A commissioner’s guide to developing and sustaining local user-led organisations
What do I do next? Scenario 1: There is a group of committed individuals or a ULO in the very early stages of development
Governance
Meets all ULO design criteria? | No |
Governance arrangements in place? | No |
Management committee? | No |
Funding and business-readiness
Established for how long? | Typically less than 6 months |
Permanent staff? | No |
Infrastructure in place (e.g. IT, HR, finance, own premises)? | No |
Business plan in place? | No |
Funding arrangements? | No or little funding |
Provides more than one service? | No |
Provides services in more than one area? | No |
User engagement
Covers all impairment groups? | No (but possible) |
Members? | No - typically a group of committed individuals |
Effective mechanisms for engaging service users? | Yes - but on a micro scale |
Networking? | No relationships with other ULOs, BME / LGBT / carers / older people / civil society organisations or wider than social care |

Essential actions to move to next stop on the 'ULO journey'
- support individuals – through providing meeting spaces and their travel / PA costs – to meet and explore their ideas
- provide administrative support to set up more formal governance arrangements
- provide pump-priming to enable dedicated staff to take forward key strands of work
- ensure your approach is based on flexibility and open dialogue so that the emerging ULO suits local circumstances