will also be able to bid for Exemplar and Development funding
through the bidding round announced – details below.
The expectation is that the consortia will adopt a strategic role and take a
longer term view when putting together these proposals. Although Home
Office funding is to be confirmed, Defra are committed to further funding of the
consortia.
Funding will be available to the consortia after June 2004, Defra have already
announced additional funding for the period July 2004 – March 2006 to all
consortia submitting proposals meeting threshold criteria. – full details will be
available in the guidance to be published 13 February.
Consortia should submit a budget proposal and some simple milestones for
this early spend by 12 March 2004. The county infrastructure plan may be
submitted at any time before 25 June 2004. Guidance for the budget
proposal and the county infrastructure plan will be published by 13 February.
Exemplar and Development Funding
Voluntary and Community Sector infrastructure organisations which operate
at a district, county, unitary, sub-regional or regional level are invited to submit
applications for ‘development’ or ‘exemplar’ projects.
Funding in the order of £5,000 - £30,000 per proposal will be available
through the two strands. Projects will need to be completed by end of June
2004 and there is no commitment to fund any project beyond June 2004.
Organisations applying should normally do so in partnership with others, and
those supported by the county consortia will be given weight in the selection
criteria.
Development Projects
This strand is targeted at local areas and parts of the sector with little or no
infrastructure. Development projects will bring players together to explore the
potential for establishing infrastructure support to Voluntary and Community
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organisations. This includes bringing together VCOs, public bodies and VCS
funders, perhaps in a steering group, to draw up a development and
investment plan. This work should build upon existing developments where
possible. Examples of the types of activity that could be supported include;
 Consulting VCOs that deliver public services to produce evidence of
infrastructure support needs.
 Exploring sustainable funding and income earning opportunities with
potential funders, including match funding
 Drawing up proposals for sustainable infrastructure development
 Mapping work to build intelligence on what VCS infrastructure exists
and what is needed
 VCS and public sector partnership development, including
development of support for the VCS role in improving public services
and citizen participation.
This work could be undertaken by a range of voluntary and community
organisations, including successful infrastructure agencies, or consultants.
Exemplar Projects
This strand is for supporting new ideas, ways of working, collaboration,
including building on and replicating what works in areas with more effective
and stable VCS infrastructure. It is aimed at areas and infrastructure with
good investment and a successful track record of delivery.
Priority will be given to projects impacting on ‘cross cutting themes’ identified
by the Infrastructure Strategy;
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Information and communication technology (ICT)
Volunteering
Social Enterprise
Black and minority ethnic (BME) communities
Rural
Community Development
Projects could;
 Consolidate, complement and increase the effectiveness of existing
provision. e.g successful VCS infrastructure supporting infrastructure
in weaker areas; effective networking and co-ordination of ‘frontline’
community development, community development, volunteer support
and expert advisor staff.
 Support organisations – including infrastructure organisations – to work
together more collaboratively. E.g. Joint ventures, merger, sharing
premises or other facilities, establishing service delivery consortia
 Market test, pilot or roll out new approaches to delivery and capacity
building.
 Bring about long-term change in how infrastructure support services
are delivered, to increase access, effectiveness, efficiency and
sustainability.
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Time Table
Guidelines and application form published by 13 February 2004
Deadline for applications 12 March 2004
Decisions announced by 22 March 2004
Projects completed by end June 2004
Selection Process
The advisory group will act as the selection panel and will make the selection
with GO-East holding the final decision. Panel members will declare any
interest and will not be involved in the decision of any projects they have an
interest in.
Enquiries should be made to;
Clare Witcombe
GO-East
Shaftesbury Road
Cambridge
Tel: 01223 372606
Cwitcombe.go-east@go-regions.gsi.gov.uk
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