GMCVO NEWS
Former Co-op chief joins GMCVO
Sir Graham Melmoth, former chief executive of the Co-operative Group, has accepted an invitation to become honorary president of Greater Manchester Centre for Voluntary Organisation (GMCVO).
The role of president is intended to be an active one, so besides acting as a general ambassador for GMCVO and the local voluntary sector, Sir Graham will be undertaking to set up a private/voluntary sector liaison group which will meet initially for a couple of years to strengthen the relationship between GMCVO’s work and key business players in Greater Manchester.
Stephen Little, Chair of GMCVO, said: “We are delighted that Sir Graham is prepared actively to support us. He brings experience, understanding and a commitment to Greater Manchester that will add to our work supporting the development of a strong, diverse and influential local voluntary sector.”
Sir Graham, who takes up the position in the autumn, was until recently chair of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations.
Help your organisation to run smoothly
GMCVO Databases works across the North West providing database services for voluntary organisations. This includes the ORCA database designed specifically for VCS Infrastructure organisations.
With detailed sector expertise and the use of the latest cost-efficient open source technologies we can help:
● Improve your organisation's communication ● Give you instant access to performance information
● Produce an easy-to-use and fully supported system ● Integrate database services, such as training registration, with your public website ● Allow you to take control of where your organisation is going
The services provided include the holistic management of all contacts, e-bulletins, events/training courses, membership, service delivery, and grants – all with built-in reporting.
We work with a large number of voluntary sector clients, including local support organisations, arts groups and frontline services.
www.gmcvo.org.uk/GMCVODatabases
MPs’ interests and committee memberships
Information about the parliamentary committee memberships of MPs with constituencies in Greater Manchester has been collected by GMCVO.
The research also identifies the parliamentary and other offices, relevant to the work of the voluntary and community sector, held by the 27 MPs and lists their professional backgrounds.
www.gmcvo.org.uk/mps-interests-and-committee-memberships
Room hire discount at the St Thomas Centre
The St Thomas Centre is offering a 20 per cent reduction on room hire charges for any new bookings during August 2011.
The Centre, which is managed by GMCVO, is within easy reach of Manchester city centre and Piccadilly railway station. The main hall can accommodate 140 people, while smaller rooms can hold up to 30 people. For further information, go to: www.gmcvo.org.uk/stc.
Please call 0161 277 1010 or e-mail to check availability.
NEWS AND INFORMATION
Civil society minister meets North West groups
VCS groups from across the North West met with civil society minister, Nick Hurd, on 14th July to discuss the current opportunities and challenges for the sector.
At a round-table meeting at the Gateway Centre in Warrington, Mr Hurd heard concerns from groups over the Work Programme, public services reform, localism, the Transition Fund, the future of infrastructure and changes to VAT.
"The driving force of this Government is about transferring power – and it's happening now," he said. "It's not about inventing new things. But please don’t under-estimate the change that is coming in terms of power being transferred to communities and individuals. This will change how decisions get made locally, and the possibilities of what can be done locally."
The minister expressed his belief that the VCS is too reliant on state funding, but outlined specific plans the Government would announce to help organisations get ready for more tendering and contracting opportunities. These are explained in an open letter from the minister.
He also outlined what he feels are the three key opportunities for the sector:
● The opportunity to deliver more public services, although this will happen differently.
● The localism agenda – helping people find their voice is part of the value of the VCS.
● Helping to create a step-change in attitudes towards giving money and time.
Further notes of the meeting and the minister’s open letter can be seen via the VSNWweb page at: www.vsnw.org.uk/news/view/2011-07-26-civil-society-minister-meets-with-north-west-vcs-groups
[from:VSNWwebsite]
Sector will lose £110m in council funding, says anti-cuts campaign
More than 2,000 charities across England will lose over £110 million in local authority funding this year, according to new figures obtained by the anti-cuts campaign website False Economy.
The union-backed campaign used the Freedom of Information Act to ask councils whether they would raise or cut their funding for voluntary sector organisations in 2011/12, and by how much. Responses were received from 265 local authorities between March and July.
False Economy said the figures should be treated as guidelines only, because some councils might have provided inaccurate information or revised the figures since submitting them.
In Greater Manchester, there were responses from five councils which reported cuts to a total of around 150 local organisations.
In a statement, Clifford Singer, campaign director at False Economy, said: "Ministers talk up localism and say services will be better shaped locally, but the huge front-loaded cuts to councils mean that local decision-making simply gives councils the choice of which vulnerable people they should make suffer for an economic crisis they did nothing to cause."
□ NCVO says the False Economy figures significantly underestimate the true scale of Government funding cuts to the voluntary sector. According to NCVO, a more likely figure this year is £250 million, with cuts totalling in the region of £2 billion over the five years of the spending review.
http://falseeconomy.org.uk
Bursary award for youth leader
Charities in Greater Manchester are being invited to apply to the Peter Kershaw Memorial Bursary for a bursary to fund the costs of a youth leader.
The bursary will be awarded on the basis of up to £25,000 for year one, £15,000 for year two and £10,000 for year three.
Priority will be given to organisations that can show a firm shared element of funding beyond year one and where the appointment creates new opportunities.
The Trust was set up by Peter Kershaw, the ex-chairman of the Joseph Holt Brewery, partly to benefit disadvantaged young people.
Applications should be made in writing, by 30th September 2011, to: The Secretary, Peter Kershaw Memorial Bursary, 22 Ashworth Park, Knutsford, Cheshire WA16 9DE. The application should take the form of a short reasoned statement and be accompanied by a detailed budget for the proposal and a copy of the latest audited accounts.
Trust fund targets project working with the elderly or disadvantaged
Not-for-profit organisations in Greater Manchester working with elderly or socially disadvantaged people are being invited to apply for a capital grant of up to £1.5 million from the Edward Holt Trust.
It is envisaged that the funds would be used to acquire and fit out suitable premises from which the successful project would be run. However other novel ways of using the funds and meeting the aims of the Trust are welcomed.
Established in the late 1950s, the Trust has been devoted primarily to maintaining a block of 12 flats in Didsbury providing good quality accommodation for elderly people. Over the years, the Trust has also provided revenue grant assistance to a wide range of organisations mainly supporting older people but also in the field of cancer research and treatment provision.
The deadline for receipt of outline proposals is 31st October 2011.
Further information and details of the application process are available at:
www.edwardholttrust.btck.co.uk
Sector’s independence to be assessed
The state of the voluntary sector’s independence is to be examined by a panel set up by the Baring Foundation.
The panel, which will be chaired by Dame Anne Owers, will take an ‘annual snapshot’ of the state of the sector’s independence, not just from Government but from all stakeholders, such as corporate donors and pressures from local communities.
It will monitor this over a five-year period, probably commissioning some of its own research and extracting relevant data from other studies, and producing its own annual assessment, the first of which is expected by the end of this year.
Locality seeks hosts to train community organisers
Up to 200 local ‘host’ organisations are to be recruited to train people for the Government's £15 million Community Organisers programme.
Run by the umbrella charity Locality, the programme will train 5,000 people to work in communities to create local networks and run projects to help local people. Of these, 500 will be paid ‘senior’ organisers and the rest will be volunteers.
Host organisations will recruit between two and five senior community organisers from their local communities and will be responsible for providing office space and support. Each host organisation will be paid up to £3,000 to cover expenses.
Jess Steele, director of innovation at Locality, said: "We're looking for organisations around England that are established and well-rooted in their local communities.
http://locality.org.uk/projects/community-organisers/
Home Office launches £14m pot for crime prevention projects
Two new Home Office funds totalling £14 million are being made available to the voluntary sector to empower communities to take action against crime and antisocial behaviour.
The money will be spread between two funds, one focusing on communities, the other on young people.
The Innovation Fund, which will open in August 2011, will fund charities to create new approaches to tackling crime in the community. It will be worth £5 million in 2011/12, with a further £5 million set aside for 2012/13.
www.homeoffice.gov.uk/crime/partnerships/innovation-fund/
In addition, the £4 million Choices Fund will support the development of innovative local solutions to reducing substance misuse and offending by young people.
A Home Office spokesman said the department is particularly keen for the fund to be made available to grassroots community activists who are not traditional recipients of Government grants.
It also wants the funding to encourage the voluntary sector to work more closely with local Community Safety Partnerships, and other statutory agencies that impact on community safety, to drive co-design and co-delivery of services.
The deadline for applications is 18th August 2011.
www.homeoffice.gov.uk/crime/reducing-reoffending/iom/choices/
[from: Civil Society Finance 26.7.11]
Transforming justice in Greater Manchester
An innovatory scheme to reduce re-offending is currently being trialled in Greater Manchester. Among the objectives of the Transforming Justice pilot are to reduce crime, re-offending and the wider impact of crime and dependency on society, and to reduce the overall cost to the criminal justice system. It also seeks to improve working with partner agencies in public, private and voluntary sectors to reduce duplication and streamline delivery.
The main requirement of the project is to work with and focus on families with complex needs and specific groupings of offenders.
□ A briefing on the programme in Greater Manchester can be seen at: www.gmcvo.org.uk/transforming-justice-greater-manchester
Charitable resources are unevenly distributed across the country, says TSRC Strong evidence of an uneven distribution of charitable resources between communities is reported in a new paper from the Third Sector Research Centre (TSRC).Professor John Mohan, who leads TSRC’s quantitative work at the University of Southampton, says: “Research on registered third sector organisations operating at neighbourhood scale, for example, shows that there are fewer organisations per head in more deprived areas.
"Those organisations operating in more deprived areas are also more likely to be reliant on public funding. Thus the areas with fewest registered third sector organisations are also likely to be in areas most at risk from funding reductions".
TSRC’s paper also explored volunteering. The research showed most people do some combination of volunteering, giving money, or participating in community organisations, even if they don’t do so at every stage of their lives.
However, there are a small number of people, termed the ‘civic core’, who contribute the majority of time and money to voluntary organisations. For example, 31 per cent of the population provides around 87 per cent of hours of unpaid help, 79 per cent of money donated to charities, and 70 per cent of civic participation.
This ‘civic core’ is more likely to be middle-aged, have higher education qualifications, own their house, and have lived in the same neighbourhood for over 10 years. Crucially, those groups who are more active tend to be living in the most prosperous communities rather than the most deprived.
Professor Mohan says: “This calls for creative thought about how we match community needs with people who have the time and resources to contribute voluntary effort.”
Mapping the Big Society, working paper 62, can be downloaded via: www.tsrc.ac.uk.
Checks on consortia colleagues not robust enough, says Charity Commission
Some charities that work in consortia to deliver public services do not check the financial health of their fellow consortia members and do not discuss the potential risks of consortium working at board level, according to a new Charity Commission report.
It says that with some charities there was "a tendency not to carry out any form of due diligence (for example, checks into financial health) on other consortium members despite planning to enter into a contract to deliver services with them".
Some charities said these checks were not necessary because they were familiar with the work of their fellow consortia members and had worked with them before, the report says, and others had decided not to carry out the checks because they were wary of red tape or because they expected the consortium or the commissioning body to do so.
"The lack of due diligence checks on other consortium members prior to entering into contracts to deliver services with them may be a sign of positive relationships based on trust, but it exposes charities to an increased level of risk," the report says.
The report also warns that trustees were sometimes not involved in the decision to enter service-delivery consortia. "The Charity Commission was concerned at how little evidence there was of trustee engagement in decision-making or clear delegation of decision-making, at any stage of consortia working," it says.
The report was based on the results of a Commission study of charities that were members of five consortia.
Consortia for the delivery of public services: the issues for small and medium-sized charities can be downloaded from: www.charitycommission.gov.uk/Publications/rs26_consort.aspx.