Solihull SUSTAiN and the Volunteer Centre in partnership with Solihull College and Solihull MBC are looking to offer the ASDAN Community Volunteering Qualifications, the benefits of which were recently raised at SUSTAiN’s VCS Conference.

In order to take this forward, we really need to know from both volunteers as well as host organisations what you or your organisation would most benefit from.

Your help is very much appreciated to help shape this exciting new initiative.

Replies are required by Friday 1 June 2012.

Survey to be completed by organisations

Survey to be completed by volunteers

(Please forward this email link to your volunteers asking them to help with the survey - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/volunteerskillssurvey

Thank you for your support.

Help Scope with its research into barriers to volunteering. Scope is asking for the views of both volunteer involving organisations and disabled people (both those who volunteer and those who don’t).

The organisational questionnaire should take no more than 15 minutes to complete, and the deadline is Friday 18 May 2012.

Local HealthWatch will become the new consumer champion for both health and adult social care.  It is expected that this new organisation will replace local LINk (Local Involvement Networks) organisations in April 2013.

Complete a short survey to have your say on the services you want it to provide.

Survey link:

https://secure.crtviewpoint.com/OnlineSurvey/default.aspx?session=fcd9b312-8829-45a9-b5ab-0486e50c95ac

You’ll be entered into a Free Prize Draw for £25 high street vouchers and can nominate a local charity of your choice to win £100. The survey closes on Friday 18^th May 2012.

Local HealthWatch Summary Sheet

From 1 January 2012 charities and other voluntary organisations are no longer exempt from needing a PPL licence if they play recorded music, even as background music or on the radio or TV.

There are new joint arrangement for community buildings and a consultation on community sports clubs which runs until 6 March 2012.

See www.sandy-a.co.uk/managing.htm#ppl-prs

Below is the key text from the Best Value Statutory Guidance issued by Eric Pickles to Councils.  We have highlighted some key phrases.

Best Value Statutory Guidance
1. Best Value authorities are under a general Duty of Best Value to “make arrangements to secure continuous improvement in the way in which its functions are exercised, having regard to a combination of economy, efficiency and effectiveness.”

2. Under the Duty of Best Value, therefore, authorities should consider overall value, including economic, environmental and social value, when reviewing service provision. As a concept, social value is about seeking to maximise the additional benefit that can be created by procuring or commissioning goods and services, above and beyond the benefit of merely the goods and services themselves.

3. To achieve the right balance – and before deciding how to fulfil their Best Value Duty – authorities are under a Duty to Consult representatives of a wide range of local persons; this is not optional. Authorities must consult representatives of council tax payers, those who use or are likely to use services provided by the authority, and those appearing to the authority to have an interest in any area within which the authority carries out functions. Authorities should include local voluntary and community organisations and small businesses in such consultation. This should apply at all stages of the commissioning cycle, including when considering the decommissioning of services. In the interests of economy and efficiency, it is not necessary for authorities to undertake lifestyle or diversity questionnaires of suppliers or residents.

4. 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) and small businesses.

5. Authorities should seek to avoid passing on disproportionate reductions – by not passing on larger reductions to the voluntary and community sector and small businesses as a whole, than they take on themselves – and in particular:

• An authority intending to reduce or end funding (where ‘funding’ means both grant funding and any fixed term contract) or other support to a voluntary and community organisation or small business should give at least three months’ notice of the actual reduction to both the organisation involved and the public/service users.
• An authority should actively engage the organisation and service users as early as possible before making a decision on: the future of the service; any knock-on effect on assets used to provide this service; and the wider impact on the local community.
• Authorities should make provision for the organisation, service users, and wider community to put forward options on how to reshape the service or project. Local authorities should assist this by making available all appropriate information, in line with the government’s transparency agenda.

SUSTAiN, Enable, the SILC Consortium, Young Solihull (aka SCVYS) and Sport Solihull are working in partnership to secure funding aimed at strengthening infrastructure support services for charities, voluntary organisations, community groups, sports clubs and youth organisations in the borough.

We need your help to ensure that our project application is matched to your needs.

Please spare a few minutes telling us what you need.

Thank you

Click for Online Survey

The Minister of State for Children and Families has launched a Call for Views on Special Educational Needs and Disability. Please go to the website to take part.

West Midlands Ambulance Service has developed a patient survey for anyone who has dialled 999 for medical assistance. This service will be another avenue of measuring patient experience so that they can improve the service they deliver. The survey can be accessed via www.wmas.nhs.uk or by telephoning the Patient Experience Department on 01384 246370 to request a paper copy of the survey or talk through it with one of the team.

Solihull Council now has a legal responsibility to tackle child poverty. The Child Poverty Act received Royal Assent on 25 March 2010, and requires the Council and other statutory partners to prepare a joint strategy to tackle child poverty. But Solihull Council is ahead of the game; with nearly 5,000 children living in poverty in the borough the council realised it was time to act.

Last November the council ran a workshop on child poverty with colleagues from the statutory and third sectors. In that workshop they decided that the best outcome for Solihull would be to produce a borough wide strategy to incorporate all residents, communities and services and not just those linked to children. So the process to creating a holistic ‘Action Against Poverty Strategy’ for Solihull was started.

This strategy will cover everyone experiencing poverty in Solihull but it will have a strong focus on eradicating child poverty. Through the strategy the council aims to:

• Encourage the conviction that poverty is ‘everybody’s business’

• Work across the Solihull Partnership to develop and deliver solutions.
• Have a clear understanding of the drivers of poverty in Solihull.
• Be set within the context and link into the refresh of the Sustainable Community Strategy.
• Build on what we are already doing.

A project team has been established to work on the strategy and is currently concentrating on producing a needs assessment and developing the approach to engagement. 

We want to identify groups or individuals who may engage with us to help understand the drivers and effects of poverty. If you, your organisation and/or any of your service users would be willing to contribute to the consultative process please contact the AAPS team by email at aaps@solihull.gov.uk or telephone 0121 704 8549.

Many of our organisations involved in supporting people will understand the impact that health, well-being, addiction and other issues can have on the income to a home and how that can, in turn, affect children. Please consider whether your organisation might be able to assist with this important programme.