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| Primary purpose Summary Potential benefits Who can use the tool? What resources are needed? Development, ownership and support Social enterprise examples Further sources of information Footnotes C3Perform C3Perform has been designed to help social economy organisations to improve performance. It is a ‘diagnostic workbook’ that provides a simple framework for evaluating how an organisation is performing and identifies strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvement. It should be seen as an approach to embedding quality and improving performance into the culture, the strategic and operational values of the enterprises and of the sector. As well as being a ‘stand alone tool’, it is also designed to support and encourage participation in other proving and improving tools. C3 refers to, and is driven by, a social economy/Third Sector with enterprises that demonstrate the following characteristics:
The Model starts with the following premise: Designed by the C3 partnership specifically for West of England social economy organizations (with the goal of being applicable across the UK and EU) C3Perform is based on the EFQM Excellence model that is used by organisations in the private, public and voluntary sectors. It is a holistic, non-prescriptive and flexible model. The model takes a holistic look at all aspects of an organisation. It encourages organisations to focus on the results they want to achieve and what needs to be done to achieve them. In other words, it encourages organisations to be customer and results focused. There are two parts of the model, what the organisation does (enablers) and what the organisation achieves (results). The enablers section is divided into five criteria: Leadership, Policy and Strategy, People,Partnerships and Resourcesand Processes. The way in which these components link together produces results. The results section is divided into 4 criteria; People results, Customer Results,Society Results and Key Performance Results.Figure 1: The Excellence Model Framework
There are three fundamental stages to the C3Perform process:
C3Perform consists of 46 positive statements that describe excellent performance. The statements are spread out over the nine sections as defined by Excellence Model. Participants are prompted to consider and discuss how the organisation performs in relation to each of these statements. Alongside each statement, both a strength and an area for improvement will be identified The scoring in C3Perform is different to the Radar scoring of the EFQM. At the end of each of the nine sections, participants look at the strengths and the areas for improvement that they have agreed and identified in that section. Participants then agree a performance score for the section as a whole.
C3Perform encourages organisations to self-assess; it is not a quality mark that requires compliance with certain standards. However, It is possible to seek accreditation through the British Quality Foundation ‘Investers in Excellence’ Scheme. C3Perform can also be used as a starting point from which to progress onto other quality standards such as Investors in People Standard, PQASSO, ISO 9000 Series, Social Accounting and Audit having started to implement improvements through the diagnostic workbook. C3Perform is also designed to be useful to funders (buyers and investors), public policy makers and the enterprise support community through areas such as increasing confidence in delivery, increasing skills, ensuring effectiveness of interventions, increasing information and strengthening relationships.
Potential limitations
C3Perform has wide applicability to organisations in all sectors, of any size, in all stages of development. It can be used in a ‘bite-sized’ format or for organisations seeking to understand some or all of their activities. Leadership In keeping with its ‘Leadership’ criterion, C3Perform should be supported, and ideally led, by the leader of the organisation. If the organisation does not have a hierarchy, then a ‘champion’ should be assigned to the work. Good relationships with staff and other stakeholders will ease the process as they are likely to be involved in some fashion in the process. Proficiencies or skills These will vary depending on how the organisation approaches the process. In general no specialist skills are required although organisations can seek outside assistance in implementing the action plan. The way the C3Perform suite is deployed depends on the organisation’s own wishes. It is possible to take up a more formal approach and gain accreditation through the British Quality Foundation/EFQM Model, or it may be used as a tool to inform management and operational change - e.g , using action plan to commission support; embedding concepts for discussion in Management Committee cycles, and linking into customer and investors, all of which require relevant proficiencies and skills. Staff time Once learnt, self-assessment against can be completed very quickly – within days for a very basic assessment. However, as a diagnostic tool it highlights areas for action and the time needed to address those action points will vary among organisations and may take several months. The optimum size of a C3Perform group is between 3 – 8 people. Ideally, the participants should represent a cross section of the organisation. So, a group may include trustees, the chief executive, managers, project workers and volunteers. If an organisation is a cooperative, it would be useful to have people who are engaged I different areas of activity. Organisations can decide how often they would like to carry out the process. If they do return to it regularly staff time will be reduced following familiarity and improvements. Courses, support, and information The C3 partnership website contains information on using the tool and on advisers. The advisers can support individuals and organizations in the following ways:
Development, ownership and support C3 is a partnership of 11 organisations spread across theWest of England sub-region, partly funded by the European Union through the Equal programme. The partnership, formed in September 2004, is made up of statutory, voluntary, community, social enterprise and co-operative sector organisations. C3 supports social economy organisations by promoting continuous improvement and quality standards in the social economy, thus enabling them to:
The partnership is piloting a range of new business support services and providing expert advice in improving the performance of social economy organisations. C3 will influence the range of support services delivered and how they are delivered in the future.The partnership tested the tool with 78 organisations/enterprises across a range of missions and geographies. Social enterprises that have used C3Perform:
Further sources of information www.c3partnership.org
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“A lot of the success of the model is in changing the way people think, looking for links between ‘Results’ and ‘Enablers’ outside ‘formal Self-Assessment’ and realising the Model can make a difference.” — Thames Reach ‘The whole process of collecting data and consultation to formulate an action plan took no more than 35 hours within a four or five month period” — Liverpool Personal Services Society “Using the beta™ materials as part of the Excellence Model, we identified ways to make significant improvement in how CEU organizes and delivers its services. We believe this has led to efficiencies and clarity of purpose, both internally and with our stakeholders. There is, of course, still more to do!” — Community Enterprise Unit Ltd
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