About the Consortium
Better Support for the voluntary and community sectors in the county and city
What is the Nottingham Infrastructure Consortium?
The Nottinghamshire Infrastructure Consortium is formed from a group of infrastructure organisations providing support to front line voluntary and community services within Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. The group was established to respond to the Government's ChangeUp agenda by improving the capacity, quality, and accountability of infrastructure organisations. The Government's ChangeUp agenda runs through to 2014, therefore the Consortium is engaged in a long term process of change and improvement.
How is the Consortium organised?
The Consortium is open to any infrastructure organisation based in Nottingham or Nottinghamshire. There are consortia in other counties and there is a regional consortium for regional groups. The full Consortium currently meets bi-monthly. The Consortium has a Coordinating Group that oversees a number of projects, and supports the work of the Consortium and its staff team. The leads for the Consortium are Helen Voce at NCVS and Jacqueline Bell at NAVO. The Consortium Coordinator is Mo Cooper, who is based at NAVO.
What has the Consortium been doing all this time?
Since 2004 the Consortium has developed an Infrastructure Investment Plan (currently being updated), and researched various aspects of the work of infrastructure organisations and their services to front line groups. This has included work on ICT, a web portal, volunteering, leadership, funding, quality assurance and diversity issues, and considered the support given to BME, rural, faith and disability groups.
What is the Working Smarter Report?
The Working Smarter report details the findings of research carried out with 485 user groups during the summer of 2006. It identifies the issues that the infrastructure sector needs to respond to. It provides the platform for our future work.
What is the Consortium planning over the next year?
Over the next year, the Consortium will continue to deliver on different aspects of infrastructure improvement. This will include work on how we can provide group support, equalities and diversity, leadership, ICT and specialist infrastructure. We will also be concentrating on how the Consortium operates to ensure that it is fit for purpose.
How does the Consortium benefit the work of front line organisations?
The Government, via Changeup, is focusing on improving the way infrastructure organisations support front line organisations. The term ‘infrastructure organisation’ includes local and specialist infrastructure organisations, networks and forums.
Local infrastructure organisations help the local voluntary and community sector by:
Identifying and filling gaps
Raising Standards
Enabling communication and collaboration
Providing a voice
Promoting strategic involvement Generally they provide direct support to front line groups to enhance their delivery of services.
Specialist Infrastructure Organisations will provide support to a particular ‘sub sector’ of the Voluntary and Community Sector and offer a specific area of expertise (such as Community Accounting Plus or the Racial Equality Council) and may also work with specific groups and communities (such as Nottinghamshire Rural Community Council). The Consortium’s objectives are to:
Work together, and with service users and partners, to improve and sustain services in the voluntary and community sector in Nottinghamshire
Provide a representative voice for the sector, and for the people of Nottinghamshire
Work towards equal access to appropriate services for all groups and communities in our area
The Consortium’s work has been informed by the Working Smarter research of 2006, the various projects that we have developed over the last few years, and set within the context of government, regional and local strategies. The Consortium seeks to ensure that the research, consultation and piloted work which is carried out to date, will make a material difference to the support given to groups and to the work with their partners.
For more information or a copy of the Working Smarter Report please contact:
mo@navo.org.uk
Current Sub Groups