FUNDING: £17m to fund 650 community projects

Posted by Joe Gardham on October 27, 2011

The Big Lottery Fund (BIG) has revealed it is to award an additional £50 million of grants to support England's voluntary and community sector through the impact of funding cuts. The funding will be allocated before the end of the financial year, strengthening the sector as it deals with the developing impact of budget cuts.

As part of the funding package, BIG has made £17 million available to fund an additional 650 charitable and community projects through its two main open grants programmes, Reaching Communities and Awards for All. The grants are designed to help the sector meet increased demand for support from communities and individuals most in need.

Additionally BIG will be offering grants of up to £10,000 to close to 1,000 existing BIG grant holders in the last 18 months of their projects to review the way they work and explore ways of becoming more sustainable. This can help the recipients develop a more effective operating model, partnership working, or finding new ways to deliver future projects.

Projects that are having a particularly significant impact will also receive an additional year's worth of funding to continue their project and carry out plans to make their projects more sustainable.

Nat Sloane, Chair of BIG's England Committee, said:

"We have listened to the sector who have made it very clear that the next few months are going to be a very difficult. There is likely to be a gradual and cumulative impact as services reduce or are withdrawn, and household income for some of the poorest and most vulnerable people and families in our society reduces further still.

"We have put a package together in response that allows us to support these services and projects to ensure they are getting the funding when they need it and to help them prepare for the increasingly difficult funding environment."

The full impact on the cutbacks is still to come according to the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) which estimates that voluntary and community groups will face a reduction in public funding of over £900 million by 2016, losing a total of £2.8 billion in that period.

NCVO Chief Executive, Sir Stuart Etherington, welcomed the announcement:

"This funding will provide some welcome relief for the sector during these challenging times, and help voluntary organisations to continue providing vital services."

FUNDING: up to £750,000 capital funding

Posted by Joe Gardham on October 24, 2011

Communitybuilders is looking for up to six of the best, most promising examples of sustainable, community regeneration projects in England to be pioneer investees of the new era of the Communitybuilders Fund.

Communitybuilders welcomes applications from exceptional, established organisations that are able to demonstrate impact in their communities and have credible plans for financially sustainable initiatives.

The minimum investment available is £250,000 and the maximum is £750,000.

Communitybuilders is primarily a loan fund and investments will have a minimum 80% loan element. An interest rate of 5% will be charged on the loan.

All applicants must complete the online eligibility checker in order to access the application pack.

The deadline for applications is 9 December 2011.

Details at: http://www.communitybuildersfund.org.uk/index.php?id=107

FUNDING: new social impact fund for Greater Manchester

Posted by Joe Gardham on October 24, 2011

Not-for-profit organisations providing services of more than local significance across Greater Manchester (Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan) may apply for funding for up to a three year period.

Under the Section 48 Scheme, grants awarded will be made for up to a three year period, unless determined otherwise.

There are two funding options:

• Main funding pot for services to deliver against the new criteria. There are no minimum or maximum amounts and applicants should determine how much funding is realistically needed and provide clear evidence of impact and value for money. The budget will be set at the 16 December 2011 Executive meeting.
• Social Impact Fund to deliver services with social impact outcomes. There are no minimum or maximum amounts. The budget is £100,000.

Proposed activities and organisations must meet one or more of the scheme's three main objectives:

• Contribute to the recognition of Greater Manchester locally, nationally and internationally, helping create the conditions to attract new investment, new visitors and new talent.
• Contribute to improving the skills and employability of Greater Manchester residents, encouraging people to fulfil their full potential.
• Play a strong role in developing strong and inclusive communities, contributing to an improved quality of life and well-being for all residents.

Applicants need to demonstrate an excellent record of achievement as evidence of their potential contribution towards achieving the Greater Manchester priorities as set out within the Greater Manchester Strategy, which are as follows:

• Improve the early years' experience.
• Secure better life chances for all, including those living in the most deprived areas.
• Upskill residents.
• Attract and retrain talented people.
• Improve transport connectivity into and within Greater Manchester to support economic growth.
• Expand and diversify the area's economic base through provision of critical infrastructure.
• Enhance the city's residential offer.
• Enhance the international connectivity of the area's businesses through increased inward investment and international trade.
• Secure a rapid transition to a low carbon economy.
• Create quality places which support economic growth.
• Secure effective governance arrangements.

The deadline for applications is 10 November 2011.

Details at: http://www.agma.gov.uk/agma/units_functions/agma_grants_unit/index....

FUNDING: small grants for social action projects across England

Posted by Joe Gardham on October 17

Community First Fund Launches for Social Action (England)
The £80 million Community First Fund will provide small grants to community groups and local social action projects in England.
The four year fund is designed to help communities come together through new and existing community groups, to identify their strengths and local priorities, plan for their future and become more resilient.
The funding is being administered via two strands; the £50 million Endowment Match Challenge and the £30 million Neighbourhood Matched Fund.
The Neighbourhood Matched Fund will provide small grants for some of the most deprived areas in the country while the Endowment Match Challenge will be available nationally and will match private donations invested in community endowment funds to pay out money for small grants.
For information on the application process for both strands, interested parties are advised to consult the following web link: http://www.cdf.org.uk/web/guest/community-first

COMMISSIONING: offender learning providers needed for Midlands and North

Posted by Joe Gardham

[Source: http://www.ncgrp.co.uk/olass/]

Newcastle College Group/Intraining hold one of the largest SFA contracts within the United Kingdom, and are one of the largest providers of Adult Apprenticeships with vast experience of successfully delivering educational, Skills Training and Welfare to Work Services.

We have an excellent past track record of directly delivering these contracts and working successfully with client groups and other support agencies to deliver measurable and effective results.

Newcastle College Group / Intraining have a clear vision of how to deliver these contracts to best meet the needs of the client and will be submitting competitive and innovative tenders for the following regions:

East Midlands.

• West Midlands.
• Yorkshire and Humber.
• North East.

We are interested in hearing from organisations who have pertinent and relevant experience of working with people in custody/offenders/ex-offenders.

The opportunities to work with us are around 2 main areas, although if you believe you can add value to our proposition outside these areas, we would be delighted to hear from you as well.

1. Sub-Contracted Delivery Partners. Organisations that have the ability, capacity and credibility to support our offering through direct delivery of services as a sub-contractor partner. Obviously your organisation must have a proven and credible track record of dealing with this client group and type of contract. We envisage that the opportunity to work in partnership with ourselves in delivering these services will evolve throughout the life of the contracts and want to hear from organisations that can support us in this either from day one or further down the line as opportunities arise.
2. Specialist Support Organisations. Those of you who provide the additional support services to our clients to enable them to address and overcome specific barriers or needs that enable them to better achieve their goals. Obviously experience in working with and a proven track record of achieving results for these types of clients is essential. We are interested in hearing from and working with those organisations who genuinely help and support our clients both pre and post release from custody.

Our process for this tender round is built on our past experience and processes and the feedback from you, our partners, from past Tender Rounds. As a result, all submissions are to be via our website in a specific electronic format for OLASS. We have purposely kept this Expression of Interest (EOI) as brief as possible to capture at this stage the information which is most relevant to our proposed offering. All EOI’s will be individually reviewed and evaluated on merit. Should we wish to pursue your application further one of our Development team will contact the person named in the EOI directly.

To register your interest, please click on the link below and complete the form provided.

Online Expression of Interest Form

COMMISSIONING: mentoring service at HMP Norwich

• Posted by Joe Gardham on October 14, 2011 at 3:56pm in Funding

Mentoring Project HMP Norwich
Reference number: 1544-1-Reducing Reoffending-SE-RFI
Deadline date: 27/10/2011
This deadline is for... Expression of Interests
Value: £60,750 - £81,000
Main site of work/delivery: East of EnglandHMP Norwich, Knox Road, Norwich, Norfolk, NR1 4LU
Is this suitable for smaller suppliers? Yes
Name of the buying organisation: Ministry of Justice (MoJ) Procurement - CMT L&SE


Description of the contract
The Mentoring Scheme will support men serving short sentences, older prisoners and those on the ‘Chaplefeild Project released from HMP Norwich is intended to help with problems relating to accommodation; education training and employment; health; drugs and alcohol; finance benefits and debt; and children and families. By doing this the scheme intends to help men to lead offence free lives. The budget allocated to this Contract is £27,000 per annum.

Documents
Service Specification (Mentoring Sepc Norwich.doc, 370kb) SEE BELOW

Classification of the contract
75231200 - Services related to the detention or rehabilitation of criminals

Additional information
What the notice is for: Services - Unspecified
Is this contract a framework agreement or part of one? No
Is this contract related to a programme of funding? No
The contract will be awarded based on... Most economically advantageous tender in terms of: The criteria stated in the contract documents
Length of contract: 01/01/2012 - 31/03/2014

Contact details
Contact name: Kerry Chon
Address: Clive House, 70 Petty France, London, London, SW1H 9HD
Email: RPU.LondonSouthEast@noms.gsi.gov.uk

How to apply
The Ministry of Justice will be running this process through its eSourcing Portal. The eSourcing Portal is an online application that allows all potential suppliers to create and submit their responses to any Requests for Information, Requests for Quotes, or Requests for Proposals via the internet rather than in paper form (where they have been invited to respond). The eSourcing Portal will also be used by the Ministry of Justice to run Reverse Auctions. If you are not registered on the eSourcing Portal please send an email to the relevant buyer as stated in the notice/advert or to steve.mcgarvie@noms.gsi.gov.uk stating: Company Name, Your Name, Contact email & Sourcing Reference Number: 1544-1-Reducing Reoffending-SE-RFI. The buyer will then contact you with the registration process. If you are already registered on the eSourcing Portal, please contact the relevant Buyer expressing your interest in the sourcing event. The buyer will contact all providers whom have expressed an interest in the tender by email on 31st Oct outlining the next stage of the procurement process. Transparency: HM Government requires that tender documentation issued by government departments for contracts with a value exceeding £10,000 over the life of the contract are published online (www.businesslink.gov.uk) for the general public. The resulting contract shall also be published. The Ministry of Justice may use its discretion to redact information to protect key commercial interests or on prescribed grounds. Therefore, bidders who wish information not to be published if successful should secure agreement with the Ministry of Justice prior to submission. Only documentation relating to awarded contracts will be published. Key commercial interests would be trade secrets and commercial interests which would be prejudiced by publication, following the tests in section 43 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. http://www.justice.gov.uk/guidance/docs/foi-exemption-s43.pdf The prescribed grounds for redaction are: (a) national security; (b) personal data; (c) information protected by intellectual property law; (d) information which it is not in the public interest to disclose (following the tests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000) (e) third party confidential information; (f) IT security; or (g) prevention of fraud

COMMISSIONING: Provision of Services to Visitors in East & West Midlands and North West England

• Posted by Joe Gardham on October 14, 2011 at 4:03pm in Funding

Provision of Services to Visitors in East & West Midlands and North West England

Reference number: 1551-1-Reducing Reoffending-SE-RFP

Deadline date: 01/11/2011

This deadline is for... Receipt of Expressions of Interest

Value: £500,000 - £1,000,000

Main site of work/delivery: England - East & West Midlands and North West England

Is this suitable for smaller suppliers? Yes

Name of the buying organisation: Ministry of Justice (MoJ) Procurement - CMT L&SE

The Ministry of Justice is seeking Expressions of Interest from Prospective Providers interested in participating in the tender for the provision of Prison Visitors’ Services in the East & West Midlands and North West England.

Prison visitor’s centres offer visitors a wide range of support and information. Prospective Providers will be asked to demonstrate how they would contribute to this and to include links with provision in the community to support the needs of offenders and their families including initiatives such as community budgets.

The Service to be tendered will comprise one or more of the following elements as specified within the Specification, Benchmarking and Costing guidance which can be viewed by following the link provided with this document:

• Visits (to include provision of: refreshments in the Visitors’ centre and visits room; and children play area in the visits room) The Visits Service enables prisoners to maintain contact with friends and family and legal or professional advisers. The service operates in such a way as to provide a decent and conducive environment for the visit, whilst maintaining the appropriate level of security for the establishment. No member of the public, or prisoner should be put at risk as a consequence of a visit to a prisoner. Visits room play areas exist to provide an opportunity for children visiting prisoners to engage in play in sight of their parents, or appropriate accompanying adult, and under the care of suitable staff and/or volunteers.
  
  • Key outcomes • The service supports the maintenance of family ties and outside contacts • The service is decent and supports and enhances the visits experience • Social and Professional visitors and prisoners are, as a minimum, able to meet in person • The service supports the maintenance of security, order and public protection including preventing escapes • All processes support the discharge of Prison’s responsibility to safeguarding children Visits +The play area facility will be available during all the agreed domestic visiting hours.
• Visits Booking: The Visits Booking Service allows Social and Professional visitors to arrange a time whereby they can meet with a specific prisoner. The service quickly and efficiently matches the visitor and prisoner to the available visits capacity and in a way which balances convenience and accessibility for the visitor with the need for efficiency and security.
  
  • Key outcomes • Social and Professional Visitors are able to book a visit • The visits booking process is accessible and user friendly • The visits booking process supports and enhances the visits experience • The visits booking process supports the maintenance of security and public protection.

• Services for visitors and Enrichment Activity. There is an area at each establishment for visitors to wait in prior to a visit and where provision is made for the secure storage of personal possessions and for the anonymous disposal of illicit items. There is opportunity to receive visits and support information and to provide feedback regarding the visits experience. There are refreshments available to purchase during the visit.
  
  • Key outcomes • Visitors to prisoners have a decent, indoor area, in which to sit and wait in prior to a visit. • The service supports and enhances the visits experience • There is opportunity to receive information on a range of issues. • Personal Property can be securely stored and illicit items disposed of. + Refreshments can be purchased. + Facilities for children to play whilst waiting to visit a prisoner. + A family support worker is available to support families.
  • Enrichment Activity Maintaining strong relationships with families and children can play a major role in helping offenders to make and sustain changes that help them to avoid re-offending. This is difficult because custody places added strains on family relationships. Key outcomes To provide enrichment activity services that support children or young people with a parent or close relative in prison and offenders who need parenting interventions, family liaison or support.

Length of Contract: 36 months

Contact name: Ame Dada

Address: Procurement Directorate, 2nd Floor Clive House, 70 Petty France, , London,, London,, SW1H 9HD

Telephone: 03000475918

The full Contract Notice has been published on Contracts Finder at:

http://www.contractsfinder.businesslink.gov.uk/