VONEF AGM -
Tuesday 3rd November 2009 at 6pm in the
VONEF Training Room, Volunteer House.
all members are cordially invited.
Petition
to stop police charging community events
Under recent guidance from the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO)
local police forces have been charging community arts and music events
for the cost of policing.
Any community event with a stage / entertainment license , a few stalls and stewards is at risk from the police charging for their services. These events are often run by volunteers on shoestring budgets and cannot afford the charges. A number of events are under threat of closing / not happening in future years.
Community events promote community cohesion, encourage community engagement and are generally a force for good in society, these are all key national indicators for the department of culture media and sport (DCMS).
We urge the government / home office to stop the police charging these events for policing costs.
Please sign the petition online at the link below.
Website: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/communityevents/
Energy Assistance Package - What is the Energy Assistance Package?
The Energy Assistance Package provides advice and support to help people maximise their income, cut fuel bills and make their homes warmer and more comfortable. It offers an integrated and flexible approach to helping the fuel poor.
The new scheme is funded by the Scottish Government and is being delivered by the Energy Saving Scotland advice network and partner organisations.
To access all parts of the Energy Assistance Package, call the Energy Saving Scotland advice centre free of charge on 0800 512 012. A call back service is available by texting ‘warm’ to 81025.
A trained advisor will take enquirers through a series of questions about their home, including their current heating system. The questions will help advisors give the best energy advice possible and may lead to other forms of support including:
Income maximisation through tax credit/benefit checks
Signposting to energy providers for social tariffs if eligible
Loft and cavity wall insulation for those eligible
Other measures to improve the energy efficiency of homes such as a new
central heating system if eligible.
If your client group is particularly vulnerable then the Energy Saving Scotland advice centre can establish a referral process that will fully support applications to the Energy Assistance Package.
If you would like to arrange a presentation about the package for your organisation or simply require more information, please contact Sarah Bromley Community Liaison Officer on 0131 468 8682 or email sarah.bromley@se.energysavingscotland.org.uk. Alternatively visit www.energyassistancepackage.org.uk for further information.
Free seminar:
“Demystifying Risk Assessment - in Scotland’s Voluntary Sector”
Venue: Rothes Halls, Glenrothes
Date: 6th November
Time: 10:00am – 1:00pm
The European Agency for Safety and Heath at Work is now in the second year of a campaign to promote the benefits of completing and implementing effective risk assessments.
You are invited a free seminar to assist in identifying and resolving issues in risk assessment for voluntary sector organisations.
This event is targeted at decision makers in voluntary sector organisations, trade union health and safety representatives and other individuals who are capable of influencing change and cascading the message on how to demystify the risk assessment process.
This event will examine existing health and safety structures in voluntary sector organisations, problems encountered addressing and improving health and safety and how involving workers in health and safety decision making can provide wider benefits for the organisation. There will be an emphasis on the role of dynamic risk assessment in the process and workshops focusing on wellbeing and mental health, violence and aggression and manual handling in home care settings.
The seminar has been organised in partnership with HSE, STUC and Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives with support from the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. A buffet lunch will be provided.
If you would like to attend any of these events please RSVP to Alison.newman@health.scot.nhs.uk.
ARE YOU GAME FOR AN OVERNIGHT GHOST HUNT AT HMS UNICORN?
Sense Scotland are looking for people from our area to take part in
a Ghost Hunt. Could you spend the night in a haunted location for Sense
Scotland? If so, we're asking brave (and not so brave) locals, to sign
up to our Halloween Ghost Hunt at HMS Frigate Unicorn, Dundee, on Saturday
31 October, and help raise vital funds for deafblind and disabled children
and adults across Scotland.
For more information contact Andy at Sense Scotland on 0141 429 0294.
FULL CONTACT DETAILS
Andy Hughes
0141 429 0294 / ahughes@sensescotland.org.uk
Sense Scotland
TouchBase
43 Middlesex Street
Kinning Park
Glasgow
G41 1EE
Small Grants Scheme for Physical Activity Projects;
A time-limited small grants scheme is now available to voluntary organisations to support the promotion, development and delivery of physical activity opportunities. . This initiative aims to assist Fife’s Multi-agency Physical Activity Strategy Group deliver its responsibilities detailed in Fife’s Joint Health Improvement Plan 2007-10
Physical activity is a broad term covering active living, recreational activity, sport, exercise, play and dance. Grants can be made for any project which will increase capacity to engage in physical activity and help meet national recommendations which suggest that adults should engage in at least 30 minutes physical activity of moderate intensity on most (i.e. 5) days of the week. It is recommended that children and young people participate in at least 60 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity on most days of the week, preferably daily.
Applications for sums up to £1,000 will be considered from constituted voluntary organisations in Fife for whom a small amount of money can make a big difference to their ability to support engagement of individuals or groups in physical activity. Further details including details of priority areas and groups are included in the application pack.
Applications are now invited and can be submitted up until Friday 27th November 2009. Applications submitted before 30th October 2009 will be assessed in early November. Applications submitted by 27th November will be assessed in early December. All applicants will be contacted soon after assessment with regard to the outcome of their applications. Successful applicants will be expected to evaluate the difference the grant has made to their organisation. All projects and project evaluations must be completed by 30th June 2010.
For an application pack, please contact:
Emma Broadhurst/Sue Whisler
Physical Activity Co-ordinators,
Haig House, Cameron Hospital, Windygates, Fife, KY8 5RR
E-mail: Emma.Broadhurst@fife.gov.uk sue.whisler@fife.gov.uk
Tel: 01592 226490 or contact via Barbara Ramsay 01592 226486
Training Programme - The following autumn training program is now being put together. The first being Making Successful Funding Applications which will be held on Wednesday 28th October from 10am to 1pm at the VONEF Training Room, Volunteer House. For further information contact Sue. The program is run according to demand, so if you are interested in any of the other courses, please contact Sue and we will put together a program that suits you.
Charity Law – What you need to know and do
Outlining the legal framework that charities now have to work within, this course will cover the annual reporting to the charity regulator - OSCR and the minimum requirements to ensure compliance with the law.
Being a Charity Trustee – what you need to know and do
Aimed at committee members, trustees and directors of charities this course will cover the roles, responsibilities and duties of charity trustees, and provide suggestions for good practice that can ensure these duties are being fulfilled. While aimed at charity trustees this course will also be of interest to committee members of non charities.
Preparing Accounts that Comply with Charity Law
This course will give participants an understanding of the format, content and external scrutiny requirements for charity accounts to comply with the Charities Accounts Regulations 2006. Participants will be encouraged to bring along a copy of their own organisations accounts and use the session as a “clinic” to assess their compliance with the Regulations.
Managing Money in a small charity
Aimed at all committee members as well as treasurers, this course will provide an introduction to the financial records that should be kept and the procedures and controls that are essential good practice. It will also provide an introduction to budgeting and monitoring an organisations financial performance.
Measuring Success
How do organisations know they are achieving what they set out to achieve? This course will introduce a simple 5 step process for monitoring and evaluating the achievement of aims and objectives, which can be tailored to organisations of any size, even the smallest. During the course participants will develop a process tailored to their own organisation or group.
Employing Staff – What you need
to know and do
This course will provide an overview of the key considerations and issues that need to be addressed when employing staff. Covering recruiting and managing staff and the policies and procedures that need to be in place to keep you on the right side of employment law, the course will be suitable for organisations that have, or are about to recruit staff for the first time, or for organisations that want to check that their current employment practices comply with the law.
Making Successful Funding Applications
- Wednesday 28/10/09
Want to make sure your applications for funding are as strong as possible? This is the course for your organisation. The course will explain the jargon used by funders and go over what funders want to see in the applications they are likely to fund.
Health
Making national health policy applicable at local level
Over the next year Voluntary Health Scotland will contribute a series of articles to support the CVS network in providing information to local organisations with regard to national policy in health.
The articles will introduce themes and direction in health service policy, rather than in depth analysis and will start with Shifting the Balance of Care (SBC) which is a strategic objective for the Scottish Government, NHS Scotland and Local Authorities.
SBC aims to bring changes at different levels across health and social
care which will reduce inequalities; promote independence and provide
services which are more personal and closer to home.
It will achieve these changes through shifting the focus of care onto
prevention, shifting who delivers the care by moving towards extended
primary and community care teams and shifting the location the care is
given in to improve access through changes in the location of services.
Driving the agenda is a national partnership group, the Shifting the
Balance of Care Delivery Group, with a key role in promoting knowledge
transfer in relation to SBC and ensuring that all relevant policies and
strategies are aligned effectively. This high level group includes representation
from Voluntary Health Scotland.
Eight SBC improvement areas have been identified as key to the delivery
of national and local outcomes and targets and therefore most likely
to make the biggest improvements in health and wellbeing. These will
provide the basis for the framework on which Health Boards, CHPs, Local
Authorities, the third sector and other care giving bodies will focus,
while enabling partners to agree local priorities for SBC.
In the next article we will introduce the eight improvement areas, the SBC Improvement Framework and discuss the potential role for the third sector.
Shifting the Balance of Care
In our last article we introduced Shifting the Balance of Care (SBC), the strategic direction agreed by the Scottish Government, NHS Scotland and Local Authorities for the future of health and social care in Scotland.
The SBC Improvement Framework brings together key policy strands and collaborative processes into an overarching framework that will help Health Boards and their local authority partners to deliver on agreed SBC priorities.
The Improvement Framework is based around eight improvement areas which themselves are seen as critical to working with stakeholders within acute, primary and social care.
The SBC Improvement Areas are:
1. maximise flexible & responsive
care at home with support for carers
2. integrate health & social care and support for people in need and
at risk
3. reduce avoidable unscheduled attendance and admission to acute hospitals
4. improve capacity and flow for scheduled care
5. extend the scope of services provided by non-medical practitioners outside
acute hospital
6. improve access to care for remote and rural populations
7. improve palliative and end of life care
8. improve the joint use of resources
Within each improvement area a number of specific, evidence based high impact changes have been identified. These were assessed to identify those which could make a different to the greatest amount of people, have the potential to be implemented the quickest and which would have multiple impacts across the eight improvement areas.
One of these is simply called third sector organisation contributions
It is recognised that the third sector contributes mainly to six of the eight outcome areas and these have been highlighted in the list above.
In our next article we will discuss how the third sector will contribute to Shifting the Balance of Care.
For more information on anything within the article please contact Bill Weir from VHS at bill.weir@vhscotland.org.uk or on 0131 220 9942.
The SBC website can be found at www.shiftingthebalance.scot.nhs.uk
Patient's Rights -Scottish Government response to the report on a Public Consultation on a Patients’ Rights Bill for users of the NHS in Scotland. A copy of this can be seen on our website.. Should you require a hard copy please contact Sue