Families First - the results of the tender submissions

I am sure by now everyone who submitted a tender will know the result. Firstly can I extend congratulations to those third sector organisations who successfully secured a contract with Denbighshire County Council.

In every competitive contest there will be winners and there will be  losers. I am not going to comment on the procurement process as clearly the time for that debate has now elapsed in the sense that the Council made a decision many months ago about commissioning in this fashion and whilst I expressed concern at the time as to the possible outcome  it was difficult to set out a feasible alternative. This is due to the fact that my fears relating to the new system were simply that - fears rather than concrete evidence. Well those fears  have materialised as I have had organisations telling me they failed to secure the contracts and therefore the funding. These organisations will be known to many families, volunteers and third sector organisations and as such are  highly regarded and valued with excellent services. Well no matter how highly valued they are in the community those organisations are now faced with the prospect of approximately 80% of their funding vanishing overnight i.e. gone by 1.4.12 - just under a month left.

Those organisations I imagine will battle on to the end probably living off their reserves, perhaps making staff redundant or reducing their hours, moving possibly to smaller and cheaper premises and possibly cutting back on volunteers as they won't have the staff time  to supervise them. Whatever they do is simply putting off the inevitable because without funding they cannot survive to deliver services that families access  and while we are talking about families these are families with young children who for whatever reason turn in the first instance to those respected voluntary organisations. So who do they turn to in the future after having built a strong, caring relationship with the volunteers and staff of the voluntary organisations?. 

What are DVSC doing , well we are helping organisations with funding applications to bodies such as Big Lottery but given the Lottery have a turnaround period of about 9 months it is likely that for many of the voluntary organisations their reserves won't last that  long and so their future is bleak to say the least. The  funding demand placed on Big Lottery and similar will increase as many organisations I imagine in Denbighshire and beyond will be applying as I know of one other Authority who went the same way as Denbighshire and that Council is in South Wales and there too there have been casualties involving at least one highly valued voluntary organisation which I was told about three weeks ago. 

We did submit a proposal to the Welsh Government in July last year , as we could see how events were unfolding, suggesting that a 12 month safety net be established for those voluntary organisations who failed to secure a contract and during that 12 month period the organisations could then apply and hopefully obtain alternative funding . Our suggestion was not taken up. Maybe the key decision makers couldn't see what we were forecasting. Well they certainly will see it now as organisations begin to unravel as their reserves diminish. "I told you so" is not in my vocabulary although I have to say I am sorely tempted.