Birmingham City Council has modernised its partnership arrangements with the local third sector. The Council recognised that relationships were poor, it did not obtain full value for money from its grant aid and funding was geared to legacy arrangements, breaching the principles of fairness, equality and transparency.
The change programme also sought to align the activities of the funded third sector more closely to Birmingham City Council’s corporate priorities. A move to a third sector commissioning framework has generally worked well, winning the Council Beacon status for the programme. But the reform proved more complex, more expensive and required more time than anticipated.