NOTES OF A MEETING OF THE VOLUNTARY SECTOR FORUM
Thursday 21st June 2012 at 6.30pm
Forum members present: Councillors Al-Ebadi (Chair), Mohammed Butt (Leader of the Council) and Bhagwanji Chohan and the following voluntary and community sector representatives:
Jane / Lanyero / African Women's CareKen / Luxon / Age UK
Lola / Osikoya / Amazing Grace Wormen's Association
Ghow / Ratnarajah / Asian People’s Disability Alliance
Sarbjit / Ganger / Asian Women's Resource Centre
Sadida / Trozic / Bosnia and Herzegovinia Community Advice Centre
Jenny / Melrose / Brent Active Citizens
Paulo / Pimentel / Brent Bereavement Services
Mr / Girisi / Brent Indian Association
Ann / O'Neill / Brent Mencap
Kath / Fraser-Jackson / Chalkhill Resident's Association
Tessa / Awe / CVS Brent
Ros / Baptiste / Energy Solutions
Harbi / Farrah / Help Somalia Foundation
Icham / Gassi / Help Somalia Foundation
Zamira / Ruspi / Mother Teresa Albanian Union
Abbas / Mirza / NHS London
Mr V / Jeganathan / Tamil Cultural Arts Centre
Hanna / Field / West London Refugee Women
Maria / Aden / West London Refugee Women
Officers present: Cathy Tyson, Joanna McCormick, Augusta Morton (Strategy, Partnerships and Improvement)
Apologies
Received on behalf of the following:
John Sclocco - Brent Carers Centre
Eleri Butler - Advance Advocacy
1. Welcome and introductions
The chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.
2. Minutes of the previous meeting and matters arising
Ann O’Neill asked whether the paper by Alison Elliot on the wage levels for West London contracted social care services had been circulated, the chair and officers confirmed that this had occurred. Jo McCormick agreed to send this to Ann O’Neill again.
Decision: The minutes of the previous meeting were approved as an accurate and correct record of the March meeting.
3. Presentations from Voluntary Sector Organisations
Decision: It was agreed that Bosnia and Herzegovina Community Advice Centre and Brent Active Citizen’s would give presentations at the next meeting.
a) Help Somalia Foundation
Harbi Farah introduced a presentation about the work of Help Somalia Foundation. Icham Gassi set out the way in which the organisation had sought to overcome identified barriers to the Somali community accessing support. 95% of the users of activities led by the organisation are Somali and 70% are women. The main identified barriers are language, education ad traditional values. The focus was on employment and realising potential of children and young people. An annual achievement award helped to celebrate work to address underachievement in educational outcomes of young people. Youth activities had strong linkages to schools and sought a family approach enabling both young people and their parents to better understand the education system in Britain particularly the homework element. Homework clubs and parent forums were just some of the activities of Help Somalia Foundation. Overall the work was aimed at helping people to help themselves and not feel belittled within the wider community. The way in which all communities interacted and their representative organisations worked together was seen as critical to this.
b) Mother Teresa Albanian Union
Zamia Ruspi introduced her presentation about the work of the Mother Teresa Albanian Union by paying homage to the support from the Bosnia and Herzegovina community advice centre which had supported the organisation when it was first set up. The organisation aims to integrate the Albanian community of which there are nearly 5000 in North West London. The focus of the activities led by the organisation is employment and training and learning about British history and celebrating the culture of the community. People benefiting are aged between 3 and 73 years. There are 3 teachers and 8 volunteers. This year saw jobs for 3 people in school, 2 in catering and 2 in careering roles following the volunteering work people had undertaken with Mother Teresa Albanian Union. The organisation offers training for parents and supplementary school to help children who are under achieving. This year the organisation won a bronze award for XXX and is going for the silver award in September.
4. Group Exercise
The group exercise sought to capture key issues for the sector at present and support sought from both the council and the CVS in relation to these challenges. The Forum split into three groups and Joanna McCormick, Cathy Tyson (Brent Council) and Tessa Awe (CVS Brent) facilitated group discussion.
Key themes arising from the group discussion were:
· We need to support vulnerable people as state support reduces
Ø Work to look at alternative models of operating and working together with others
Ø Keen to see workshops to support residents directly to cope in the situation and get access to all of the remaining support they are entitled to
· We need to better understand the needs of the Brent residents and detailed demographic information is critical e.g. mental health needs
Ø The intelligence hub providing a good overview for use in bidding
· We need to better understand the range of specialist provision available in the borough through a proper directory of voluntary groups – contacts/awareness
Ø Work by CVS Brent and council to update the key contacts profile and community directory already in existence
· Consultation is the wrong term - we need ongoing dialogue to influence policy development and more face to face opportunities for residents to engage rather than online or written paperwork
Ø Feedback to the individual groups about what their input has resulted in
· Sustainability
Ø Facilitation of a joint strategy
· Resources – human, financial, skills and premises
Ø Sharing of skills across council and sector
Ø Improve communication
Ø Do not reduce main programme grant
Ø Look at option of meanwhile spaces
· Working in partnership/collaboration
Ø Collective voice in addressing policy from both council and sector
Ø Coordinate services within the council
Ø Make sure we understand the new structure of the council
Ø Option of CVS Brent leading on bids for smaller groups/consortiums?
· Commissioning/contracts – lack of time, timescales for tenders, Financial regulations mean larger organisations are taking over, less funding available in commissioning but expectation of more to be delivered for the money
Ø Inform people about contracts coming up
· How to balance meeting needs of those served whilst fundraising
Ø CVS Brent and Council engagement and infrastructure support
· Changes in benefits, housing and other policies have an cumulative effect on people
Ø Look at series of sessions for residents to understand the whole, rather than all these separate pieces, the cumulative effect of which is not really understood.
· Public Health is really important and we want the move to local authorities to include groups earlier rather waiting for things to go wrong before seeking help
· Smaller groups are fading away as those working on a shoe string to run coffee mornings etc, are no longer able to do this because of their own personal circumstances have been affected by the economic pressures
· Survival of specialist/equalities services critical
5. Voluntary Sector Issues
a) Upcoming Health Consultation
Abbas Mirza sought to highlight upcoming consultation about the provision of health services across London including options on A&E and Maternity Services. He wanted to reach hard to reach communities who are unlikely to respond to letters sent to them and asked organisations present to provide him with their details if they want him or his colleague to come to them directly to discuss the proposals. Abbas explained that every household will receive a letter setting out the proposals in the near future. Organisations were shocked at the news about changes which would affect services such as A&E and Maternity and impact on Brent, given the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment of health needs in the borough. Questions included: which hospitals are affected and what would happen if a hospital no longer had these sorts of major services any longer following consultation? Organisations were also concerned about the cumulative effect of changes to public sector services at the moment. Abbas responded by outlining again the need to get the message to residents so they could understand the proposals. The chair urged groups to take up the offer to engage directly with individual groups which represent hard to reach residents. A number of groups arranged for Abbas to meet with them directly to explain the proposals and their likely impact.
b) Upcoming Young People Consultation
Cathy Tyson highlighted ongoing work until Christmas looking at the range of activities in the borough for young people to engage with during their leisure time. Support was sought form the sector to reach as many young people as possible so their views can be captured on the range of provision in the borough from the different sectors. Organisations were advised that young people could find out more via ‘Be my voice’ website and the direct link would be circulated nearer the time.
c) Voluntary Sector Initiative Fund
Joanna McCormick fed back that decisions on this round of grant funding had been made by the Executive and letters were going out during this week and early next week. This round was very competitive, with money sought roughly six times that available. As a result a number of bids which were good did not make it through. The general areas for development were a need to better understand what is already provided in the borough, a need to set out the needs of those who would benefit from a project and better sense of the outcomes which will be sought from running the project. The council is offering to give individual feedback in this round to aid future bidding and support is available from CVS Brent to look at bids and fundraising activity. The council is also highlighting ‘grant net’ to track other funding sources.
6. Any Other Business
The chair highlighted the upcoming changes to what was Council Tax Benefit. Joanna McCormick drew organisation’s attention to the leaflets and summary sheets on each table setting out the plans for council tax support following central government’s removal of a national scheme of council tax benefit in favour of local schemes of council tax support. Detail of where to find out more was included in the paperwork. Organisations were unhappy about the national changes and asked about what options were available to a local authority in the scenario. Cathy Tyson outlined the way in which the overall budget for this had been reduced by central government and statutory requirement to consult made sure people locally had a say in what option was pursued in offering a local scheme of council tax support instead.
7. Date of Next Meeting
Thursday 20 September 2012 at 1.30 pm.
The meeting finished at 8.40pm.
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