The following principles for delivering the UKSPF have been developed by a coalition of thirty-two voluntary and specialist organisations. They are intended to support the development and delivery of holistic interventions that reduce inequality, create opportunity, and deliver economic benefit. You can read the principles here or download the document below.
With the publication of the prospectus for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), local authorities
have an opportunity to break down siloes, build new partnerships, and design and deliver integrated
services based on the needs of their communities.
Charities and specialist organisations, such as colleges and social housing providers, draw on deep
knowledge of their communities to tackle complex and intersecting needs by investing in social
infrastructure.
Investment in social infrastructure – the places, organisations and activities that connect people and
create communities – must be at the heart of delivering the UKSPF. Social resources ranging from
parks and sports facilities to healthcare, education and training, and youth services are crucial to
helping people lead better lives and participate meaningfully in society and the economy.
Working in partnership across sectors will also support lead authorities to embed the goals of
advancing equality, eliminating discrimination, and fostering inclusion in delivering the UKSPF. In
addition to the ethical and legal imperatives to protect and ensure equal opportunities for all, a more
equal society is the key to our shared prosperity. Importantly, this will also better position
communities to generate local opportunities and become more economically resilient.
Partnership working must also include clear co-ordination with devolved governments and an
approach that ensures the development of distinct programme aims that complement, rather than
overlap with, local and devolved policies, strategies and programmes.
The following principles for delivering the UKSPF have been developed by a coalition of thirty-two
voluntary and specialist organisations. They are intended to support the development and delivery of
holistic interventions that reduce inequality, create opportunity, and deliver economic benefit.
- Take a multi-agency, multi-sector approach. The UKSPF should be led through partnerships
that develop community-driven solutions and build social cohesion. Lead authorities have been
advised to form local partnership groups. Charities and specialist organisations must be key
members of these groups, in part to help local authorities effectively link with existing provision,
including national programmes, and identify service gaps. Their participation will help to avoid
duplication, reduce competition for referrals between service providers, and enable a “no wrong
door” approach for service users. It will also help agencies achieve shared outcomes.
Support should be holistic and cater for people with complex and intersecting needs. For example,
an approach to delivering education, training and employment support that is based on local
needs and spans organisations and sectors could simultaneously help address other interrelated
issues, such as poor housing, social isolation, and physical and mental health.
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Strong partnerships will not only facilitate better service integration, but also provide significant
cost savings and enable better sharing of information and good practice.
Crucially, this approach will help to engage traditionally marginalised groups by expanding the
reach of a project or programme. These communities often know and trust local service providers,
and in return these organisations understand the challenges these communities face.
The Plymouth Alliance model shows how charities and local government can work in partnership
to deliver holistic, value-for-money services that are built around not only the needs but also the
strengths of people who use them. - Work with voluntary and specialist organisations to involve service users. Service users
have unique insight into the complexity of their own lives and what works to support them, which
can then inform and improve services. It will therefore be critical to enable people with lived
experience to be part of planning, developing, and delivering the UKSPF in their areas. - Embed equality and inclusion from the start. Using protected characteristics under the
Equality Act alongside measures of socioeconomic disadvantage, local areas must identify the
people and groups who are at risk of and/or are experiencing inequality, discrimination, and
abuse. This includes women, Black and minority ethnic communities, disabled people, LGBTQ+
people, and people locked in poverty. Support for these groups may be traditionally under-funded
due to structural inequality. Embedding equality and inclusion will support local authorities to
meet Equality Act duties and deliver the UKSPF effectively for the whole population. - Use appropriate commissioning processes and procurement methods. This is essential for
maintaining a diverse provider market and making sure as much money as possible is channelled
to the frontline. It is also particularly important to think about future-proofing procurement
methods in the context of rapidly rising inflation.
Where possible, grants should be the preferred procurement method. Competitive grant making
often provides excellent value for money. The benefits of using grants have been highlighted by
the Lloyds Bank Foundation and NHS England. These include supporting the sustainability of
smaller providers, enabling charities to use other in-kind help, particularly volunteering, and
allowing organisations to innovate and test new approaches.
Funders can manage risk when making grants by, for example, building in staged payments, robust
reporting, and clear grant agreements. Indeed, grant funding can avoid being overly prescriptive
or locking providers into set ways of running their services, to the benefit of service users. - Where services are procured using contracts, these should be appropriately sized. This
is particularly important for non-mainstream, specialist interventions, and would enable a greater
proportion of smaller providers to participate as prime or lead contractors, rather than just
subcontractors. When deciding the suitability of different contract sizes, existing relationships
with service users, the size of the target group, the ability and willingness of the provider market
to deliver certain contract sizes, the extent of specialist services required, and an assessment of
whether larger contracts can deliver economies of scale and lower unit costs should all be carefully
considered. - Cover overhead costs of service providers, regardless of procurement method. This is
particularly important for smaller organisations, who often struggle to cover core costs in
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contracts and grants. At the heart of this is the need for a greater weighting towards upfront
funding than was possible with EU structural funding. - Work closely with civil society to build and use evidence. Levelling up must be based on
transparent and robust evidence that measures outcomes for communities and the impact of
interventions on places. This includes using data from voluntary and specialist organisations to
understand inequality and address gaps in official data. It also means working in partnership to
develop and report on local, regional and national metrics that relate to meaningful change.
Charities and specialist organisations do not merely provide essential support for communities – they
are at the heart of how people want to live their lives. They give people a way to shape and take pride
in their communities, and express interest or take action on issues they care about. Embedding
strategic partnerships and community participation in the delivery of the UKSPF will be essential to
build pride in place, increase life chances, and improve quality of life for all.
On behalf of the UKSPF coalition, which includes:
- Association of Colleges
- Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP)
- Charity Finance Group
- Communities That Work
- Cornwall Neighbourhoods for Change
- Employment Services Related Association (ERSA)
- Equally Ours
- Lloyds Bank Foundation
- National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO)
- Network for Europe
- Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action (NICVA)
- NPC
- Partnership for Young London
- Salvation Army
- Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO)
- St Vincent de Paul Society
- Voluntary Organisations’ Network North East (VONNE)
- WCVA
DOWNLOAD THE DOCUMENT HERE