In June, the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) published its Local Growth Plan (LGP), setting out a ten-year strategy for economic growth across the region. The plan outlines regional growth ambitions and the means to achieve them, aligning regional priorities with the Government's growth mission and Modern Industrial Strategy.
This blog explores the key themes of the LGP as an indication of TVCA’s policy priorities and considers the implications of these for the Tees Valley Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector, particularly in relation to future commissioning and funding.
What has happened so far?
As part of the Government’s growth agenda, Mayoral Strategic Authorities, including Tees Valley Combined Authority, were tasked with producing Local Growth Plans. These ten-year strategic frameworks set out how each area will build on its strengths, address local economic challenges and contribute to the Government’s national growth mission.
To inform the plan’s development, TVCA held a series of stakeholder engagement events late last year. While the VCSE sector was included in this engagement, the focus was largely on what the Local Growth Plan could do for the sector. VONNE and sector partners felt there was an important opportunity to shift the conversation towards what the VCSE sector could contribute to the delivery of Tees Valley’s growth ambitions.
In response, VONNE, working with wider sector partners, produced our Unlocking Potential report. The report demonstrates the VCSE sector’s contribution to the Tees Valley economy, highlights its role in delivering inclusive growth, and makes the case for the sector to be recognised as a strategic as well as key delivery partner in the implementation of the LGP.
VONNE also hosted a launch event for the report, bringing together sector contributors and leaders, funders, academics and representatives from TVCA. As part of a panel discussion, we explored further the VCSE sector’s contribution to economic growth in Tees Valley with TVCA, recognising that the success of the LGP would depend on strong collaboration across sectors and welcoming the report as a timely, evidence-based contribution to the conversation.
Importantly, this was not the end of the conversation but the beginning of it. VONNE is keen to build on this engagement and strengthen opportunities for the VCSE sector to contribute to TVCA’s emerging priorities, and there have been positive opportunities to do so. Most recently, VONNE hosted a consultation session on behalf of TVCA, inviting social enterprises to help shape the Authority’s future business support offer. We also attended Anything is Possible: Tackling Child Poverty Together Across Tees Valley, which brought together partners from across sectors, including TVCA, to explore a shared approach to tackling child poverty. These opportunities provide a useful foundation for continued dialogue and collaboration between TVCA and the VCSE sector as the Local Growth Plan moves into delivery.
The Published Tees Valley LGP
Now finalised and published, the Tees Valley Local Growth Plan is built around five core commitments:
- Everyone shares in opportunity
- People are proud to live, work & belong
- People succeed & thrive
- Our sectors power a sustainable future
- Businesses start, grow, invest & lead
Significantly, TVCA describes the final plan as going beyond the Government’s growth brief, with improving the lives of local people identified as the ultimate goal. This broader understanding of prosperity is particularly relevant to the VCSE sector. The LGP identifies diversifying and growing the foundational economy, which accounts for the majority of jobs in Tees Valley and includes areas such as health and social care, as a high-level priority. VCSE organisations and social enterprises are themselves part of this everyday economy, supporting communities, creating employment and helping people to participate in economic life.
While the VCSE sector is not identified as a standalone priority within the LGP, its role is recognised throughout the plan. TVCA identifies the sector alongside government, business and education as a partner in addressing barriers to growth and describes delivery of the region’s ambitions as a collective responsibility. The plan also identifies the VCSE sector as central to its successful delivery, with ongoing opportunities for organisations and communities to help shape implementation over its ten-year lifespan. Notably, the LGP commits to “working alongside, but not putting undue burden on, the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector”.
The LGP also identifies procurement as one way to create greater opportunities within the regional economy. TVCA commits to reviewing contracts to determine whether they can be divided into smaller lots, supporting greater participation from regional suppliers, alongside increased pre-tender market engagement. Importantly for the VCSE sector, the plan also commits to connecting supply chains with VCSE organisations to help shape regionally focused, needs-based social value commitments. This creates opportunities not only for VCSE organisations as potential delivery partners, but for the sector’s knowledge of communities and local need to influence how wider investment generates social value.
Another area for the sector to watch is the development of TVCA’s new outcomes framework, which will be used to monitor progress and help assess whether the results of a growing economy are being experienced across Tees Valley. As the framework develops, there may be an important role for the VCSE sector in helping to demonstrate and understand the wider social outcomes that sit alongside economic growth.
What does this mean for the Tees Valley VCSE sector?
As the LGP moves from strategy to delivery, there are opportunities for the VCSE sector to help shape implementation, contribute to delivery and access emerging commissioning and funding opportunities.
Skills, employment and economic participation are clear areas of opportunity. The LGP links its ambitions to the Get Tees Valley Working Plan, including work to address health-related barriers to employment, improve job quality and increase participation. VCSE organisations already work with many of the communities furthest from the labour market and can bring trusted relationships, specialist support and an understanding of the wider barriers that affect people’s ability to access and sustain employment. This includes an important role in supporting young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET), a significant challenge nationally and one that has been particularly acute in the North East.
For the VCSE sector, the opportunity is not simply to align with the LGP, but to help shape what successful growth looks like in practice. The final plan contains welcome recognition that prosperity depends on strong communities, wider participation and collaboration across sectors. The next test will be how that recognition translates into investment, commissioning, procurement and decision-making as delivery begins. VONNE will continue discussions with TVCA and the wider sector to help establish effective ways of working that enable VCSE organisations to contribute their expertise, capacity and community insight as the LGP moves into delivery.
As the LGP moves into delivery, TVCA has committed to providing opportunities for businesses, community groups and individuals to get involved and inform how the plan develops and is implemented. VCSE organisations can register their interest in contributing to LGP delivery through TVCA via this webpage.
If you’re an organisation working in the Tees Valley Combined Authority area and would like to share your views on the Local Growth Plan, get in touch with us by contacting our Policy Manager, Siobhan Flynn at siobhan.flynn@vonne.org.uk.