ORGANISATION REFERENCE: H

THE ORGANISATION
ORGANISATION DESCRIPTION:

Organisation H emerged from the womens movement within the conflict of the miners strike of
the 1980s and has been established for 30 years. Initially the project was a community led
association providing volunteering activities to support families, within a project run by the
Childrens Society. Over time the Childrens Society withdrew and the organisation became a
completely independent Community Association and is a Registered Charity and Company Limited
by Guarantee.

Today, the organisations focus is mainly on childcare. However, that childcare is provided within
the context of wider support and the philosophy that it is provided to support local families, in
particular women, to access work and training, as well as broader support through signposting and
being a trusted, local and friendly face. Also, within the service context, the organisation provides
training and employment opportunities through volunteering, work experience placements,
internships, apprenticeships and jobs.

The organisation serves a community in South Yorkshire which can trace its agricultural roots to
Roman times and was a significant and affluent settlement in the Middle Ages, but is now easily
recognisable as a large former coal mining village. It was one of many mining villages in the
Yorkshire coalfield that suffered high levels of unemployment when the British coal mining industry
was restructured in the 1980s. Since this time of major industrial decline, the area has also
experienced significant loss of commercial business and landscape buildings, although there has
more recently been investment in social housing and the former colliery has been redeveloped into
a park with a range of facilities.

WHY THE ORGANISATION APPLIED TO THE LSF

This was a time of rapid change in the organisation in terms of developing the business model. The
key drivers for developing the LSF application included:
The organisation had been developing its business base in recent years but still required
top up grant funding.
Grant and other funding was becoming increasingly difficult to achieve for the organisation.
There was a growing awareness of a dependence on staff for decision making, with a Board
of established, very supportive Trustees with great skills and knowledge of the organisation,
but without strategic skills.

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As an opportunity to take time out and have additional capacity / support to consider the
future.
To gain funding to support organisational development and governance skills.

THE LSF PROJECT

WHO WAS INVOLVED AND WHAT WERE THEIR DIFFERENT ROLES?

The project had two main themes:

Marketing and communications
Governance.

The marketing and communications activity was led by the Chief Executive and the funding allowed
the employment of an intern to develop this work.

The governance work-stream was focused around achieving the PQASSO quality mark. It was led by
the Chief Executive, with input from the staff team, the trustees (with one trustee in particularly
taking a more hands-on role), the advisor and the intern. The Chief Executive and the intern
carried out most of the day-to-day developments that arose from working towards the PQASSO
standards and putting together evidence for the standards.

The organisation worked with an Advisor who works for a local third sector funding advice service
and was included at application stage. His role was to support the PQASSO process. In addition, the
organisation is worked with a local solicitors company which has a commitment to supporting
social enterprises. The aim was that business advice and networking would be key elements of this
role, although in the event, the latter role did not take off during the course of the programme.

WHAT WAS THE LSF FUNDED PROJECT AIMING TO DO?

Based on the two main themes, the funded activities included:

Marketing and Communications aiming to improve communication with existing customers and
market to new customers through:
Updating the website to include better online communications, bookings and enquiries.
Updating social media channels and ensuring that all the platforms are lively.
The use of online systems to develop an email newsletter and new, more efficient invoicing
methods.

Governance aiming to improve organisational governance through:

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Achieving Level One PQASSO quality standard.

Making improvements to the organisation in terms of policy, practice and administration.
Strengthening the Board, building in new skills and capacity.

ASPIRATIONS FOR THE LSF PROJECT WHAT SUCCESS WILL LOOK

LIKE IN 6 MONTHS, 12 MONTHS AND 5 YEARS?

At the start of the LSF project, the project team articulated their aspirations for the project in a
number of ways. They wanted to create an organisation which:
Was resilient and sustainable.
Could keep going in times of austerity.
Was safe and independent financially, but not at the expense of serving the community
and people in need.
Was able to run those elements of the service that are loss-making but necessary, as well as
the profitable ones.
Was a quality child care service.
Was well-run and therefore could attract more funding because of its good governance.
Serviced the community well.
Worked more efficiently in some administration areas, through the use of online solutions.

Partway through the At the end of the After 5 years Who for?
project funded project
New website New and existing
customers
Easier admin for staff
List what procedures Idiots guide to In use and updated as All staff
need writing down procedures complete needed
and which need
updating
Updated and More followers on More customers New and existing
refreshed Facebook Facebook Better customers
pages communications
PQASSO plan in place Well on way to
and being delivered achieving the PQASSO
up on standard
Better understanding
of the Boards

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Partway through the At the end of the After 5 years Who for?
project funded project
motivations and
sensitivities
A robust organisation
Providing services for
the local community
based on what is
needed
Looking at new
opportunities for uses
of the building
mental health through
family play project /
party venue
Explore new revenue
streams that can be
offered outside the
building by the staff
team being a
mentor for other
organisations

PARTWAY THROUGH THE PROJECT

6 months into the delivery of the project, they felt that they had achieved the following
successes:
Working policies were now mostly written up so that anyone could pick up a file and know
what to do in a range of functions and situations. Before, much of this had been in peoples
heads.
Through the work that the organisation was doing on PQASSO, they felt that they had the
beginnings of an understanding of what they needed to have in place in terms of policies
and internal processes be a sustainable business.
The PQASSO processes had helped them to work out where they were not strong and then
develop a plan of what to do about it. Its like a springboard for change, which they say
that they have applied in an organic way.
They were proud that through working in a new way, they had already secured new money
for a new non-childcare related project, being just a few in South Yorkshire to be successful.
It helped them to fund an intern, which meant they could help someone along their
journey using an approach they had not tried before but now know now they can do again.

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They were really pleased with the actual amount of comms work they had got done,
including a new website, a Mailchimp email system, Doodle polls, Text Local, Facebook and
much more.

They were particularly proud of their new systems. Before the project there had been a tension
between allowing staff to respond to what was happening on the ground day-to- day, and change
policy and procedure, and also the need to apply good governance practice through trustees
making decisions on policy and procedure. The organisation found methods to resolve this tension
that suit the way they work and the size and type of organisation they are, but also mean they
incorporate best practice into decision-making. For example, there is now a communication diary
now where all important events and decisions are recorded. In this way, they believe that they
have found a workable middle ground that suits them well, between trustees being in total charge
and staff having an appropriate amount of autonomy, while at the same time being able to be
responsive enough to meet the needs of their beneficiaries and the community.

At this stage, their intention was to focus on completing PQASSO and their procedure files, and
embedding what they had learned about marketing and their new systems into the organisation.
They intended to continue to identify where they had gaps and assess how they could fill them
through the PQASSO process, for example, a trustees away day to look at big picture strategy for
the next few years. This was a completely new thing intended to help ensure that trustees were
more engaged.

They had found that having an intern in the organisation focused on setting up new marketing and
communication systems was excellent, but they were keen that learning did not disappear from the
organisations when he goes, so they were intending to work on including all the new methods and
knowledge into procedure files so it could be picked up by anyone in the organisation.

AT THE END OF THE PROJECT

Having now come to the end of the LSF funded project, they feel that they have achieved the
following successes:
Thy have gathered sufficient evidenced for PQASSO to come and do an onsite assessment.
They feel that working through the PQASSO process has helped the organisation because of
the diagnostic / health-check style of the product, and it has also led in introducing some
new systems and procedures as a result.
They have completed the update of the website.
They have completed all the how to guides on office procedures and processes, which
they describe as a massive job. The guides were stress-tested before use and are now
live, although the organisation will continue to check them as they go along.
They have completed development of new methods of marketing, and feel that this work is
now much less erratic, as there is a system in place. The organisation feels they can be

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confident that they know what they are doing, including what they do to market
themselves, how often and why other marketing activities are not used.
All online communications and payments systems are in place and working smoothly.
The IT upgrade is also complete.
They noted that online surveys about user experiences of their service are working well, e.g.
opinions about holiday club, payments, hours, what did children did in the day and, as a
result, found out why boys and older children do not want to come to holiday club.
Another outcome is that they have now begun to timetable activities in advance for people
who work flexibly.
They are now more confident that they are delivering to what the service users want and
need. They note that they have been able to tweak the service to make it easier and take
the strain out of family life.
They have been able to draw in funding and continue to develop money making services
which are more responsive to specific needs. LSF has enabled this to happen by providing
extra capacity to free up time for the CEO to develop a new product that could attract
funding and through the LSF process of focusing on what the purpose of the organisation is.
They feel that they have developed sustainable and good governance, through identifying
gaps in their previous governance arrangements and strengthening where gaps have been
identified. They note that the key to this process has been the use of the PQASSO tool. In
particular the role and involvement of the board has been strengthened and the delegated
decision-making made much more clear.
Providing training and an away day for the board members has changed the way the board
has related to the day to day work of the organisation and the board is beginning to be
more involved now.
They are more confident that they will break even financially in this year; this was not
guaranteed before LSF.
They feel that they now have the right evidence for funders on how the programme is
governed, and that they have good policies and procedures in place.
The organisation has quicker and smoother internal systems.
They feel that they now have suitable marketing in place, through social media activities for
current users and web site improvements for future users,

They achieved some things that they didnt expect:

The organisation had not planned to be able to develop new thinking that would lead to new
products, but the time and extra capacity provided by LSF has enabled this to happen and this will
contribute to income generation and sustainability.

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The project lead considered what these successes have meant for different stakeholders:

For me For the organisation For clients For the sector

Given me a Improving practice Easier ways to

framework for and procedures with communicate and give
thinking about and having working their opinion, and
planning for instructions accessible more communication
sustainability to all staff
Improving Safeguarding non-
communications and profitable services
communication
systems
Better serving our Not having to book
clients by ensuring ourone week in advance
rules fit their needs due to zero hours
contracts
Helping us refocus on Better services for
the charitable purpose more people and
of the organisation making sure they are
delivered in a way
that is appropriate for
the people who use
them
Given me the space to Better lines of
be able to develop a communication
new product between staff,
parenting skills trustees and funders.
Swifter business
procedures.
A stronger Board

Reflecting on their achievements, they think that there were some things that really helped them:
In particular, they have found it helpful to have the extra capacity funded by LSF, as well as clear
tangible targets and goals.

The organisation felt that they would not have done the PQASSO process without the help of their
LSF-funded advisor, as there is no direct impact of not doing it, although they believe that they are
better off for going through the process.

And there was just one thing that hindered what they could achieve:
The time needed to find a business partner and not finding one, proved a distraction.

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THEIR ASPIRATIONS FOR LONG-TERM SUSTAINABILITY

The LSF programme is fundamentally about helping organisations to improve their long-term
sustainability. Having now completed their LSF project, H organisation is now feeling much more
confident. This is because they feel they can show funders that they are a well-run and well
managed organisation that can be trusted with money and can deliver. They feel they have a Board
that is beginning to become more dynamic. Also, they have had the opportunity to try out new
ideas and develop new products that will play their part in increasing both income and customers.
They noted that they are more efficient and effective in bringing in fees and are therefore able to
manage cash flow better. Finally, their marketing is better planned, targeted and more effective.

In future, the organisation will continue to market themselves more effectively and look at new
ways that they can service their beneficiaries through new products that fit local need, but are also
a stream of income, developed through talking to users and other partners.

The organisation attributes a lot of their success to LSF, in particular because LSF has provided the
extra capacity, expertise and time to enable the building blocks to take place.

THEIR EXPERIENCE OF THE LSF PROGRAMME

GETTING STARTED WITH LSF

AT the early stage of the project, they were able to put action plans are in place for both
workstreams for what the project aimed to achieve. Key actions and outputs were being delivered
upon. The group found that the process was smooth to start with and noted that they approached
the activities in a planned way. They felt that day-to-day activities could hamper progress, but the
organisation reported that on the whole it was manageable.

They found the funders delay to be frustrating, but the organisation reported that they had learned
to expect this, so coped with it. The delay from April to June did cause a few headaches relating to
employing the intern but the organisation worked around this. Changes to the payment structure
from the funder made delivery and costs management a bit more complicated and they note that it
left a serious challenge of a six-month gap.

PARTWAY THROUGH THE LSF PROJECT

At this point, the organisation reported that delivery of the project had gone as they had expected
and had been very straightforward.

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However, they noted that an unexpected part was that the whole process has been a lot more
empowering than they had thought it was going to be. Senior managers noted that they have had
really interesting discussions where they could be creative and from this, they developed flexible
systems that really helped and suited them. Linked to this is just having the time and resources to
thoroughly look at everything that impacts on your organisation, take a step back and work out
what to do next.

They found that their new systems really helped when senior staff had some difficult news to share,
as did their transparency, helping them to build more trust at a time when they feel that they could
have lost a lot of trust.

NOW AT THE END OF THE PROJECT

Looking back over the whole period of the LSF funding, the project lead reflected that delivery had
gone quite smoothly.

With the benefit of hindsight, they think that they got the design of their project about right. The
main change to the programme that Organisation H might have made would be the need for a
business partner, as their experience was that time spent on trying to achieve this was a distraction
and it was a huge ask to find someone suitable within this type of work sector.

IN TERMS OF HOW LSF WORKS, THE ORGANISATION REALLY LIKED

The online tool, which they described as excellent because of the process of having to
think through strengths and weaknesses. The organisation found it a useful process in
terms of developing the bid and really getting to grips with the needs of their organisation,
and felt that it was a useful process in its own right.
The bid writing process, which they felt was straightforward and easy.
The upfront payment was useful, and helpful to get the project going.
The online reminder about the evaluation, which they found really helpful.
Evaluation at the end, because it used the same format and the same questions. This made
it a useful piece of work for the organisation in itself, as it showed what they had done and
how their scores had increased.
Everything to do with LSF being on-line.
The light touch approach to monitoring has made the organisation feel a lot more trusted
by the funder, as other funders monitoring can be time consuming.

BUT THEY THINK IT WOULD BE BETTER IF

There had been more support about the advisor role, as they reported being confused
about it and would have appreciated examples of what this might be. Also, they would

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have liked advice or templates for employing external contractors, e.g. setting outputs and
reporting, to enable the organisation to know and manage what it is getting.

LEARNING

LEARNING FROM THE EARLY DAYS

New ways of articulating the strengths and weaknesses of the organisation, which makes
them more practical and therefore has given a starting point to remedy or build on them.
Significant amounts about communicating on social media platforms and how, through
Facebook, the customers become your marketing through their positioning and sharing
positive images and comments
Rethinking how decision-making works in the organisation, with a particular focus on
reshaping the trustees role
The importance of ensuring that all procedures are clear and available to everyone, so tasks
can be completed in the case of absence or even a completely new staff team.

LEARNING FROM PARTWAY THROUGH THE PROJECT

They noted that although they only had a small amount of input, they found having an external
expert advisor was a real help in guiding them to understand what they do in terms of their
communications. We have been able to do more than we would have thought of on our own.

Also, they felt that it is really hard to find the time and space to go through PQASSO on your own in
a small organisation, so having such a large amount of time from someone who knew both the
organisation and the sector was a big help.

KEY LESSONS REFLECTING BACK FROM THE END OF THE PROJECT

In relation to the intern, they note the importance of allocating time to mentoring and supporting
the post-holder, as well as making sure that any work they do is fully understood by all other staff
members before the intern leaves.

Raising awareness through social media marketing takes time and skills.

THE MOST IMPORTANT LESSONS THAT THEY WOULD LIKE OTHER ORGANISATIONS IN A SIMILAR
POSITION TO THINK ABOUT IS
Think carefully about what you want from your external advisors and mentors.
Starting with no ideas set in concrete is a good plan; that way you can maintain flexibility
and respond to how people react to your marketing and you find out what does and doesnt
work. We have used this explorative approach and it has made us stronger.
Make sure that work for an intern is clearly set out and is task focused, so that they are
doing extra things and enabling staff to take advantage of the extra capacity.
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