Young Lives Bradford Consortium

Proposal for Support to BMBC onthe Co-Design of the Early Support Contract

The YLBC Business Model

YLBC is designed to bring a wide range of frontline VCS providers in Bradford into a single tendering and bidding structure. It is the local sector’s response to the growing need to collaborate in order to bid for and manage typically larger scale, broader ranging and more complex contracts, which are beyond the scale and scope of individual frontline organisations operating purely independently.

The Co-Design Opportunity

YLBC has secured some grant funding (a sum total of £11,000) from The Social Investment Business to invest in service co-design activities.

We propose, therefore, to expend this resource on supporting BMBC to co-design the forthcoming Early Support contract (see Appendix 1 for YLBC’s credentials).

What YLBC would do

YLBC, drawing in suitable external expertise, as necessary and appropriate, would lead on the co-design process from the VCS side, bringing relevant VCS providers to the table and facilitating them to input their ideas and shape service design. Practically, this would include convening meetings, organising and facilitating co-design sessions, liaising with the commissioner, and writing up reports on session outcomes.

Co-design behaviours

A key focus for YLBC would be to act as the custodian of certain co-design behaviours, which will be essential to the ultimate success of the co-design exercise:

•Commitment to shared mission – better outcomes for service users

•Sector/universal perspective

•Enlightened self-interest

•Anti-collusion

•Openness, integrity and honesty

•Confidentiality/non-disclosure

Context to Service Co-design

•Financial austerity – drive for new, more cost-effective ways of commissioning and delivering public services

•Joint working as a route to innovation and improvements in service outcomes

•Joint working as a route to ‘whole person’-based interventions

•Asset-based approaches

•Social Added Value and wider USP’s of the VCS, e.g. use of volunteers

Indicative Co-Design Process

  1. Needs Analysis & Gap Analysis
  1. Targeting strategy (population analysis)
  1. Outcomes
  1. Interventions (Service Model)
  1. VFM framework
  1. Evaluation framework

The first 3 stages are the most important in the co-design process. In fact, BMBC may prefer to limit the terms of reference of the co-design exercise to those first 3 stages. In any case, a clear firewall will be inserted between co-design, on the one hand, and commissioning and procurement, on the other, and this firewall/boundary will be transparent to all parties involved.

Identifying Outcomes

With respect to identifying and agreeing the outcomes to be achieved, a number of approaches/tools could be deployed such as Theory of Change and Outcomes Based Accountability.

Next Steps

YLBC representatives would welcome the opportunity to meet with BMBC commissioners to discuss and plan how the co-design process would work in practice.

Appendix 1: YLBC’s Credentials

YLBC is uniquely positioned to perform this co-design leadership/facilitation role, being a membership-based organisation with over 40 of the key voluntary sector service providers in the city within membership, with this number continuing to grow all the time.

We are unswervingly committed to being owned and led by our membership, at the same time as driving up standards and creating a step change in business capability across the local VCS supply base.

We are developing a culture of trust across the consortium, encouraging member organisations to come together and break down inter-organisational cultural barriers in order to strengthen and improve outcomes for our service users, and want to carry this trust-building approach forward into our negotiations with the local authority and other commissioners.

We are gathering first rate intelligence about what consortium members can deliver, as well as where the gaps and areas for development are. This is evidenced by our comprehensive approach to the membership application and vetting process.

We have adopted a whole organisation approach to due diligence and risk management, and want to cascade this over to any work on service co-design.

We are closely linked into the key national agencies that are leading on the development of new ways of commissioning via VCS consortia, including ACEVO and NCVO. Therefore, we have a direct conduit to the latest good practice developments within service co-design at a national level.

YLBC: Co-design Proposal (vi 27 Jan 15)Page 1