The fund, which was set up to encourage ministers to commission policy advice from beyond Whitehall as part of the Civil Service Reform Plan, has so far been used by six departments which were allocated £235,000. DWP is the first to approach charities, rather than thinktanks, businesses or academics.
DWP has signed two year-long contracts ending in March 2014 to help develop future policy thinking on behalf of the new minister of state for disabled people, Mike Penning (pictured left).
One contract, worth £49,860, has been awarded to the Merseyside Disability Federation (MDF), which will be working on a Local Community Challenge Project examining how disabled people can challenge local bureaucracy and improve the quality of local services.
The other contract, worth £41,250, has been given to the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi) to work on a project examining how disabled people can get better access to joined-up advocacy services – which deliver support, information and advice to enable work, independence and wider participation in society.
Penning said: “Grassroots disability organisations are the experts in their own field and have the depth of knowledge of what is happening on the ground and what works well for disabled people."
“This new approach to commissioning policy development from beyond Whitehall will allow us to gather a wider range of ideas and build closer ties with the specialist grassroots disability organisations."
“They will inform our future thinking on areas that matter and will make a real difference to the lives of disabled people. This signals a continued change in the way we think about policy development in the future.”
Departments which have so far used the fund, which is worth £500,000 per year and operates as a match-fund, are: the Cabinet Office, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Department for Energy and Climate change, the Department of Health, the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs and the Department for Communities and Local Government.
Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, said: “Ministers need the best possible policy advice to ensure better public services and value for taxpayers. Because Whitehall does not have a monopoly on policy making expertise we want open policy making to become the default in Government."