0333 321 3021

FacebookYouTubeFlickrTwitter

Blog

17 Jun 2013 - 16:52 by Mike Wild

Judging by the phone calls, emails and tweets I and my colleagues have had, the report in Third Sector of comments by Geoff Little (Deputy CEO of Manchester City Council) addressing the Charity Finance Group conference earlier this week has sent a shockwave around the voluntary and community sector not just in Manchester but the rest of the country too.

It's not the best idea to respond to a speech which I didn't actually hear but the comments as reported do raise concerns about the way the relationships between Local...

16 May 2013 - 14:41 by mary.duncan

A Listening Event with Jon Cruddas MP, Labour Party Policy Coordinator

A debate was organised by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) in Wythenshawe on Monday to look at parenting policies. Jon Cruddas was the keynote speaker (author of the Labour Party’s Election Manifesto for 2015). In theory, this was planned to be a ‘listening’ event to define the central challenges for social policy over the coming decade. The focus for the debate was families and childhood - a better start in life.

It was fair to say that the meeting was a missed opportunity...

Shared Topic Areas

10 May 2013 - 16:25 by Mike Wild

This morning I was in the happy position of being able to present our new research into the state of the voluntary sector in Manchester. It has been a long-held ambition of mine to be able to show the full extent of the enormous contribution which voluntary organisations, community groups, social enterprises and the community work of faith groups make to the city. 

Like many of the major cities, Manchester is facing the combined effects of recession, public sector spending cuts and long standing deprivation in local communities. The results of our research show that the voluntary,...

29 Apr 2013 - 12:46 by Nigel Rose

One way of describing my role as Strategic Lead on Commissioning is that it is “to improve commissioning between public authorities and the voluntary and community sector (VCS) ”. This raises the question “what is a public authority?”

The definition of public authority is particularly important in the procurement phase of commissioning as there are special rules that dictate how procurement works for public authorities. These were developed as part of the liberalisation agenda of the European Economic Community. Contracts that fall under Part A of the EU procurement rules are very...

Shared Topic Areas

17 Apr 2013 - 12:21 by Nigel Rose

Salford Foundation is one of the very few VCS organisation in Greater Manchester that has trialed the cost benefit analysis (CBA) model developed by New Economy and a central plank of the Greater Manchester Community Budgets pilot. The CBA was carried out on the Together...

Shared Topic Areas

20 Mar 2013 - 15:31 by mary.duncan

Manchester City Council are reviewing a range of voluntary and community sector contracts/grants and are proposing to expand the use of volunteering as a way of reconciling increasing demand for social care support with cuts to social care funding.

This has triggered some concerns and debate within the VCS and within the Macc team about the proposed project that will ‘stretch their local offer on social care support, by expanding volunteering and community engagement’.

Using volunteers to stretch the council’s offer on social care support will provide new opportunities for...

Shared Topic Areas

14 Mar 2013 - 15:13 by fiona.mark

The Manchester Black and Minority Ethnic Network (MBMEN) at its February networking event heard from speakers about the changes that are coming to the Welfare system. Participants expressed great concern about the need for more information and worried about the impact of the changes on families, friends, children and vulnerable communities.
The Government says it has instituted welfare reform to:
• save £19b or more on the country’s benefits bill
• simplify, streamline and reform the welfare system
• make it more beneficial to be in work
The changes coming apply...

14 Mar 2013 - 15:10 by fiona.mark

Climate change affects us all, especially the most vulnerable and it’s really important that we all engage with this issue; it’s not going away!  The Manchester BME Network in partnership with its members, MC-UK, Creative Hands and Salford Refugee Network is undertaking a project looking at “Climate change and BME Communities “with a specific focus on two vulnerable communities; older people and refugees and asylum seekers.  We hope to understand further the needs of the community and find solutions to help support the community better. This project is funded by Defra (Department for...

12 Mar 2013 - 13:55 by cormac.lawler

If you've chatted with Walt over the last few months, or been involved in one of LSEN's discussions around community learning, you might have heard Walt talk about Wisdom Councils. Wisdom Councils are an approach to community engagement and eliciting 'community voice', which we in LSEN have been excited about for some time, and which we can see has real potential for organisational and community development and learning.

Image: Jim Rough in action during a dynamic...

Shared Topic Areas

26 Feb 2013 - 22:52 by walt.crowson

When the Work Programme was first introduced as part of the new Welfare to Work agenda the LSEN organised a number of meetings, seminars and events to inform voluntary organisations about the opportunities and risks of getting involved in the Programme as a sub-contractor.

It became clear, early on in these discussions, that the Programme did not recognise the difficulties many people at a distance from the labour market would find in re-engaging in sustained employment.

In the end very few voluntary organisations were able to engage with the Programme and those that did were...

Pages