Office of the Third Sector Homepage
Last updated: 23 November 2008
10 April 2008
The Futurebuilders Advisory Panel (the Panel) today (10 April) published its final report to ministers.
Since it was created in 2005, the Panel, Chaired by Baroness Jill Pitkeathley, has been on 120 visits to organisations that have had experience in applying to Futurebuilders and has worked closely with Futurebuilders England and OTS staff.
The report highlights that Futurebuilders has demonstrated that third sector organisations can take on loan finance. The Panel commends Futurebuilders England for investing in a good breadth of investees, which shows that third sector organisations have an appetite for loan finance at all levels.
In particular, the report praises the wide range of financial products that Futurebuilders offers to third sector organisations, which supports the individual nature of third sector organisations.
The Panel welcomes the fact that its suggestion to open up the programme to all areas of public service delivery was taken on board and implemented from 1 April 2008.
In light of the Third Sector Review’s measure for how the Office of the Third Sector will strengthen and rationalise its advisory structures, the Panel held its final meeting on 1 April 2008.
The OTS would like to thank the Chair and the Panel members for proactively engaging with the Futurebuilders programme and making such a valuable contribution at all levels.
Also published today is the Interim Report from the Futurebuilders Evaluation Team, led by Professor Peter Wells at Sheffield Hallam University. The report can be found at www.shu.ac.uk/cresr [external website].