A Community Allowance Pilot Programme
We have been trying to get a pilot programme for the Community Allowance up and running for some time now. Finally, it's looking hopeful that it might happen in 2010.
We called out for pilot partners in September 2009 and had a total of 176 community organisations from across the UK contact us to express an interest in being part of the pilot programme.
It was a challenge choosing just three to work with as there were so many inspiring and necessary project ideas from organisations that we would love to work with one day. However, we eventually chose three organisations to partner with for our first pilot and they are:
Foresight which we hope will pilot the Community Allowance across North East Lincolnshire
Learning Links which we hope will pilot the Community Allowance across Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight
St Peter's Partnerships which we hope will pilot the Community Allowance across Tameside in Greater Manchester
With these partners, we have submitted a Right to Bid proposal to the Department for Work and Pensions, for their next meeting which takes place on the 14th December 2009. Fingers crossed!
Right to Bid
Last year, the Government announced that it was creating a Right to Bid scheme that would enable any organisation to propose to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) a new way of delivering any of its services.
We were advised this was a good way to work with the DWP to fulfill its commitment in the Welfare Reform White Paper to pilot the Community Allowance. We developed a Right to Bid proposal for a £2.2 million pilot programme in 15 areas across the UK.
You can read the detail of what we wanted to achieve in our Right to Bid proposal that we sent to DWP in January 2009.
In April 2009 they asked us a number of questions about our proposal, you can read our answers here.
In July 2009 they called us to a meeting where they informed us that the Right to Bid process was looking for much smaller scale pilots. They also said that the outgoing Secretary of State, James Purnell MP, had made it clear that the Community Allowance could not be piloted for people on Income Support or Job Seekers Allowance.
They rejected our bid but asked us to submit another proposal for a smaller scale pilot operating in 3 areas anywhere in the UK. They also said our bid would stand a greater chance of success if we restricted the people who could participate to those who are on Incapacity Benefit and Employment and Support Allowance.
Aims of pilots:
- To test the feasibility and impact of the Community Allowance on participants and their communities in a range of settings across the UK
- To capture learning and evidence that could inform further development of the Community Allowance to people on other benefits (e.g. Income Support and Job Seekers Allowance)
Type of Jobs: Eligible jobs on the Community Allowance would be restricted to those that contribute to strengthening the neighbourhood. This would be defined and refined by the CREATE Consortium over the duration of the pilots through dialogue with the CREATE partners.
Real Time Evaluation: The CREATE Consortium will contract with an independent evaluator to carry out a real time evaluation of the pilot programme.
