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Compact and the cuts

Compact Voice is compiling a number of case studies as to how local authorities can implement cuts whilst complying with the local Compact. You can download the case studies and see some more general information.

National third sector survey

There was a survey of voluntary sector, community groups and social enterprise in the Autumn of 2008 looking at the resources available, challenges faced and relationships with public bodies. Stephen Blann wrote a briefing on the Bromley results for the Local Strategic Partnership. You can read coverage from a previous e-bulletin [Issue: 85 Feb 2009]

The survey will be repeated again this September. Full details are expected soon. If you receive a survey form, please complete it, as it will provide very useful information on the voluntary sector and social enterprise and their work and relationship with public bodies at a time of cuts.

Consultation on public sector equality duty

The Equality Act 2010 replaced previous separate equality legislation with a single act. It defines a number of groups who potentially face discrimination based on a particular trait - a “protected characteristic” and makes discrimination against groups with a protected characteristic unlawful. Protected characteristics are gender, race, disability, age, sexuality, religion or belief, and pregnancy. There is a further general duty on public bodies  to promote equality for people sharing protected characteristics - replacing existing duties on public bodies to promote disability, race and gender equality. The new duty requires public bodies to:

Meeting these duties may require public bodies specifically to:

The government is now consulting on how to implement this duty in practice. You can download the consultation on the Government Equalities Office website. The consultation runs until 10th November.

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21st Century welfare

The government has produced a white paper on welfare reform called ‘21st Century welfare’ and is consulting on it until 1st October. It makes some radical proposals and is based on two priorities:

  1. that the overall welfare budget needs to be reduced and
  2. that the welfare system should meet the needs of people, but make work more attractive than benefits

To do this it proposes to introduce a single universal credit - rolling up lots of existing benefits and having a higher level of ‘disregard’ of earnings and a single taper rate to reduce the benefit as earnings rise. The theory is that people keep more money from employment and have an incentive to seek employment without risking income.
The proposals require spending more on the welfare budget in the short term but the overall welfare budget is intended to fall over time as the incentives take effect.

At a time of massively reduced public expenditure such an increase is controversial.
Whatever the eventual outcome, it is likely that many organisations members and clients will be affected by the proposed changes and organisations may need to advise, assist or reassure members and clients. You can download the white paper from the Department for Work and Pensions website  including a summary

Spending challenge – rate the ideas – short deadline

As part of the Comprehensive Spending Review the government launched the Spending Challenge  website, allowing public sector staff and then the general public a month each to prose ideas for saving public money. The site is not taking any new ideas but all the ideas received can be seen and the public is being invited to rate them. As you can imagine there is a mixture of complex and simple, the well thought out ideas and saloon bar philosophy and of course a lot shaped by people’s existing political views.

All the ideas have been collected under “tags” – click on one of these tags to read the ideas and rate them.

The government will review all the ideas at the end of August.

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Equity and excellence: Liberating the NHS

Stephen Blann, Policy and Networks Officer at Community Links Bromley reviews the new NHS white paper containing a number of proposals for change.
This briefing covers the headline issues and issues for the voluntary sector. It looks at  the content of the main white paper in more detail followed by the accompanying consultations.
The white paper has a number of themes:

  1. Extending choice
  2. Patient involvement
  3. Outcomes Framework / Commissioning
  4. Regulation
  5. Proposals for legislation and an implementation timetable

There are also four separate consultation documents to support it covering:

  1. Commissioning for patients
  2. Local democratic legitimacy in the NHS
  3. Regulating Healthcare providers
  4. Transparency in outcomes - a framework for the NHS

Run a technology taster session to support digital inclusion week for older people

Online registration is now open for ‘itea and biscuits week 2010’ and Age UK would like to invite community organisations and groups to participate in the week by running a technology taster session. Participation is a great way to ensure that older people in your community can continue to access the diverse range of resources available and participate in local activities. Read more and register.

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Who’s who in the coalition government

The Cabinet Office has produced a full list of ministers from the cabinet down to junior minister posts, together with their responsibilities and office contact details. This makes it quite a long document - you can download a copy from the Cabinet Office website.

Stephen Blann has compiled a shorter list of ministers whom voluntary and community groups are likely to have most interest in including their areas of responsibility

Boris Johnson seeks more power through devolution proposals

The Mayor of London has produced a proposal document on devolving more power to the Mayor and London assembly.

More Mayoral plans

The Mayor has also published his Health Inequality strategy. You can download the strategy and some background information from the GLA website. LVSC has produced a briefing on the strategy. Some of these proposals in relation to public health may already be difficult to implement following the new Health White Paper and its proposals on public health. (See separate article)

Being a busy man, the Mayor of London and the Greater London Authority are also consulting on a variety of new plans and strategies. Some of these close within a few weeks, whilst others run over the summer. 

Consultations

  1. Cultural Strategy, which runs until 6th September 2010. This includes a lengthy (200+ pages) full strategy, an executive summary  and another online questionnaire  
  2. Disability Equality Scheme, which runs until the 15th October 2010. This is in the  same  format  as the other  equality strategies  including  a  draft strategy, a scheme outline, together with an easy read version, and online questionnaire.

Stephen Blann, Policy & Networks Officer at Community Links Bromley will be including comments as he updates his policy review on the CLB website within the next few weeks.

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Public spending cuts

With so many charities and voluntary groups  receiving funding  from public  bodies there is a real chance that the public  spending changes will affect  them in real terms- as well as  having to take on the burden of additional work.

However, the government is looking for your ideas on where the cuts should fall – they have launched “Spending Challenge” with the strapline “help us get more for less”. Public sector employees had until the 9th July before the public were allowed to comment. Join the Spending Challenge.

The ‘Empowering the Voluntary Sector’ joint project of NAVCA, NCVO and others has produced a special edition of its newsletter on the coming cuts  -  setting out Compact  and public law positions and  also highlighting a wide range of  resources.
You may also be interested in “Coping with Cuts” from NCVO.

Both ACEVO (Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations) and the Guardian newspaper have launched “Cutswatch” sections.

The Health White Paper (copy from LVSC Policy bulletin)

On 12th July, the Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Landsley, launched a White Paper ‘Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS’. The white paper proposes the biggest re-structuring of the health service ever seen despite initial coalition government promises that there would be no more top-down re-structuring of the NHS. It also contains policies aimed at achieving £20 billion of efficiency savings over the next four years.

Measures that will have the greatest impact on the voluntary and community sector include:

Stephen Blann, Policy & Networks Officer at Community Links Bromley will be preparing a briefing on the white paper - and links to other briefings and commentators shortly. This will also appear in updates to the policy review on the CLB website within the next few weeks.

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Nominate for the Social Change Awards

The Social Change Awards are for all those working to achieve a positive change in society. If you know an individual, charity or community group, who deserves recognition for their work in making things happen, nominate them on the Social Change website. The nomination for others closes on 3rd September and the nomination for yourself or your organisation closes on 10 September.

Nottingham CVS demonstrates value to economy of vibrant third sector

Nottingham CVS has published an eye-catching report showing the contribution of the voluntary and community sector to Nottingham. The report is worth a look. It uses punchy headlines, imaginative graphics and is easy to read.

Research commissioned by Nottingham CVS and carried out by Aspiren Ltd estimates the contribution of the third sector to Nottingham's economy as £227m. That's equivalent to the value of 19 Nottingham Forest football clubs!

The research also found that volunteers were working the equivalent of 649 full-time jobs for Nottingham. If the city paid them a wage, it would cost £14m.
The report has just launched and you can view a copy here

Offscreen Expedition UK in its first week

On July 11, twenty young creatives from Pakistan began a journey of a lifetime. Their mission? To explore what life is really about in the UK.

Their experiences will be broadcast online to thousands of schools across Pakistan and the Middle East via the British Councils Connecting Classrooms initiative. Offscreen Expeditions is an education programme dedicated to creating greater understanding between young people in the UK and the Muslim world. For the past three years, Offscreen Expeditions have organised educational journeys between the Islamic World and the UK, in order to create a legacy of cultural understanding and create genuinely 'Global Citizens' of the future.

You can watch as the journey unfolds on the Offscreen website  or follow Bold's Offscreen blog

Campaign to promote performance improvement in the BME third sector

Voice4Change England and Charities Evaluation Services have launched a campaign to encourage Black Minority Ethnic (BME) third sector organisations to evidence the value and benefits of their work. The campaign targets BME third sector organisations that want to improve what they are doing but may not be familiar with performance jargon.

The campaign, which is part of the National Performance Programme, has been developed with the input of ten key BME campaign partners across the country including frontline BME groups. Read more by following these links to the Promote Performance section of the website.

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Research project to understand the needs of disabled BME and Refugee People

Inclusion London is to undertake an innovative quantitative research project into the needs of disabled black minority ethnic and refugee people (BMER).

The purpose of this research is to better understand the needs of disabled BMER communities in London and the organisations supporting them to access core services and to develop tools to increase the skills of frontline organisations and address the barriers to accessing services. The results will enhance the skills of local, frontline organisations to help improve access to services and increase the representation and voice of people from the target communities.


Please get in touch with Sophia who is one of the consultants working with Inclusion London. She can send you a copy of a short questionnaire to forward to your networks, answer any queries or provide invites to networking events. Email address sophia@skyers-morris.co.uk

Inclusion London is the pan-London Deaf and Disabled Peoples’ Organisations which provides policy, campaigning and capacity building support for Deaf and disabled people's organisations in the capital.

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Page updated: 28 August 2010