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.

Rebuilding Heritage has been coordinated by the Heritage Alliance and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

It was designed to support the heritage sector, in its broadest sense, in its response to the Covid-19 crisis by helping organisations and businesses address their immediate challenges and transition to recovery.

Their Crisis Communication toolkit and information webpage explains that social media is a common starting point for anyone dissatisfied with your organisation for any reason to go viral about their concerns.

It talks through the three stages of managing an evolving situation on social media. These being : Monitor, Triage, Respond & Recalibrate.

You can find out more here.
The toolkit can be accessed here.

If your VCSE organisation would like help with writing or reviewing your organisational social media policy, please get in touch via VAL’s helpline
https://valonline.org.uk/contact/

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.

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is available for Leicestershire based VCSE sector organisations to order from Leicestershire County Council (LCC)

The order form can be accessed here:https://leicestershirecc-self.achieveservice.com/AchieveForms/?

If you have any queries regarding an order  you can contact LCC’s representative at: LRF.PPESupport@leics.gov.uk

Employers responsibilities to workers on providing PPE are changing from 6 April 2022.

The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 2022 amend the 1992 Regulations to extend employers’ and employees’ duties in respect of PPE to a wider group of workers.

The health and safety executive has produced some interim guidance explaining the changes, which you can access here.

General advice by the executive about PPE can be accessed here.

We recommend that trustees review their organisation’s health and safety policy in light of this changes.

If your organisation would like any supporting in reviewing or writing new policies, contact VAL’s helpline for your request.

In 2016 the Charity Commission opened a compliance case into the charity following receipt of an anonymous complaint which made allegations that a trustee was receiving personal benefit from the charity in the form of family holidays and designer handbags.

The charity inquiry found a number of issues, including the trustees expending funds renovating part of the school site to create a residential facility for respite care. This represented a breach of trust as this activity was not in furtherance of the charity’s objects at that time. The inquiry used its powers to appoint an interim manager and those action contributed to the improvement of the charity’s overall financial position. Putting the charity back on track ensuring that a school providing much needed education for children with special needs can now continue on a secure footing.

The wider learning for the sector identified through this charity inquiry, highlighted that :

• Trustees must use their charity’s funds and assets in furtherance of the charity’s purposes. This means ensuring the charity funds are used in accordance with the terms of the charity’s governing document and in accordance with the requirements of any contractual obligations.
• Trustees must ensure that their charity has adequate financial and administrative controls in place, and that the funds of their charity are applied for the benefit of the public for which it has been set up. This includes reporting sufficient information at trustee meetings to satisfy them that the controls are being properly implemented.
• Trustees have a legal duty to act in their charity’s best interests when making decisions as a trustee. Including making sure where a trustee has a personal or other interest, that a conflict of interest is managed appropriately. For example states that trustees cannot receive any benefit from their charity including in return for any service they provide to it, unless they have legal authority to do so.
• Charity trustees are responsible for the beneficiaries of the charity and must ensure that there are policies, processes and procedures in place to adequately ensure the safety, welfare and well-being of those beneficiaries. Charity trustees should take steps to regularly review, and if necessary, update any policies, processes and procedures.

Further details regarding the inquiry can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/charity-inquiry-hope-house-school-limited/charity-inquiry-hope-house-school-limited

If your charity would like any help with reviewing the wider learning in context to your charity’s circumstances, please get in touch via VAL’s helpline
https://valonline.org.uk/contact/