Appendix 2 - delivery programmes

Jump to delivery programmes:

Delivery programme 1: third sector support

Grant funding allocation per annum: £52,550.

Specific aims:

Ensuring that Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise sector organisations providing service in Warwick District get the advice, support, and representation they need to improve the circumstances of the people and communities they work with, by:

  • Providing access to information, expert advice and support to local VCSE   groups and organisations through a variety of mechanisms, and, in particular, developing online resources and communication, in order that   they have the knowledge, skills and resources they need to support the    local community and are operating safely and in line with charity commission and other legislation.
  • Enable communication and collaboration by encouraging local groups and organisations to share resources and to work collaboratively to secure funding and deliver programmes. Work with the VCSE to establish new working groups and support and develop existing forums for networking where they can share good practice through which new activity can be developed.
  • Build capacity of the VCSE through funding advice and support and local collaboration, ensuring providers utilise a diverse range of funders. Support increased confidence in key areas of organisational development, developing skills and learning and help to achieve external accreditation as appropriate and raise levels of professionalism.
  • Advocate on behalf of the sector, providing a voice through which the diverse views and offer of local groups and organisations can be represented to local public sector bodies and other partners and working collaboratively to facilitate consultation aligned to emergency  response,  policy development and decision-making
  • Increase access to volunteering by brokering volunteering opportunities for local volunteers and building process and experience with volunteer involving organisations.  Supporting local organisations to develop home-grown volunteers.  Engaging ‘hard to reach’ individuals, by supporting individuals with more intensive needs to engage in volunteering.  Developing volunteering pathways to increase access to employment. Promoting the benefits of volunteering in Warwick District.

This fund is to be used for the benefit of VCS/not-for-profit organisations in Warwick District that provide services to vulnerable clients, but priority should be given to organisations active in the Council’s priority areas of Brunswick, Lillington East & South, Sydenham West and Warwick West.

We invite applications from organisations that will provide infrastructure support to VCS and not-for-profit groups in Warwick District with an aim to:

  • Be delivered across all areas of the district, including rural communities, with staff and resources being available locally
  • Build capacity and sustainability of VCS organisations/groups in targeted rural areas that will help residents struggling with loneliness and isolation
  • Strengthen the district’s third sector to build its capacity to support vulnerable residents
  • Underpin and add value to the Council’s investment in VCS sector services
  • Develop good practice in third sector business improvement

Your application will need to demonstrate an understanding of the challenges that face VCS organisations and a track record of delivering consultancy-style support for third sector groups.

The infrastructure support could entail delivering packages of support agreed at the outset with the client organisation. These might be on a single theme, for example, helping to implement a plan to recruit more volunteers, or a basket of measures to strengthen organisational resilience.

The most popular guidance sought by Warwick District VCS organisations is likely to be support with fundraising, income generation and recruiting and retaining volunteers.

Your application will need to demonstrate that your project will build organisational capacity by addressing identified areas for improvement, for example, strengthening capability to fundraise, generating income or recruitment and retention of volunteers.

A primary aim is to build capacity, so applications should focus on giving applicants the knowledge and skills to make improvements themselves, not just providing ‘a skilled pair of hand’s’.

Applying organisations will have the capacity, experience, and knowledge to be able to deliver a range of support to include:

  • Diagnosis of issues that will benefit from support
  • Developing a programme of support with the client
  • Facilitation/delivery of support or training
  • Expertise should be available for a range of support that would improve the performance of the organisation, particularly in fundraising, income generation and recruiting and retaining volunteers
  • A broad range of support that is bespoke, for each client

Delivery programme 2: financial inclusion

Funding allocation per annum: £80,000

Specific aims:

Minimise the likelihood and impact of financial exclusion in Warwick District through the provision of advice, support, and services at the point of need in a coordinated and collaborative manner

Key requirements of this Delivery Programme are:

  • Maximising and protecting the vital income of the more vulnerable Warwick District residents, thus delaying the need for statutory intervention
  • Increasing the number of people accessing the benefits to which they’re entitled
  • Increasing benefit uptake district wide
  • Raising awareness of changes in welfare reform and actively promoting the Government’s own schemes to shelter the more vulnerable from the impact of reform
  • Reducing the size of people’s debt
  • Reducing the number of people in debt or financial difficulty
  • Reaching the disengaged and hard to reach via door-to-door approach
  • Increasing people’s confidence in their own money management skills
  • Improving accessibility of financial education to children and young people

We invite applications that will use a place-based approach to improve the independence and resilience of the district’s most vulnerable residents through the provision of information and advice, support, and coaching/training to resolve financial and related legal problems.

Your application will need to demonstrate that your project will:

  • Improve the financial position of the district’s most vulnerable residents
  • Improve the confidence and capability of service users to manage their own financial affairs
  • Increase the take-up of benefits and other schemes designed to support the most vulnerable
  • Assist and equip individuals to deal with welfare reform and growing impact of the cost-of-living crisis
  • Work with other service providers to create an integrated approach to the provision of support that addresses the causes as well as the symptoms of service users’ problems
  • Help to reduce the Warwick District Council’s housing-related debt
  • Improve residents’ skills in using a range of digital technologies to access services online
  • Be readily accessible to all residents, with local access via community hubs
  • Be actively marketed with practical pre-engagement measures to reach isolated individuals who do not usually engage with services, including the use of periodic marketing campaigns to encourage residents in the district’s priority areas
  • Adopt a process of assessment, support, and closure
  • Work with Warwick District Council officers to streamline the provision of similar services
  • Make referrals to and work in tandem with other service providers to offer coordinated support for the service user
  • Make use of volunteer resource and promote volunteering

Applying organisations will have the capacity; experience and knowledge to be able to deliver a range of support to include:

  • Benefit advice and claims
  • Debt management
  • Legal disputes with a financial element
  • Housing problems
  • Energy or other types of switching to reduce household bills
  • Fuel poverty and cost of living impact advice, support, and signposting
  • Immigration issues
  • Personal financial management coaching and training
  • Signposting to other services that will assist the service user, including digital skills training

Delivery programme 3: employment clubs

Funding allocation per annum: £30,000

Specific aims:

To provide employment advice and support in priority locations

Key requirements of this Delivery Programme are:

  • To provide unemployed people with a place to meet and exchange skills, find opportunities, make contacts, share experiences and receive training and support in their quest to find work
  • To provide line management for the paid sessional advisors and the team of volunteers
  • To raise awareness of the service
  • To monitor, evaluate and measure the success and impact of the service and produce comprehensive evaluation reports using a bespoke database
  • To work closely with Job Centre Plus, Remploy, Adult and Community Learning, Warwick District Council, WCAVA and Elected Members
  • Identifying funding opportunities to sustain, develop and expand the service
  • Develop partnerships with other key support services to provide a more comprehensive and holistic support package to job seeking clients
  • To provide free internet and computer access and one to one online training and support to all clients
  • To assist clients with job searches, online job applications, CVs and online benefit claims

We invite applications that will use a place-based approach to improve the independence and resilience of the district’s most vulnerable residents through the provision of employment advice and support in priority areas of Lillington East, Brunswick Northwest & Foundry, Brunswick Southeast, Sydenham West and Packmores West & West Warwick (including West End and Forbes Estates) 

This fund is to be used for the benefit of:

  • Unemployed individuals, particularly those from the district’s priority areas, the homeless and ex service personnel
  • Although unemployment in the district is low, some recipients of ESA benefits are now required to find work and will benefit from Employment Support
  • Residents in low paid work, those on zero hours contracts or self-employed, who wish to develop their career to improve their situation

The Council supports the continuation of the community hubs in its designated priority areas, so expects the successful delivery organisations to work through those facilities and to contribute to their development as a ‘go to’ location for accessing services.

Your application will need to demonstrate that your project will:

  • Improve the independence and resilience of the district’s most vulnerable residents
  • Improve the confidence and capability of service users to search for, find, stay, and progress in work
  • Help service users with physical/mental health challenges to find and retain work
  • Improve the wellbeing of service users
  • Reduce the likelihood and impact of social exclusion by helping residents into employment
  • Work with other service providers to create an integrated approach to the provision of support
  • To provide opportunities for volunteering and work experience
  • Be readily accessible to residents, with local access via community hubs/facilities in the district’s priority areas
  • Be actively marketed with practical measures to reach ethnically diverse groups and isolated individuals who do not usually engage with services
  • Adopt a process of assessment, support, and closure
  • Be tailored to include activities that are relevant to the needs of the individual, where necessary provided by other organisations
  • Make referrals to and work in tandem with other service providers to provide coordinated support for the service user, particularly to address issues that otherwise may make it difficult for the person to accept employment, stay in work
  • Focus on getting people into work by developing a network of sympathetic employers and placement providers
  • Make use of volunteer resource and promote volunteering

Applying organisations will have the capacity; experience and knowledge to be able deliver a range of support which could include:

  • Coaching in job search, CV writing, job application form filling and interview skills
  • Assessment of support that will improve service users’ ability to find work e.g., attendance at training courses, acquisition of digital skills, achieving qualifications
  • Information, advice, guidance, and signposting
  • Proactive engagement with the hardest to reach
  • Ability to assess what interventions will assist each service user, agree support needed with service user and then deliver/enable delivery
  • Assembling a network of support to give service users access to a wide range of activities and services, including those that address specialist needs and/or minority issues
  • Developing a network of contacts with employers who can provide taster work placements, volunteering opportunities and employment opportunities
  • Coaching and training to help individuals improve their skills and capability to secure employment

Delivery programme 4: targeted geographic areas

Funding allocation per annum: £135,000

  • Brunswick: £40,000
  • Lillington East & South: £25,000
  • Sydenham: £27,000
  • Warwick West: £30,000

Specific aims:

To target those people living in disadvantaged areas within Brunswick, Lillington East & South, Sydenham West and Warwick West who are feeling socially excluded due to lack of resources, rights, services and the inability to participate in the normal relationships and activities available to the majority of people in a community, whether those are of an economic, social or cultural nature.

Key requirements of this Delivery Programme are:

  • Tailoring service delivery according to the specific needs of the area utilising current data sources combined with local intelligence
  • Fully utilising community hubs and other bases within the area and further develop these centres as focal points for the community to gather and gain access to a range of services, activities, information, and advice
  • Day to day management of the Packmores Centre (West Warwick); maintaining and developing the current timetable and use as a base for the delivery of outreach work (Warwick District Council would retain responsibility for all running costs, a separate SLA will be required for the running of the centre)
  • Increasing the number of disadvantaged people accessing services
  • Developing networks and mechanisms for reaching the disengaged and hard to reach
  • Working with partners to develop solutions for combating isolation and loneliness
  • Providing support to the most vulnerable and those with intensive needs in the community
  • Addressing the needs of communities of interest groups
  • Providing local support to the vulnerable families
  • To have access to information sources supplied by partners to ensure positive outcomes and improve circumstances for the client e.g., NEETS
  • Working in partnership to tackle the causes of social exclusion

We invite applications that will use a place-based approach to improve the independence and resilience of the district’s most vulnerable residents and reduce the likelihood and impact of social exclusion through the provision of services.

The Council supports the continuation of the community hubs in its designated priority areas, so expects the successful delivery organisations to work through those facilities and to contribute to their development as a ‘go to’ location for accessing services. Projects tailored to reflect the demographic of each priority area. In areas identified are Brunswick, Lillington East & South, Sydenham West, and West Warwick (including Packmores, West End and Forbes Estates).

We are looking to fund projects that achieve positive outcomes in these identified priority areas:

  • Strengthening Communities
  • Improving Mental and Physical Health
  • Providing and increasing access to support services
  • Reducing the impact of isolation and loneliness
  • Food and fuel poverty to include the impact of cost-of-living crisis
  • Digital Access & Outreach
  • Ongoing Covid Recovery

Strengthening Communities

  • Development of community facilities relevant to the needs of local people
  • A network of support to give service users access to a wide range of activities and services, including those that address specialist needs and/or minority issues
  • Supporting groups to develop community grown volunteers & initiatives
  • Matching of volunteers as a pathway to work or personal wellbeing
  • Grass roots support to create opportunities for sustainability for communities
  • Understanding of the needs of the community and working with the community to address them

Mental and Physical Health

  • Overcoming social isolation
  • Improving physical and mental health
  • Building confidence, independence, and personal resilience

Access to Support Services

  • Information, advice, and signposting
  • Advice, support, coaching/training, and activities to help individuals improve their engagement with public and VCS services
  • Designed to make a measurable difference to the service user’s wellbeing
  • One-off support and provision for those who may benefit from a longer-term package of measures
  • An ability to assess what interventions will assist each service user, agree support needed with service user and then deliver/enable delivery

Isolation and Loneliness, for example:

  • Proactive engagement with the hardest to reach
  • A range of suitable activities to engage service users to help them strengthen their confidence, engage with other services and activities, and overcome social isolation
  • Promotion of digital skills training
  • Working with local GP practices, the Council is keen to see the extension of social prescribing

Food and Fuel Poverty

  • Ensure access to food support e.g., community cafes, food bag schemes, cooking skills
  • Support the Council in improving awareness and understanding of fuel poverty and the impact on communities
  • Improve the confidence and capability of service users to manage their own affairs

There is an expectation that proposed projects will:

  • Be actively marketed with practical measures to reach ethnically diverse communities and targeted to isolated individuals who do not usually engage with services, including the use of periodic marketing campaigns
  • Include activities that are relevant to the individual needs, where necessary, provided by other organisations
  • Make referrals to and work in tandem with other service providers to provide coordinated support for the service user
  • Work with local community groups, making use of local knowledge, networks and trust and engaging volunteer resource and promoting volunteering

Share this page