ESFVON
European Social Fund Voluntary Organisations Northern

OCTOBER 2000
OBJECTIVE 2 BULLETIN

In this edition we are introducing a new feature called Objective 2 In Action. This will give you the chance to find out what other organisations have achieved using Objective 2 funding, what problems and successes they had and how the ESFVON/One Voice Tees Valley (OVTV) project has assisted them. As well as potentially providing you with project ideas and networking opportunities, we hope to use this section to promote best practice projects and issues from within the voluntary and community sector.

We hope this will become a regular feature of the Euro Bulletin and if you have any suggestions for future issues or comments, please contact us on the usual numbers:-

Sue Mason/Victor Ottaway, ESFVON 0191 2749886
Sue Featherstone, OVTV 01642 240651

In another change to the usual format, this issue is given over to more in depth articles, such as the one on the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD). This is both to keep you well informed and to invite comments and questions from you from which we can formulate sectoral responses, where appropriate.

Don't forget, the Euro Bulletin is not just your to chance to catch up on developments with the regions Objective 2 programme, its your opportunity to pass comment from a voluntary and community sector perspective. As the region's specialist resource for voluntary and community organisations seeking to access the European Structural Funds, if you feed your comments on to us, we can then gauge how the sector is responding to particular issues and make representation on your behalf.

World Tour
The joint ESFVON/OVTV project will be launching a series of basic Objective 2 information giving seminars in mid-November 2000. The intention is to have a large number of small, half day events that you can dip into to get a short hit of information on the new programme for 2000-2006.

DAYDATEVENUETIMES
Monday13/11/00EASINGTON, Hill Rigg House10am-1pm
Tuesday14/11/00
Wednesday15/11/00ALNWICK, Shilbottle Skills Centre1.45pm-4.30pm
Thursday16/11/00SUNDERLAND, ETEC10.15am-1pm
Friday17/11/00DERWENTSIDE, Craghead Village Hall10am-1pm
Monday20/11/00TEESDALE, Scarfe Memorial Hall, Staindrop10am-1pm
Tuesday21/11/00MIDDLESBROUGH, East Middlesbrough Community Venture*9.30am-3.30pm
Wednesday22/11/00ALLENDALE, Allendale Village Hall1.45pm-4.30pm
Thursday23/11/00BERWICK, Berwick Voluntary Forum1.45pm-4.30pm
Friday24/11/00GATESHEAD, MARI, Gateshead10am-1pm
Monday27/11/00WEAR VALLEY, Durham Dales Visitors Centre, Stanhope1.30pm-4.30
Tuesday28/11/00NORTH TYNESIDE, Riverside Centre, North Shields10am-1pm
Wednesday29/11/00WANSBECK, Ashington Leisure Centre10am-1pm
Thursday30/11/00
Friday01/12/00SEDGEFIELD, Pioneering Care Partnership, Newton Aycliffe10am-1pm
Monday04/12/00
Tuesday05/12/00
Wednesday06/12/00SOUTH TYNESIDE, South Shields**9.15am-3.30pm
Thursday07/12/00
Friday08/12/00NEWCASTLE, Ouseburn Watersports Association10am-1pm
Monday11/12/00BLYTH VALLEY, Briardale Community & Training Centre, Blyth10am-1pm

* This is a joint event between OVTV and the Tees Valley Joint Strategy Unit
** This event is being organised and run by the South Tyneside CED Partnership and is not strictly part of the 'World Tour'

Hopefully these events will stimulate your interest in this funding stream and perhaps even set you on the road to seeking match funding or justification evidence for your potential project(s). In the New Year when the full details of the Objective 2 programme and its admin arrangements are known, other seminars will be held to go into more detail and help you complete application forms. Remember though that you can contact us at any time with your queries or to arrange a visit to look at developing new projects or running old ones.

We would be pleased if you could spread the word of these events throughout your network of contacts so that as many new organisations as possible have the chance to find out what Objective 2 is all about and what might be in it for them. There are plenty of venues to choose from and there's bound to be one near you, so why not come along.

If you would like to attend an event please return the booking form on the last page of this Bulletin for an ESFVON event or for the Middlesbrough venue contact OVTV on (01642) 240651 for booking forms and further details. Please book early to avoid disappointment. Please feel free to copy the booking forms to any other voluntary and community sector organisations you feel would be interested.

Objective 2 in action

Wansbeck Accessible Transport
- A WATBUS Project

For many, access to jobs and training, as well as leisure and social activities can be very difficult. The lack of adequate and affordable transportation by both car and public transport can be an important issue, especially for those in sparsely populated areas.

For these reasons, in 1996 in the district of Wansbeck, Northumberland, a consortium of like minded people and organisations called WATBUS decided to develop a community transport service. In 1998 it became a company Limited by Guarantee and its charitable status was confirmed in 1999. WATBUS now provides affordable, accessible transport to community groups and associations in Wansbeck, who would otherwise be unable to afford or access mainstream transport facilities.

WATBUS has 2 purpose-built, accessible mini-buses and has use of a further 2 under its brokerage scheme and has negotiated a new accessible bus, operational in January 2001. It has set high standards of service and safety for its staff, volunteers and end users, with all drivers having to complete MiDAS training run by WATBUS.

First Aid, moving and handling, disability awareness, fire and evacuation procedures, child protection and lone working training is also offered to both drivers and service users alike. This helps to raise quality standards and provides people with useful employability skills.

The bus service operates 7 days per week and has 189 organisations registered with it. Between January and September 2000 it has travelled over 44,000 miles, transporting almost 31,078 people around its target area from 2,948 bookings (in 1999 24,000 people were transported).

When the Management Committee submitted their European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) bid they had no experience of European Funding, though they had a successful National Lottery Charities Board grant to use as match funding. The ERDF funds do not cover the purchase or running of the buses as this is not eligible. Project approval was received in November 1999.

ESFVON has assisted WATBUS in a variety of ways. For example Project Co-ordinator (Dennis Healey) has attended seminars and the Regional Forum, the telephone helpline service has been used and support and development visits have been made to the project. This has helped WATBUS set up successful administration systems to comprehensively record the achievements of the project and to develop effective internal policies.

With the accessible transport service at saturation point, ESFVON is currently working with WATBUS to explore future Objective 2 funding possibilities, including expansion and development of their training provision.

Index of multiple deprivation (IMD)
Following interest from the brief article in our Euro Bulletin Issue 5 (September 2000), we have included an expanded article on the Index of Multiple Deprivation, or IMD for short. This new index will be one of the major factors on which the new Target Communities wards under Objective 2, Priority 3 will be decided and may change the face of the old Community Economic Development (CED) map across the region for the programme period 2000-2006.
IMD Ward Level Rankings
Oxford University used the 1998 Index of Local Deprivation (ILD) as the basis for this more comprehensive work into deprivation in England. The study looked at 6 domains for its source data:-

Child Poverty also features as a domain, although this is a sub-set of the Income Domain, but it has been included to give further insight into deprivation. It deals only with children under 16 years living in deprived households.

Each ward within a domain was given a score and a ranking. Within a domain individual scores and rankings can be directly compared, but not between domains as the criteria and scale of scoring differ. There is also an 'All' worksheet showing all scores and rankings by ward for each domain as well as the IMD.

IMD score and ranking is a calculation made which factors in all of the disparities in the scoring criteria for each individual domain and produces figures which can be directly compared with one another. One is the most deprived and 8,414 the least deprived IMD ward ranking. IMD scores and rankings can be compared with each other, but again not directly compared with figures from other domains.

IMD will give an accurate picture of a wards' standing against the other 8,414 wards across England. However if an IMD ranking seems at odds with the understanding of that ward's deprivation levels, it may then be beneficial to examine individual domain rankings and scores to find out which indicator is causing the incongruity. This could then give a guide to what may need to be addressed by regeneration strategies (ie if all other domains are average, but access to services is extremely poor, then addressing access could significantly raise the wards IMD ranking).
IMD District Level Rankings
Each district is also given a ranking using different criteria:-

Extent is based on the proportion of population living in wards which rate within the most deprived 10% of wards in the country. Local concentration is the population weighted average of the ranks of a district's most deprived wards that contain exactly 10% of the district's population. It helps to identify "hot spots" of deprivation within a ward.

The district level figures are ranked with one being the most deprived and 354 being the least deprived districts in the country.

The district and wards rankings however, do not provide the complete picture of deprivation. Many rural areas come out of the rankings as relatively well off, whereas if, for example, the numbers of affluent people retiring to remote communities for peace and solitude was factored in, the picture could be quite different. This is one of the decisions to be made when agreeing which indicators to use and whether or not supplementary information should be used to select target communities for Priority 3.

If IMD is solely used to determine the Target Communities on a ward-level basis to cover up to 25% of the eligible Objective 2 population, there could be some significant changes.
MD & SPD Development
The UK has had to cut its eligible Objective 2 population across all areas. The North East has fared better than other regions in that it has only suffered a 12% decrease (ie those living in transitional areas). The European Commission (EC) also have a per capita formula for the amount of Structural Fund intervention they will permit to the Target Communities Priority. This places constraints on how much money and how many people can be contained within this Priority under the new Objective 2 programme.

The EC and the North East are currently negotiating on the population coverage for the Targeted Communities. For the 1997-1999 Programme the population coverage was 25%. This limit is to ensure that the finite resources are concentrated on those areas in greatest need so that it can achieve real, positive outcomes within the life of the programme.

The greater the percentage of people included under Target Communities actions, the more diluted each ward's financial allocation will be. This in turn will restrict what can be usefully achieved and have a negative effect on the overall impact of the Objective 2 intervention.

If the population coverage for the North East was pegged to this 25% ceiling, it would encompass all of the North East wards ranked between numbers 3 (Thorntree, Middlesbrough) and 446 (Croft, Blyth Valley, Northumberland). The 25% population limit is actually reached within Croft ward.

In negotiations with the EC on the North East's SPD, the regional partners are attempting to get a 32% population coverage as included in the SPD submitted to the Commission, which could include wards up to and including number 565 (Hendon, Sunderland).

Whatever is decided upon, the process by which Priority 3 wards are selected must be logical and transparent as well as being able to be justified to the EC. This will hopefully prevent anomalies occurring in the selection of Targeted Communities as has happened under previous programmes.

Many concerns have been expressed from within the voluntary and community sector over the effect any change in the old CED wards will have. What arrangements will be set in place for those wards who lose their Target Communities status? Will new Target Communities wards receive additional support to enable them to achieve meaningful results in the shortest possible period? What will happen when the results of the 2002 census become available; will this change the picture of deprivation across the North East's wards meaning the Target Communities will need to change again, or will they remain the same?

These questions cannot be answered at the moment, but will need to be resolved in the near future if the new Objective 2 programme is to function successfully.
Further Information
If you would like to receive a free copy of the IMD for the whole of England contact:-

Department for the Environment, Transport and Regions
Eland House
Bressenden Place
London
SW1E 5DU
E-mail: indices_deprivation2000@detr.gov.uk

ESFVON can supply you with details for your area on (0191) 2749886, e-mail: info@esfvon.org.uk
The Funding Gap
If you had an Objective 2 ESF project funded under the 1997-99 programme, you will be well aware that your project must end no later than 31 December 2000 (providing this was the date agreed by GO-NE). You should also have advised GO-NE of any significant differences to your project by 30 September 2000.

The problem now facing many voluntary and community sector organisations around the North East is what happens next.

The 2000-2006 Objective 2 programme should have commenced on the 1 January 2000, but as we all know this was not the case. The knock-on effect is that the North East is now the furthest behind of all the Objective 2 eligible areas in the UK.

It is hoped that the new Single Programming Document (SPD) will receive Commission approval early in the New Year. The Programme Monitoring Committee (PMC) which supervises the Objective 2 programme in the region will endorse the programme in February (at the very earliest). This means that realistically we will not have new project approvals much before Summer 2001.

Can your organisation cope? Did you want to continue your ESF project into 2001 without a break? Have you made contingency plans to secure the necessary funding from another source? Is your project going to have to close? Will you lose staff and match funding?

These questions are merely the tip of the iceberg. During September and early October ESFVON have been in direct contact with every voluntary and community organisation with approved ESF projects from the 1997-99 Objective 2 programme to assess what effect this lack of continuity in the funding will have on the North East's voluntary and community sector.

The outlook is bleak. The majority of organisations wanted to continue their project past the end of 2000, but will be unable to fund any gaps in European Funding from other sources. They may well have planned their forward expenditure and fund raising strategies presuming that the new Objective 2 programme would be in place in time. This will definitely not be the case. From our research this funding gap will not only cause significant problems for the organisations, but may well have a significant knock-on effect on other funding sources such as Single Regeneration Budget (SRB).

On the one hand, some organisations have been able to access additional SRB, for instance, to fill in until the new Objective 2 programme comes along, but on the other some organisations will have to fold due to the lack of continuity.

To give you an idea of the extent of the problem, of the 56 voluntary and community sector organisations contacted, 42 wanted to continue their project into the new Programme. These 42 organisations total 77 ESF projects worth approximately £2.9m ESF with the over 130 staff employed on the projects. It should be noted that the problem is evenly spread throughout the region, from Northumberland to Tees Valley.

We would like to know what your thoughts are on this tricky subject. If you have not spoken to Sue Mason or Victor Ottaway (0191 2749886) about our funding gap survey, we would greatly appreciate your input. If this does not directly affect you, but you have an opinion you would like to share, please do not hesitate to contact us - your views are always extremely valuable.

With ERDF projects, you could possibly continue until 31 December 2001 providing GO-NE have approved this. The impact of delays in the new Objective 2 programme becoming operational may well not affect this type of project, but once again if you feel it may, please give us a ring or e-mail us on: info@esfvon.org.uk
Significant Differences
You should all by now have notified GO-NE of any significant differences to your ESF project by the end of September. If you haven't, then informing of such changes now or at final claims stage will count against you when making future applications, as track record will be taken into account.

It has always been the case that significant differences should be notified to GO-NE as soon as they are identified and any necessary changes agreed by the European Secretariat. It would seem however, that organisations are waiting until the very last moment to do this. However, many organisations wait until final claims time, when it is too late to re-distribute the funds to other projects and therefore it is returned to the EC and lost to the region.

In the new Objective 2 programme, we all need to be far more prudent about monitoring and evaluating our projects. It will be especially important to keep our eye on the ball and advise of any significant changes at the earliest opportunity, as there will be penalties for the North East if the programme does not spend to its financial profile. This could result in being unable to draw down extra monies that are set aside for this region's Objective 2 programme as well as money being de-committed and sent back to the EC - a sort of double whammy.

Don't forget, you also need to advise of any significant differences on ERDF projects as soon as they come to light. Naturally you should take action to rectify these variances if that is the appropriate course of action, but be realistic about it and inform the Secretariat as soon as possible.

If you feel your project has not performed the way it should, we would be pleased to come out and give impartial, free advice to you. ESFVON's Objective 2 project in partnership with OVTV can provide confidential support visits to your project(s) to provide a health check and perhaps suggest solutions to any problems you may have. With running projects to the profile in your application becoming so crucial, now is the ideal time to see how to fine tune your systems and procedures.

If you had problems this time round, such health checks could pave the way for organisational changes which would show that you had taken positive action to right the problems previously encountered and would therefore be better equipped to run any new projects.

Get you confidential and impartial project health check now to help prepare a better project for the future. Ring Victor or Sue at ESFVON for Durham, Northumberland and Tyne & Wear on 0191 2749886 or Sue at OVTV for the Tees Valley area on 01642 240651.
Notice Board
The Notice Board is a new feature for the Euro Bulletin. It is intended to enable information to be made widely available throughout ESFVON's mailing list. The information does not need to be a job advertisement as below, but could cover a wide variety of different topics which other organisations and staff may be interested to know. If you have any information you would like to have considered for future editions of the Bulletin please contact either Sue Mason or Victor Ottaway at ESFVON (Tel. No 0191 274 9886). We look forward to your contributions.

WATBUS
Wansbeck Accessible Transport

Is a voluntary community transport organisation committed to providing affordable and accessible transport for community groups in the District of Wansbeck and its environs.

We require a full time (37 hrs) Project Administrator.
Salary £12,192 P.A.

This is initially a one-year contract, renewable subject to funding. To provide clerical, financial and administrative support for WATBUS.

An application pack is available by Telephone or fax

Tel: 01670 522 999
Fax: 01670 522 111

closing date for receipt of application 3/11/00

This project is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund and the National Lottery Charities Board.

Last Updated: 5 November 2000

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