Introducing ESTIC the Essex, Southend and Thurrock Infrastructure Consortium

Working to make the third sector "fit for purpose"

In 2004 the Government published a 10 year strategy, ChangeUp, to build on the strengths of the third sector across the country. The ChangeUp agenda focused on building the capacity of infrastructure support providers, those organisations which themselves provide support services to front line voluntary and community organisations. The long term goal being to improve the provision of support so that the needs of front line organisations are met enabling them to grow and improve and thus improve their service delivery to the wider community. 

The ChangeUp agenda required the establishment of a consortium in each county, bringing together all the county’s infrastructure organisations. Late in 2004 ESTIC, the Essex, Southend and Thurrock Infrastructure Consortium was formed. There are approximately 40 members involved in ESTIC, including Rainbow Services and 13 Councils for Voluntary Services, the Volunteer Centres, Essex Council for Voluntary Youth Services, Rural Community Council of Essex, Essex Racial Equality Council, Age Concern, Voluntary Sector Training and the Essex Community Foundation amongst others.

In 2006/07 the Government established a national organisation Capacity Builders to manage the ChangeUp programme. By the end of December 2007 every consortia had to produce a Strategic Plan for the period 2008 – 2014 and a Business Plan to cover 2008 – 2011. Consortia had to show that they were “fit for purpose” and could lead the evolution of the third sector so that it is ready to face the challenges of the 21^st century. 

Capacity Builders have pronounced that ESTIC is “fit for purpose” and our Strategic and Business Plans have been approved. Core funding has been provided to enable us to recruit an Strategic Manager to drive forward the work plan.

Capacity Builders have also supported 2 projects, Modernising CVS and Modernising Volunteer Centres and funding has been made available

Research completed during the last four years, and particularly for the development of the strategy and business plans highlighted a number of needs for the third sector across Essex, Southend and Thurrock. These include:

• Need to fully understand and be able to identify the third sector in Essex, Southend and Thurrock. Need to establish a single comprehensive database of third sector groups and organisations.
• Need to ensure consistent, high quality advice and information is available to all third sector organisations, front line and infrastructure, as and when they require.
• Need for general and specialist support services to be delivered across the county. Currently service provision is patchy and not always of the highest quality. Some needs are not being met.
• Need to establish strong working relationships with partners in the public and private sectors. Need to improve skills so that the third sector can take its seat at the partnership tables across the county.
• Need to build strong mechanisms to support third sector representatives sitting on partnership bodies to ensure they are able to be representative and that feedback mechanisms are in place. 
• Need to improve skills and understanding of current changes to both funding and service delivery arrangements. Need to ensure that the third sector is ready and able to participate in local procurement arrangements.
• Need to ensure that partners understand the value of the third sector and the high quality customer -led services that it delivers. Need to improve monitoring and evaluation skills ensuring that appropriate evidence is collected and presented to support service delivery proposals. Need to raise awareness that the third sector is about much more than volunteering, the historic view of the sector.

ESTIC wants to work with its partners. We know that many agencies want a single database of third sector agencies across Essex, Southend and Thurrock. We need to make sure that our database meets your needs too.

We know that you want the third sector to be fit to deliver services in your area, and that you want representatives of the third sector to be able to sit on partnership bodies and to represent the sector. We want the same things. 

There is a lot of work to do. We want to work with you. What do you need from the third sector?  How can we make sure that we are ready to meet your needs?.

Contact the ESTIC team by clicking here.