GMCVO NEWS
GMCVO among Greater Manchester groups awarded Lottery extension funding
GMCVO has been awarded funding of over £162,000 from the Big Lottery Fund under its Supporting Change and Impact programme. The funding will enable GMCVO’sVolunteering Greater Manchester Project to extend and develop its workuntil September 2013, as well as identifying ways in which the benefits of the project can be sustained once funding ends.
Several other voluntary sector organisations from across Greater Manchester have also been allocated funding from the £70 million programme, which was targeted at organisations affected by public funding cuts or facing an increase in demand for their services.
Nationally, the BLF handed out an extra year’s funding, worth between about £30,000 and £400,000, to 214 organisations. A further 574 organisations have received small grants of up to £10,000 to help them review their work and find ways of becoming more sustainable.
Among the local recipients of the larger grants were Bolton Lads and Girls Club, Home-Start Tameside, Hulme Community Garden Centre, Manchester Council for Community Relations and Salford Foundation.
The programme was announced in October 2011 and organisations had to apply to receive funding. To be eligible, an organisation must have been awarded a grant of more than £10,000 from the BLF, be in the final 18 months of that funding and have been judged by the BLF to be managing that funding well.
In addition to the Supporting Change grants, the BLF has added a total of £25 million to its Reaching Communities and Awards for All programmes, which will be used to fund an additional 1,200 charitable and community projects. It has also awarded almost £20 million to organisations that manage funding on the BLF’s behalf to offer additional support to grant recipients, including Mind and Age UK.
BLF press release can be seen via:
Voluntary sector‘s capacity to rehabilitate offenders is highlighted in GMCVO study
As part of our work to better understand voluntary sector provision in Greater Manchester, GMCVO has been working to map the services of a range of charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises in the city region. We have now published the first findings of this work, highlighting the role played by the sector in reducing offending in our communities.
The report examines how Greater Manchester’s voluntary sector comprises organisationsthat are able to operate across a whole spectrum of issues related to offending. The report also contains 15 detailed organisation profiles with powerful case studies demonstrating the deep impact they make on the lives of those they work with.
Although 57 organisations engaged in the study, this is just a small sample of potential providers within Greater Manchester’s sector. Over time we will publish further editions of this report as our knowledge increases and similar studies are planned to investigate provision of health and social care and services to children and families.
The report, Understanding the contribution of Greater Manchester’s voluntary sector to reducing reoffending, can be downloaded via
If your organisation would like to be mapped and included in a future report, please contact Nasir Hussain at GMCVO, 0161 277 1024, .
NOMS co-financing opportunity
Are you a social enterprise based in Greater Manchester and interested in delivering public services under contract?
A £1.5 million fund developed by the National Offender Management Service Co-financing Organisation (NOMS CFO) programme is aimed at supporting the creation of enterprise-based consortiums.
The objective of the More than the Sum fund is to help small and medium-sized social enterprises and organisations to be in a position to participate in the delivery of current and future NOMS CFO, wider government and other opportunities. The fund will provide technical and specialist support to help develop governance, legal and other structures and policies together with initial investment monies to develop the business model.
GMCVO is keen to lead a Greater Manchester bid under the ‘local’ stream. Although we already have an established standing consortium for the Greater Manchester voluntary sector, this is an opportunity to develop a specialist supply chain focused on job creation and enabling access to work for people most disadvantaged in the labour market. We have made an expression of interest.
The deadline for first stage applications is the end of June. Our priority at this point is to develop the right partnership. At this stage we would very much like to hear from:
• Any other organisations which have expressed an interest in bidding in Greater Manchester. It is expected that organisations which have expressed an interest should appear on the More than the Sum platform, but we are aware that not everyone may be featured.
• Any individual social enterprises which would be interested in joining a consortium. We are specially interested to hear from social firms and mutuals trading in Greater Manchester which consider they are able to create jobs, work placements, apprenticeships etc. for offenders with complex needs including mental health. Organisations may be any size, and able to operate on any scale. They must be capable of meeting the Social Enterprise Mark standard, but need not necessarily hold the standard. They should be interested in taking a collaborative approach, working with GMCVO and existing consortia, and working in the context of delivering the Greater Manchester Strategy.
More information about the programme itself and the GMCVO bid can be seen via
For an informal discussion or to express an interest in being involved, contact Alex Whinnom, , 0161 277 1004.
Increase in demand for services shown in GMCVO survey
Nearly three-quarters of voluntary sector groups responding to a GMCVO survey have reported increased demand for their services in the wake of the economic downturn, according to initial findings from the survey.
The survey, carried out in February, aimed to find out how local communities in Greater Manchester are faring in a climate of economic difficulty.
By the end of March, nearly 350 responses had been received – spread across Greater Manchester proportionately; about one-third were ‘place-based’ groups, while two-thirds were issue-based. 56 per cent had cut services themselves since April 2011 and 70 per cent knew of other organisations which had done so.
The group most severely affected appears to be young people, with services to older and disabled people also badly hit. 73 per cent of groups reported increased demand for their remaining services but only 42 per cent were able to meet this demand and only 32 per cent hoped to continue to do so. Just over half of the respondents were aware of new needs emerging.
The knowledge captured by the survey will help us to make decision-makers aware of the impact of the public sector funding cuts on people and groups.
□ In a separate food poverty scoping study, also conducted in February, organisations providing food parcels reported that demand has increased by 50 per cent upwards (see article below).
Mapping food poverty in Greater Manchester
Increases in demand from the public for help in obtaining food have been revealed in GMCVO mapping work of frontline services delivered by Greater Manchester’s voluntary and community sector.
Simultaneously, Oxfam Poverty UK has expressed its concern to GMCVO that projects such as those that redistribute surplus supermarket food to people encountering food deprivation will soon become overwhelmed as demand outstrips supply.
In response to this situation, GMCVO recently carried out research to ascertain the degree to which food poverty and/or food deserts exist in Greater Manchester. However, rather than conduct further direct mapping, GMCVO explored what research already existed. A variety of charitable and public bodies, together with individuals, were contacted to find out whether such research had been carried out and of its availability.
A preliminary report acts as a review of the research currently available, both qualitative and quantitative, and features a selection of primary sourced information from GMCVO policy and partnerships officers.
Mapping Food Poverty and Food Deserts in Greater Manchester can be downloaded via:
NEWS AND INFORMATION
Clegg launches Youth Contract
The Government’s Youth Contract was launched by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg on 2nd April. Designed to help young unemployed people into work, the Youth Contract will provide over 410,000 new opportunities for 18-24 years-olds, including apprenticeships and voluntary work experience placements.
Under the scheme, a wage incentive is available to those employing an 18 to 24 year-old from the Government's Work Programme for 16 hours or more each week. There is a part-time rate of £1,137.50 for work between 16 and 29 hours and a full time rate of £2,275 for 30 hours or more. Small businesses (fewer than 50 employees) can also claim a part payment eight weeks after the employee starts work. The job must last for at least 26 weeks.
The Youth Contract is open to employers throughout Great Britain including those that already employ large numbers of young people such as retail and construction and emerging sectors like the green economy, creative industries and ICT. The wage incentives will be primarily available to private, voluntary and community sectors and social enterprise employers.
The first stage of the scheme, for 16 to 17-year-olds not in education, employment or training, was announced in February (
Call for young people’s groups to shape safeguarding projects
Young people’s groups from Greater Manchester are invited to log their details with the Greater Manchester Safeguarding Partnership (GMSP). The exercise is intended to ensure that young people get involved with and shape projects and developments in safeguarding across the sub-region.
In order to reach as many young people as possible, the GMSP is creating a register of current groups or services working directly with young people that might be able to distribute information to young people and feed back their opinions to the Partnership. GMSP will also use the register to contact groups to inform them about activities and events which young people can get involved in.
If you are part of or you run a group for young people – eg a youth club, a school group, a theatre or arts group, a youth council or a service working directly with young people – please complete the registration form from the link below and return to Kate Wood at .
GMSP is a partnership of the 10 Local Safeguarding Children Boards in Greater Manchester.
Guides to public liability risks
Two handy little guides to public liability risks faced by charities have been published by charity insurance company Ecclesiastical.
The first guidegives practical advice you can follow to help protect your charity against public liability.The second guide includes details of the four main things you need to do if a public liability claim is ever filed against your charity. It explains more about the legal value of accurate record keeping – as well as offering other valuable guidance.
Ecclesiastical has also published a report which takes a close look at the sharp increase in public liability claims brought against charities over the last few years.
All publications can be downloaded via
Greater Manchester deal brings jobs and growth boost
A new innovative deal between central Government and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority will help the city-region to drive growth and create opportunities that will benefit the whole Greater Manchester area. The City Deal, announced by decentralisation minister Greg Clark on 20th March, includes new initiatives on housing, skills, regional growth, business support and the environment.
Among the Combined Authority’s new powers will be the ability to ‘earn back’ up to £30 million a year of the additional tax generated by investing in infrastructure. Greater Manchester, which is the first city-region to secure such powers, will be able to reinvest the money in local economic development and infrastructure.
The key elements of the deal are to:
● create a ‘revolving Infrastructure Fund’, allowing Greater Manchester to ‘earn back’ a portion of the tax it generates by investing £1.2 billion in infrastructure, on a payment-by-results basis;
● establish a Greater Manchester Investment Framework to make the best use of funding from central Government, European funding, and private sector funding to drive economic growth. Investment will be prioritised on the basis of ‘gross value added’ and jobs per pound of public funding;
● create a City Apprenticeship and Skills Hub to increase the number of apprenticeships for 16-24 year olds by 6,000, by channelling funding direct to employers, in particular small and medium sized businesses.
● strengthen Greater Manchester’s Business Growth Hub which gives trade, investment and business advice to local companies,with £4.4 million of Government funding from Enterprise Zones starting from 2015. The Combined Authority says this will create 3,800 new jobs and safeguard 2,300 jobs in Greater Manchester;
● develop Greater Manchester’s role as a beacon for high value inward investment.
● establish a Low Carbon Hub to integrate multiple carbon reduction measures. Greater Manchester will aim to achieve a 48 per cent carbon reduction target by 2020;
● establish Greater Manchester Housing Investment Board to set up an investment fund, to drive the building of 5,000-7,000 new homes by 2017;
● commit Government and Greater Manchester to work together to deliver improved transport servicesincluding bus improvement measures and the devolution of the Northern Rail franchise. Further details from:
The 2012 Budget and charities
The Budget statement on 21st March “offered very little to ease the financial burden” on civil society organisations, according to NCVO. The Chancellor made little mention of the charity sector, but there were some measures that will affect the sector, including:
● Not-for-profit advice sector. The Government will give £40 million(between 2013 and 2015) to the not-for-profit advice sector "to support the sector as it adapts to changes in the way that it is funded".
● Charity shop donations. The Government will work with the charity sector to simplify the administration of Gift Aid in the context of charity shops.
● Gift Aid small donations scheme. A new Gift Aid small donations scheme will be introduced from April 2013. This was announced last year and it will enable charities to claim a Gift Aid style top-up payment on up to £5,000 of small donations without having to get Gift Aid declarations. Charities will be able to claim the new payment on donations of £20 or less.
● VAT on charitable buildings. The Government will charge VAT on improvements to listed buildings.
● In-year repayments of tax to charities. The Government will legislate to amend Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASC) and Gift Aid legislation to ensure it operates as originally intended and to put on a statutory footing the practice by certain charities and CASCs of making claims for repayment of income tax including Gift Aid outside a tax return.
● New cap on tax relief. A cap of £50,000 on tax relief, or 25 per cent of a person's income, has been set. People will not be able to claim tax relief worth more than a quarter of their income, including higher-rate relief on gifts to charities, unless they are claiming less than £50,000.
● Social investment.An internal Treasury review will look into the financial barriers to social enterprise.
● Charity events. Sector-specific reviews of regulation will begin from April, with a look at ways of reducing the bureaucratic burden on holding volunteer events being in the first tranche of reviews.
□ NCVO has carried out an analysis of the key elements and produced a ‘scorecard’ indicating how the charity sector fared and giving a rating for each Budget measure. It can be seen via
Catering enterprise offers offenders a second chance
An innovative social enterprise that helps to prepare offenders for release from prison provided the catering for a recent visit to Manchester by Princess Anne.
Launched in 2010 by POPS (Partners of Prisoners and Families Support Group), the 2nd Chanceenterprise began as a catering business, providing food to visitors’ centres at four prisons in the North West region. It now supplies the centres with over 2,000 sandwiches a week.
Based in Prestwich, 2nd Chance now operates a cafe and function room as well and has recently moved into the buffet market, including providing the food for Princess Anne’s visit to Greater Manchester Probation Trust (GMPT) in March. The food outlet employs two full-time members of staff and provides placement opportunities for offenders carrying out Community Payback, as well as work for volunteers who want to get skills to help them become job-ready.
A community-based initiative, 2nd Chance promotes the active reintegration of participants, raising the profile of offenders and their families as positive contributors to safer and stronger communities.
For further details, contact POPS, 0161 702 1000,
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