"Collaborative Contribution"

Interesting discussion at County Hall on Tuesday between Surrey CC CEO (David McNulty)  and colleagues, a CCG CEO,  and Surrey Charity Chief Executives Group. We were discussing partnership arrangements and the (excellent) principles for co - working that were developed at the first of these meetings last October.I made some opening remarks: that the private-public- charity sectors are becoming blended(see longer piece on website next Monday) and that just about every health issues you mention: obesity, alcohol, mental health self harming is being addressed by the vol sector too. At a time of austerity (ie the forthcoming 2015/16 cuts) there is a need to mine the contribution of the vol sector in what I call "collaborative contribution" rather than the "co- production" expression that is commonly used.

An example from today is the mental health bid that The Youth Consortium is putting in to a GMT to train up youth workers in the early identification of mental  health needs amongst young people. it is also very evident that the access to mental health/counselling support for young people is complex at best, chaotic at worst.

I had a briefing phone call from Surrey CC's Director of Children Schools and Families about items to be discussed at the Children and YP Operational Board that SYF is now joining. I want to raise the mental  health of young people issue.  

West Sussex CC want to hold a conference (at my suggestion) for the voluntary youth sector on the back of our workshop on "preparing for commissioning". WSCC Youth Services are now going down the path of "commissioning for outcomes" too.

We have submitted our bid for Pqasso Level 2  this week. We had the Level 1 QA award (Practical Quality Assurance for Small Organisations ) until last Nov when it expired, so we are re-submitting for assessment at the higher level. We will be visited by external assessor(s) over 1.5 days in the next 6-8 weeks. This is risky for us(and me personally)  but we are quietly confident that we are now a constantly learning, improving, supportive organisation.

Also developed an Interim Business Plan 2014/15 to go to the Board  ...deliberately avoiding anything new,  and just  managing the status quo as the new CEO gets selected on Tuesday if all goes well.

On the domestic front my wife and I are leading on setting up a Food Bank in our church...a sign of the times...and another collaborative contribution.
Mike