Contract with national umbrella group case study - Ministry of Social Development (MSD) and Out Of School And Recreation(OSCAR)

A national contract allows government to take a strategic approach to building the capacity of Non-Government Organisations. This includes funding for training (eg, financial accountability, governance, and management) and information technology. Capacity building helps to improve credibility and strengthen networking and co-operation.

MSD has a contractual relationship with the OSCAR Foundation, as the national association for out-of-school care providers.

This contract is a good example of how government and a national umbrella group work together to develop the capacity and viability of a sector.

Key factors that enabled the contract to be developed include:

• a changed focus within MSD that stresses developing strong relationships with community groups
• commitment of key MSD and OSCAR staff to building the relationship
• key MSD staff developing a good understanding of community development and the community sector.

The contract provides funds for OSCAR to employ regional advisory staff. They assist individual out-of-school care programmes to access the funding, offer advice to individual programmes, and help develop the overall capacity of the sector to provide quality programmes. The contract includes funding for training workshops for providers.

The fact that advisors are employed by OSCAR helps build the credibility of the umbrella group, which in turn encourages out-of-school care programmes to get further involved with OSCAR. MSD and OSCAR believe this has increased co-operation and networking among out-of-school care providers. It has also increased OSCAR’s credibility with other funders and sponsors.

The contract also provides MSD with advice on how to distribute funding to out-of-school care providers, while retaining the final decision-making responsibility.

The contract is a two-year contract with an ‘out’ clause. It states that the contract will be cancelled if Government does not make an appropriation, and commits both parties to negotiate if that happens.

Contract specifications were initially broad so that changes could be made if necessary (eg, the definition of training was changed when OSCAR realised that out-of-school care agencies were reluctant to come to specific courses, and on-the-job coaching and smaller workshops were accepted as meeting this requirement).

In subsequent contracts the specifications have evolved to reflect agreed changes to service requirements, such as reporting content and frequency, to enhance MSD's knowledge of the out-of-school sector, without being onerous on OSCAR. At the same time, flexibility has been maintained to allow for future changes.

Payment periods were agreed so that OSCAR would always have a good cash flow.

As the recognised national umbrella body for the sector, OSCAR demonstrated that it had:

• the trust and support of local providers
• a large membership
• a democratically elected national executive
• a long and established record of working to improve the sector
• detailed knowledge of the sector
• expertise in the area
• knowledge that MSD did not have, enabling it to contribute to policy advice
• a unique ability to build sector capacity and advise government on funding distribution.

A key factor in OSCAR’s success was its commitment to building strong relationships with key government agencies. This included:

• working closely with policy staff in government
• understanding and explaining how out-of-school care objectives fitted with key government strategic priorities
• providing policy staff in government with relevant information
• not wasting resources by lobbying for the impossible
• developing sound governance policies and internal quality standards.