Relevant experience of the Permaculture Association to manage and successfully deliver an 'Our Environment Our Future' project.
We can demonstrate:
The ability to deliver large-scale (and complex) projects
Local Food Fund (Big Lottery Fund programme). Supported programme initiation and development from 2002, and provided governance and steering group support for the duration of the programme. £57.5 million over 5 years.
Permaculture LAND (Learning And Network Demonstration) project. Successful delivery of £457,000 project over 5 years, including in-kind support. Developed 80 Centres across England, delivered over 40 training and networking events, engaged 35,000 people, and enabled 120 group visits by disadvantaged community groups. The LAND project is now self-financing and will continue for forseeable future.
IPES (Instituto de Permacultura De El Salvador) - worked with IPES to develop support for a new ecological network and community training in 10 of the poorest communities in El Salvador (National Lottery International Grants Programme), £193,000, over 3 years, 2006-2009. Learned power of clear communications. http://permacultura.com.sv
11th International Permaculture Conference in Cuba. Developed online events and payment system that enabled us to process bookings and payments for 320 people that attended the event in November 2013. Also managed bursary programme to enable 18 people to attend from Global South. £130,000 from 40 countries via paypal, credit card, BACS transfer. We can handle money and complex situations.
SPAN (Sustainable Production in Active Neighbourhoods), funded by Defra’s Environmental Action Fund. Worked with the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens (lead organisation), with Garden Organic, Community Composting Network, and the Women’s Environmental Network. £630,000 (50% in-kind) project over three years (2005 - 2008) as part of an action research project supporting 10 communities to become more sustainable. Produced an influential manifesto - From the ground up: A manifesto to inspire community growing.
European Permaculture Teachers Partnership, Leonardo / EU funding, 12 partners across Europe, 150+ teachers and 7 international meetings. Permaculture Association was co-founder and coordinator with German Permaculture Institute. 220,000 Euros, 24,000 Euros in the UK, over two years.
Permaculture International Research Network. We have initiated this network, which has 360+ permaculture focussed academics, researchers and practitioner researchers in 50 countries. Achieved this with a tiny budget of £15,000 over two years from Lush Cosmetics.
Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design. Self-financing learning programme engaging 370+ apprentices and over 30 tutors, with CPD system, tutor training and annual National Diploma Gathering. Operating since 1995, income now approx. £80,000 per annum.
The skills, experience and resources relevant to the proposed project
Project Management. Staff have a range of excellent project management skills, honed on the above projects and numerous events. A clear system is place with usual Gantt charts, milestones etc, and this is incorporated into our staff supervision structure as well as project focussed review and planning meetings as required. A permaculture design approach is also used that reviews project designs against ethics and principles to ensure the project is designed to be as sustainable as possible. RELEVANCE: We can manage large and complex projects!
Accreditation. We are a regional centre for CERTA (formerly Open College Network Yorkshire and Humber). Accredited the Permaculture Design Course, a new Forest Garden course, Introduction to Permaculture, and have access to many other accredited modules. Have successfully delivered many courses and students. RELEVANCE: We bring our accreditation skills to this project, enabling participants to gain recognised skills and credits for their learning. Can offer this facility to other members of the partnership.
Our experienced staff team (10 part time) have a wide range of network support, advocacy, facilitation, permaculture design, administration, financial, education and online learning skills. RELEVANCE: We have the skills needed to run the project and engage both the participants and the wider network.
Resources – comprehensive events kit and systems, IT (event boos system, online database {CiviCRM}, knowledge base, advanced website {Drupal 7 CMS}, high functioning office systems. RELEVANCE: Able to operate a sophisticated organisation, based around network partnerships and support. Able to deliver and support effective events.
Working groups – Farming, Education, Research, Scotland, Wales, Diploma, Events – we have highly engaged groups of people helping to develop the Permaculture Association and wider network. 120+ volunteers. RELEVANCE: We have the skills and established support systems in place to engage young people in a steering group that can oversee and steer the project over the next five years.
Strategic networks in Scotland and Wales RELEVANCE: We can deliver in each country with national networks that have local knowledge and contacts.
Plus the capacity, skills and desire to learn new skills as required, including action learning and action research skills and experience. RELEVANCE: This project will require new learning and a flexible approach to work effectively in collaboration with other partners in the portfolio.
Network Capabilities
Established and run the network of 30+ permaculture Diploma tutors. RELEVANCE: We can deliver training to a large number of people, backed up by good quality tutor training.
LAND network – development and coordination of a network in England and Scotland with 110 demonstration sites, or which 80 are full Centres and 30 are 'Learners' moving towards full Centre status. RELEVANCE: Local projects can support young people with their project development, including inspiration, volunteering opportunities, examples of good practice, and practical support of tools and plant materials.
Established network of permaculture teachers, with a range of specialisms and project experience. RELEVANCE: Ability to deliver accredited Permaculture Design Course training across England, Scotland and Wales. Tutors have eco-skills, practical skills and know how, on the ground experience of leading and delivering environmental action, and are modelling and transferring the behaviour we are seeking to promote to the young people we engage.
We have a good understanding of the needs of target beneficiaries and an excellent understanding within the environmental area
Beneficiaries
Permaculture is a people centred design process, which seeks to understand the needs of the client / beneficiary in order to create the most effective design.
The network has good skills for working with young people - there are many permaculture projects across England, Scotland and Wales that have children and young people as their primary beneficiaries. Many of these project leaders run LAND Centres and are active teachers.
The Permaculture Association has young people engaged in working groups, at events and as active members of the LAND network, and they play an important role in the life of the organisation. Their voice is heard within the organisation.
The PDC has already engaged 18-24 year olds, but not at the scale proposed here.
We understand the need to keep all beneficiaries safe, and have appropriate policies in place for staff and volunteers. We conduct DBS checks for all volunteers and contractors supporting children's and young people's activities at our events.
Environment
We have been pioneering the permaculture design approach in the UK for 32 years, and have been at the leading edge of developing green skills and environmental practice. Forest gardens, green roofs, eco-systems thinking, composting loos, mulching, and many other sustainability activities have been popularised through the PDC and local project delivery.
Research and experimentation with permaculture has led to a series of groundbreaking projects that have been influential in the wider sector, often without using the permaculture ‘label’, eg. the Transition Network, Growing Communities, OrganicLea.
We can measure and demonstrate impact
The Permaculture Association and learning partner Icarus are committed to designing into their work participatory and formative learning/evaluation processes that are able to evidence impact across the whole programme. Examples include:
1. Access to Nature programme (evaluation of public, stakeholder and community engagement). Working with local projects across England to support them in gathering data that demonstrates the impact on communities (inc. a number of young people’s projects) of initiatives that improve access to the natural world. Client: Natural England, 2009 – 2014.
2. Children’s’ Fund in Kirklees. Participative, formative, co-created programme evaluation. Training and mentoring young people, project staff and wider stakeholders to undertake evidence based evaluations of their own projects. Included the design of a self evaluation tool kit for projects that could be adapted for OEOF. Over 7 years - 2004-2011.
3. River Tees Rediscovered Landscape Partnership. A co-production evaluation approach combining the skills and assets of both Icarus and the Partnership to gather and interpret data and determine the impact of the Partnership’s work over four years to 2018
4. Neighbourhood Challenge programme (evaluation of the impact of community led regeneration initiatives). Client: Nesta, 2011 - 2013
5. Sciencewise evaluations - evidencing impact and influencing policy formation across government.
a) Environment Agency - public involvement in reactor design assessments 2014-17
b) DECC - Managing Radioactive Waste Safely siting process review 2014
c) Cambrian Mountains Ecosystem Services Initiative 2013
d) Ecosystems Services pilots 2010 - 2011
e) Environment Agency public dialogue on Significant Water Management Issues –2013-14
In addition the Permaculture Association has experience of designing learning / evaluation processes that demonstrate the impact of the work it undertakes: For example -
LAND project – we systematically measured project outputs (numbers of group visits, projects, visitors, courses, etc) and worked with academic partners the Countryside and Community Research Institute (www.ccri.ac.uk/ ) as part of the EU SOLINSA project (Support of Learning Innovation Networks for Sustainable Agriculture) enabling us to develop a deeper understanding of the broader outcomes and impacts of the project and identify clear recommendations for its future development. http://www.solinsa.org/
Permaculture Design Courses – we use an online follow up survey to establish the impact of the course on participants. Collated and analysed findings inform the development of the curriculum and teaching through the work of the Education Working Group.
Local Food – helped to design and develop the wider evaluation approach of the overall programme. We reviewed draft evaluation tender documents and interviewed candidates, suggested next steps in the action research approach, and commented on final reports.
We have a good track record of partnership working and collaboration with other organisations
Local Food Fund - supported RSWT as members of the Local Food Steering Group. Plus, SPAN, LAND project, IPES project in El Slavador, and other projects as specified above.
We are committed to working as part of the portfolio
We wholeheartedly make this commitment. We have worked in partnership with others as previously mentioned for SPAN, Local Food Fund, European Permaculture Teachers Partnership, and the new Growing Together partnership.
We are very confident that all previous partners would confirm our commitment to the projects we have been involved in.
We have an excellent attendance record for the Local Food Steering group (Andy Goldring, CEO, was on the steering group and vice chair after Bob Sherman of Garden Organic retired).
Our regular commitment to the Local Food Fund goes back to 2002, and we have hardly missed a meeting since! We are reliable and committed to the partnerships we engage with.
We make consistent contributions to the discussion and debate during and between meetings.
We are willing to act as 'critical friend' and ask difficult and challenging questions during meetings in order to push thinking forwards and secure maximum value for the project and beneficiaries.
We have appropriate governance and management procedures
Governance
Board of Trustees are elected every year at the Annual General Meeting. Trustees rotate so that one third retire each year (and are often re-elected). Proxy voting system in place, usually attract over 100 people to the AGM, so have excellent member engagement in Association governance.
All trustees are members, and we train new Board members via local training offerings plus in-house training in own systems and approaches.
Prospective trustees are proactively identified and invited from the general membership and the process of checking, vetting and inducting is managed by the Nominations committee, using best practice guidance from the Charity Commission and our own experience.
We have our own bespoke Board Policy Manual, which specifies four governance policies ( based on the work of John and Miriam Carver). This is made up of key 4 policies – 'ends' (aims), board self-management, board executive relations, and executive limitations. This has been recognised as good practice and written up in this Guardian article.
http://www.theguardian.com/social-enterprise-network/2013/jul/19/ins-and-outs-of-policy-governance
Management
Quarterly reporting to Board by the CEO in person and via written report, is along criteria specified in the policy manual – delivery of aims, and working within the executive limitations.
A monthly discussion between the Chair and CEO monitors ongoing priorities and actions, and identifies new areas to investigate, plan for etc.
In terms of staff management, a well developed system is in place. This links high level aims and strategy into a process of quarterly staff planning, monthly 'sit down' meetings, 4-6 weekly (depending on staff hours) supervision sessions where we review KPIs, staff wellbeing and development, and weekly 'stand up' (short) staff meetings. This works to ensure a seamless connection between long term aims and goals, and daily action.
Financial management
We do a monthly finance check – CEO and Finance Coordinator, which looks a budget v actual for every aspect of the organisation, with anything outside 10%/ £300 deviation reviewed, plus cash flow forecast, and balance sheet.
A Weekly / Monthly / Quarterly / Annual task checklist keeps all finance tasks on track.
Clear levels of delegated financial authority have been set that determine when quotes / CEO / Finance Sub Committee / Board approval are needed.
Each staff member with project responsibility works with the Finance Coordinator quarterly to review project budget v actual (more often if significant deviation is identified within the monthly finance meeting.)
We have an excellent record of reporting to Companies House and the Charity Commission.