It has been developed in partnership with Green Living Leicestershire and aligns to the Leicestershire Climate and Nature Pact.

We anticipate the toolkit helping to:

• Support you in starting or furthering your net zero activities
• Give practical tips and advice to encourage and support local residents and businesses to adopt lower carbon practices
• Share examples of good practice within Leicestershire

Further information:  https://www.leicestershirecommunities.org.uk/parish-councils/net-zero-toolkit

The refreshed guidance follows a Commission ‘call for information’ and consultation on financial investment and reflects a significant High Court judgment on charity trustees’ investment duties (the ‘Butler-Sloss’ case). Trustees can have confidence in the decisions they make when following the guidance, knowing it is up to date and properly reflects the relevant law.

The guidance:

• Includes examples of various issues which may be relevant for trustees to consider when making investment decisions, such as the potential for an investment to conflict with the purposes of the charity, or the reputational impact of an investment decision.
• Lists steps trustees ‘must’ take to be compliant with the law and those trustees ‘should’ do which are strongly recommended as best practice but not legally required.
  explains that acting in the best interests of a charity is about ensuring that above all else any decision furthers its purposes. It also warns trustees to not allow personal motives, opinions, or interests to affect the decisions they make.
• Incorporates previously separate guidance on social investment and no longer uses terminology that could get in the way of trustees’ understanding, such as ‘ethical investment’, ‘mixed motive investment’ and ‘programme related investment’.

Further information: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/charities-and-investment-matters-a-guide-for-trustees-cc14

Here is our quick summary, the flyers below give more details of content, dates, venue and details of applying:

• Half-day trustee training, Starting 3rd October 2023
• Trustees Network, Next session 13th September 2023
• Mentoring & Coaching Training, Starting 27th September 2023
• Aspiring Leaders Starting, 28th September 2023
• Asset-Based Community Development Taster Day-  24th October 2023
• New To our Sector, Next session is 13th September 2023

We will also be running a managing your own and other peoples well-being course, as well as a specific course targeted at leadership training for those running Community interest Companies.

We hope that there is a course or workshop here for you or any of the staff you manage or trustees or volunteers involved in your organisation. If you know of anyone you think might be interested in these courses or workshops please pass the link on.

Shaping Our Lives are a non-profit, user-led organisation working for the inclusive involvement of Disabled people and people from other seldom heard groups.

They have a free downloadable tool that can help VCSE organisations ensure that their services are inclusive and accessible, and look to involve people with lived experience in shaping their service design and delivery

The My Involvement Profile 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 requirements, and don’t always have their access requirements met.

The Profile is a simple, free template form, which comes in a variety of formats including Easy Read, which participants can use to record access and support requirements, and their involvement experiences and interests.

For further information and to download tool click here: My Involvement Profile – Shaping Our Lives

These events are for organisations looking to learn the tools they need to submit successful innovative bids to the Commissioner’s Safety Fund and other grant funding opportunities. Whilst this is run by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, the skills you will develop as a result of this workshop, can be applied to any future bidding process. The event will run through the application form for the Commissioner’s Safety Fund, step by step, with a variety of workshop activities to ensure you get the best out of this event.

• Introduction to the Commissioner’s Safety Fund​
• General tips and common mistakes ​
• Pre – submission process ​
• Review of Application Questions and Scoring Criteria ​
• Police and Crime Plan Priorities ​
• Outputs and Outcomes ​
• Post submission Process ​
• Questions

Oadby and Wigston: Monday 21st August 2023
Oadby and Wigston Bid Writing Workshop Tickets, Mon 21 Aug 2023 at 17:30 | Eventbrite.

Loughborough: Tuesday 29th August 2023
Charnwood Bid Writing Workshop Tickets, Tue 29 Aug 2023 at 17:30 | Eventbrite

Rutland: Thursday 7 September 2023
Rutland Bid Writing Workshop Tickets, Thu 7 Sep 2023 at 17:30 | Eventbrite.

North West Leicestershire – Monday 11 September 2023
North West Leicestershire Bid Writing Workshop Tickets, Mon 11 Sep 2023 at 17:30 | Eventbrite.

Events will start promptly at 5:30pm and end around 7:30pm.

Heritage Trust Network is a UK-wide membership body for organisations rescuing and restoring historic buildings. We are currently looking for organisations based across the East and Midlands to join an exciting new outreach project.

The project will support community groups who are working from historic buildings for non-heritage reasons to ensure the ongoing maintenance of these sites and the success of the organisations who operate from them.

As part of this programme, we will be consulting with these groups to create a series of learning and networking events that provide meaningful advice from professionals working in the sector. Groups will be offered tailored support alongside this to advise on their specific needs.

To join the project or find out more information, contact Leona, Outreach Project Officer, at leona.wilson@heritagetrustnetwork.org.uk or on 07305 318601.
https://www.heritagetrustnetwork.org.uk  

Like councils across the country, we are facing growing financial pressure alongside increasing demand, so we need to look at providing services in a different way.

The current contract for homeless support services ends in March 2024. We are using this as an opportunity to review the existing support service to make sure it continues to meet the needs of those who need help.

We are proposing to change the way support is provided to individuals who are facing homelessness or who are homeless.  We are asking you to let us know your views by responding to the consultation which is now live and will run until midnight on 3 September. 

The consultation is open to everyone in Leicestershire. We are particularly keen to hear from:

• people facing homelessness;
• people who have or are currently using the service;
• friends, relatives, and carers of people facing or experiencing homelessness;
• professionals who support people facing or experiencing homelessness.

Complete the questionnaire at www.leicestershire.gov.uk/homeless-consultation.

A paper copy of the questionnaire is available on request by calling 0116 305 0705 or emailing phconsultations@leics.gov.uk

An easy read version of the consultation information is available at www.leicestershire.gov.uk/homeless-consultation

Information sessions have been arranged where staff from Leicestershire County Council will be available to present the proposal and answer any queries.  Information and details on how to register for a session can be found at www.leicestershire.gov.uk/homeless-consultation.

As well as helping to secure new contracts at the lowest possible cost, Utility Aid can also help with supplier problems, inaccurate bills, advising on renewable energy options and the journey to ‘Net Zero’.

As part of the offer, Utility Aid will carry out a desktop audit to identify any discrepancies on invoices, including:

• Consumption fluctuations
• Inaccurate billing
• Incorrect VAT
• Incorrect tariff
• General anomalies

Please contact the VAL Helpline if you would be interested in attending a webinar with Utility Aid to find out more – email Helpline@valonline.org.uk or call 0116 257 5050.

The event was an opportunity to speak in person to funders about ideas that you have for future projects, learn about current funding programmes and also speak to VAL staff about how we can help you to identify funding and structure applications or any other support your organisation might need.

83 representatives from 62 various local voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations attended the event that was held over a four and a half hour session. Attendees had the chance to meet with VAL staff to discuss their pitch and speak with the relevant funders that they wished to discuss their projects with.

A total of 7 funders were present: BBC Children in Need, Lloyds Bank Foundation, National Lottery Heritage Fund, The National Lottery Community Fund: Reaching Communities, Severn Trent Community Fund, Sport England and The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner.

We also had three stallholders present: Ethical Property Foundation, easyfundraising and Oadby & Wigston District Council.

Voluntary Action LeicesterShire staff were also available to discuss anything related to training, group development and volunteer recruitment.

The event went really well, overall organisations were grateful to have the opportunity to have funders listen to their ideas, gain tips and network. We noticed that some of the larger funding pots were more popular with longer queues, VAL staff took the time to re-route organisations to different funds and talk through their grant in more detail while they waited.

Some feedback from attendees:

“I want to say a big thank you for the event yesterday. I thought everyone from VAL who was there did a really good job directing us and also keeping track of who was in each queue. The direction was really needed and well delivered, so thank you!  I had some really good conversations with funders and it was very useful”

“Thank you for hosting yesterday’s event. The advice you gave over the phone beforehand was really useful, enabling us to target the most appropriate funder first.  As with any event of this kind, there is no telling how long you will have to wait to see someone, that’s just how it is.  It was a good job The Lottery had two people on, but even then there was a bit of a wait.  The venue was lovely and parking was easy.  We’ll definitely keep in touch regarding future funding opportunities”

“Thank you for putting on such events to help folk. Knowing where to go for funds can be a daunting task to take on. And some contacts you would never thing of going to. For future organisational points we did find the noise level difficult so perhaps more room between tables and a better queuing system might help”

What is the research about?

The aim of this project is to examine how and in what ways social entrepreneurs are affected/surviving the UK cost-of-living crisis. We want to know 1) the response strategy to the cost-of-living crisis 2) the resources used to respond and 3) the impact/implications of the response strategy on the organisation.

What does the study / participation involve?

Participating in this study means you will engage in an individual interview via Microsoft Teams. The interview should last no more than 40 minutes and it will be video and audio recorded for our analysis only.

If you are interested in taking part contact the project lead, Dr Sally Kah, Senior Lecturer in Business Management at sally.kah@dmu.ac.uk