Can YOU work together?

Tags: partnerships

Selecting the services that can deliver from myplace centres

We have recently been supporting a number of projects intensively towards a viable business plan. Many organisations need to generate additional revenue. They have wrestled with the issue of just who to work with and who can they let use their facilities.

One of the ways that we have identified that projects can be more viable is for them to assess their use of space properly. If you have an empty hall or facilities that are not being adequately utilised then how can you "Sweat the Asset" and get the most from the investment. In development workshops with some projects we have asked probing questions, such as:

Do you have a clear understanding of how the building will operate and how you deliver results?
What services are you delivering and from what parts of the building?
When are facilities and rooms used each hour of the day and week?
Is there a clear role for your team and how will you work or integrate with other projects?
Are you clear on what is already funded and what funds still remain to be found?

Timetabling is crucial

The managers of departments within some myplace projects were helped to identify gaps and areas for opportunity. By being focused on specific timetabling it is possible to identify what parts of the building, what facilities and what resources are available at what specific times of the day and week. It has been significant that it is only when managers and staff within buildings actually start to plot planned use onto a timetable that they see the areas where the facilities will lie unused. How can these slots be filled?

Sweating the asset:
getting the most bang for myplace bucks

It is then possible to explore what kind of organisation can deliver a service either independently (renting space from the Centre) or in partnership (but contributing some kind of financial assistance to the myplace centre). But there will be times when it may not be clear whether an organisation or a service is an appropriate one to deliver from your building. So we have devised a few simple checks to help guide you.

Can you work together:
criteria for selecting organisations to deliver services or work in your centre

1. Is it about developing, supporting delivery of public or voluntary sector programmes or initiatives?
2. Is it related to communities and neighbourhoods and inclusion / exclusion / disadvantage / inequality?
3. Is it related to services of community benefit such as health and wellbeing, micro / social enterprise, employability?
4. Does it involve some aspect of joint delivery or partnership working and if so can we work with these people?
5. Does it involve a focus on learning and sharing knowledge and how will we use this?
6. Is it focused on local strategic need and priorities or emerging policy or new policy?
7. Does it involve disruptive elements to its delivery (if yes, it's not for us)
8. Do we have or can we get the technical expertise required to deliver this kind of service ourselves?
9. Can we achieve a reasonable day return and is it big enough to be worth the effort?

Informed choices

If you answer these questions then you can take a more informed choice about whom you should work with and why you are doing it.

You may simply have explored every option to use the space for services that meet the outcomes of myplace and satisfy the above criteria. You may just need the money to survive; to provide a facility and what you can for the moment afford by way of services to young people. In that case beggars can't be choosers but you will be making an informed and sound decision. And you will be able to continuously work to get to a position of having properly resourced services all delivering from the centre pulling in the same direction to achieve the outcomes of myplace

Can YOU work together? (206.97 kB)