Everyone will be very aware of the intense financial pressures upon Coventry City Council to achieve more whilst spending less, the scale of the savings that have to be achieved across the Council and the challenges and opportunities this potentially brings to the sector. The Council will have to look at the cost-effectiveness of both services and the Council's processes for commissioning and procuring them. This could, for example, mean fewer but larger contracts, which smaller organisations might find harder to secure without bidding through consortia.

The Council is looking at different ways of delivering services and has appointed the Social Investment Business (SIB) as consultants to work with the Council and the Third Sector to explore this further. Further information on SIB including their work around bidding for contracts and consortia development can be found on their website http://www.socialinvestmentbusiness.org/.

The elected voluntary sector LSP reps and VAC officers will be involved in the ongoing discussions with Martin Reeves and Brian Walsh and SIB to assess the risks and opportunities presented. The thinking on this is at an early stage but the sector needs to work quickly to take advantage of this potential opportunity to ensure its future strength. It would be helpful in the first instance to know the extent of consortium working already within the sector, organisations' thinking on and support needs for consortium working, and early ideas on any service areas that you think could deliver genuine efficiency savings through collaborative / consortium working.

If your organisation delivers services through a grant or contract with the City Council, is potentially interested in greater collaborative or consortium working, and hasn't received an expression of interest proforma, please e-mail Harjeet Matharu as soon as possible at h.matharu@vacoventry.org.uk