Finalising your approach
Sign-off and ownership: external resources
If you are going to use external expertise, you need to be sure that everyone involved is clear about who is doing what, and by when.
Volunteers
You may be thinking of using volunteers, particularly if your budget is tight or you know of people willing to help. These volunteers might be retired staff or officers, family members, or members of the public. Whenever thinking about resources, you need to balance cost, efficiency and quality. When a resource is free, you still need to ensure that you are getting the task done well and when you want it. The process as a whole needs to benefit from the decision to use a particular resource. For example, someone may have offered to design some web pages for free, but they can only do this in four weeks time. You may decide that your priority is to get the work done quickly, and so choose to pay someone to do the work, or do it internally.
If you decide to use volunteers, it is helpful for both you and the volunteer to set out your expectations and commitments to each other in writing. This should cover, for example:
- Detailed description of roles and responsibilities
- Deadlines
- Management/ QA processes
- Access to internal support
- Payment of expenses, such as travel
It should be easier to manage the relationship and the task if you have an agreement like this.
Partner resources
The Embedding engagement and Implementing your project sections of the Guide discuss partnership and multi-agency working. However, you may also find that some partner agencies may be happy to help even if they are not a full partner in the project. Another way that partners may help is by 'loaning' you a member of staff, or agreeing to do a specific task, such as a mail-out. If any other agency is involved in your project in this way, it is worth setting out an agreement like the one outlined above for volunteers.
External contractor/s
You may have a specific task that is difficult to handle internally, and have therefore decided to contract someone else to do it. Depending on your internal financial procedures, you may need to invite bids for the contract. You may be able to award contracts for small pieces of work to a preferred contractor, if you want to.
Contractors who work for you on a regular basis will have the advantage of knowing your organisation. They may also offer preferential rates to established clients. On the other hand, it is often worth 'shopping around'. You may find a new organisation or individual who is particularly well suited for the task.
The disadvantage of putting a contract out to tender (ie inviting people to submit costed proposals for the work) is that the process takes longer. The advantage is that you can compare different proposals. This can help you to clarify your priorities and give you new ideas.
When drawing up an invitation to tender, and any subsequent contract, you will need to get advice and sign-off from the legal/ contracts team in your organisation. They will make sure that the roles, requirements and tasks are clearly set out. They will also ensure that the contract covers issues such as financial matters, copyright, failure to deliver etc.
Once a contract has been awarded, progress needs to be monitored. If an external contractor fails to deliver a piece of work in line with the contract, you will have grounds to take action. You may want to consult with others, including the legal team in more serious cases, if the contractors have failed to deliver.
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