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ARE THE BARRIERS TO COLLABORATION REAL OR PERCEIVED?

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In Cumbria, things can happen in very localised geographical areas in small ways - physical separation. Are there also other barriers?

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We try to work in a cross cutting way, we still work in silos. We often reach out to the people that we know first. "regular culprits". World gets smaller. Is this natural human behaviour or is something else behind it?

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We talk about SYSTEMS eg health and social care system, or employment system. "BUBBLES"

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Healthwatch, CVS etc can be helpful as prompts to make projects think "have you thought about this / no don't do it this way"

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Does it need to be perfect to work / will it ever be perfect / do we want to reach perfection / or just do our best to make sure that we achieve our aims?

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Lots of people competing for funding can put up a barrier to working with other people - it becomes a competitive space so we keep info to ourselves and not share.

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More transparency and communication

Sharing resources

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how do we work together to reach people - eg mental health and homeless teams help us reach more people - some funders insist on collaboration as it achieves more of aims

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Different skills are needed than traditional project management: training is needed in how to do this

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Some organisations are linked to national networks eg lots of local Minds so collaborate nationally. By collaborating in this way, does this build the skills and make them more likely to be able to use the skills locally? This builds mindset / gives permission / skills in how to do this. Moving forward maybe building communities in certain areas?

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Small orgs can't be experts in everything so working in partnership works for them

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Need money and time and background work and commitment to make it happen

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Geographical collaboration eg when going for funding which covers health areas, so you need to work with orgs in Lancashire as they don't want to cover just south cumbria

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Mapping of community collaborations is a constant ongoing job which has to happen in the background and is often overlooked because no one recognises it as a task

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Could have one project within Cumbria to do this mapping, as a single point of call / information

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Websites can be set up bringing information together, but then people need to know about it

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Coalition of the willing - it doesn't have to be perfect, but momentum is built up by those involved and network is ready before a funding opportunity comes up

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Cumbria Observatory

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Originally had a team of 5 people who could be scouting out for information, but now only has 1.

Used to include community sources, now limited to official sources

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What can the VCFSE sector do to contribute all their info to this? Is there a Wiki approach to this where orgs can add their own data to a repository? With a caveat that it is only as good as who put it up, and is only up to date on the day when it was put up, but is there as a repository of information. Then others can quote it in funding bids and use it. Accept imperfections. Could there be volunteer moderators to keep an eye on the info? Could be a single page which links out to other orgs' pages? Then each org can keep their own info up to date.

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Sharing info on what funding orgs are planning to bid for. eg when CVS shares info on new funding streams available, and puts out the information that they are planning to put in a bid - would anyone like to come in with us? So people can be transparent and share ideas / work together before the deadline.

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Work together on what future priorities will be, before funding becomes available

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'Elves' required - need unrestricted funding to do this work

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Ego can get in the way, especially for small / micro charities set up as personal projects by founder trustees - they don't want to give up their own autonomy.

Can infrastructure orgs like CYA and CVS have a role to suggest they come together and work together?

Need to put the client / service user at the centre and do what is best for them.

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See ourselves as a Supply Chain which serves our communities, as happens in business (eg most parts of a Jaguar car are not made by Jaguar but by different companies

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Staff turnover at the end of a project - make sure that before the end of a project skills and contacts are shared

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Could CVS also be a platform for different orgs, and facilitate smaller orgs saying we are looking to put in for this funding, who would like to work with us on it?

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Voluntary sector recruitment agency to help keep skills in Cumbria when projects come to an end?

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By working together in this group we have created a culture of collaboration - can we take this back to our organisations tomorrow?