Briefing paper for SMT BIG funding to address Harm caused by Alcohol Misuse - Wednesday 31st August 2011

Briefing paper for SMT
Wednesday 31st August 2011

BIG funding to address Harm
 caused by Alcohol Misuse

TO:                 Senior Management Team

FROM:               Angela McVeigh Director of OPPC

DATE:               31 August 2011

SUBJECT:            Big Lottery Funding Awards Process

PURPOSE

The purpose of this paper is to provide an update to SMT on progress with
Management of the Trust Big Lottery Grant and to seek SMT endorsement on the
proposed arrangements for the management of funding awards to ensure
this is in keeping with the spirit of EU Treaty principles. That is, a process which
exhibits the attributes of Transparency, Proportionality, Non-discrimination
and Equal Treatment, thus providing all potential providers with a fair opportunity.

RECOMMENDATIONS
SMT is asked to consider the proposed arrangements for the selection of
providers to avail of funding awards from Big Lottery to address harm caused by
alcohol and

Non-Statutory Sector
a)Endorse the arrangement which facilitates the collation of a grant portfolio
further to a managed engagement process with statutory and non-statutory sector
leading to generation of „ideas‟, shortlisting of „ideas‟ in line with current service
provision and objectives and selection of providers via an open application
process.

Statutory Sector
b)Endorse the selection of the SHSCT as the provider of choice to be included in
the grant portfolio on behalf of the statutory sector.

Briefing paper on the BIG funding to address
                    the issues surrounding Alcohol

1.0 Background
Briefing Paper of 12 January 2011 detailed proposals for management of
The Big Lottery Fund, now operating under the title “BIG”, awards for
Health and Social Care. It was agreed that The Southern Health and
Social Care Trust formally agree to act as “Lead Organisation” for the
tranche of funding for our geographical area addressing the issue of
Alcohol, entitled Impact of Alcohol.

The Southern Health and Social Care Trust area allocation is £1,355,340.
This paper details the engagement process with statutory and non-
statutory bodies to establish the portfolio.

2.0 Funding Award Process
Funding from BIG is defined as Grant funding, which has been confirmed
by the Head of Social Care Procurement after clarification with BSO/legal
services.

As such, while the stringent rules and procedures for procurement do not
necessarily apply, the Trust still needs to demonstrate a process which
exhibits the attributes of Transparency, Proportionality, Non-discrimination
and Equal Treatment, thus providing all potential providers with a fair
opportunity of been selected/awarded a grant.

The following process details how engagement to define the portfolio of
grant award areas has been undertaken and details the proposed process
to be undertaken to identify providers who will be recommended to BIG as
service providers and who will avail of the grant awards.

3.0 Portfolio Development
To ensure comprehensive participation in the development stage of the
programme a series of meetings have been held in each of the 5 District
Council areas for the Community/Voluntary Sector alongside meetings
with the Statutory Sector where a full explanation of the process of this
funding programme was given. These meetings were advertised through
the range of community development networks and were well attended
with a total of 107 attendees.

At these scoping meetings attendees were asked to submit ideas for
initiatives that met the objective of BIG and could potentially be included in
the final Southern Area Portfolio to be submitted to BIG. This resulted in a
total of 94 suggestions being generated by the attendees and 61
submissions made to the Portfolio Office.

Proposals that were submitted with sufficient detail were reviewed by the
Trust Steering Group and shortlisted to 11 for inclusion in the Portfolio, as
defined below using the following criterion

        Alignment of outcomes to BIG objectives
        Potential overlap or synergy with current service provision that is in
        place across the Southern Trust‟s area
        Potential of other sources of potential funding available to support
        the initiative

BIG had also defined a funding split of 20%/80% for initiatives in the
statutory/non-statutory sector therefore those submitting initiatives were
asked to provide some ideas of funding requirements to assist in
determining the split. The Trust Steering Group also gave consideration
to the provision of initiatives across the entire Trust geographical area and
recognition was made of this in determining the final Portfolio.

Portfolio Service Areas
Statutory Sector
   1.      Extension of the Alcohol Liaison Nurse Service
   2.       Alcohol Liaison Midwifery Service
Non Statutory
   3.       Family Alcohol Support for Irish Travellers
   4.       Family Support Alcohol Counselling Service
   5.       Domestic Violence Intervention Service
   6.       Outreach/Detached Youth Support Service
   7.       Chronic Alcohol Users Intervention Service
   8.       Homeless Alcohol Harm Reduction Service
   9.       Alcohol Counselling/Mentoring Service for People aged 18+
            Years of age
   10.      Older People and Alcohol Service
   11.      Breaking the Cycle of Alcohol Service

4.0 Selection of Providers for Non-Statutory Initiatives
In formation of the portfolio of service initiatives the Trust has pursued a
programme of Community and Voluntary Sector involvement at all stages
by ensuring widespread dissemination of information and invites to all

components of the programme and this will continue through the final
stages of this initiative.

The proposed selection process is detailed below:
     It is proposed that a public call for applications will be made. In
     addition to the public advertisement information will be posted on
     the Trust Website and also disseminated through the databases
     held by the 3 locality based Promoting Wellbeing Departments, local
     Councils and Community umbrella organisations to ensure Trust
     wide coverage.
     Providers will be asked to complete an application form for those
     service areas they are interested in providing services and will have
     10 days to do so.
     Application packs available detail objectives of each service initiative
     and how applications will be scored and assessed. They will also
     detail the terms & conditions of the grant award as defined by BIG
     and additional terms and conditions the Trust also require to ensure
     safe and effective delivery of the service initiatives.
     A Panel with representatives from statutory, community/voluntary
     and patient/client organisations will score and assess the
     applications and determine a list of potential providers and costs.
     These providers will be included in the portfolio recommended to
     BIG.

This proposed process has been discussed with BSO/PaLS
representatives and the regional Head of Social Care Procurement who
believe it is in keeping with the spirit of the EU principles.

This process will be administered by the Trust Big Lottery Lead.

The Trust wishes to ensure that the full grant funding available is utilised
and may engage with providers who apply to the process to further
develop their applications.

It is important to note that grants made via this process can be for up to 3
years and may exceed £156k which is the EU threshold amount in
procurement processes. This proposal therefore supersedes the previous
SMT Discussion Paper, „ Social Care Procurement‟, dated 20 July which
was endorsed providing acceptance that Heads of Service would
administer process for award of non-recurrent funding/grants up to
£30,000.

5.0 Selection of Providers for Statutory Initiatives
Two service initiatives have been identified as suitable for the Portfolio for
the statutory sector. Both will be provided by the SHSCT. SHSCT
service leads will be required to provide a breakdown of costs and service
objectives for review and approval by the Steering Group.

As there are no other providers of statutory health services there will be
no call to submit for these projects. This approach has been discussed
with BIG and is acceptable.

6.0 Timescales & Next Steps
This process will be completed w/c 26 September in order that the
finalized Portfolio can be submitted to BIG by the deadline of 3 October
2011.

The ultimate selection of providers and service initiatives proposed by the
Trust as lead will be made by BIG.