Hubs to lose commissioning powers

The ChangeUp hubs are to lose their commissioning powers from Spring next year but have been thrown a lifeline with the announcement that Capacitybuilders will continue to fund them until March 2008.

At its meeting last Wednesday, the Capacitybuilders board adopted a number of recommendations from chief executive Simon Hebditch as to the most effective model for boosting the efficacy of the sector.

The biggest change to the existing hubs set-up is that from next Spring, Capacitybuilders will take over the role of commissioner, meaning that it will buy national capacity-building services from the public, voluntary and private sectors using government money. Instead of hubs, these services will be called national support services.

This removes commissioning powers from the hubs’ accountable bodies, which in four cases out of six is the NCVO.  Much of the criticism levelled at the hubs has been based on the fact that the NCVO both commissions and delivers many of the hub services, meaning it has effectively been awarding money to itself.

From January to March next year, Capacitybuilders will consult with the sector as to which programmes should be delivered by the national support services from 2008 to 2011.  These areas may be the same as existing hub programmes – governance, finance, ICT and so on – or they may be reconfigured and possibly new ones added.

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