NEWS

17th May 2012: "Building successful Healthwatch organisations".
This report is intended to highlight some of the common threads and critical success factors from 15 case study areas. The report seeks to assist local authority commissioners and their supporting stakeholders, to help them plan and implement robust and fit-for-purpose Healthwatch bodies by April 2013

17th May 2012:  The Local Government Association's procurement pledge [link to follow] rather than the pledge produced by the Cabinet Office, has NAVCA's support.   Joe Irvin, NAVCA’s Chief Executive, said

“The government’s pledge is a good idea that has been executed badly. The LGA’s pledge is much more voluntary sector friendly which is why NAVCA is happy to support it. In fact, in these days of localism, as the LGA pledge is backed up by local government, it is more relevant to the work of the voluntary sector.”

“As well as the pledge, we really welcome the recognition from the LGA that there is currently a risk-averse approach to public sector procurement that requires a change in culture at local government level. We believe that the voluntary sector and the LGA have many shared interests and look forward to others in the voluntary sector getting behind this pledge.” 

17th May 2012: See here the BIG Lottery's refreshed Strategy and Mission document, including support for the developmrnt of Social Investment

15th May 2012:  An email from Cllr Shaun Davies informs Cooperative Commissioners as follows:

"Dear Commissioner,

Since acceptance of the Commission recommendations by the Council’s Cabinet, we have been working hard to take forward their implementation. I thought it timely to bring you up to speed with this activity.

We have put in place five Council working groups to develop the action plans to take forward the implementation of the Commission recommendations. Each group is led by an Assistant Director. There is also a Councillor representative on each group too.

Working group: Lead Assistant Director(s): Councillor Representative
Economy: David Sidaway Clive Elliott
Employment & Skills Jim Collins Paul Watling & Shirley Reynolds
Civic Pride and Volunteering Michael Barker & Clive Jones Gilly Reynolds & Clive Elliot
Procurement & Commissioning Karen Kalinowski Shirley Reynolds
Co-operative Values & communication Jonathan Eatough Clive Elliott"

19th April 2012: The Heritage Lottery Fund has launched a new £1m small grants programme called All Our Stories.  The programme provides grants of £3,000 - £10,000 to support charities, community groups and heritage organisations running local history projects. Deadline 31 July.

19th April 2012:  The last deadlines for the current programme of Comic Relief funding are approaching:

• 8 June for Sport for Change and Older People's Programme 'Managing Money Better'
• 29 June for other UK Programmes

 16th April 2012:  A very informative briefing paper is published that describes the work to address rough sleeping and non-statutory homelessness in Telford & Wrekin between April 2011 to March 2012 made possible through the cooperative partnership between Telford Christian Council Stay Project, Wellington & District YMCA, The Salvation Army Kip Project, Telford & Wrekin Council and Maninplace Community Enterprise.

16th April 2012: Downing Street has promised that the government will launch a formal consultation in the summer into the cap on tax relief for philanthropists which would only be claimed on donations worth less than £50,000 or 25 per cent of a donor’s income, whichever is higher, if implemented as proposed in April 2013.  Speaking at a briefing this morning, a Downing Street spokeswoman said that the government did not want the cap to lead to a reduction in donations to charities, and that various options could be explored. 

 
5th April 2012:  An email is circulated from Cllrs Kuldip Sahota and Shaun Davies to those who have contributed to the work of the Cooperative Commission to date:

"Last Thursday, the Council’s Cabinet approved all the recommendations of the Co-operative Commission. We would like to thank you all for your contribution to the work of the Commission in developing these recommendations. They provide us with a real opportunity to take forward new ways of addressing some of the critical challenges facing the Borough in terms of job creation, developing a skilled workforce and also of community development and cohesion through volunteering and promoting and generating pride in the area.

Our challenge is now delivering the recommendations. Whilst the Council is core to this, successful delivery will only be achieved through sound partnership working. We will be shortly contacting members of the Commission sub-groups to invite their continued involvement in supporting the delivery of the Commission recommendations.

A key recommendation of the Commission was for participants to meet again in six months time to review progress implementing the recommendations and in particular, the Co-operative values. Between now and then, we will seek to keep you all informed through regular email updates of progress and any key challenges".

5th April 2012:  Yesterday Big Society Capital was launched by the Prime Minister. Its mission is to grow a new social investment market which make it easier for charities, social enterprises and community groups to access affordable finance. It is intended that this will encourage innovation, service growth and better solutions to social problems.  Broadly, it is about applying sustainable business principles to tackling social problems.

Big Society Capital will not cost the taxpayer.  It is a partnership between banks, government and the social sector.  It is launched with a total of £600 million capital - £400 million from unclaimed cash left dormant in bank accounts for over 15 years and £200 million  from the UK’s largest high street banks: Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC and RBS.
 
The social investment market aims to blend financial return with social impact through the development of socially orientated investment organisations that support charities and social enterprises that have the ability to repay an investment through the income they generate. It is intended that this will help charities and social enterprises to grow and use their expertise to do more good in communities.

At the launch the Prime Minister said: “This is about helping society expand. Just as finance from the City has helped businesses grow so finance from the City is going to help tackle our deepest social problems.  Big Society Capital is going to encourage charities and social enterprises to prove their business models and then replicate them. Once they've proved their success in one area they'll be able - just as businesses can - to seek investment for expansion into the wider region and into the country.  This is a self-sustaining, independent market."
 
Sir Ronald Cohen, Chair of Big Society Capital, said: "What we’ve done for business entrepreneurs we must now do for social entrepreneurs. We must give them the resources to innovate in the way we resolve social issues."

Minister for Civil Society Nick Hurd said:

“We need to be doing more to back our social entrepreneurs.  The social investment market is embryonic but it is real and we intend to grow it.  As a result, savers in this country will have more opportunities to invest for good and back charities, social enterprises and community groups who want to make a positive difference.”

Big Society Capital is independent from Government.  Decisions about investments will be made by an impartial investment committee. The Government intends that it will have a key role in speeding up the growth of the social investment market.

Through the open public services agenda Government is aiming to create more space for social enterprises and charities to deliver better public services. Through localism Government is giving community groups more opportunities to take on projects in their local communities. The aim is that Big Society Capital will support both agendas by growing the market in social investment and making it easier for people to access finance to make their plans a reality.

Alongside Big Society Capital the Government will soon be launching a range of initiatives to help grow the social investment market.  A £10 million Investment and Contract Readiness Fund will provide grants and support to charities and social enterprises that want to grow and deliver more services but need help before they are ready to take on a loan or bid for a contract to run public services.  A programme called Inspiring Impact, to accelerate social impact measurement, co-ordinated by New Philanthropy Capital, will enable frontline charities and social enterprises better to show how they are delivering better outcomes for society.  Finally, a review into the financial barriers faced by social enterprises will, it is hoped, result in increased investment in frontline organisations.

3rd April 2012: Yesterday Government published BIG Lottery's new policy directions, following a consultation kicked off in August last year.  The Office for Civil Society's view is that BIG’s previous policy directions (issued in November 2006), were unwieldy and needed to be amended. The new policy directions are less complicated and reinforce the Coalition’s commitment that they will not micro-manage BIG allowing it to continue to focus its funding on the themes of Health, Education, the Environment, and Charitable purposes as laid out in the legislation which founded BIG back in 1993.

3rd April 2012:  The Cabinet Office has published a 92 page progress update on the Open Public Services White Paper.  Key announcements in the publication include:
• All government departments will start to report on progress against the Open Public Services White Paper priorities as part of their business plans in spring 2012;
• To ensure that citizens have more powers to demand choice and control and to drive improvements in public services, there will be an Independent Review into the barriers to choice and a ‘You have the right to choose’ campaign. This will include a Call to Evidence to get views on the value of enshrining a right to choice in legislation;
• A network of Choice Champions will be created. The Champions will promote choice and provide independent scrutiny and challenge to commissioners and providers of public service;
• A Commissioning Academy will be established to equip commissioners with the skills to engage knowledgably and confidently with suppliers and to better understand outcomes-based procurement;
• To ensure that the benefits of mutualisation are available across the wider public sector, there will be new Rights to Provide – empowering employees to form public service mutuals and to bid or request to take over the services they deliver;
• A consultation will take place in May on how to make it easier to set up and create neighbourhood councils – helping local citizens play a bigger role in the design and delivery of services. Additionally, work will be undertaken with the Local Government Association and the National Association of Local [Town, Parish and Neighbourhood] Councils to clarify what powers can be devolved to neighbourhoods, the kinds of assets that can best be managed at community level, and the roles and responsibilities of Neighbourhood Councils and local authorities.

The full report can be accessed here.  If this is too much I have extracted the Executive Summary (which itself runs to nearly 13 pages).  It makes for an interesting read about developments across Government.  It is interesting to note the apparent shared interest in cooperatives between this government and the Cooperative Council.

23rd March 2012:  Telford & Wrekin VCS Chief Officers Group met this afternoon.  For the first hour we were joined by Richard Partington, Telford & Wrekin Council's Managing Director, and Rachael Jones, the Council's Community Engagement, Equalities and Action Manager.  The Council is carrying out a review of how the Council works with the voluntary sector and what funding this entails.  During the last 3 years the Council has lost 500 employees and all their expertise and experience.  It needs to work with those others who want to preserve and promote the interests of the local community .  Rachael proposed a joint working group to plan the way forward.  George to coordinate the COG's response.

Mick Lloyd was voted in  for another year as the COG chair.

22nd March 2012: A campaign is building, "GiveitbackGeorge", led by senior figures from national voluntary organisations, to persuade the Chancellor of the Exchequer to reverse his decision to cap charitable giving because in his view it amounts to tax evasion.  If you want to back the campaign then click here.

22nd March 2012: Councils are taking an increasing interest in the potential of Social Media.  This Youtube video sets the scene and this publication "From Housing and Litter to Facebook and Twitter" contains a lot of examples of ways that different Councils across the country are using social media in a variety of ways.

21st March 2012: The BIG Lottery Fund want to know whether and how you use Quality Standards in your work. This short survey is part of a research project commissioned by BIG and being carried out by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations and the Office for Public Management to understand existing approaches to quality assurance used by the voluntary sector.

20th March 2012: The Communities and Local Government Parliamentary Select Committee announces a new inquiry into the co-operative council.  The Committee is inviting submissions from interested parties.  The key focus is on the pros and cons of delivering public services through not-for-profit businesses.

15th March 2012: Telford & Wrekin Council issues a press release about the recommendations of its independent Cooperative Commission about how the Council buys services.  The recommendations will be considered by the Council's Cabinet on 29th March.

5th March 2012: The Public Services (Social Value) Bill has cleared its final hurdle in the House of Lords and is set to become Law. The Bill will mean public bodies have to consider social and environmental benefits alongside financial considerations when awarding contracts.  See Social Enterprise UK's brief guide.

5th March 2012: Recently the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) conducted a survey of its members about what works and what doesn't in Local Authority Commissioning.  They had nearly a hundred responses and have now fed the results to a Department of Community and Local Government 'Commissioning Task and Finish Group'.  32 pages - but very interesting reading.

1st March 2012: Fourteen chief officers of national voluntary sector organisations have sent a joint letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, urging him to introduce a series of measures to help charities in next month's budget.  The suggestions include a second round of the Transition Fund, which has awarded £107m to charities, reform of payroll giving and gift Aid, and support for social investment.  The letter says charities are losing jobs at twice the rate of the public sector, and are "still being hit disproportionately by the worsening financial climate and the speed and scale of cuts in public expenditure...We understand that we cannot be immune from spending cuts, but are publicly asking you to put in place a set of simple measures designed to enable the sector to weather the current financial storm" it says.

23rd February: A little late picking up this very useful Telford & Wrekin Council Cabinet report from December 22nd 2011 about 'NHS Transformation - implications for T&W Council'.