GMCVO NEWS
Quarter of Greater Manchester groups could close, warns GMCVO director
One in four voluntary sector organisations in Greater Manchester could close due to spending cuts, according to GMCVO’s director, Alex Whinnom.
Speaking on BBC Radio Manchester on 21st December, Alex Whinnom warned that 25 per cent of the sub-region's 10,000+ organisations in receipt of public funding could be hit. However, most groups do not know if they will get funded beyond March.
He said that the drop in public funding due to the Government's spending review will be drastic for such groups, adding: "I expect a quarter to disappear”.
Groups which have spoken to the BBC off the record said they were concerned that increasing unemployment would lead to an increase in people with mental health problems, more homeless people and more people with drink and drug problems at a time when councils are withdrawing support.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-12043975
Funding portal’s early success
The Greater Manchester Funding Portal attracted over 1,100 registered users in its first nine months of operation. Officially launched by Greater Manchester Voluntary Sector Support (GMVSS) in February 2010, the portal offers access to the latest funding opportunities, information and guidance.
Groups are able to identify appropriate funding opportunities from over 5,000 funding schemes through an online, step-by-step questionnaire. They are also able to request follow-up support, find further funding advice and view the latest funding news.
Any progress and user friendliness is monitored through a steering group and a set of funding factsheets are also being developed for the 2011.
For more information visit: www.gmfunding.net
□ GMVSS’s website also offers information, advice and guidance to help voluntary and community organisations set up, develop and grow. Details of events and job vacancies are provided as well, and there is also information on collaborative projects being delivered across Greater Manchester – such as Market Place (which helps organisations to save money when buying goods and services) and iLearn (which offers innovative and tailored learning opportunities).
www.gmvss.net
Room hire discounts at St Thomas Centre
The St Thomas Centre is offering a 20 per cent reduction on room hire charges for any bookings during January, February and March 2011.
Situated in Ardwick just a mile from Manchester city centre, the Centre is an accessible, high quality conference and meeting venue for voluntary and community organisations.
Please call 0161 277 1010 or e-mail to check availability.
NEWS AND INFORMATION
Community Budgets briefing
A briefing note outlining how Community Budgets will operate in Greater Manchester has been produced by the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA).
Announced by the coalition Government in October’s Comprehensive Spending Review, Community Budgets will seek to improve the way public services and local communities respond together to some of the most challenging issues in society.
Greater Manchester was selected as one of 16 areas which will develop the first phase of Community Budgets focused on improving the response to families with complex needs. Examples of this include making sure children do well in their early years, supporting families, tackling unemployment and breaking cycles of offending – all issues usually linked to poverty.
The Government is also working with a further 20 areas on issues such as worklessness, reducing offending and child poverty.
The briefing sets out:
● how Community Budgets can help Greater Manchester achieve its ambitions (described in the Greater Manchester Strategy);
● a vision of how Community Budgets could work;
● an outline of the work involved in ensuring Community Budgets deliver;
● how partners can get involved in the process.
The first wave of Community Budgets is due to operate from April 2011.
Each local authority in Greater Manchester will be able to provide information about progress with Community Budgets – and regular updates and key documents will be available on the AGMA website at www.agma.gov.uk.
□ GMCVO is involved in the development of the transforming justice strand of the Community Budgets and will be looking to get involved in the complex families strand as well as it gets underway.
Community Budgets in Greater Manchester: Partner Briefing Note Number 1, can be seen via: www.gmcvo.org.uk/community-budgets-briefing.
Localism Bill published
Proposals which seek to shift power from central Government into the hands of individuals, communities and councils, were published on 13th December.
The Localism Bill includes measures which could give voluntary sector organisations the opportunity to buy local assets and properties (such as shops or libraries) and to challenge and take over services run by public bodies.
The ‘community right to challenge’ clause would offer voluntary and community groups, as well as social enterprises and local authority employees, the right to express interest in providing a service, even if it is already being run by another party.
Sir Stuart Etherington, chief executive of NCVO, welcomed the Bill as "another important part of the jigsaw for the voluntary and community sector". In particular he praised both the ‘community right to buy’ and the ‘community right to challenge’ measures saying they will "give people a greater say in how things are run at local level".
"Community assets, both buildings and land, can play a key role in strengthening communities, as a focus for community life and a resource to support local enterprise," he said.
But Etherington too had reservations, warning that the passage of the Bill would need to be paved with the implementation of "appropriate mechanisms", in particular local Compacts, to protect the sector when relationships between local government and communities don't work out.
A guide to the Bill, plus briefings produced by GMCVO and Voluntary Sector North West can be downloaded via www.gmcvo.org.uk/localism-bill-published.
□ Voluntary and community organisations are urged to join a campaign to ensure that the Bill gives local groups and charities real powers. The Real Power for Communities campaign seeks to mobilise local opinion and local action in order to resist other interests that might want to weaken the powers given to community groups. Leaders of community groups are encouraged to sign up to the campaign website at: www.RP4C.org.uk.
The campaign is led by NAVCA, with support from the Development Trusts Association, bassac, Community Matters and Urban Forum.
Cuts to Greater Manchester councils above average
The average loss in spending power for local councils in Greater Manchester will be 6.39 per cent in 2011-12, compared to the national average reduction of 4.4 per cent.
The financial settlement for local authorities over the period 2011-13, was released by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles on 13th December. It shows that in Greater Manchester, Manchester will bear the deepest cuts of nearly 9 per cent and 7 per cent in the two years, while Stockport will face the smallest reductions, of 2.7 per cent in each of the two years.
Manchester’s settlement takes into account an allocation of £13.3 million from the £85 million Transition Fund, which enables the reduction to the authority to be no more than the 8.9 per cent limit set by Mr Pickles.
The think tank Centre for Cities analysis of the figures states that the settlement is “overwhelmingly urban, often highly deprived, areas at the top end of the 8.9% reduction, with wealthier areas such as Dorset even seeing a small increase in their grant (0.25%).”
The figures for Greater Manchester local authorities can be seen via the attachment below.
www.gmcvo.org.uk/cuts-greater-manchester-councils-above-average
Community payback providers sought
Greater Manchester Probation Trust is advertising for providers to apply to join a ‘qualified provider list’ for the delivery of aspects of Community Payback – the programme of unpaid workcarried outby offenders under probation supervision.
The Trust is looking for providers to provide supervision of an agreed number of working groups of offenders, and unpaid work tasks for offenders.
Only providers on the list will be able to deliver these services, for the anticipated four-year period.
Interested organisations are requested to register their interest with .
Support for small organisations in Work Programme
A commitment to ensuring that smaller voluntary organisations are involved in the delivery of the Government’s Work Programme has been given by employment minister, Chris Grayling.
In a letter to NAVCA, the minister says, that in order for the Work Programme to be a success and for organisations to win contracts within the Programme, bids must include “a range of organisations with the expertise to meet the diverse needs” in a locality.
He outlines the Government’s commitment to “a more level playing field” through the ‘Merlin Standard’, which will ensure that smaller partners are treated fairly when dealing with prime contractors. It also ensures that supply chains remain robust and healthy. The MP warns that: “Primes that do not fulfil their obligations under the standard can lose their contracts”.
The Work Programme, which is due to begin in summer 2011, aims to provide ‘sustained’ employment for claimants of employment-related benefits. It is now moving into its second phase of contracting and a list of preferred suppliers has been announced.
www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/erss-preferred-suppliers.pdf
www.merlinstandard.co.uk/
Start-up funds for Community Organisers programme announced
The Government is intending to provide £2 million in start-up funding for its new Community Organisers programme.
Under the programme, the Government intends to train 800 new community organisers by 2012. Theywill be responsible for supporting and encouraging voluntary action in their local areas.
According to an unnamed source, the funding details are in a tender document that had been given to charities intending to bid to recruit and train the community organisers.
The source said charities had been told at a meeting that the Government would not provide all of the funding for the scheme. Organisations recruiting and training the organisers would have to find a further £10 million in order for the programme to continue.
Full details of the scheme have yet to be finalised.
The Office for Civil Society is due to announce the national partner responsible for managing the scheme towards the end of January. More groups will be appointed to train the community organisers in March.
[Third Sector Online 6.1.11]
Volunteering funds announced in green paper on giving
The Government has unveiled two new volunteering initiatives and said that a total of £80 million will be allocated to the Community First programme, first announced by ministers in June.
The moves come in a green paper on giving, published at the end of December. It sets out wide-ranging ideas, including the use of online and social media, for making giving and voluntary action in the UK "as easy and attractive as possible".
The discussion document says the Government will set up a Volunteering Match Fund worth up to £10 million a year that will match private donations to volunteering projects.
It will also set up an England-wide Volunteering Infrastructure Programme, worth £42.5 million over four years that will "provide brokerage as well as front-line support to volunteers and the organisations that manage them".
The green paper says the Community First programme will consist of £30 million for grants to small organisations and £50 million of match funding for local endowments over the next four years.
Community First "will seek to encourage the giving of time, money, goods, services and facilities for wider community benefit by matching these donations with money", the document says.
This programme is being seen as the successor to the previous Government's Grassroots Grants, which totalled £130 million in the years 2008-11.
The Giving Green Paper can be seen at:
www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/sites/default/files/resources/Giving-Green-Paper.pdf
[from: Third Sector Online 29.12.10]
Community space website
A new website to help groups find or let premises has been launched in the North West.
Designed especially for the community and voluntary sector, the free resource aims to be the online guide for those organisations with space requirements and to help community organisations generate room income.
Set up and run by Community Matters, MyCommunitySpace is for anyone:
● looking for a space to base their activities – whether it is desk space, meeting room, hall or studio etc;
● in need of somewhere to advertise the premises they currently have for hire;
● wanting specialist premises-related advice on issues from hiring and letting space to repairs and maintenance;
● interested in taking part in training and events in relation to premises.
www.mycommunityspace.org.uk.
GP consortia pathfinders announced: four in Greater Manchester
The first groups of GPs who will take the lead in the Government’s plans for commissioning health services have been announced.
They have been selected to be the first to take on commissioning responsibilities as part of the Government’s plans set out in the NHS white paper Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS.
The 52 groups selected, known as pathfinders, will work together to manage their local budgets and commission services for patients direct with other NHS colleagues and local authorities. The pathfinders will begin testing the new commissioning arrangements to ensure they are working well before more formal arrangements come into place.
There will now be a rolling programme with more pathfinders to be announced in the New Year. The programme will enable as many consortia as possible to proceed to ‘shadow’ running in 2011/12. Consortia will begin to take on statutory responsibilities in 2012/13. Primary Care Trusts will be abolished from April 2013.
It is important that VCS organisations in the pathfinder areas work together to engage with the new GP consortia – and in some areas the sector is already being identified as a group that GPs will want to engage with. However, there are many demands going to be made on these new consortia and it is important that the VCS has a coherent approach or their voice will not be heard and opportunities to deliver services will be lost.
Of the groups selected, four are in Greater Manchester: Salford PBC Consortium (55 practices), Stockport Managed Care (53), Manchester (three consortia) (105), and Trafford Commissioning Consortium (37).
(from: VSNW Health Bulletin Extra – Dec 2010)
Social Enterprise Mark
A new ‘visual badge’ to identify those organisations which meet defined criteria for social enterprise has been developed.