Salford Third Sector Fund Grants Programme Evaluation report

This report relates to an evaluation undertaken by CLES and Voluntary Sector North West between February and September 2016 of the Salford Third Sector Fund Grants Programme, a two year partnership between Salford CVS and Salford CCG.

The evaluation is designed to report back upon three things: the effectiveness of the partnership and the relationships utilised to deliver the Programme; the impact of the Programme as a whole, and of individual grant awards; and the future linkages of the Programme to wider agendas including Health and Social Care Devolution in Greater Manchester.

To reflect this, CLES and VSNW have: developed an evaluation framework; undertaken a process evaluation; undertaken impact evaluation with 16 projects; and contextualised the findings in order to develop recommendations. A range of primary and secondary methods have been utilised including: interviews with senior officers at the CCG and CVS; discussions with grant recipients and beneficiaries; and the deployment of one Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) metric per project.

Over the course of the last two years, the programme has provided grant funding to a range of voluntary and community sector organisations and schools in Salford to support activities around health and well-being. The report reveals that the programme has had a significant positive impact, valued at over £11.4m. This is more than seven times the £1.6m awarded by NHS Salford CCG and Salford CVS in grants to 158 Salford voluntary organisations, community groups and social enterprises plus a consortium of 84 VCSE organisation, during 2014/15 and 2015/16.