Latest news on the Bill

The new Public Services (Social Value) Bill received Royal Assent on 8 March. The Bill is now an Act of Parliament (law).

Summary of the Bill

The Bill aims to strengthen the social enterprise business sector and make the concept of ‘social value’ more relevant and important in the placement and provision of public services.

Key areas

• Places a duty on the Secretary of State to publish a ‘national social enterprise strategy’ to encourage engagement in social enterprise
• Amends Section 4 of the Local Government Act 2000 so that local authorities are required to include in their sustainable community strategy proposals for promoting engagement with social enterprise in their area. They must also include a statement of the measures suggested to enable social enterprise to participate in implementing these proposals
• Requires local authorities, when entering into public procurement contracts, to give greater consideration to economic, social or environmental wellbeing during the pre-procurement stage.

The new law will require public bodies including councils, for the first time, to consider the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of an area when a service is commissioned.

Social Enterprise UK has produced a useful brief guide to the new legislation for Commissioners and Social Enterprises.

Download: Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 Guide

Fully funded community enterprise support for Voluntary and Community Organisations in Solihull

Development in Social Enterprise, with partners The BEST Network, Business in the Community and Solihull SUSTAiN, have been awarded European Regional Development funding from Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, to provide Voluntary and Community Organisations and socially motivated businesses with essential development support.

The funding will provide a range of bespoke [one to one and one to many] business support for organisations wanting to explore income generation and enterprise models to become less reliant on grant funding.

The programme will provide specialist one to one support from qualified and experienced community enterprise development consultants who will work with your organisation to explore the potential for development and income generation. In addition to the one to one support there will be a series of specialist events based on the collective identified needs, this could be for example:

• Managing assets and buildings
• Measuring impact
• Gaining contracts and entering supply chains
• Developing partnerships and consortia working

Find out more download our PDF presentation, includes target areas and details of who is eligible

Programme overview and eligibility

A number of events are already in the pipeline. These include:

• A Marketing & Brand seminar on 18th April with expert advice from the head od marketing at the worlds biggest finance and accountancy firm.
• A Dragons Den style event on 31st May for organisations wishing to develop there ideas further.
• More to be announced soon.

If your idea is selected, you will receive support worth £2000 develop it

Ideas going forward to the Dragons Den event will win a share in support and resources worth £10,000 plus which is in addition to the funding through ERDF and SMBC and have been donated by leading private sector and social enterprises

To find out how you can access this support and express your interest contact Charles Rapson at SUSTAiN on 0121 770 8222 or David Lane at Development in Social Enterprise on 0121 667 6810

Solihull Together, Lady Luck Charity Ball, 13 July 2012

Our business partners, The St John’s Hotel, are once more sponsoring this event, so we have a great opportunity to raise as much cash for our local community as we possibly can.

The Lady Luck theme has been chosen as the date for your diaries is Friday, 13th July 2012.

Find out how to book tickets here

On the council website there are now two reports showing how the council is meeting national equalities duties. These reports are about the council as an employer and as a service provider and are available on the Equality and Diversity pages of our website under ‘public sector equality duties’

The report about the council as an employer shows the make up of the workforce and the things being done to support its diverse workforce and the second report looks at the council as a service provider and covers the things being done to make sure services are provided fairly.

NCVO’s Counting the Cuts research shows, the voluntary and community sector nationally is set to lose around £911 million in public funding a year until 2015–16. In response to this, NCVO has produced a quick guide to help organisations challenge cuts where they believe the decision was made unfairly.  The main things you need to know are:

Best Value Guidance

In 2011, new Best Value Guidance was introduced by the Department for Communities and Local Government. It has statutory force, which means that the guidance must be taken into account by local authorities when they are making funding decisions. It applies to all local authorities.

What You Need to Know

• At least three months’ notice needs to be given to an organisation and service users when funding is to be withdrawn or reduced
• A local authority should actively engage the organisation and service users as early as possible before making a decision on the future of the service
• Authorities should seek to avoid passing on disproportionate reductions – i.e. they should not make larger reductions to the voluntary and community sector than they take on themselves
• Authorities should be responsive to the benefits and needs of voluntary and community sector organisations of all sizes (honouring the commitments set out in Local Compacts)

The Compact

The Compact is an agreement aiming to ensure that the Government and civil society organisations can work most effectively in partnership. Clear expectations and undertakings of what each partner will do are set out and committed to.

What You Need to Know

• The Compact is a national agreement, renewed by the coalition government in December 2010 and covers central government departments
• Nearly all local areas have their own Compact agreed between the local authority and voluntary and community sector – often using the national Compact as their basis, they are shaped to reflect the particular needs of the local area
• Key undertakings common to nearly all Compacts are a recognition of the need to give at least three months’ notice of funding cuts; conduct consultations for a 12 week period; and respect for the independence of voluntary sector organisations

Public Law

Public bodies, including local authorities and central government departments have to abide by a set of legal rules which regulate their public functions.

What You Need to Know

• A public body must ask itself the right questions and take into account relevant information when making a decision – when considering whether to make a funding cut, this means that they must have consulted groups that will be affected
• The Public Sector Equality Duty requires public bodies to have due regard to the need to
  eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations between different people when carrying out their activities.
• When deciding whether to reduce or cut funding the public body must show how they have understand how different people will be affected by their decision – this is often done through an Equality Impact Assessment

An unfair decision by a public body can be challenged through a judicial review process in the courts, although there are strict guidelines and timescales that must be followed.

Overall

When talking about ‘unfair’ funding cuts remember the focus is on how the decision has been made, not what the decision is – you may be unhappy about a decision that has been made, but it is only ‘unfair’ if it has not been made in the right way.

Make sure you’ve looked at your local Compact and understand the Best Value Guidance – if a decision is made to reduce or withdraw your funding then it’s best to know in advance what will make a decision unfair so you are prepared

If you think a decision is unfair then act quickly – write to the public body setting out your concerns with the decision and asked for it to be looked at again

If you are unsure whether a decision is unfair or would like some further advice contact the Compact Advocacy programme on 020 7520 2460 or daniel.fluskey@ncvo-vol.org.uk or download a printable version of the NCVO cuts guide

Thousands of people have your email address and you may have thousands of email addresses, but:

• Did you ever give your email address to those people?
• Did you give someone else permission to share it?
• Have you got permission to share other peoples email addresses?

Probably not.

When email addresses are put in the To: field of an email, they are immediately visible to everyone on that circulation list and sometimes automatically stored in your email address book.

You could be in breach of the data protection act if you do this, but there is a simple solution, use the Bcc: field, like this:

The recipients then only see their own address or ‘undisclosed recipients’

An Alternative

If you are a regular sender of bulk emails, you might want to consider email services like the one used by SUSTAiN. We use and recommend MailChimp, it is secure, easy to use and has a free version that’s suitable for most users. We are not sponsored by MailChimp, we just really like it.

Source: read this Guardian article on email and data protection

With all the doom and gloom surrounding the economy, it’s good to know that something just gets better each year.

SUSTAiN’s fundraising initiative – Solihull Together – has helped 30 organisations in 2011 with small grants of between £100 and £500.

That’s more organisations than in the previous two years combined

A big thanks to everyone who helped in particular SUSTAiN’s own June Mole who has been the driving force behind Solihull Together.

To find out who benefitted, go to our Fundraising web section

A Sensory Success Story

When Sue Ingram’s severely disabled son Jamie attended an adult respite home for the first time, Sue was astonished at the lack of space available.  There was nowhere for Jamie to just relax, to just be a 16 year old boy and enjoy time with friends or enjoy the outside world. The garden at the back of the home was, in Sue’s words “ a concrete jungle”. With mould plastic chairs and overgrown grass, it was not exactly the exciting, attractive space Jamie and the home needed.

After hearing how Solihull Hospital had been successful in their bid for lottery funding Sue decided to apply to the Awards for All programme through her community organisation Club 22. Club 22 is a group of parents with teenagers and adults of similar disabilities who share experiences and seek money and support to provide the facilities so desperately needed. Sue applied to the Big Lottery Fund’s Awards for All programme and was overjoyed when she found out Club 22’s application for a sensory garden was successful.

With £10,000 of funding “our own special garden was now a reality” says Sue.

The garden was designed by a specialist landscape architect and has improved the existing environment substantially, turning it into a safe and more stimulating space for beneficiaries to relax in. Organisers say visitors can enjoy observing the moving stars and reflections, watching the fibre optic colour changes, feeling the many textures and playing with the wooden dashboard style controls. Special features include sensory plants and a water feature. “The garden has been a fantastic success which is now used by people outside of the home who also have special needs. It really is a place of our own” says Sue.

To find out more about the Awards for All programme and how you can apply, please visit the Awards for All website

When you take on new volunteers it is important that they inform their own car insurance company that their employment status has changed.
Most insurers require notification of any volunteer work, even if the nature of the volunteer work does not involve the use of the volunteers’ car.
A few insurers may charge extra for policies with volunteer work included, however you can view a list of insurers and volunteer policy information on the Association of British Insurers website.

We were delighted that The Mayor, Councillor Irene Chamberlain was able to officially open the volunteer centre at Chelmsley Wood on Wednesday 30 November. She was joined by over 20 representatives of the various groups and organisations that are working together to ensure the successful development of this exciting new project.

The Chelmsley Wood Volunteer Centre is open Monday to Friday, 10am to 1pm for drop-in enquiries as well as appointments for anyone wanting to find a volunteering opportunity.

Organisations wishing to promote their volunteering opportunities are also encouraged to contact the centre.

Contact the Chelmsley Wood Volunteer Centre

Chelmsley Wood Volunteer Centre
Solihull Connect Office
West Mall
Bluebell Centre
Chelmsley Wood
B37 5TN
(Near to Asda and library)

Tel: 0121 704 6789
Email: volunteering@svcuk.org