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Efficient Government Fund

Stage 1 Application

Bid Number

Lead Bidder

Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations Council ( EVOC) - in its capacity as part of the Joint Secretariat to the Edinburgh Compact Partnership ( CP)

Brief Description of the main aims

To develop a web based portal which will deliver improved communications between partners in the Edinburgh Compact and the 1800 voluntary and community sector organisations operating within Edinburgh and, which will support the delivery of significant efficiency savings within these organisations.

Clear Description of what the EGF money would be used to buy

EGF funds would be used to support the following project areas:-

• Phase 1 - Priming research amongst third sector organisations to identify needs, capabilities within the sector and further opportunities for efficiencies;
• Phase 2 - Portal specification and development, hardware installation for network, upskilling, signposting, promotion, and social enterprise set-up.

Partners to the Project Likely to Commit Resources

The potential partners supporting this initiative are those who comprise the Edinburgh Compact Partnership. As this project enables efficiencies to be made by all partners, they have indicated their willingness to support this request, in order to potentially redistribute resources further within the third sector.

Public Sector Partners involved within the Compact Partnership include:-

• Lothian and Borders Police
• NHS Lothian
• The Scottish Arts Council
• City of Edinburgh Council
• Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh & Lothian
• Communities Scotland
• The Big Lottery Fund

The Partnership also includes eight third sector issues representatives from across communities:-

• Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations Council ( EVOC)
• Volunteer Centre Edinburgh
• The Audience Business
• Forth Sector
• Liberton & Area Handicapped Association
• Edinburgh Central CAB
• Canongate Youth Project
• SkillNet.

The Partnership has a series of underpinning principles of co-working, which forms its governance arrangements - these are attached for information.

Names of Other Organisations with whom the Project has been discussed

The project proposal has been considered in discussion with other 'sister' Council's for Voluntary Service, and the providers of current networks within the Local Authority and independent social enterprises which the Platform could complement.

Evidence that Suggested Approach has been deployed successfully elsewhere

While the idea of a specific voluntary sector focused portal of the type proposed in this bid is new, examples of community 'mutual benefit' type portals can be found and include the award winning "myEdinburgh" portal in Edinburgh, the Canadian VictoriaPortal and digitalFife.com.

The "myEdinburgh" portal was developed using "Community Creator" software, designed specifically to allow for the rapid development of distributed web based information sharing and collaboration networks. The City of Edinburgh Council has a license to use this software and would make this available to the Edinburgh Compact if it were identified as the tool for this project.

Are there Any Restrictions to Potential for Enlargement of the Project

We would anticipate that this has the potential to become a model of good practice and could be considered for fit-for-purpose installation elsewhere.

Expansion within Edinburgh

Should the network be installed across the city, it is clear that the initial outline will be achieved and have the capacity to be further developed as customer need evolves, limited to within the city's natural boundaries. The objective is to utilise a tool that will become an indispensable mechanism for information, promotion of good practice and linkages within and between the voluntary and community and public sectors.

Broadening to other areas

It is clear that the principles in relation to locating areas of efficiencies would require cognisance of local structures and capacity, however the principle of a networked third sector would apply across all areas and linkage with public agencies would be of mutual benefit and advantage.

We would suggest that the only restrictions would be:-

• Continual investment and sustainability;
• Utilisation and network capacities;
• Infrastructure and hosting, and;
• Upskilling and remaining contemporary to hard & software development.

Benefits Projected from the Project

While recognising the benefits of the 'MyEdinburgh' system, and with the strategic Compact supporting cultural change and ambition, the need for a more multi-functional installation across the city's 1,800 third sector parties and partner public bodies, is recognised. This forms a core element of the Compact's Action Plan - also attached. Installation of such a minimum standard network would support:-

• better communication and consultation;
• identification of service area gaps;
• best practice promotion, single access to common services, stimulate inter-sector-trading, other key developments, etc.

A reflection of this is the "Changing Up" initiative currently operating within other UK areas.

Overall Project Cost

Most of the costs of the Edinburgh Platform involve 'front-loaded' investment, and by the third year anticipate that the maintenance of the portal will be progressed on a self-financing basis. Potentially undertaken by a newly established social enterprise organisation (community business), that will provide an on going data collection, and reporting service to customers of the Platform. This will operate under the auspices of the Compact Partnership.

The estimates below (2 above) are based on a known voluntary and community sector in Edinburgh consisting of around 1,800 organisations at any one time.

Creating the Portal

• Research and Development - £25,000;
• Costs of creating the portal - i.e. building on and (potentially) further developing the MyEdinburgh software - estimated @ around £200,000;
• Hosting and hardware infrastructure costs - to be identified;
• Marketing and Promotion - £50,000;
• Needs analysis, comprehensive data collection and character mapping exercise - £200,000 (based on a pilot already undertaken);
• on-going maintenance £75,000pa (thereafter covered by efficiency savings in short term and by minimal charging model in longer term - i.e. £50 per 1,800 organisations per annum for hosting of their own individual website within the system = could accrue £90,000 and upwards(fee dependent)

Skilling Up

• Equipment and upgrading to broadband - based on sample data indicating that 40-50% of third sector organisations have no broadband or equivalent facility and 10% are without computers (plus initial training) estimated at £200,000
• Signposting and familiarisation - £5,000

Total potential for the project - subject to Phase 1 priming research to establish efficiencies and networking / installation needs = £755,000 (estimated)

Estimated Projected Benefits

Through initial research and from evidence from the partner agencies to this bid we have identified and estimated a number of potential efficiency savings that are shown below. These illustrate the significant potential efficiency savings that could be derived from within this sector, but given the diverse nature of the organisations covered, further research is required to be undertaken as part of the Stage 2 process, in order to facilitate the identification and more detailed costing of these and other savings opportunities.

Notes on Efficiency Saving Projections.

1 Based on eight large compact partners sending out 2 sector wide circulations per annum costed at £2000 each for postage, printing, envelopes and staff time. Assumes all done by email and web document download by 2009/10 at total annual saving of £32,000.

2 Reduction in research time due to availability of online listing of organisations and service capabilities and ability to undertake informed consultation with voluntary sector. Assumes that each of the large compact partners could save 0.25 FTE per annum through electronic research and consultation with the voluntary sector, giving a total of 2 FTE, or £50,000 saving per annum. Assumes also that each voluntary sector organisation will save 1 days per annum minimum responding to requests for information from "contracting" partners = 1,800days/pa = 8 FTE, or £160,000 ( FTE savings assumes average £25,000 pa staff cost)

3 The portal would be used to provide access to and encourage voluntary sector use of national and/or local e-procurement arrangements. it is assumed that this will deliver an estimated annual average cash saving of £200 minimum per organisation by 2009/10.

4 The portal would provide an online recruitment facility for sector users, linked into any national public sector site which may emerge over the coming years. A typical job advert costs around £600 and most of the larger voluntary sector organisations (approx 400) advertise at least once a year, giving an annual estimated minimum cash saving of £240,000.

5 The portal would seek to provide on-line access to information on funding/grant availability for the voluntary sector and enable on-line completion of application forms. It is estimated that this would save on average 2 days per annum per voluntary organisation = 3,200days/pa = 16 FTE, or £320,000 ( FTE savings assumes average £25,000 pa staff cost)

6 By providing on-line access to information on best practice resources. It is estimated that this would save third party organisations an average of £250pa (minimum) each in cash savings (total £450,000pa) through reduction in need to buy in specialist advice, and 2 days per annum in staff time spent seeking relevant information in these area (= 3,200days/pa = 16 FTE, or £320,000).

Is a Pilot Required

The technology and IT deployment techniques which are likely to be used within this project have already been proven elsewhere and our view is that a pilot is not required. However we would be willing to support roll-out of the project in this way should EGFund consider it appropriate.

Additionality: why is EG funding required

Current resource constraints within the third sector and public sector partners mean that there is limited opportunity to develop the sector-wide infrastructure that communities need.

With the development of Scotland's first multi-agency Compact and an ambitious programme of change and improvements around voluntary, community and public sector relations, and the availability of the EG funding, we have a sound framework to advance key issues that are barriers to the progress and ambitions of the city's third sector. Without this additional front-loaded investment, progress and parity across the sector will remain inhibited and unable to attain efficiencies within public funding constraints.

Does this project complement other EG work

This proposal dovetails the requirements of the EG agenda in the following ways:-

Procurement

The portal would be promoted as the link for the voluntary and community sector into national and local e-procurement arrangements providing savings on goods and services. This promotes the level playing field for such opportunities for this important, but often overlooked sector.

Streamlining Bureaucracy

Through developing more uniform approaches to funding as well as to monitoring and evaluation there will be savings for all participating partners. The project will also allow more efficient and cost-effective consultation and communication. It also has the ability to conduct comprehensive research projects to identify gaps and to support strategic developments in the city.

Shared Back Office Services

The voluntary and community sector often find it difficult to access information and advice on Back Office and support services and the portal would include best practice guidelines and resources for a range of "Back Office Support Services".

The portal could also provide an opportunity to facilitate the development of other services within this diverse sector, e.g:-

• the deployment of on-line, self service tools for elements of these services such as linkages to on-line recruitment
• inter-trading between organisations (larger organisations providing services to smaller)
• the creation of Social Enterprises setup to provide such shared services (for example, the project itself will involve the deployment of ICT training and support to the sector, which could be delivered by existing Social Enterprises)

Is Stage 2 Development Funding Requested

Yes. While we have been able to develop the bid to this stage, it is clear that the bid would require a level of input and technical expertise beyond that which is available within the Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations Council. This is currently estimated at between £40,000 - £60,000 depending on the costs of the source and cost of the consultancy advice required.