As from 6 April 2022  the guidance for the registered office address of a company has been updated in line with Trading Standards recommendations and section 86 of the Companies Act 2006.

If you choose to engage a third party agent to handle your mail, you must ensure that the arrangements provide for all mail to be forwarded to you regardless of its source.

Details of the new requirements can be found in section 1.8 of the companies house incorporation and names guidance which can be accessed here.

The consultation closes on 25 April 2022

Leicestershire Waste Partnership which comprises Leicestershire County Council and the 7 District/Borough Councils is seeking views on the new ‘Resources and Waste Strategy for Leicestershire’ as part of a 12 week public consultation.

The strategy examines what happens to your recycling and waste and how this can help reduce climate change and save raw materials.

The strategy has 11 pledges that sit alongside the government’s proposed national changes to waste collections, in order to meet the 65% national recycling target by 2035.

The draft pledges include supporting and encouraging waste prevention; delivering reuse services; separate food waste collections; reducing waste sent to landfill to less than 5% by 2025.

Leicestershire County Council is seeking to engage and consult with a range of stakeholders in relation to this new strategy.

The draft Strategy, along with an online survey can be accessed here.

To be a proactive and risk led regulator, the Commission needs to be able to segment the charity sector so they can analyse how different charities are affected by risks, tailor their advice and issue targeted messaging.

User testing will take place throughout April 2022 to ensure the codes are fit for purpose and charities are able to classify themselves.

They welcome all charities interested in user testing to contact them at UserResearchTeam@charitycommission.gov.uk

The codes will be reviewed as needed based on the feedback from this testing.

The policy paper around these proposed changes can be found here.

26 April 12noon to 1pm

The three-year initiative, completed during 2019-2022, aimed to measure the effectiveness of a community-based approach to raising awareness in South Asian Communities living in Leicester, about the trauma of childhood sexual abuse and the value of counselling.

During the event Quetzal will share their next steps in relation to the project and present their latest short-movie production.

You can sign up to attend this free event here.

Awarding body: Leicester City Council
START Date: 28/03/2022
END Date: 14/04/2022 – 2pm

Leicester City Council and Leicestershire County Council (the commissioning partners) will be jointly commissioning the Healthwatch Leicester & Leicestershire (HWL&L) service.

It is anticipated that tenders for the service would be sought in the summer of 2022 to enable a new contract to begin from 1st April 2023. The contract will be for five years and approximately £1.5 million with no inflationary increase. The tender will be subject to Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment (TUPE) considerations.

This Soft Market Testing process gives potential providers (and other stakeholders) the opportunity to express their interest and feed in their views about the potential service model and specification principles. The information gathered will inform the commissioning process.
This process does not constitute a formal tender or other competitive bidding process and will not result in the letting of a Contract. The commissioning partners are using this process solely to test the market to gather information to ascertain the level of interest in this particular service and to appraise options and further develop the specification. Therefore, there are no formal criteria which we will use to judge your responses, and it is not our intention to provide any feedback.

We would encourage you to respond if you feel this is something your organisation may have an interest in.

If you would like to participate in this Soft Market Testing, then please download and complete the Soft Market Testing questionnaire located on this portal and then email your completed questionnaire to the email address procurement-asc@leicester.gov.uk with the subject heading: ‘Completed SMT Q – HW’ before or by no later than 14:00 hours 14th APRIL 2022

The Council welcomes the opportunity to engage with and appreciate your assistance in providing us with your views. However, you should note that in any subsequent procurement exercise the Council will have to comply with our legal obligations and that neither the intention nor the purpose of this soft market testing exercise is to confer any advantage upon its participation in any future procurement process.

http://www.sourceleicestershire.co.uk/contracts/show/id/20093

The Macular Society is the UK’s leading charity determined to beat the fear and isolation of macular disease with world-class research, and the best advice and support. Our support groups provide information, support and friendships to those living with macular disease and their family and friends. They rely on amazing volunteers who give a few hours each month to help support the group. It is thanks to them that we are able to reach people in the area and provide them with life changing support.

The Leicester support group, supporting people from the city and county, is looking for friendly and reliable volunteers to form a small team to ensure the smooth running of the group. You don’t need to have a macular condition nor sight loss; empathy and an understanding of its impact will help you provide the best support.
Tasks shared by volunteers may include:

• Meet and greet – welcoming members and guests, sharing information, wrapping things up at the end.
• Group programme – organising guest speakers and suggesting social activities.
• Keeping in touch with group members.
• Maintaining a list of members and sharing updates with head office.
• Collecting meeting subs.
• Organising and/or serving tea and coffee.

We value our volunteers and we provide all the training and support you need to be confident and successful in your role. We will reimburse reasonable out of pocket expenses.

For more information and an informal chat, please contact Paul Holden, Regional Manager, on 07769 494 087 or email paul.holden@macularsociety.org

The Commission on Social Investment was an independent group set up by Lord Victor Adebowale CBE to investigate the current state of the social investment market and how the market could better enable the growth of social enterprises.

The Commission’s final report has called for “comprehensive structural reform” to the social investment market. You can access the report here.
It concludes that “the needs of social enterprises have been deprioritised over the past decade” and that “social investment cannot work – and has no purpose – without social enterprise.”

Recommendations include:

• An additional £100m investment in Access – The Foundation for Social Investment, to ensure the ongoing provision of blended finance to social enterprises.
• A new “Flexible Capital Taskforce” to work with charitable foundations to boost their investment in social enterprises and unlock £380m of new capital by 2030.
• A new £50m “Black-led” social investment fund to tackle the current inequality of social investment in Black-led social enterprises

If you would like to find out if social investment would be relevant for your charity or social enterprise, please get in touch with VAL’s helpline.

Last year a new flexible working group, was launched by membership bodies NCVO and ACEVO with support from Starfish Search, an executive search firm to look at the issue of flexible working in the charity sector

The report – ‘Time to Flex’ – is based on research and interviews carried by the working group

The report recommends that VCSE organisations consider six ways forward.

1. Backed by ACEVO and NCVO, the voluntary sector to champion a default position of ‘yes to flex’ – where employers proactively consider how flexibility is possible in the job design for all roles, for everyone.
2. Flexibility to be advertised for all roles – so employers openly lead the conversation about how flexibility can work, and the focus isn’t on the candidate to request it.
3. Organisations and individuals to openly share their stories of how flexibility is working – so that best practice, learning and inspiration are easily available in the sector, confidence is built, and stigma is reduced.
4. Organisations to embrace a position of trust – where individuals are more empowered to manage their time based on outcomes and impact, rather than when and where they work.
5. Organisations to have the courage to experiment, make mistakes, adjust, learn and improve, and be honest about what is and isn’t working while keeping a focus on individual needs.
6. Flexibility to become a central pillar of equity, diversity and inclusion, and wellbeing strategies.

The report publication can be accessed here.

Plunkett Foundation is a national charity that supports rural communities across the UK to tackle the issues they face through community business.

Community businesses are enterprises that are owned and run democratically by members of the community, on behalf of the community. From shops and pubs to farms and woodlands and everything in between.

The foundation have produced a free business appraisal tool. All you need to do is answer a series of questions about your business. Once the questionnaire is complete you’ll receive a report with recommendations, an action plan, and the resources to help you make improvements.

The tool can be accessed here.

More local VAL is delivering a virtual introduction to business planning course in April. You can find out more and book here.