Greater Manchester Wellbeing Consortium

Hi there and welcome to the Greater Manchester Wellbeing Consortium page.

The consortium provides a way for voluntary sector organisations to enter the contracts market. It does this by providing a central ‘hub’ function which takes a lot of the work needed around bidding for contracts away from voluntary sector organisations.

The consortium is a social enterprise with a board of directors. Currently the directors are ‘founder directors’ and their role is to oversee and prepare the Consortium in order for it to operate well. The founder directors will step down at the first annual general meeting of the consortium and a new elected board will be chosen from its members. This meeting will take place on 27th March 2012 at 1:30pm and will be held at the St Thomas Centre.

The hub coordinates the consortium's membership of voluntary organisations. The hub scans the horizon for contracts and then puts in bids for the ones it thinks may be won. If a contract is won then the consortium sub-contracts to one or more of its members. There’s an internal competitive tendering process within the consortium which is managed by the hub. You can see a flow-diagram of this process below called ‘Tendering & Contracting Process’

Its successful members can then start delivering wellbeing services. The hub will monitor their progress and be there to provide as much help and support as possible.

Smaller voluntary sector organisations - supplier providers - may lack the quality assurance required by the consortium to become member-providers. This is not to say that they will be excluded from the contracting market altogether. Written into the consortium’s ‘Membership Prospectus’ – which you can also see below – is a requirement for its members to purchase from local supplier-providers where this is appropriate and possible. You can see a presntation of how this works in the document below called ‘Consortium Operating Model’.

For an informal chat about the Consortium, its background, progress and strategy, please contact Neil Walbran on 0161 277 1036 or at neil.walbran@gmcvo.org.uk.

Latest news

Thirty-one members and two associate members - the consortium is well on its way to a target of fifty members by the end of March 2012.

First Annual General Meeting - we have confirmation that Eileen Fairhurst, Chair of the GM Health Commission wil be our guest speaker.

Background

The Consortium provides a vehicle for enabling voluntary sector organisations to enter the contracting market. After an initial scoping workshop, a working group developed the business case for the consortium working to their steer and with their support. Now incorporated into its own separate legal entity, the consortium has founder directors who will oversee its business case in preparation for tenders to arise in Greater Manchester.

Applications are encouraged from all voluntary sector health and wellbeing providers across the City Region. For detailed information on membership please read the Membership Prospectus particularly section 12 on eligibility criteria to ensure your organisation fits the criteria for membership. If your organisation wishes to apply there is a simple two-stage process.

Contact details for more information:

Neil Walbran
Senior Policy & Partnerships Officer

GMCVO
0161 277 1036
neil.walbran@gmcvo.org.uk

For an application form to join the consortium please also see below or contact Beth Sharratt on 0161 277 1029 or at beth.sharratt@gmcvo.org.uk.