Announcement of Committee Inquiry: Funding of Voluntary Sector Organisations

Llamau’s Response to the Call for Evidence

Background to Llamau

Llamau is a young persons and women’s homeless charity, which has been delivering services to vulnerable, socially excluded homeless and potentially homeless people in South Wales for 21 years.

Llamau: which means 'steps’, 'progression’ or 'threshold’ in old Welsh was originally set up to provide a supported housing service for young offenders. Llamau were recognised at an early stage as specialists in the provision of services to young people.

Whilst we are one of a range of providers in the areas in which we work, Llamau has now become the 'provider of choice’ because of our ability and reputation for working with all young people. We are known for being particularly successful in engaging positively with none engagers - very vulnerable young people, particularly care leavers, young offenders, those at risk of offending and those who may have chaotic and disadvantaged lifestyles and need very high levels of individual support to achieve the skills to live independently and integrate within communities. We succeed in working with young people where other organisations do not.

What Llamau does

Building on 21 years of experience, Llamau currently works in eight local authority areas in Wales (Bridgend, Cardiff, Caerphilly, Merthyr Tydfil, Monmouth Torfaen, Newport and the Vale of Glamorgan). Llamau provides a wide range of supported housing services, women only services, housing advice, bond schemes, an alternative learning programme and family mediation services.

Llamau works with our Local Authority partners bringing to the partnership the significant benefits of our ability to engage and to work with service users in a holistic way supporting their individual needs. Use of the non-statutory sector is more effective as families and young people are more likely to engage with the process and it has the ability to be more flexible i.e. meeting with families when it suits them * (A LITERATURE REVIEW ON MULTIPLE AND COMPLEX NEEDS - Scottish Executive Social Research 2007)

Many of the young people we work with have been involved with the criminal justice system, are in or leaving care, homeless, may be young parents or are facing serious deficits in their education affecting their employment prospects. Often they are facing a combination of these issues.

In each area where we work, Llamau tries to develop an interlinked 'holistic’ range of services - a continuum of provision - from addressing street homelessness through to long-term sustainable independent living. We are doing this quite simply because it is what our service users tell us they need and because providing a full range of provision works, preventing people falling through the net and allowing them to re-try if certain services are not right for them at any one time. This is one of the benefits of being a voluntary sector charitable organisation. Llamau has the freedom to work innovatively, compared with the statutory sector, which is often constrained to working with specific client groups in specific ways.

Llamau:

seeks to resolve any immediate homelessness.
defines the problems that have resulted in homelessness.
re-establishes positive family contact where appropriate.
works to re-integrate the young people with their families where appropriate.
supports our service users to develop living skills.
works with service users supporting them to independence.
ensures service users are getting the statutory service support and financial assistance they are entitled to.
encourages and motivates service users to take up education, training and work and for those not ready for mainstream training we offer our own unique L4L service.

In addition we:

Provide bonds in the Vale of Glamorgan
Provide Young Persons Advisors to looked after young people in the Vale of Glamorgan and Caerphilly

Llamau’s Funding

Supporting People

Llamau’s main source of funding comes from Supporting People, under the centrally administered Supporting People Revenue Grant (SPRG). This grant is essential to Llamau and organizations like us. Llamau believes that the decision taken by the Welsh Assembly to keep SPRG funding on a national level was the right decision and has meant that the prevention work on homelessness, undertaken by organizations like Llamau have become a positive reality in Wales

Section 180 - Welsh assembly & Local Authority

Llamau receives section 180 homeless prevention funding predominately for our mediation and housing advice work. Much of sec 180 funding is now on a three year cycle which gives greater stability to the projects.

Trust Funds

One of the third sector’s key strengths is an ability to draw in additional funding which adds extra value to services. Because SPRG is a centrally administered grant, funders recognise that they are not supplementing statutory services and will allow funding that compliments Supporting People funded services.

Llamau’s response to Discussion Points

Ease or difficulty of obtaining funding from the Welsh Assembly or relevant national funding bodies.

SPRG funding is a positive example of obtaining funding from the Welsh assembly, it is a national centrally administered grant, which enables providers to plan ahead for their organisations and allows them to consult with vulnerable people and to develop and deliver innovative effective services. The future of the Supporting People Revenue Grant currently administered centrally by the Welsh Assembly Government is a great concern to the third sector. It is feared the funding could be switched to Local Authorities which has led, in England, to significant cuts and loss of providers. The sector’s wish is for the funding to continue to be administered centrally and we know anecdotally from colleagues in England and a representative from the UK government that the belief is that the Welsh Assembly was correct in their original decision to develop a two tier funding system. The Welsh Assembly Government took an initial brave step when Supporting People was introduced. They clearly took the right decision. The centrally funded services have been proved to be cost effective and to promote quality services, conversely the transferred supporting people money has been the subject of cost alone tendering which has seen inevitable loss of quality and difficulty in staff recruitment, Llamau believes this is because there is not the same commitment and understanding of Supporting People at a corporate and political level as there is within the WAG. Llamau shares the WAG’s commitment to collaboration and sustainability rather than cost alone competition as being the best way forward in funding third sector organisations.
In addition because the SPRG funding is a centrally administered grant, organisations like Llamau can access other trust funds to supplement other services. However if transferred, trust funders view the services as statutory and rule out funding.
Certain Local Authorities tender for SPRG services but despite guidance form the Assembly do not pass on the agreed Tariff for these service, therefore forcing third sector organisations like Llamau to accept deficit contracts which undermine both the service to vulnerable people and the creation of a sustainable employment environment for staff.
National funding bodies, e.g. The Big Lottery often relate their key funding programmes to themes identified by the Welsh Assembly Government. If your project or area of work isn’t politically popular it is very difficult to access significant pots of money.
With some funding systems, there are often no inflationary uplifts built in for funding year on year, and if uplifts are granted they often do not cover actual inflationary uplifts in terms of staff salary increments, cost of living, rate rises etc and so in real terms, funding decreases year on year, leaving a funding deficit to overcome.
Llamau has experience considerable difficulties with the Tai, Dysgu a Gwaith (TDG) pilot operated by ELWa, who merged with WAG in April 06, (currently a Learning Community Pilot). The project delivers effective learning and training to Wales’ most marginalised and disenfranchised groups. Despite strong ministerial support, and possibly because the project falls between different policy areas, there has been no clear guidance given to participants regarding the future of the pilot funding, and the chances of this funding becoming mainstream. (this was the reason for the pilot) This has caused great uncertainty and distress among the participating organisations, many of whom are relying on the funding to continue their work. Without this funding continuing, there is a high likelihood that some of the TDG projects will close.

Ease or Difficulty in complying with constraints or conditions placed on funding.

Llamau tries to work to financial best practice and are committed to full Cost Recovery as a way to avoid working with a deficit in funding. However, Local Authorities in particular operate capped funding which they will not negotiate, so there remains a difficult choice between accepting the funding, and hoping to renegotiate this in the future, or losing the funding, which will impact negatively on our work.

Issues related to the duration or timing of funding.

Projects are often delayed because of the timing of grant allocations. If notification of success is delayed, staff appointments will be delayed, the work with the client group will be delayed.
Tapered funding is a problem, in that by the time the project is established and running well, continuation funding has to be identified and this can be difficult as the results of the project may not have been seen or evaluated in full, and so the project’s effectiveness, and worth is difficult to demonstrate.
Some funding which is operated by the WAG, e.g. Section 180 is given fixed term funding, usually for 1 for 3 years, with an expectation that if it meets all expected outcomes, then the local authority will pick up the funding. Local Authorities have long informed the sector that in their current financial situation, this is wholly unrealistic. Whilst the local authority are happy to back projects and say they are vital to the range of services they provide, when faced with their own departmental or whole authority deficits, are rarely in a position to pick up funding for a service even if they see it as vital. This Llamau believes is because whilst there is strong operational experience and commitment to third sector within local authorities, there is not the corporate understanding or commitment. Therefore in times of financial pressure, it is third sector services and funding which are cut first.
Sustainability and continuation of projects is an issue for third sector organisations, trust funding is usually strictly time limited and funding to continue a project is a serious issue - trust funders usually want the kudos of funding a brand new project, not picking up the funding for projects that have been running for a number of years. Llamau believes this is where the Assembly can give a clear steer to funders, in their own commitment to sustainability and supporting community cohesion.

Any other comments relevant to the inquiry

Supporting People in Wales has been a great success for vulnerable and excluded people. The Assembly took a strong step putting the needs of vulnerable people first, by keeping SPRG as a centrally administered grant. The stance the assembly took with SPRG can be a pathfinder for other third sector funding. I.e. Where the Assembly has a national commitment that is unlikely to be fully understood or shared at the local level. The stability of the SPRG sector would be greatly enhanced at no additional coat by the decision to retain SPRG as a funding stream maintained and controlled by the National Assembly

Commissioning - There is a serious issue with the commissioning of third sector. Many Local authorities’ commission and fund third sector organisations in an un-collaborative manner, driven by low cost criteria. Better collaboration could develop mechanisms for achieving quality and value based on benchmarking, shared problem solving and negotiation. This would lead to public money being spent in a way that ensures quality services are delivered and puts the service users at the centre is service delivery and design. Which is an objective outlined in One Wales and the Beecham Report.

Frances J Beecher
Chief Executive Llamau