New research highlights how critical communities are to saving Britain’s high streets. In order to level up town centres across the country, serious support and investment is needed.

The report, from Sheffield Hallam University, commissioned by Power to Change provides recommendations for government.  It takes a strategic look at the role community businesses can play in addressing the challenges of UK high streets. It considers how community businesses can succeed in high streets, what they can contribute, and what support they need to make a long-term difference to restore ‘pride in place’ in struggling town centres.

The research, undertaken in spring 2022, was guided by three questions:

1. How can community businesses succeed in high street contexts?
2. How can community businesses contribute to high street regeneration?
3. What is the strategic potential of support for community businesses in high streets

The report identifies opportunities and challenges for community businesses on high streets, and the forms of support they are likely to need. It outlines three forms of strategic contribution community businesses can make to the broader prosperity of their high streets and communities. And it provides recommendations for government, local authorities, property owners, community businesses, and funding organisations. View here

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is providing an opportunity for the public, the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector and industry stakeholders to have their say on how to shape the direction of the Dormant Assets Scheme in England in the years ahead.

Dormant assets are financial assets, such as bank accounts, that have been untouched for a long period. The Dormant Assets Scheme is led by the financial services industry and backed by the government with the aim of reuniting people with these financial assets. Where this is not possible, the Scheme unlocks this money for social and environmental initiatives across the UK.

Consultation is currently open and will close on Sunday, 9 October 2022.

Consultation document and online survey – https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-the-english-portion-of-dormant-assets-funding

In 2015, People’s Health Trust co-developed the Living Wage Funders scheme to help end low pay in the voluntary and community sector. The first report researching the extent of low pay was published by Living Wage UK in 2017 and was followed by the publication of an ‘action plan’ in 2018.

For report and further information:

https://www.peopleshealthtrust.org.uk/news/stories/low-pay-in-the-third-sector-new-report

The Charity Commission has launched a formal consultation on proposed changes to the Annual Return, designed to ensure the regulator is collecting the right information in the years ahead.

The Annual Return is an online form that all charities with yearly incomes of £10,000 or more must complete within 10 months of the end of their financial reporting period.

The return has not changed significantly since 2018, but after a comprehensive review, the Commission is proposing to update the question set which charities will need to complete from 2023 onwards.

Deadline:  1 September 2022

Find out more here.

Invitation to a webinar: Monday 11 July, 2.30 –3.30

As part of the transformation of mental health services across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, we want to ensure that people are aware of the expanding support that is on offer to those struggling with their mental health through maternity and the first two years of the birth of their child. Our perinatal mental health team need the help of our local voluntary and community sector partners who either have an insight into this area, or work with new mothers and parents, so that together we can make sure people who need our service are aware of it and are accessing the help.

Can you help us, or know someone who would like to come along with their insight? If so, can you reply to– Poonam Beeharry who is setting up the webinar? poonam.beeharry@nhs.net

The purpose of this is to understand the health and wellbeing concerns of people living and/or working in our communities and how best to address these. The findings will help inform local policies and strategies to better support individuals and communities and address inequalities across our city and county.

The consultation will explore your views around: health, wellbeing and social needs and provisions in Leicester/Leicestershire (especially also in view of the COVID-19 pandemic); your experiences; and recommendations for improvements. Therefore, your views are incredibly important and we would like to invite you to participate in this consultation via the following secure and anonymous university weblink. The survey will take around 15 minutes and includes both ‘tick-box’ and written responses. The survey closes on Friday 8th July at 23.59h.

Please follow this link: https://leicester.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/leicestershire-health-wellbeing-priorities-consultation-5

An overview of the main findings will be freely available on the Civic University Partnership website (currently under construction). In the meantime, you can contact Prof Tine Van Bortel for more information: tine.vanbortel@dmu.ac.uk   

Health and well-being are urgent concerns that require collaboration, transparency and communication across all sectors of society. We encourage you to share the survey with as many people as you know, the more we know collectively the better we can plan for our joint futures. 

Leicester City Council Adult Social Care consultation on the draft refresh of the Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland Carers Strategy 2022-2025.

The consultation is intended to find out what people think about the priorities listed in the Strategy which is for people who look after someone in their family, a friend or neighbour who relies on them for support.

We want to hear your views on this strategy.

If you live in Leicester or you look after someone who lives in Leicester, you can find out more here: Draft Joint Carers Strategy 2022-25 consultation – Leicester City Council – Citizen Space

If you live in Leicestershire or you look after someone who lives in Leicestershire, you can find out more here: Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (LLR) draft Joint Carers Strategy 2022 – 2025 | Leicestershire County Council

If you live in Rutland, or you look after someone who lives in Rutland, you can find out more here: Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (LLR) draft Joint Carers Strategy 2022 – 2025 | Future Rutland

The consultation runs until 17th July 2022.

We are also holding a drop in public consultation event at Leicester City Football Club on 13 July 2022 from 1pm-3pm

Please get in touch if you would like to know more about the consultation.

Email ASCConsultations@leicester.gov.uk

Phone 0116 454 2300

It was designed by Disabled people and based on our research where deaf and Disabled people told us that they don’t always record their support needs, and don’t always have their access needs met – Tickboxes and Tokenism? Service User Involvement Report 2022 – Shaping Our Lives

For local VCSOs striving to meet access needs but also struggling with lack of funding and increased demand, the My Involvement Profile could help them to collate access needs in one simple way.

The Profile can also be used by people who want to share their lived experience to help make local and national services better, something many of your members will be actively involved in or campaigning for.

This project is lottery funded and we need to record numbers of people requesting the My Involvement Profile, so we are kindly asking organisations not to disseminate it, but rather to ask people to contact us directly for their free copy and help notes – we can be contacted on hello@shapingourlives.org.uk

We have over two decades of experience working for inclusive involvement – visit our website for many free resources and blogs: Home – Shaping Our Lives

Statisticians for Society aims to connect professional statisticians with third sector organisations that need help collecting, analysing and presenting data.

It is free and open to charities and other third sector organisations with an annual income of less than £1million. You can read case studies of some organisations that have benefitted from the service.

We are hosting an event called ‘How data and evidence brought chamber music to Welsh communities’. The event will be held on Friday 10 June 2022 from 1pm – 2.30pm where you will have the chance to hear about the impact the initiative has had on Ensemble Cymru. This is a fantastic opportunity to find out how the charity worked with a statistician to understand their audience and gained insights into securing new audiences for their performances across Wales.

Book on event here.