Building Better Opportunities (Staffordshire) - Call for delivery partners

Building Better Opportunities is a new multi-million pound funding programme which matches money from the European Social Fund and Big Lottery Fund to tackle poverty and social exclusion faced by the most disadvantaged people in England.

The funding must be used to help adults who are unemployed or economically inactive.

In Staffordshire the fund will deliver aspects of the Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Local Enterprise Partnership’s EU Structural and Investment Funds Strategy and has been split into three ‘project outlines’.

Delivery of building Better Opportunities is via a Lead Organisation, and Big Lottery Fund will only fund one Lead Organisation for each project outline. It is anticipated that the Lead Organisation will develop a partnership of Delivery Partners for each project.

Following a competitive process, Steps to Work have been invited to submit a Stage Two application to act as Lead Organisation for the following strand:

• Multiple Barriers (Tamworth, Cannock, Lichfield and East Staffordshire)

Steps to Work do not intend to deliver frontline activities. It is our intention to apply as a ‘lead organisation’ that will effectively co-ordinate the delivery partners to ensure compliance with ESF requirements.

Following an initial selection of delivery partners at Stage One, we have identified a need for further specialist provision across the four districts of Staffordshire. We are seeking up to two additional partners that can provide support to individuals who are long term unemployed and have a health condition and/or disability. The maximum amount of funding available for each potential partner is £144,000

Steps to Work have submitted a Stage Two project plan to the Big Lottery Fund, who will then assess our application in order to make a decision on whether or not the project will be funded. This decision will be made late November 2016. Therefore, at this stage, any organisation that is accepted to be part of Steps to Work BBO partnership is not guaranteed funding.

We are inviting organisations who feel they can deliver services to support participants who have a health condition and/or disability in any district (Tamworth, Cannock, Lichfield and Staffordshire) to complete our Expression of Interest form. We are seeking up to two delivery partners that can add further value and reach to our existing partnership, through innovative and creative methods of engagement, in order to deliver the specified Project Outline outcomes, outputs and results. Please note: this opportunity is aimed at enhancing rather than duplicating current services.