An insider's account of Leicestershire restructure
Reflections is an account of the restructuring of local support
and development organisations in Leicestershire in 2009. Although
an analysis of the experience in Leicestershire, it highlights many
issues that are important to any charity considering greater
collaboration or merger. The report is an absorbing and frank
account written by Martin Gage, former Chief Executive of North
West Leicestershire CVS, one of the organisations on the 'losing'
side of the competitive tender. The report is NAVCA's second
in-depth look at the restructure of members following
'Anatomy of a merger',
examining the 2007 merger of infrastructure organisations in
Cumbria.
The restructure resulted in Voluntary Action LeicesterShire (VAL)
being awarded a £1m contract from the local councils, police and
health statutory bodies to provide services across Leicestershire.
The other seven organisations in the county became 'community
hubs', responsible for providing a signposting service to VAL and
working on representation issues at a district level.
The report looks at whether competitive tendering could have
been avoided, how the organisations involved avoided a seemingly
inevitable falling out and the prospects for the future development
of infrastructure and support services in the county. Most
importantly Martin Gage lists key lessons that should be learnt
from this process by other charities and voluntary organisations,
including stressing the important leadership role trustees need to
take.
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Reflections (pdf, 2MB)