The Surrey Wellbeing Partnership
Since 2009 we have supported youth sector charities in Surrey to develop and implement collaborative approaches to service delivery in response to changing commissioning approaches by the NHS and local government.
Since 2009 we have been supporting charities in Surrey with joint working to deliver preventative and early intervention services for young people in the county
Surrey has a vibrant and diverse voluntary youth services sector encompassing a wide range of small and medium sized local charities and local branches of national charities. They have a long track record of working together collaboratively and have successfully delivered a range of contracts and grants funded projects for the benefit of vulnerable young people in the county.
the challenge
In 2009 Surrey County Council announced its intention to commission local preventative services for vulnerable young people on either a county-wide or “quadrant” basis rather than on the previous borough-by-borough basis. It subsequently also decided to commission voluntary sector providers to reinvigorate youth centres owned and operated by the County Council, indicating that it was looking for efficient consortium-led approaches rather than awarding over 30 separate small contracts.
our approach
We were asked by a group of youth sector charities to help them establish joint working arrangements to enable them to bid jointly for these contract opportunities. We took them through a process of option appraisal and partnership building so that they could establish a strong set of shared objectives and values and to choose the right structure for their emerging consortium.
“Working with Almond Tree through the options available to partners in creating a structure for consortium working was a very helpful process in those early days. This allowed us to collaboratively tender for larger contracts than might have normally been available. The structure in place has also allowed us to change with the prevailing commissioning strategies and opportunities with relative ease.”
the way forward
Because none of the partners was either able or willing to take on the role of lead contractor and because a key principle of the emerging consortium was one of equality of relationships between partners, the joint venture option chosen was a Special Purpose Vehicle. The Surrey Youth Consortium was born, renamed The Youth Consortium (Surrey and Borders) in 2012.
The SPV was established as a charitable company limited by guarantee, in which all partners were equal members, and a Joint Venture members Agreement was agreed between the partners to regulate the fundamentals of the joint venture.
what happened
The Surrey Youth Consortium won most of the contracts for local preventative services and centre-based youth work, totalling over £3m pa. It also subsequently won a further contract to support young people in Surrey with information and advice on welfare and benefits. Actual delivery of the services was subcontracted to the partners according to their service and/or geographical specialisms.
In the light of these successes, we were also invited by Social Enterprise South East to author a beginners guide to consortium building to help others thinking of taking similar approaches.
There were, of course, some teething problems and changes in membership of the joint venture but the consortium came through these and the structures that had been established worked well when changes were needed.
The partners were, for the most part, successful in delivering the contracts but when the time came for retendering the County Council decided, in the spirit of the then prevailing policies of localism, to revert to borough-by -borough commissioning and therefore the joint venture was no longer required.
The SPV was effectively dormant for the next 5-6 years until 2019, when the County Council and Clinical Commissioning Group decided to include a substantial element of preventative and early intervention services in the re-commissioning of the Surrey Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (renamed Emotional Wellbeing and Mental health Services). The commissioners approached leading youth sector charities working in the county to establish whether a consortium or alliance approach to delivery of such services would be feasible. These partners included the remaining members of the Youth Consortium (Surrey and Borders) as well as several of new partners.
After considerable partnership building and service design work, much of which took place through online meetings and workshops during the early stages of the pandemic in 2020, it was decided to resurrect the joint venture company and reshape it to enable it to be the SPV for the new contract. The company was renamed The Surrey Wellbeing Partnership and the governing document and Joint Venture Members Agreement were revised to be fit for its new purpose.
In late 2020 The Surrey Wellbeing Partnership won a large (£4.5m pa in year 1) and long term (7-10 years) subcontract, within the wider Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health Alliance for young people in Surrey. The contract went live in April 2021 and is progressing well in its herculean task of tackling mental health crisis facing young people and radically reshaping services to focus more on prevention rather than downstream treatment.
“Working with Julian at Almond Tree to develop the structures for the joint venture has been a helpful and supportive experience. Working collaboratively in a complex service with unprecedented demand and whilst transforming ways of working is challenging in many ways. The Joint Venture Members Agreement has been a key document in assisting us to navigate some of the complexities as we move forward.”
If you would like to talk to us further about the support we could offer your charity or social enterprise, please contact us at julian@almondtreeconsulting.co.uk for a free initial telephone consultation.