Developed by Embark CSR, the inaugural Leicester Giving Day is an integral part of the Leicester Business Festival. The programme is sponsored by the University of Leicester and AKN Build Ltd and is supported by Cross Productions, Leicester City Council, Voluntary Action Leicestershire and Cymer Marketing.

There are three parts to Leicester Giving Day:

1.    Leicester Giving Day

2.    Community Impact Fund

3.    Leicester Social Responsibility Awards

Leicester Giving Day takes place on Friday 18th November, and aims to encourage companies to support local charities and community groups. There will also be four community hubs running in the city with activities and showcase events taking place.  In the evening there will be a Giving Day Gala, at which the winners of the Community Impact Programme and the Leicester Social Responsibility Awards will be announced.

The Community Impact Programme invites voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations to propose project ideas that will be of benefit to their local community and their service users. Four winners will be supported to secure up to a maximum of £25,000 per annum to bring their ideas to fruition.

The Leicester Giving Day Social Responsibility Awards have been introduced as a means to highlight good practice and outstanding achievement in the field of social responsibility, with a focus on positive partnerships between the business and voluntary sectors.

To learn more about Leicester Giving Day and information about how to get involved, please visit www.leicestergiving.uk

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You can also learn more across our social platforms:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/leicester-giving-day/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Leicestergivingday

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LeicsGivingDay

Or for further information, please email info@embarkcsr.co.uk

Voluntary and charity hub, Voluntary Action LeicesterShire organised the glittering awards at Mercure Grand Hotel.

The headline sponsor for the event was Morningside Pharmaceuticals. The awards ceremony took place on the 16th of September, celebrating the inspiring individuals and organisations of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. It was for those that have gone and beyond in their support of others during and since the pandemic.

The public was invited to nominate their ‘real-life heroes’ earlier in the year. Hundreds of nominations were submitted for the people and organisations at the sharp end of community service and care in our county.

The sell-out event attracted over 220 guests and took place on 16 September. The awards were made possible by the generous support of local businesses. Sponsors included Morningside Pharmaceuticals alongside BHIB, Hastings Direct, East Midlands Chamber of Commerce, Mortgage Advice Bureau, Everything Global, Paragon Sales Solutions and Fraser Urquhart Media. Money raised allowed the event to run without charge to finalists and their guests.

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The winners of the VAL Awards 2022 were as follows:

• • City Charity of the Year: Sponsored by Gigabit Networks – Eyres Monsell Club for Young People

• • County Charity of the Year: Sponsored by Hastings Direct – Hope Against Cancer

• • Rutland Charity of the Year: Sponsored by Fraser Urguhart Media – Rutland Clothing Bank

• • Social Enterprise of the Year: Sponsored by Everything Branded – Action Trust – Action Homeless

• • Volunteer-Led Organisation of the Year: Sponsored by BHIB Insurance Brokers – We Care UK

• • Trustee of the Year: Sponsored by Paragon Sales Solutions – Ian Knight (Menphys)

• • Volunteer of the Year: Sponsored by Johnson Astills Solicitors – Praful Thakrar (Shreeji Dham Haveli)

• • Inspiring Leader of the Year: Sponsored by Mortgage Advice Bureau – Dr Iris Lightfoote (The Race Equality Centre)

• • Lifetime Achievement Award: Sponsored by Voluntary Action LeicesterShire – JOINT WINNER Kathryn Burgess (CALS Community Advice and Law Service) and Priya Thamotheram (Highfield Centre)

• • Charity of the Year: Sponsored by Morningside Pharmaceuticals – Eyres Monsell Club for Young People
    Information on the VAL Awards 2023 will be revealed in due course.

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Image: Overall Charity of the Year Winners, 2019: Woodhouse & Woodhouse Eaves Good Neighbourhood Scheme

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The 2022 VAL Awards – whose headline sponsor is Morningside Pharmaceuticals – are a chance for the public to celebrate the amazing people, groups and organisations that make up the voluntary and charity sector in Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland – and help shine a spotlight on their amazing and inspiring contributions, especially over the pandemic.

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Finalists for each category are as follows:

City Charity of the Year:

• Eyres Monsell Club for Young People
• Together Against Cancer
• After18

County Charity of the Year:

• Hope Against Cancer
• Charnwood 20:20 (TwentyTwenty)
• Melton and District Money Advice Centre

Rutland Charity of the Year:

• Rutland Clothing Bank
• SSAFA – the Armed Forces Charity
• Emmaus Leicestershire & Rutland

Social Enterprise of the Year

• Access Rating
• Leicester Mammas CIC
• Action Trust – Action Homeless

Volunteer-Led Organisation of the Year

• Koi Sports
• We Care UK
• The Zoomers

Trustee of the Year

• Ian Pritchard – Leicester Animal Aid
• Usha Mehta – Jain Samaj Europe
• Denis Kenyon – Hallaton Church Restoration Trust
• Ian Knight – Menphys
• Jean Voller – VISTA

Volunteer of the Year

• Michael Condon – Headway Leicester
• Praful Thakrar – Shreeji Dham Haveli
• Sam Killip – Enrych
• Raj Gill-Harrison – Carers Health & Wellbeing Forum
• Jill Magee – Leics & Rutland Youth Sailing Association

Inspiring Leader of the Year

• Moneer Noori & Narges Farahi – Bright Path Futures
• Rev Alison Adams – Diocese of Leicester
• Yasin El-Ashrafi – HQ Recording
• Dr Iris Lightfoote – The Race Equality Centre

Kevin Allen-Khimani, Executive Manager – Public Sector Contracts and Projects at VAL, commented:

“It was fantastic to see the calibre and number of nominations for the 2022 VAL Awards. The past two years has seen unprecedented pressure and stresses on our charity and voluntary sector here in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, so it will be wonderful to come together again and celebrate their achievements and hard work.

“The only problem we can foresee is that the Judges are going to have a really tough job deciding on the winners in each category!”

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The ticketed event is planned for September 16th will take place in the Grand Hall at Leicester’s The Mercure Grand Hotel.

The awards are made possible by the generous support of local businesses which include headline sponsor, Morningside Pharmaceuticals, alongside BHIB, Hastings Direct, East Midlands Chamber of Commerce, Mortgage Advice Bureau, Everything Global, Paragon Sales Solutions and Fraser Urquhart Media. Monies raised allow the event to run without charge to nominees.

 

Issues for the wider sector:

Every charity needs an effective trustee body which has control over the administration of the charity and acts as a whole, especially because all trustees are equal in responsibility. 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.

Charities are accountable to their donors, beneficiaries and the public and it is therefore important that the financial activities of charities are properly recorded, and their financial governance is transparent.

Conflicts of interest are more likely when there are only a small number of trustees on the board, when trustees are closely related, or when the charity has dealings with organisations in which the trustees have interests. It is vital that trustees avoid becoming involved in situations in which their personal interests may be seen to conflict with their duties as trustees. The trustees should put in place policies and procedures to identify and manage such conflict.

Trustees are required to keep accounting records for their charity. Every charity’s accounting records must be sufficient to show and explain its transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy its financial position. Therefore, in order to show that they are complying with their legal duties, trustees must keep records and an adequate audit trail to show that the charity’s money has been properly spent on furthering the charity’s purposes for the benefit of the public.

Trustees of charities with an income of over £25,000 are under a legal duty as charity trustees to submit annual returns, annual reports and accounting documents to the commission as the regulator of charities. Even if the charity’s annual income is not greater than £25,000 trustees are under a legal duty to prepare annual accounts and reports and should be able to provide these on request. All charities with an income over £10,000 must submit an annual return. Failure to submit accounts and accompanying documents to the commission is a criminal offence. The commission also regards it as mismanagement and misconduct in the administration of the charity.

Read more here

This country’s health and care system belongs to us all, and it must serve us all. However, sadly, 51% of the population faces obstacles when it comes to getting the care they need.

Although women in the UK on average live longer than men, women spend a significantly greater proportion of their lives in ill health and disability when compared with men. Not enough focus is placed on women-specific issues like miscarriage or menopause, and women are under-represented when it comes to important clinical trials.

This has meant that not enough is known about conditions that only affect women, or about how conditions that affect both men and women impact them in different ways.  We also know that there are disparities in women’s health across the country. Smoking in pregnancy is one example of this.

While progress has been made in reducing rates of smoking in pregnancy to 9.6% of deliveries, the headline figure masks significant geographical differences, with prevalence ranging from 1.8% in Kensington to 21.4% in Blackpool. Read more here

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

These events give the network an opportunity to come together to share good practice, get updates on changes to volunteering policies and learn about how to best recruit, manage and train volunteers.

Here is an outline of the last 3 events:

Volunteer Network and Learn 1st March 2022 – Face to Face – John Storer Charnwood

VAL hosted the first Face to Face Volunteer Network and Learn Event in Charnwood at John Storer House in Loughborough. We introduced 3 speakers for the event: Paul Akroyd – Fare Share East Midlands, Luke Green – Active Together, and Reena Owen from Blind Veterans who talked about how they managed with volunteer engagement during the Covid Pandemic and gave an outline of the work the organisations carry out

Feedback from day:

‘Good to meet other people and understand what other resources are around.’ – Nicki Macmillan – Falcon Support Services

‘Face to Face great to hear from the speakers as well as around the room as to how the voluntary sector is post Covid. Great to connect with the various groups represented. To keep up to date with VAL’s provision’ – Tori Haines – Rural Community Council – Hinckley 

‘Useful to meet others and hear how they operate shared challenges and solutions.’ – Cat Smith Fareshare Midlands 

‘Connecting with others in the network will be needing more assistance with recruiting volunteers in the future.’ – Paul Holden – Macular Society 

‘Introduction to other local organisations allow me to spread the word of our organisation.’ – Reena Owen – Blind Veterans

Volunteer Network and Learn – 14th June 2022, Blaby District Council Offices

VAL hosted a Face to Face Volunteer Network and Learn Event at Blaby District Council offices in conjunction with Blaby District Council. This was the second face to face network event with 20 organisations attending on the day everyone who attended enjoyed the chance to network with organisations in the Blaby area others organisations

Feedback from day:

“Thank you for inviting us to today’s meeting and giving us the opportunity to tell other groups/ important Council people/ VAL people what we do. We really enjoyed it”

“It was evident that others enjoyed it too and have taken away some positive actions for their groups”.

Volunteer Network and Learn – 6th September 2022, Melton College

VAL hosted a Face to Face Volunteer Network and Learn Event at Melton College conferencing space. This was the third network event this year and we met face to face with 21 organisations attending on the day. The event was opened by Mark Frisby from Access All Areas in Melton who gave a presentation.

Diana Wood from Melton in Bloom and Jeremy Filor from Melton and Oakham Waterways Society who gave engaging presentations about how they involve organisations and the impact on Melton.

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.