Shropshire Providers Consortium CIC (SPC) is a collective of voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector organisations and an independent trading vehicle, working and bidding together for the benefit of the people and providers of Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin and wider Marches area. We support organisations to collaborate, evidence social impact and demonstrate high quality and fair and sustainable practices in order to secure a wide range of contracts and funding opportunities. We encourage the development of good practice and provide a place to share expertise, promote services, avoid duplication (joined up service delivery) and facilitate peer to peer support networks. We support smaller organisations with cost-effective back office operational services.During the financial year ending August 2019 our membership number has remained static at sixty-two due to an amalgamation of several organisations into one and the closure of a counselling charity in Shrewsbury. A number of newly formed social enterprises and charities have joined and we are gaining interest from organisations in Herefordshire, keeping our membership diverse in terms of services delivered, size and legal entity. Our activities have benefited our Members in the following ways:- Delivering and managing the following partnership bids and contracts:-Building Better Opportunities (BBO) Shropshire income £25,196: for a third year SPC was the Partnership Coordinator for the Landau partnership, working with 19 VCSE, local government and housing sector organisations to support people experiencing complex barriers, to move towards and into work. Most of these delivery partners are SPC members and they are benefitting from the experience of and shared learning that is gained from working within a large partnership. The smaller organisations especially have built a much better understanding of the audit and reporting requirements for delivering an European Social Fund (ESF)/Big Lottery project. In addition, we successfully supported two SPC Members to submit a bid for phase 2 of the BBO project and start delivering services. SPC supported Landau Ltd and the partner organisations by:- carrying out annual due diligence reviews and independent business and financial appraisals with every partner organisation including organisational policies.- supporting the delivery and monitoring of the two European Social Fund (ESF) cross-cutting themes, gender equality and equal opportunities and sustainable development, that must be fully integrated into the development and delivery of every project. We are engaging with the business sector to develop and embed cross-sector working and help the private sector to demonstrate corporate social responsibility. - engaging with a broad range of stakeholder organisations including businesses, VCSE sector, public health, local government, education and training and Federation of Small Businesses and Business Chambers to raise awareness of and to support the successful delivery and sustainability of the project.- facilitating focus sessions with participants and key workers to capture their experiences of the project, better understand the barriers they face and co-develop effective ways of delivering and extending support.- promoting the outcomes of the project through a range of media platforms.Shropshire Inclusively Fit Reaching Communities funded project (ended in April 2019): the project helped 102 people with disabilities to engage in fitness and sports activities leading to improvements in their physical fitness and overall wellbeing. Through online resources, the project supported 420 disabled people to make more informed choices about activities available to them. The lead partner Energize STW, directly engaged with sports clubs, support organisations and disabled people, striving to ensure that activity provision was accessible to everyone. 28 local clubs completed the Activity Alliance Inclusive Hubs toolkit training and 17 new activities were set up, 8 through the launch of the Special Olympics. Over the four years of the project community based organisations, service providers and disabled people were supported through training, delivery of regular and organised physical/sports activities, transport bursaries, promotion/awareness of activities and events and the development of formal networks and forums to share knowledge and develop new ideas. SPC successfully negotiated a six month extension to the project and during this period conducted extensive engagement work with stakeholder organisations and beneficiaries to produce a detailed evaluation report and to bring the project to a successful conclusion The project legacy is that:- disabled people in Shropshire have more opportunities and greater confidence to take part in physical and sports activities;- organisations supporting disabled people and clubs delivering activities are better informed about the activities available to disabled people and they have the skills to run activities. In recognition of these achievements the IFP was shortlisted for the Community Project award at the West Midlands Community Sports Awards in December 2018. Although the project did not win the award, it highlighted and recognised the project as being innovative and that it was using sport and physical activity to improve and enhance the quality of life of disabled people in the community.BBO Herefordshire income £6,607: SPC is the evaluation partner for the project and has written a detailed evaluation report for year one. We are working closely with the delivery organisations, project participants and key stakeholders to gather impact evidence and feedback and reflecting on the successes and lessons learned in terms of engaging the programme target groups and delivery so far, as well as the immediate and potential future outcomes from the project. In addition, SPC has carried out due diligence partner checks for new delivery organisations. My Money Matters: SPC is partnering with Citizens Advice Service Shropshire to deliver the Three Parishes Big Local Partnership for the villages of Weston Rhyn, Gobowen and St Martins. This project is helping people with benefits and financial issues. SPC is managing the Emergency Fund on behalf of the partnership and attends quarterly steering group meetings.Back office support services income £1,076: SPC is supporting smaller Member organisations by providing affordable administration and financial accounting services. Social Value Charter and Social Value UK: SPC is a founder member of the Social Value Group in Shropshire, developing a set of guiding principles and simple commitments that organisations operating in Shropshire are invited to adopt. SPC joined Social Value UK and completed the Social Return On Investment Practitioner training course. SPC is promoting these principles to local businesses and VCSE sector organisations and supporting Members by providing a range of monitoring and evaluation services to evidence social impact. - Regular funding alerts were sent to Members keeping them informed about new funding and contract opportunities. A quarterly newsletter keeps Members and subscribers informed of key news, Member updates and relevant sector developments. Through this process we have enabled Members to successfully bid for and secure funding worth over £100k. - Relationship building with local commissioners on behalf of Members (Herefordshire Council, Shropshire Council, Telford and Wrekin Council, Shropshire and Telford Clinical Commissioning Groups, Public Health, West Mercia Police, Marches LEP, businesses, University Centre Shropshire, University of Wolverhampton, FE Colleges).- Representing our Members regionally and nationally to raise current issues such as access to funding, sustainability and bidding for public service contracts and exploring solutions to help the VCSE sector. This included meetings and attending events with the National Lottery Community Fund, Shropshire Council, Telford and Wrekin Council, Public Health, Marches LEP, Marches Growth Hub, Shropshire Charity Networking Group, local Business Boards, Federation of Small Businesses, Shropshire Chamber of Commerce, Dyslexia Awards, Marches Skills Providers Network, Business Environmental Support Scheme for Telford, Partners for Social Enterprise, Midcounties Cooperative, Charity Shropshire Pan Disability Forum and Shropshire Mental Health Forum.

A social audit report covering these points is attached

No remuneration was received

No transfer of assets other than for full consideration