You can read the latest news from the SDVS training project by following this link: http://tinyurl.com/689ypq.
Items in this issue include:
Teachers who work with autistic children are deprived of specialist support, according to research by the government-backed Autism Education Trust. The report found practitioners need more support from speech and language and occupational therapists to improve educational outcomes for autistic children. But it warned there are too few specialist therapists to meet the needs of rising numbers of autistic children.
The research also found members of the wider school workforce are uneducated about how autism impacts on a child’s education. Sarah-Jane Critchley, project head at the Autism Education Trust, claimed teachers need in depth training on the range of autistic spectrum disorders.
The Rowland Family Foundation
Harcus Sinclair, 40 Victoria Embankment, London EC4Y 0BA
Contact: Lucy Gibson
General information
The foundation was registered with the Charity Commission on 5 September 2005. Its principal objectives are the relief of poverty, the advancement of education, the advancement of religion or other purposes beneficial for the community.
In 2006/07 it had assets of over £6 million and an income of £370,000. Grants totalled £252,000.
Beneficiaries during the year were: Child Welfare Scheme (£150,000); Hope and Homes for Children (£80,000); Balikpapan Orangutan Survival Foundation (£17,500); and Broadway in the Shadows (£5,000).
Applications - In writing to the correspondent.
Last chance for funding applications to The Foundation for Sport and the Arts
The Foundation for Sport and the Arts has decided to cease activities in March 2012, after reviewing its financial position. This means that no new applications for funding will be considered after the end of March 2009.
The Foundation seeks to fund a wide range of activities where there is clearly beneficial impact across the community, with a current focus to encourage active participation by young people. More details at www.thefsa.net.
Social Care & Health are looking for candidates who are enthusiastic about a
Career in Care
Would you like the opportunity to help deliver a first class service
The Foxwalls is a new generation of care facilities providing specialist residential and respite dementia care offering a secure environment helping with day to day living
Would you like to have room to develop whilst working in a positive environment?
For further information why not come along to:
The Gatehouse Theatre, Stafford on 26th November, 2008, 11:30 am – 1.00pm
Capacitybuilders last week launched a £5 million Capital Grants Programme to develop third sector local resource centres. The programme will run until March 2011 and is the last main funding programme to be announcement by Capacitybuilders under the Office of the Third Sector’s 2008-11 investment in ChangeUp.
The programme is aimed at improving access by frontline third sector organisations to the facilities and services available in local resource centres, supporting initiatives which encourage collaboration and shared ‘back room’ functions.
The programme sees scaled investment in three phases between now and 2011, from which new and existing local resources centres will be able to increase third sector access to shared facilities and services and make best use of assets in supporting frontline organisations. To find out more about this programme, please visit the website via this link: http://tinyurl.com/6ydmv2.
Kevin Brennan Minister for the Third Sector has welcomed Anne McGuire MP as Cabinet Office Advisor on Third Sector Innovation.
Anne will investigate the role that third sector organisations can play in empowering citizens to steer the design and delivery of more personalised public services. This work will focus initially on health and social care services, but then move to consideration of other areas of delivery.
Anne’s new role will be to identify and promote opportunities for the third sector to support the creation of world class public services. She is well placed to support Kevin Brennan and putting the third sector right at the centre of the wider public service reform agenda.
Anne McGuire’s role will be part of an important programme of work for the Government and the third sector. It builds on the Office of the Third Sector’s’ support of the Innovation Exchange and demonstrates the Government’s continuing commitment to harnessing and cultivating the third sector’s contribution to the future of public services.
Accidental exposure to carbon monoxide kills more than 50 people each year in England and Wales. It is a poisonous gas that you can’t see, taste or smell and is released when a carbon-containing fuel – such as gas, oil, coal, coke, petrol or wood – doesn’t burn fully because there is not enough air available. Incorrectly installed, poorly maintained or poorly ventilated room or water heaters, fires or cookers, are the main sources.
Headaches, tiredness, difficulty thinking clearly and feeling sick are common symptoms. Young people’s academic work may deteriorate. If you suffer from these symptoms and think they could be caused by carbon monoxide, turn of all your cooking and room- or water- heating appliances that use fuel other than electricity. Open the windows in the room and other parts of your home to let in fresh air and move outside. See a doctor at once and call a suitably qualified engineer to check all your cooking and room- or water- heating appliances.
Download the ‘Carbon monoxide: Are you at risk?’ leaflet in PDF format from the Department of Health website by following this link:
The Charity Commission News November 2008, chiefly aimed at trustees, is now available. You can view it as a web page, download it in PDF format, or listen to it in MP3 format by following this link: www.charitycommission.gov.uk/tcc/newslist.asp.
Staffordshire County Councils ‘Adult and Family Learning’ unit supports adults and families through lifelong learning. They are holding an event on 18th December 2008 at The Signpost Centre, Auden Way, Highfields ST17 9TX:
PRE-CHRISTMAS STRESS?
For more information, and details of Computer Basics courses, The Gardening Project and other courses available simply download the PDF file by following this link: http://tinyurl.com/6awnx4.
Please take a moment to complete this quick and simple survey from Every Action Counts (EAC).
This survey is a follow up exercise to the national green survey undertaken by 442 voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations in early 2007. EAC hope this will give them a further picture of how the sector is shaping up in addressing its own ‘green’ agendas, as well as evaluating the impact of the EAC ‘Changing the way we work’ publication, produced following the initial survey.
If your organisation completed the first questionnaire please do say so in the relevant section, but don’t worry if you didn’t, or if you haven’t yet seen a copy of the EAC publication. Your response to this questionnaire is still important to EAC and there are details on how to obtain a free copy of the publication at the end of the questionnaire.
All respondents to this survey will be included in a prize draw for a range of fantastic green prizes. All respondents will also be sent the results of the survey.
Deadline for questionnaire completion is Friday 28th November 2008. Prize draw for completed questionnaires will take place on 1st December 2008. Winners will be notified by 2nd December 2008.
Access the survey at www.groundwork-surveys.org.uk/eacgreenquestionnaire.
Please take a look at a short survey (they say 10 minutes to complete) asking about perception and practice of Staffordshire Supporting People, to assist them in their development of future strategy for Supporting People commissioned and provided services in Staffordshire.
If your group provides services under the current Supporting People funding regime, or intends to in the future, here is a chance to influence policy.
Access the survey at: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB228D83USSGA
Virgin Money, the financial services arm of the Virgin Group has launched ‘Virgin Money Giving‘, an independent not-for-profit organisation designed to facilitate widespread UK fundraising and help charities receive more of their charitable donations.
Over £100m was raised through online giving in 2007 and is expected to be even higher in 2008 and beyond because of the many benefits it affords charities, fundraisers and sponsors. Virgin Money Giving will help charities take advantage of the growth in online fundraising by making sure they get more of the money raised.
Unlike established providers in the online giving market who charge a fee on both the donation and Gift Aid, Virgin Money Giving (virginmoneygiving.com) will charge a significantly lower fee on the donation and no charges on Gift Aid. It will be run on a not-for-profit basis and will cover the running costs only, meaning the maximum amount possible reaches the charities themselves.
Sir Richard Branson announced the new venture at a fundraising dinner in London last night. He said: "When we announced the sponsorship of the Virgin London Marathon I said our aim was to help runners smash £¼ billion in five years. Virgin Money Giving is going to be the key engine behind that. It will be run on a not-for-profit basis so millions of pounds currently lost to charities will find their way direct to the good causes rather than profit the shareholders."
Virgin has signed a five-year deal to be the official sponsor of the London Marathon, the biggest fundraising event in the world. Charities who would like more information should go to: virginmoneygiving.com. The site will go live in the Spring of 2009.
Chief executives of small charities are paid 23 per cent more on average than they were last year, according to acevo’s latest salary survey.
As a group, they have seen by far the biggest jump in pay, with the median salary for all charity chiefs rising by just over 8 per cent to nearly £60,000.
But the median salary for female charity chief executives is £11,000 lower than the equivalent for their male counterparts, at £51,000 for women and £62,000 for men. And this gap is widening, as men’s salaries appear to be rising faster than women’s - male CEOs saw their salaries rise an average of 8 per cent over the year; women 5 per cent.
Only women who head up charities with income of £150,000 to £250,000 are paid more than their male counterparts in similar sized organisations.
Women are also less likely than men to hold CEO posts at all, though they are much more common than men in charities with incomes of less than £1m.
And just as worrying, according to acevo chief executive Stephen Bubb, was the finding that less than one in three charities has any ethnic minority representation on their trustee boards.
A ’single front door’ system to make it simpler for charities to apply for funds is among the subjects the Big Lottery Fund will ask about in a major new consultation from next week.
The Big Thinking consultation, which will start on 17 November, will ask organisations around the UK how the BLF should distribute the money it receives until 2015.
Peter Wanless, chief executive of the BLF, said the consultation, which will cost £400,000, would assess how funding could be most efficiently funnelled to those in need and what the fund could provide better than anyone else.
He said the BLF was hoping to make it as easy as possible to apply for funding, partly by scrapping "a programmatic structure that has been overcomplicated for applicants to get their heads around.
"We want to offer a single front door, a single application form and just three different funding streams. We’re conscious that some of our application processes are very paper-heavy, and we want to change that."
Better customer service was also high on his list of priorities, according to Wanless.
He hoped for a "new knowledge and information system that will sit at the heart of everything we do", with simpler electronic systems, especially for repeat users.
He said that he also wanted to know whether the Big Lottery Fund should attempt to find new funding models.
"A lot of people have said to us that we’re in a position to innovate, much more than other people," he said. "But is there a place on this spectrum of innovation and tradition where people most want us to be?"
It was also vital that any good practice the BLF had developed was shared, Wanless said.
"We’ve done a lot of work on how to act as a good funder," he said. "It’s vital that we help others learn from that, rather than having to reinvent the wheel."
The consultation, which will run until the end of February, will be promoted through a number of regional events, a Facebook group and direct approaches to important stakeholders.
A dedicated website, www.big-thinking.org.uk, will feature an online consultation document, content generated by users, postcards, videos of funded projects, a discussion forum and a blog by Wanless.
Wanless has already revealed that, as part of the consultation, the BLF will be asking for views on whether it should start to offer loans to third sector organisations
SDVS now is able to offer a service where we can search a database of thousands of grant givers that is updated daily. By tailoring the search so it delivers optimum results for your organisation’s requirements, we can quickly identify which grant givers are most likely to fund your project. To make an appointment to use this service ring 01785 606670 or use the contact page on our website www.sdvs.org.uk.
Volunteering Advisor
£21,937 - full-time – 37 hours per weekSCIO is a consortium of voluntary & community sector infrastructure organisations, whose members are at the forefront of promoting, developing and supporting voluntary action in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.
As part of its aim to increase access to volunteering, SCIO has developed Volunteering for Health (V4H), an exciting project that was initially launched in south?east Staffordshire. V4H will promote volunteering as a route to better mental and physical health and social inclusion.
Working in partnership with GP practices in Stafford, Cannock Chase and South Staffordshire and based at the Volunteer Centre Stafford, your role will be to widen participation in volunteering amongst those with, or at risk of, poor health/sense of wellbeing.
You will be an effective communicator with an understanding of the needs of individuals, the skills to support and empower volunteers and the ability to build and maintain constructive partnerships.
Closing date for this post: Friday 5th December. Interviews: Monday 15th December.
Please send a large SAE to:
SDVS, 131-141 North Walls, Stafford, ST16 3AD.
Tel: 01785 60 66 70. Email: enquiries@sdvs.org.uk
You can read the latest Headlines from SDVS’s Training Service by following this link: http://tinyurl.com/5fqg9c.
Included in this issue:
Guest Speaker - David Kidney, MP for Stafford
Thursday 20th November at Oddfellows Hall, Stafford
Home-Start Volunteers have been Supporting families in Stafford Borough since 1995.
Please come along and help us say a very big Thank You to our’ hard working volunteers.
Our AGM will give us the opportunity to tell you about the work Home-Start is doing in your local area and to thank our funders and supporters.
Light refreshments will be provided at the beginning of the evening from 7pm and following proceedings.
Please let us know if you are Coming using the reply details available by following this link: http://tinyurl.com/6f9abw.
Home-Start Stafford & District is looking for suitably experienced people to join its Management Committee as Trustees or Advisors. If you wish to nominate someone for the Management Committee, please contact the office for a nomination form by emailing home-start@home-startstafford.fslife.co.uk or telephone 01785 244550.
A new Foundation Degree in Community Regeneration is currently being developed on a partnership model involving universities, colleges, the voluntary and community sector and key employers in the region. The aim is to develop and deliver a Foundation Degree tailored to meet the needs of employers and students in the region where there are significant (and growing) regeneration schemes.
This collaborative project involving Wolverhampton, Keele and Staffordshire Universities will have its first cohort of students starting their studies in September 2009. The LLN is very keen to ensure that students in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent are able to access this new degree.
It is intended that this new qualification will give recognition of the skills, knowledge and practice that exists in this diverse sector and will establish clear progression routes into Higher Education for learners in the voluntary and community sector and in private and statutory employment.
The course content is being developed in collaboration with employers and discussions have begun about the content of the various modules in the programme. For example the following areas might be studied as core or optional modules:
Teaching methods will include lectures, seminars, workshops, reflective practice, action learning and work-based learning. There will be a strong commitment to work-based learning and all students will have an individual mentor.
The assessment strategy will make use of professionally appropriate, useful and interesting tasks and activities that are at the same time academically rigorous and testing. The assessment strategy will provide a wide variety of formats to suit different learning styles and to accommodate the varied work-based situations of participants.
If you would to know more about this exciting development please contact:
Phil Whitehead, Vocational Progression Co-ordinator (SURF Office), Staffordshire University
Tel: 01785 3533905. Mobile: 07900 346623.Email: p.r.whitehead@staffs.ac.uk
You can read the latest news from the Equality and Human Rights Commission by following this link: http://tinyurl.com/57s6v6.
