Sink or SWiM? Strengthening Communities through Clustering

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Sink or SWiM?Strengthening Communities through
Clustering
Alan Cripps, SWiM Consultant 020 8579
9983 alan_at_mjapartnership.co.uk
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Context environmental factors

• Increasing focus on neighbourhoods, local
  governance, public service delivery and voluntary
  and community sector (VCS) capacity building but
• Differences in scale, power and capacity across
  the VCS
• Resources not reaching frontline community
  organisations
• Under-investment into capacity building and
  developing partnerships
• Commissioner interpretations of Best Value
• Independence and diversity of the sector is being
  threatened/eroded

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Context - organisational factors

• Many local community organisations are SMEs and
  lack capacity for e.g. specialist back office
  services, and depend on-
• Pro bono and other voluntary resources
• Multi-tasking
• Consequences-
• Less senior management time for strategic
  planning and development
• Less time/money for frontline activity
• Under-capacity threatens local voice
• Fragility and waste of potential

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SWiM - Sharing without Merging

• A theme for bassac since 2003
• Early pilots to develop concept and process
• Research into collaborative working in VCS
• Current programme funded through Home Office and
  Regional ChangeUp
• Looks at ways of strengthening community
  organisations through clustering
• Its a very specific form of clustering in how it
  works and in its focus

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What are clusters? (1)

• Geographic concentrations of interconnected
  companies and institutions in a particular field
• Allow each member to benefit as if it had
  greater scale or as if it had joined the others
  formally without requiring it to sacrifice its
  flexibility
• Michael Porter
• Concept developed in commercial sector adopted
  by RDAs as a strategy for encouraging economic
  development

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What are clusters? (2)

• A new approach for the community sector?
• A group or network of organisations linked by
  location or interest
• Driven to collaborate to develop
• resources and/or
• impact
• that they couldnt achieve individually

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The approach to clusters

• A pilot programme
• Based on existing networks
• Facilitated
• A brief intervention model

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How does SWiM work?
Responsibility for doing the work shifts during
the course of the project
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Critical success factors

• Leadership
• Build on existing relationships
• Trust and collaborative approach
• Capacity of members to commit CEO time
• External stimulus
• Injection of capacity/catalyst role to-
• scope out shared issues and priorities
• undertake legwork/resource investigation
• act as critical friend/neutral advisor
• Flexibility over ends
• Achievable next steps

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Some caveats

• Every project is different. They are
• community sector-led
• context-driven
• unpredictable in terms of outcome
• Its not like a contract
• Clusters are not representative
• they are a voice of the community sector, not the
  voice

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Example 1 a resource cluster

• The issue
• Internal infrastructure deficits are a universal
  problem for small/medium organisations
• HR and ICT are by far the biggest problems
• The project
• A pre-existing network of womens projects
• had already identified possible joint work
• SWiM helped them to-
• identify HR as their key priority
• develop concrete plans
• put together a bid to BASIS

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Example 2 an impact cluster

• The issue
• Low visibility of community sector organisations
• The project
• An existing network of settlement Chief Execs
• concerns about punching below their weight
• SWiM is helping them to-
• identify communications as a priority area for
  work
• catalogue the collective impact they make
• put together a business case and strategy for
  engaging with the incoming Chief Exec

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Learning points from evaluation

• Groups feel that clustering has been highly
  beneficial
• Need for commitment
• collaborative working takes time
• Need to maintain the vision
• the benefits are medium- to long-term
• Need to be specific and realistic about what can
  be achieved
• Achievable next steps are vital
• Facilitation is what has made all the difference
  someone to plan the effective use of meeting
  time and do a lot of the follow-up legwork

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Contacts
Alan Cripps 020 8579 9983 alan_at_mjapartnership.co.u
k OR Ben Hughes 0845 241 0375 ben_at_bassac.org.uk
www.bassac.org.uk