Impacts of Devolving Settlement Funding on Government-SPOs Relationship: BC Experience Presentation to Metropolis Con

1. Impacts of Devolving Settlement Funding on Government-SPOs Relationship: BC Experience Presentation to Metropolis ConferenceOttawa, March 13-15, 2014 Miu Chung Yan, Ph.D. University of British Columbia

2. Government-SPOs Relationships • An asymmetric-symbiotic relationship: co-existence and mutual benefiting but unequal in power • Government: control the resource, set the policies, regulator, quality control • SPOs: actualizing policies, service delivery network, service expertise • How to make this work? BC Experiences • Environmental factors: • Funding availability • Stability in personnel, accumulating collective memories and expertise • Willingness among different parties to work together in respectful way • Government • Consultative • Rationalizing the rules of game • Investing resource to support sectoral capacity building • Sector • Adaptive • Participation • Performance

3. Three Phases in the Evolution • 1998-2005:Re-alignment, Core Review and Minor Modifications • Minor change in programming • 2002, the BC Coalition for Immigrant Integration issued “The Inter-Provincial Report Card on Immigrant Settlement & Labour Market Integration Services” • 2003, introduction of new procurement procedure: RFP • 2006 - 2009: Pilots and New Initiatives with Expanded Funding • Pilot projects with vulnerable population, welcoming community, families • Settlement workers in School: tension of direct contract with school districts • Second RFP: Consortium model • 2009-2012: Program Review and Procurement of New Ongoing Programming • Major restructuring with the Branch: WelcomeBC, new leadership • Consolidate changes made in second phase • Better procurement and bundling of programs and contracts • A continued good relations between BC-Gov and SPOs

4. Timeline of Major Events Funding Increase Begins WelcomeBC Action Plan Devolution Report Card RFP Round 2 2014 1998 BC Core Review RFP Round 1 Pilots Developed WelcomeBC Program Review New Programs Implemented RFP Round 3 Funding

5. Procurement and Impacts • BC has a long history, dating to late 1980s, to support third party delivery of social services • 2010 Core Services Review: • a new core policy to govern procurement. It is guided by the principles of fair and open public sector procurement: competition, demand aggregation, value for money, transparency and accountability. • 2003, introduced procurement processes and contracts for settlement services characterized by • Multi-year agreements • Agreement management is focused on outcomes/outputs • Disruptive and dislocating existing relationships amongst SPOs: tension between the Branch and the SPOs, political mobilization

6. Procurement and Impacts (cont.) • The shift was “radical” for both government and sector staffs – System change in BC Settlement Service Sector: • For government staff: integration of program/contract management; greater focus on consultation and relationship management; emphasis on front-end planning and thinking about how to build a system. • For the Sector: competitive processes; encouraging cooperation and coordination amongst service providers; expensive for sector to respond to large RFPs; small vs. large organizations; “professionalized” many organizations; open, fair and transparent with clear expectations on goals, output and outcomes; flexible in financial monitoring and allows SPOs to better customized the service.

7. Consultative • Branch was sensitive, responsive, and flexible to meet the changing local needs in a relatively fast way – pilots and programs. • Easy for the sector to channel feedback to the decision making level in the BC government • Consultative: actively seeking feedback and ideas from service provider organizations (SPOs). • Sectoral support: platform for ongoing consultation and dialogue • Regional Consultation: ensure resource allocation matched with local immigrants’ needs.

8. Rationalizing Rules of the Game • The development of performance management system and logic models shifted the program evaluation from output to outcomes and better defined programs goals and outcomes • RFP provided clarity of the expected goals and outcomes. • BC’s RFP process moved away from input accountability to outcome accountability • Regular program evaluation (third party evaluators) including service user survey – feedback to the sector and program adjustment • Evidence-informed practice - putting emphasis on research, evaluation and need assessments. • Multiyear funding: stability in the system

9. Sectoral Capacity Building • Supporting umbrella organizations • A platform for the sector to build collaboration among different service providers and to enhance the communication between the sector and the BC government • Enhancing professionalization of the sector • Developing settlement worker’s competence • Supporting training • Creating gateway web resource • WelcomeBC.ca portal • Resources for settlement workers and newcomers

10. Sectoral Contributions • Adaptive • Consortium model: among NGOs and between NPOs/PMOs • Professionalization and sophistication of budgeting and program plan • Two tier system • Closing down of small, particularly ethnic-based, organizations • Participation • Sectoral network: platform for coordination and mobilization • Actively participating in all levels of consultation activities • Forming Immigration and Integration Coordinating Committee – Regional concerns • Performance • In-service training • Accepting evidence-based approach, initiating own evaluations and needs assessments • Results of program evaluation and expansion of programs

11. Beyond March 2014 • Currently, CIC-SPOs negotiation • Wish List: • Consultative attitude and genuine collaboration with the sector • Multiyear funding to ensure stability • Strong sectoral support • Continuous support of professionalization of the sector • Recognizing the importance of building citizenship and social cohesion as a part of settlement and integration programming. • Evidence-informed practice: program evaluation, ongoing monitoring and research

12. Acknowledgement • This presentation is made possible by the Immigration Research West (formerly Western Canadian Consortium on Integration, Citizenship and Cohesion • Materials presented in this presentation is largely based on the report, Devolving Settlement Funding from the Government of Canada: The British Columbia Experience, 1998-2013, which is coauthored by Heather Dickson, Evert Lindquist, Ben Pollard, Miu Chung Yan.