Access to Financial Services through Credit Unions – Phase II

Descriptions

The Welsh Assembly Government on behalf of the Welsh Ministers would like to commission tender submissions fromorganisations to provide advice and support to Welsh credit unions and to manage anddeliver this project across Wales.Activities to be undertaken include:i) Business SupportThe delivery organisation will:• support credit unions throughout Wales to develop/upgrade/re-write their business plans so that every credit union in Wales is fully compliant with FSA requirements byMarch 2011.• conduct Healthcheck reviews of credit unions;• carry out skills audits and training needs analysis;• support credit unions in the diversification of their services including thedelivery of the Child Trust Fund, Saving Gateway and other affordable products; and• assist credit unions in further developing their work with secondary schools.ii) Improving Corporate Governance StandardsThe delivery organisation will offer the specialist support required to improvebusiness skills and planning by:• building and regularly updating the capacity of existing board members – thedelivery organisation should be able to offer training modules that address thevarious needs of existing volunteers – identified through a personalised TNA. Thedelivery organisation should be able to offer relevant training to ensure that allcredit union directors, staff and volunteers receive relevant training to undertakeheir voluntary duties; and• supporting a volunteer recruitment programme with credit unions throughout Wales,encouraging more professional and skilled local people to join credit union boardsand encouraging more local people to volunteer to work within the credit union. Thedelivery organisation should be able to offer relevant training to ensure that aquality threshold is attained and that the newly recruited professionals have all ofhe requisite skills and a clear understanding of the workings of the credit unionsector; and• working with the Welsh Assembly Government to develop and promote a human resourcesoolkit for credit unions.iii) Mergers and shared servicesThe delivery organisation will be able to offer professional advice on:• mergers to credit unions wishing to explore such a course of action and guide themhrough the necessary merger procedures; and• exploring the possibility of “shared services” to allow credit unions to benefitfrom economies of scale that will lead to increased operational efficiencies andreduced expenditure.iv) Awareness-raising and marketingThe delivery organisation will:• take forward the existing Welsh Assembly Government all-Wales credit unionawareness-raising and marketing campaign, including specific work in promoting themovement to the public sector;• raise awareness of the project, its aims and objectives and its achievements e.ghrough local, regional and national events; media articles; linking to the Welsh Assembly Government’s credit union website; collating project descriptions and casestudies where support has proved successful in terms of the overall aim of theproject; and• promote innovative pilot projects and links to UK wide initiatives.v) General support and activityThe delivery organisation will be able to:• administer the credit union project across Wales, including monitoring of creditunion activity and expenditure;• work with the Financial Inclusion Champions for Wales to build links between creditunions and other bodies such as advice providers, local authorities, housingassociations and other potential partners and supporters;• help credit unions develop or improve their environmental sustainability strategiesand systems, including monitoring systems (see Environmental Sustainability andEquality below); and• monitor and evaluate the work undertaken in order to have a clear sense of what hasbeen achieved, including working with the Welsh Assembly Government to disseminategood practice identified from monitoring and producing a final report on the project.The Welsh Assembly Government, on behalf of the Welsh Ministers, will be conducting this procurement exercise through the etenderwales portal https://etenderwales.bravosolution.co.uk. Tender documents and other information must be downloaded from and returned through this portal. If you require any further assistance the BravoSolution helpdesk is available on:Email: help@bravosolution.co.uk Phone: 0800 011 2470/ Fax: 020 7080 0480Full information in accessing the portal is found in Section VI.3.