Check out this website if you are a manager or a tenant of older persons housing.

There is some really useful thinking here:

www.ageing-better.org.uk/publications

The Northern Housing Consortium’s Impact of Universal Credit – The Frontline Perspective report is the culmination of a year-long study that draws on the results of four surveys into the impacts of Universal Credit on housing organisations and their tenants in the North of England.

The primary research took place between April 2016 and April 2017.

Final-Report

The CIH Housing Awards recognises the best housing projects across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. 

The full list of winners at this year’s CIH Housing Awards is as follows:

• Best housing development, sponsored by the Housing Agency:
  
  (i) small development
  North Queen Street Belfast – Apex Housing Association and Newington Housing Association

  (ii) large development
  Clon Elagh, Derry – Apex Housing Association

• Best housing story, sponsored by Circle Voluntary Housing Association:
  Ffrenchmullen House, Charlemont Street – Dublin City Council, in partnership with Túath Housing

• Excellence in customer service, sponsored by BW Homes and Construction:
  Excellence in customer service – Connswater Homes

• Excellence in health and wellbeing:
  Hosford Health and Wellbeing projects – East Belfast Mission

• Excellence in residential lettings:
  Pinpoint Property

• Exceptional contribution by a CIH member, supported by CIH:
  Niall Sheridan – Choice Housing

• Housing hero, sponsored by Mills Selig:
  Kathleen Aspel Mortimer

• Housing team of the year, sponsored by PiLON:
  The new business team – Túath Housing

• More than bricks and mortar, sponsored by Clanmil Housing:
  Peadar Kearney House – Circle Voluntary Housing Association

• Promoting equality, sponsored by Mills Selig:
  Intergenerational project – Ark Housing Association

• Working in partnership, sponsored by Co-Ownership Housing:
  Dublin Housing First – Focus Ireland

• Young professional of the year, sponsored by Choice Housing:
  Martin Downey – Radius Housing Association

Housing association Home Group has hired medical practitioners to support its vulnerable tenants and ease the pressure on the health service.

Hospitals are running out of beds, so Home Group has hired a doctor.

Dr Stefanou has an unusual role: a podiatrist who works for a housing association. But, if the sector’s plans to get more involved in healthcare come off, doctors may soon be commonplace on housing staff.

Read the full nuclear in Inside Housing here:

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/insight/easing-the-burden-on-the-nhs-54050

This report is a useful summary on where the new mayoral joint authorities have got to, 6 months on, from CFpS

2018-01-05-ca-scrutiny-report

Sign up here for more updates from CfPS

Here is some useful documentation about scrutiny in Scotland.

All downloadable from the CIH website:

Scrutiny Guide Complete

FINAL Steppingup_practice_finalreportFINAL

Scrutiny Guide Complete FINAL

Civil Society Strategy: Engagement Exercise Launch

Office for Civil Society (OCS) updates:

1. VCSE Crown Representative
2. The Full-Time Social Action review
3. Crowdfunding Public Infrastructure Pilot Fund
4. Launch of Purposely, a new digital tool for embedding social purpose into business governance
5. Government response to the Commission on Dormant Assets report
6. Meeting, Mixing, Mending: How the National Citizen’s Service impacts young people’s social integration

Updates from other government departments:

1. HS2 Community and Environment Fund and HS2 Business & Local Economy Fund
2. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Welsh Government open separate but simultaneous public consultations on disposal of radioactive waste
3. Department for Transport Consultation on EU Regulation
4. Safeguarding is a key governance priority for all charities, regulator reminds trustees

Updates from stakeholders:

1. Guidance on the automatic disqualification of trustees and senior managers
2. Celebrating five years of the UK What Works Centres
3. Social Investment Tax Relief campaign ‘GET IT’ launched

Civil Society Strategy: Engagement Exercise Launch

The Civil Society Strategy online platform is now live.  Have your say on how government can work with and for civil society to tackle challenges and unlock opportunities to build a stronger society now and in the future.

Please encourage as many people as possible to contribute their views. We want to have a broad and open discussion about the challenges and opportunities for civil society. Share this GOV.UK news story and the Minister for Sport and Civil Society Tracey Crouch’s video inviting everyone to take part. We’ll be using #CivilSocietyStrategy throughout the campaign to raise awareness and keep people updated.

If you have any questions please contact the Strategy Team (CivilSocietyStrategy@culture.gov.uk).

Office for Civil Society (OCS) updates:

1.    VCSE Crown Representative

We are delighted to announce that Claire Dove OBE DL is joining us as VCSE Crown Representative – check out the GOV.UK news story. Her appointment is part of the wider Crown Commercial Service Crown Representative Programme and Claire will be working closely with the Strategy and Partnership Team in OCS.

The two main objectives of her role will be to reduce barriers to VCSE sector participation in the delivery of public services and to encourage organisations to demonstrate their impact through use of the Social Value Act.

2.    The Full-Time Social Action review

This January, DCMS published The Steve Holliday report into Full Time Social Action. The independent review examines how best to support young people (aged 16-25) through Full-Time Social Action programmes (at least 16 hours per week for 6 months or more).

The review finds that social action develops a young person’s life chances, contributes to government priorities such as greater social inclusion and mobility, more action is needed to engage disadvantaged groups, and more non-legislative changes could be made to embed FTSA programmes in life in the UK.

3.    Crowdfunding Public Infrastructure Pilot Fund

A new pilot fund called Financing for Society: Crowdfunding Public Infrastructure was launched on the 15th January, led by the University of Leeds in partnership with DCMS. The fund has £300,000 available to enable local councils and other public sector bodies to explore crowdfunding as an innovative method of financing new public infrastructure, such as schools, care home facilities and green energy projects.

4.    Launch of Purposely, a new digital tool for embedding social purpose into business governance

DCMS and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) recently supported the launch of a new tool that helps businesses to embed social purpose into their legal documentation. This is the first of its kind in the world and allows businesses to utilise the full flexibility of UK law by putting stakeholders (community, customers, and employees) on an equal footing with shareholders. You can see the tool here!

5.    Government response to the Commission on Dormant Assets report

The government has published its response to the Dormant Assets Commission’s report. The response sets out how the Government will support the financial services sector in unlocking additional dormant assets in the banking, insurance, investment management, and security industries.

6.    Meeting, Mixing, Mending: How the National Citizen’s Service impacts young people’s social integration

On Thursday 15th February the NCS published a report that provides evidence that NCS fosters greater understanding and integration between 16-17 year olds from different backgrounds, especially those who have lower integration before completing the programme. See the report for more information.

Updates from other government departments:

1.    HS2 Community and Environment Fund and HS2 Business & Local Economy Fund

Local communities are invites to apply to two funds to help with the disruption of Phase one of HS2 between London and the West Midlands. These funds are a Community and Environment Fund and a Business and Local Economy Fund. The funds are managed by Groundwork on behalf of HS2. Please see here for further details.

2.    The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Welsh Government open separate but simultaneous public consultations on disposal of radioactive waste

BEIS are running consultations on their Working With Communities policy, and on their National Policy Statement for the development of geological disposal infrastructure in England. Please see their Consultation Hub for details of the consultation and to participate. The Welsh Government’s consultation on geological disposal of radioactive waste is here.

To learn more about geological disposal of radioactive waste, please consult Radioactive Waste Management’s new website.

The two consultations are open until Thursday 19th April.

3.    Department for Transport Consultation on EU Regulation

On February 8th the Department for Transport launched a consultation about how EU Regulation 1071/2009 applies to the Section 19 and 22 permits commonly used by community transport operators in Great Britain. The consultation closes on 4th May and can be found here.

4.    Safeguarding is a key governance priority for all charities, regulator reminds trustees

The Charity Commission says safeguarding should be a priority for all charities, not just those working with groups traditionally considered at risk. It comes as the charity regulator publishes a report showing safeguarding concerns are an increasing feature in its regulatory compliance case work with charities. See here for more information in the Charity Commission’s 5^th February press release.

Updates from stakeholders:

1.    Guidance on the automatic disqualification of trustees and senior managers

The Charity Commission has published guidance on the new rules on the automatic disqualification of trustees and senior managers. For more information, see this blog post by NCVO.

2.    Celebrating five years of the UK What Works Centres

The ten ‘what works’ centres in the UK are celebrating the fifth anniversary of their launch. This blog post by the Alliance for Useful Evidence and Nesta explains the context for the centres, the work they do, and their future direction.

3.    Social Investment Tax Relief campaign ‘GET IT’ launched

Big Society Capital have launched the GET IT campaign offering a package of support to help more charities and social enterprises raise investment using Social Investment Tax Relief (SITR). GET IT offers:

• Free resources providing information on the rules and regulations on SITR.
• Free “SITR Made Simple” workshops across the UK – with the opportunity to ask questions of our peer speakers and SITR experts.
• Free 1:1 SITR surgeries with our leading SITR tax expert, Neil Pearson, Partner at Mills & Reeve.
• Free webinars sharing experience of raising SITR from peers.
• New case studies sharing the stories of those who have ‘GOT IT’ and helpful advice for charities and social enterprises considering raising investment with SITR.

Thanks to OCS for sharing their progress and funding with us.

If you are looking for more local funding, why not join their web bulletins?

IPPRs latest publication in its suggestions for doing things differently suggests:

“We should hear ‘take back control’ for what it is: a broader political challenge, to find means of addressing and remedying the perceived dis empowerment of large sections of the population.

This essay argues for greater devolved powers and stronger sub-national institutions to drive industrial strategy for the north of England, and address the severe economic imbalances affecting the nation”

Here it is:

taking-back-control-in-the-North_Mar2017

The regulator has appointed new board members for the association.

It placed First Priority Housing Association (FPHA) under review in January and has now published a report which states that the association does not meet the requirements for both the governance and viability standards.

FPHA leases properties with 26 landlords and the regulator said the association is dependent on the goodwill of these landlords in relation to rent payments which indicates a “fundamental failure of governance”.

Here is the report: regulatory_notice_FPHA

Inside Housing have reported:

“FPHA does not have “sufficient working capital” or the capacity to meet its debts when they fall due, the regulator found. The association has failed to get access to secure liquidity “because it continues to trade on the goodwill of its creditors”, the regulator said.

The association is working with its creditors and lender to find a solution to its financial problems.

The regulator also has concerns about FPHA’s governance “particularly the adequacy of resources and the skills and capability of the board to maintain effective control of the organisation.”

FPHA manages properties for Funding Affordable Homes, which recently became a real estate investment trust (REIT) and has borrowed money from Henley Investments, another REIT.”

Here is the latest publication from our Canadian cousins.

You can subscribe to their site

www.vanillaforums.com/en/

9 ideas on keeping your community content fresh:

Vanilla Forums – Nine Secrets to Keep Your Community Content Fresh 2018