Welcome to the first 2025 e-bulletin!

In this edition we have the details of an open letter from the GM VCFSE Leadership Group to GM commissioners as a warning of the current instability in the GM VCFSE sector. We also have a summary of VCFSE Accord activity from the previous quarter, and a summary of the upcoming Procurement Act. 

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The Greater Manchester VCFSE Leadership Group have written an open letter to Greater Manchester Commissioners calling for urgent action to support and protect our sector following years of systemic underfunding, recent disinvestment, delayed commissioning decisions, and new financial pressures, such as the increase to National Insurance contributions. 

If you have the opportunity to do so, please raise these issues at appropriate meetings to help us ensure our sector's voice is heard. We have prepared a short briefing which summarises key messages and provides examples. 

We have asked commissioners to commit to the following:

1. Adopt a full cost recovery model including inflation-linked funding adjustments built into contracts as standard. Alongside this, where our full costs are being taken into commissioning decisions with a value for money assessment, ensure a level playing field by not comparing our full organisation costs with salary-only in-house contracts.
2. Urgently finalise and communicate your commissioning intentions for 25/26 to the sector. Communicate rationale and at what scale (GM, locality and neighbourhood) decisions are made.
3. Make long-term contract and grant arrangements. Offer multi-year contracts to VCFSE organisations to help you scale up and deliver GM’s Live Well ambitions effectively
4. Work with the sector to understand and mitigate risks of disinvestment, underfunding, and commissioning delays. Prioritise commissioning decisions that protect and grow the VCFSE ecosystem by mitigating risks when keeping services in-house within NIC-exempt institutions.

If you have any further examples and/or evidence of how these issues have impacted the sector, please do share so we can strengthen our case even more so.

Find out about the all latest VCFSE Accord activity in our Q3 summary. We share more about the progress of each work area including population health, commissioning and investment, workforce development, communication, VCFSE ecosystem and localities, equalities, inclusive economy and influencing.

The Procurement Act, scheduled to come into force on 24th Feb, provides greater flexibility, replacing existing procedures with one more competitive and flexible.

Colleagues at 10GM have produced a summary of the Act for the VCFSE sector.

We are pleased to share the midpoint evaluation report for the Greater Manchester VCFSE Accord, marking the first year and a half of the current delivery plan (2023 - 2026).

This landmark report highlights the achievements since the Accord's signing in 2021 and evaluates progress towards its eight commitments, aiming to drive system change and enhance partnership working.

The Government has confirmed a £630m investment for Greater Manchester in 2025/26 as part of its ‘Trailblazer’ devolution deal, shifting power and funding to local leaders to shape services around community needs.

We are advocating for the sector to ensure civil society plays a key role in shaping priorities across Greater Manchester.

Explore the impact of devolution on civil society across the North West in this VSNW blog.

Wednesday 19th March, The Monastery Manchester

This event will bring together VCFSE partners, Local Authorities, NHS, funders, and more to celebrate achievements, share, learn and progress as we take this neighbourhood and prevention work to the next level through GM Live Well.

It will bring people together to talk about how Live Well centres can be delivered, spaces and offers, co-designing the features and principles that need to be at their heart. 

The latest bulletin includes an update from Andy Burnham, NHS GM key achievements from 2024, new appointments and much more.

The VCSE Data and Insights Observatory invites you to contribute to the VCSE Barometer Survey, running for three weeks from Wednesday 22 January to Wednesday 12 February.

Your feedback contributes to comprehensive reports, interactive online seminars, and a dynamic, user-friendly dashboard available on the Barometer website. These resources inform both the community of participating organisations and national policymakers.