July 2018 volunteering update Dudley Volunteer Awards 2018
Dudley Volunteer Awards is an annual event held alongside Dudley CVS's Annual General Meeting. Local volunteers [both individuals and groups] can be nominated, winners are chosen by a panel made up of the Mayor, local decision makers, voluntary sector and business reps, and our Dudley CVS Chairman. Nominations for Dudley Volunteer Awards are now open and everyone nominated for the awards is invited along to the Dudley Volunteer Awards celebration in October. You can nominate now on this year’s Awards blog by visiting the Nominate page.
Training Volunteers and the Law training Do volunteers have the same rights as employees? Health and safety doesn’t apply to volunteers does it? Are you aware how easy it is to create a contract with volunteers? Many volunteer-involving organisations are not aware of the legal implications when working with volunteers. Our session aims to dispel myths and clarify your legal responsibilities. We also use actual case studies where volunteers have taken organisations to court, to help demonstrate bad practice when involving volunteers. Our training session on 18th July now has one space left only, so if you are interested in attending, please do visit the site and put your name on the waiting list for the next session, which is likely to be in September or October 2018 now.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/volunteers-and-the-law-tickets-46014420370 The charge for the training is £10 to cover the cost of room hire and refreshments.
What will the session cover? • • • • • •
Defining volunteering and when someone is not a volunteer Who can or cannot volunteer and conditions that may apply How current legislation has implications for volunteers and volunteer involving organisations Identifying volunteers’ rights and the responsibilities of organisations when involving volunteers Taking steps to avoid creating employment conditions with volunteers Evaluating a legal case study and discuss the likely outcome
Community Information Point Network and Training Healthwatch Dudley has taken an innovative approach to information giving We have teamed up with local organisations to train an army of information champions to give community information. Information points have been springing up all across Dudley borough in libraries, cafes, pharmacies and other places where people already access information about local services. For more info and to book your free training place please click here.
Office for Civil Society (OCS) updates:
1. Pension Funds and Social Investment - final report and consultation 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Keeping yourself secure from cyber threats Loneliness funding announced Loneliness call for evidence Cultural Development fund Why Go Mutual - free event
EU update:
1. Brexit regional roundtables
Office for Civil Society: 1. Pension Funds and Social Investment In November 2016, the government asked the Law Commission to look at how far pension funds may or should consider issues of social impact when making investment decisions. The Law Commission’s report found there are no substantive regulatory barriers to making social impact investment by pension funds. Most of the barriers are in fact structural and behavioural, including the need for clearer legislation and guidance. on 18 June the Government published a final response to the report. We also published a consultation on the draft Occupational Pension Schemes (Investment and Disclosure) (Amendment) Regulations 2018 with this final response. 2. Keeping yourself secure from cyber threats DCMS recently published the 'Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2018' report. The report is a quantitative and qualitative survey of UK businesses and this year for the first time it includes charities. The survey helps organisations to understand the nature and significance of the cyber security threats they face and what others are doing to stay secure. It also supports the Government to shape future policy in this area. 3. Loneliness funding announced On 19th June, government announced £20m of funding for projects that build community connections and tackle loneliness. The £11m Building Connections Fund, a partnership between government, the Big Lottery Fund and the Co-op Foundation, will be open for applications from July. Separately, the People's Postcode Lottery will be awarding £5m of extra top-up funding to some of its grantees who are already working on tackling loneliness, and the Health Lottery will be launching a new £4m fund later this year. 4. Loneliness call for evidence The cross-government loneliness team, hosted by OCS in DCMS, has issued an online call for evidence to inform the loneliness strategy, which will be published later in 2018. Please provide your views. The survey will be open for four weeks. 5. Cultural Development fund On 21 June Arts Minister Michael Ellis launched a £20 million fund for culture, heritage and the creative industries to benefit towns and cities across England. Areas will be able to bid for p to £7 million for a number of projects in a certain area to help regeneration, create jobs and maximise the impact of investment. This could be for new spaces for creative businesses, bringing historic buildings back into use or redeveloping museums and art galleries. The investment will help to grow local economies and increase access to arts, heritage and the creative industries. 6. Why Go Mutual - free event Are you a public sector leader who is interested in exploring the potential benefits and process of setting up a public service mutual? Why Go Mutual? is a free event run by the GoMutual Consortium in conjunction with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to help you find out more about becoming a Public Service Mutual and the help that is available.
EU: 1. Brexit regional Roundtables OCS’s Director, Georgia Hutchinson, chaired two regional Brexit round tables, the first in Newcastle on 17 May and the second in Birmingham on 14th June. Representatives from local and regional VCSE organisations attended to discuss their views on EU Exit. Some of the key themes the participants told us about were: • Concerns over potential reductions in access to EU funding • Insight and discussion about how domestic successor funds could be used to support those furthest from the labour market • Increased uncertainty about rights of EU nationals, both as employees of VCSEs and amongst beneficiaries • Impacts on communities, including reports of arise in hate crime • Potential impact of EU Exit on the local economy This work is ongoing and If you have any comments or queries about our EU Exit work, please send us an email at ocseusubteam@culture.gov.uk.
Helga Edström Office for Civil Society Local Team West Helga.Edstrom@culture.gov.uk | 07795 801624
Connecting / Events Connect with other groups and potential customers via INTERESTSME Are you a voluntary, community, faith or not-for-profit group? Do you struggle to reach new customers and make new contacts? You need to list your events on InterestsMe There’s a local one for Dudley borough and if you aren’t from the local area, there is probably one for your area too. Why not have a look?
Information Have you visited www.volopps.com yet? It’s our new searchable online portal for volunteering opportunities and we are hoping to do a formal launch in Volunteers Week. Volunteers - Please do feel free to signpost any clients looking for voluntary work that way Volunteer-involving organisations – If you involve volunteers our services are completely FREE and we can promote and share opps with potential volunteers, including our daily OPP OF THE DAY. Why not get in touch. Just drop Eileen an email on eileen@dudleycvs.org.uk
Funding Looking for funds for your group or organisation? Anyone can sign up to receive our free regular funding bulletins, along with our electronic newsletter by contacting Dale at Dudley CVS on dale@dudleycvs.org.uk