CTC audit tool in consultation and pilot phase
At Clear Thinking Consultancy, we’ve been working hard to produce a tool that assesses the viability of third sector organisations, what they need to do to deliver high impact and move steadily towards sustainability.
The result of this work is a diagnostic and assessment tool that we are putting out to consultation and piloting with a number of voluntary and community sector organisations. The tool itself is mapped against the key quality marks and standards across the sector and is intended to provide external verification of the credentials of organisations with a social purpose and provide instant feedback on their key strengths and development areas.
It was set up in direct response to the new commissioning environment and the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012, which places greater emphasis on organisations to demonstrate efficiency in the process by which they achieve outcomes in addition to the quality and sustainability of those outcomes, as well as demonstrating that they have the correct processes in place to effectively evaluate, monitor and report on interventions.
The audit tool therefore places an equal emphasis on the governance and infrastructure of the organisation as well as its services and the extent to which they meet local need.
Whilst many organisations invest significant resources in obtaining quality marks, we know that those significantly integrated in the community accessing the most marginalised communities often lack the capacity and capability to invest such time. Any time they do have is channelled towards the benefit of the community. This assessment is designed to be much less onerous, requiring the organisation to simply make available some key documentation for inspection and key staff to answer questions on the organisation with an additional component of a session observation.
The audit tool will also support commissioners, consortia leads and infrastructure organisations in putting in place transparency and objectivity when assessing the credentials of potential providers and partners for bidding.
It is currently being piloted with voluntary and community sector organisations (including social enterprises) and local authority providers in the London Borough of Hackney and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Discussions are also in progress with various commissioners and infrastructure organisations to tailor the tool to support their commissioning, stakeholder engagement and fundraising strategies. Assessment costs will depend on the size of the organisation and is under consultation. However, until the end of March 2013, third sector organisations are invited to participate in the audit and will receive a follow up report on the findings free of charge.
A training package to support people in becoming qualified assessors is most geared towards local authorities or local council for voluntary services to carry out amongst its constituent members and partners is currently in development.
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