Acevo to advise BIG on service delivery opportunities for Transition Fund

11 Nov 2010 News

Acevo will be advising BIG on where the biggest service delivery opportunities lie for the sector as BIG considers applications from charities to the Transition Fund.

Sir Stephen Bubb, chief executive of Acevo

Acevo will be advising BIG on where the biggest service delivery opportunities lie for the sector as BIG considers applications from charities to the Transition Fund.

Acevo chief Stephen Bubb (pictured) announced at his organisation's national conference this morning that the body had bid jointly with BIG to run the fund. He said Acevo would not be advising on the “specifics” but on areas like “where are the opportunities in terms of service delivery?”.

Bubb was responding to a question from Patrick Nash, CEO of Connect Assist about where charities can access short-term funding to enable them to make the necessary organisational changes that will bring savings to the Exchequer in the long term.

Bubb responded that at an awayday with senior civil servants before the change of government, Gus O’Donnell, head of  the civil service, had told him the government realised it must invest to save but that there was no money to do so.

Bubb went on to say that the £100m Transition Fund was “small scale” in the scheme of things, and that where the sector needed to make progress was in the opening up of capital markets.

Bubb told the conference he saw potential for growth in the sector of £2bn over the next two years as the government turns to charities to deliver more services.

Voluntary groups in the health sector already provide £7bn worth of services but this is only 7 per cent of the total budget. Similarly, voluntary groups working on offender rehabilitation already provide £3.5bn worth of services but this is just 5 per cent of the total. “There is a huge opportunity there for us if the government is true to its word,” Bubb said.

He added that the sector had doubled in size over the last 10-15 years and he expected it would double or treble again over the same period going forward.

More on