De-regulation to occur in April 2017

The deregulation package aimed at removing housing associations from the national balance sheet will come into effect from 6th  April 2017.

Measures in the Housing ad Planning Act, clear the way for deregulation aimed at reversing the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) decision to reclassify associations as public sector for national accounts purposes.

They will remove the Homes and Communities Agency’s (HCA) power of consent over disposals, restructures and mergers.

The disposals proceeds fund, which gives the HCA power to direct the use of cash resulting from the sale of social housing assets, will also be axed. A notifications regime will come into effect obliging housing associations to keep the regulator informed of these actions – although it will retain no power to stop them.

The HCA will also retain powers to require newly merged organisations to re-register, although this is expected to be light touch.

 

 

London regeneration strategy for consultation

City Hall has today begun consulting on new guidelines for estates regeneration projects, which will inform planning policy and determine eligibility for grant funding.

Accoridng to Inside Housing:

“The draft guidelines state that Londoners should be involved from an early stage to help shape any proposals by boroughs and housing associations for estate regeneration; they also state that the benefits of schemes should be felt all the way through the consultation and development process, rather than simply at the end.

The consultation document, which has been developed with councils, housing associations and residents’ groups in recent months, recommends full rights for tenants to be rehoused on newly regenerated estates, plus a “fair deal” for leaseholders.

A fair deal: Mr Khan’s model offer to residents

  • Social tenants fully compensated for their inconvenience, and given high priority for rehousing
  • Social tenants only to move once where possible, and otherwise offered full rights to return to suitable homes with same or similar rents
  • Market value plus appropriate home-loss payments offered to leaseholders, with resident leaseholders offered shared equity or shared ownership on the regenerated estate
  • Private tenants made aware of their options and rights, including signposting towards alternative housing options, and short-term tenants fully informed about the regeneration plans
  • Extra support and assistance offered to vulnerable or protected groups

Demolition and rebuilding should only go ahead after other ways of achieving the aim of regeneration have been considered, and where there is no loss of social housing.

The existing London Plan states that the loss of affordable housing should be resisted unless it is replaced at existing or higher densities with at least the equivalent amount of floor space.

City Hall said the mayor would “look to protect and strengthen this commitment as part of the development of his new London Plan”.

The guidelines will be used as conditions for any bids for estates regeneration grant funding, as well as informing both the London Plan and any other forthcoming strategy documents, such as the London Housing Strategy, due for publication next year.

The guidelines, which will be consulted on for three months, are aimed at local authorities and housing associations.

The document states: “Estate regeneration is a long process, particularly where demolition and rebuilding occurs. Even relatively small schemes can take several years, while some of the larger projects currently underway in London have 30-year delivery plans.

“Given this, it is important for schemes to have ‘interim’ offers to residents throughout the lifetime of regeneration programmes. The benefits of estate regeneration should not only be felt at the end of the process but rather should seek to be delivered to residents throughout what are often long timescales.” “

JRF report finds more than 7 million working families living in poverty

More than 7 million people in the UK are living in poverty despite being part of a working family, according to a study which uncovers how deprivation is increasingly linked to the high cost and insecurity of private rented accommodation.

The report, commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) also found that disability is increasingly linked to the changing nature of poverty. If the costs of disability are taken into account, half of those in poverty are either disabled or living with a disabled person.

and
This latest annual report from the New Policy Institute brings together the most recent data to present a comprehensive picture of poverty in the UK.
2016_mpse_uk_2016_final_report

Key points

  • In 2014/15, there were 13.5 million people living in low-income households, 21% of the UK population. This proportion has barely changed since 2002/03.
  • The number of private renters in poverty has doubled over the last decade. There are now as many private renters in poverty as social renters. Rent accounts for at least a third of income for more than 70% of private renters in poverty.
  • The number of households accepted as homeless and the number of households in temporary accommodation have both increased for five years in a row. Evictions by landlords are near a ten‑year high.
  • The proportion of working-age adults in employment is at a record high. Full-time employees account for 62% of the growth in jobs since 2010. The proportion of young adults who are unemployed is the lowest since 2005.
  • The number of people in poverty in a working family is 55% – a record high. Four-fifths of the adults in these families are themselves working, some 3.8 million workers. Those adults that are not working are predominantly looking after children.
  • 1.4 million children are in long-term workless households, down 280,000 in four years. Excluding lone parent families with a child under five, 55% of these children have a disabled adult in their household.
  • Once account is taken of the higher costs faced by those who are disabled, half of people living in poverty are either themselves disabled or are living with a disabled person in their household.

Poverty

In 2014/15, there were 13.5 million people in poverty in the UK, 21% of the population. This is not a large change from a decade earlier; in 2004/05 there were 12 million people in poverty, 21% of the population.

Table 1: People in poverty (millions) measured after housing costs
2004 / 05* 2014 / 15*
Children 3.7 3.7
16-24 1.4 1.6
25-44 3.1 3.5
45-64 2.4 3
65+ 1.9 1.5
In working families 5.4 7.4
In workless or retired families 6.7 6.1
Social renting 4.7 4.6
Private renting 2.2 4.5
Owner-occupied 5.1 4.5

*The data for poverty by age is a three-year average

There have been other changes, however. There are 400,000 fewer pensioners in poverty, despite there being around 1.7 million more people aged 65 or over. There are 2 million more people in working families in poverty, now up to 7.4 million, than a decade earlier. In contrast the number in workless or retired families in poverty fell by half a million.

Of those people in poverty, 45% are not in a working family. This 45% is made up of pensioners (12%); families with disabled members (17%); lone parent families (6%); and 11% in other circumstances, such as workless single adults.

People in poverty face reduced and falling financial resilience. For example, 69% of the poorest fifth have no savings whatsoever, an increase from 58% in 2005/06.

One aspect of poverty that can be understated in the official statistics is disability. When the extra costs of disability are partially accounted for, half of all people in poverty are either disabled, or in a household with a disabled person.

Housing

Figure 1: Private renters are much more likely to spend at least a third of their income on housing than households in another tenure with the same amount of income

EMBED THIS CHART

Source: Households Below Average Incomes, DWP; the data is for 2014/15 for the UK

Failures in the housing market are a significant driver of poverty. This is primarily, but not entirely, due to costs. Housing costs are higher as a proportion of income for poorer households, and more so for renters. More than 70% of private renters in the poorest fifth spend at least a third of their income on housing, compared with under 50% in the social rented sector and 28% for those who own their own homes.

Experience of the housing market is increasingly determined by tenure. In 2010/11, the number of landlord evictions and mortgage repossessions were both around 23,000. In 2015/16, there were 37,000 landlord evictions and 3,300 mortgage repossessions. 58,000 households were accepted as homeless in 2015/16, an increase of almost 50% compared with five years earlier. The most common cause of homelessness is the end of a shorthold tenancy or rent arrears.

Households placed in temporary accommodation have also risen each year since 2011, though they remain below the levels of the mid-2000s. Three-quarters of those in temporary accommodation are from London.

Life Chances

The life chances policy area, which has been the subject of renewed interest in the last year, is mainly concerned with educational attainment and children in workless households. While the attainment gap at 16 between disadvantaged pupils and non-disadvantaged pupils has not changed in five years, there have been falls in the number of children in workless households.

Figure 2: 960,000 children in long-term workless households are in lone parent families while 630,000 are in households with at least one disabled adult

EMBED THIS CHART

Source: Children Living in Workless Households, ONS; the data is for 2014 for the UK

Disability and family type are significant in explaining the children still in workless households; 46% of children in workless households have at least one disabled adult in the household, and 70% are in a lone parent household. A quarter are in disabled lone parent households.

The life chances agenda also needs to reflect the importance of income. Overall 29% of children are in poverty but the rate is much higher for some groups including: those in social or private rented accommodation (52% and 46% respectively); those of Pakistani and Bangladeshi or Black ethnicity (52% and 45% respectively); and those who have two foreign-born parents (45%). Of this last group 70% are estimated to have been born in the UK.

The focus on educational attainment also needs to take into account special educational needs, which is associated with both lower attainment and higher rates of school exclusion.

Social security

Increasingly the social security system does not cover the full cost of essentials for those on low incomes, such as rent and Council Tax. There are 690,000 families paying at least £200 more a year in Council Tax now than there were before Council Tax Benefit was abolished in 2013.

Figure 3: The government estimates that the number of families affected by the reduction in the overall benefit cap will rise from 20,000 to 112,000

Government estimates the number of families affected by the overall benefit cap will rise from 20,000 to 112,000

The overall benefit cap, which limits households’ annual income from benefits, mainly affects households with children. The lowering of the cap will increase the number of families affected, from 20,000 to 112,000. Those families currently affected by the cap will face further reductions in income of £50 or more a week.

Another change from April 2018 will affect adults aged 35 or under in the social rented sector, who will be eligible only for the lower ‘shared room rate’ for their accommodation, with rent shortfalls to be met from other income. Many of these adults are potentially vulnerable, with low incomes and histories of homelessness. There is, however, a planned exemption for those in sheltered accommodation.

The number of benefit sanctions has fallen. Compared with 2013/14, sanctions for Jobseeker’s Allowance have fallen from 734,000 to 204,000, while those for Employment and Support Allowance have fallen from 19,000 to 8,400.

Work and worklessness

The employment rate for working-age adults is at a record high. Of the additional employment since 2010, 62% has been in full-time employee jobs. Underemployment has fallen for the fourth consecutive year to five million. This is still above pre-recession levels, though the number of unemployed adults at 1.6 million is at its lowest since 2007. The proportion of young adults who are unemployed is now down to its lowest level since 2005, at 8.5%, but it is still nearly three times as high as for other working-age adults.

In contrast, male weekly earnings are still lower than 2005 levels once inflation is taken into account. Female weekly earnings are now equal to 2005 levels, but still below what they were in 2010.

Figure 4: There are 3.8 million workers in poverty; the largest group of workers in poverty are female employees

EMBED THIS CHART

Source: Family Resources Survey, DWP; the data is for the UK

The strong labour market has coincided with an increase in the number of workers in poverty. There were 3.8 million workers who were in a household in poverty in 2014/15, up by around a million since 2004/05. In-work poverty is more common for younger workers, self-employed workers and part-time employees.

Conclusions

On many indicators, the UK economy has now recovered from the financial crisis and prolonged period of stagnation. If this recovery turns into a period of sustained growth, it is important that those on low incomes share in it and feel the gains. But we must also consider how the economy and the state can be restructured to prevent poverty in the first place. Great progress has been made reducing pensioner poverty, but progress on child poverty is at risk. Housing in the UK is too often expensive and of poor quality, particularly in the private rented sector. Work, although the best defence against low income, is too often insufficient. The social security system has become less effective for those with housing costs and Council Tax to pay. If these problems can be addressed, then many more people will share in the UK’s prosperity.

 

LAs up their interest in setting up housing companies

More than a third of councils have set up or are considering setting up housing companies, according to Inside Housing research.

The research quantifies the extent of the march into private housebuilding by town halls, which has exploded in scale in recent months.

Freedom of Information Act requests to all councils in England, followed up by in-depth research, showed 98 out of 252 councils have established or are planning a private housebuilding company.

Homeless prevention duties for LAs

The government will intervene with councils which are not meeting their homelessness prevention duties if a new law is passed, the minister responsible for homelessness has revealed.

Marcus Jones, the minister with responsibility for homelessness, has confirmed he will write to all councils about their homelessness duties and ask them to come up with a strategy to tackle the problem. He will work with the Local Government Association to come up with the wording for the advice that councils give to people presenting as homeless, including what counts as a suitable and appropriate location for any property offered to the applicant.

Here is some useful information from Inside Housing:

“The minister will send staff into councils where he is concerned they are not following these requirements, he said during a parliamentary debate on the Homelessness Reduction Bill on Wednesday.

The government supports the bill, which was initially tabled by backbench Conservative MP Bob Blackman as a private members’ bill. It is made up of 12 measures, designed to require councils act to prevent homelessness rather than reacting after the event.

Clive Betts, chair of the Communities and Local Government Committee, said he had put forward an amendment that called on councils to consider the location of a property offered to a homeless applicant in relation to their employment, caring responsibilities and where their children go to school.

He said he would withdraw the amendment after meeting with Mr Jones, who reassured him he would take action when councils did not follow the code of guidance. Mr Betts said “many” councils “are not having proper regard to [the existing guidance] and are not carrying out their responsibilities in the way we would like”.

The bill has received cross-party support and government backing. The government has also committed to give councils extra funding to cover their new responsibilities under the bill but has not revealed the amount.

AT A GLANCE: THE HOMELESSNESS REDUCTION BILL

The bill is made up of 12 measures:

1.         A change to the meaning of “homeless” and “threatened with homelessness”. Each household that has received an eviction notice is to be treated as homeless from the date on which the notice expires, and the period at which a person is threatened with homelessness is changed from 28 to 56 days.

2.         All homeless people have access to free advice and information.

3.         Local authorities are required to carry out an assessment of what led to each applicant’s homelessness, and set out steps to remedy this in an agreed written plan.

4.         Local authorities are required to help to secure accommodation for all eligible households who are threatened with homelessness, and at an earlier stage.

5.         Local authorities are required to provide those who find themselves homeless with support for a further period of 56 days to help to secure accommodation.

6.         Local authorities are able to take action to help to secure accommodation under the new duties to help homeless households.

7.         Households in priority need who refuse to co-operate with prevention and/or relief activity will be offered a minimum of a six month private rented sector tenancy. They will not progress to the main homelessness duty. Households not in priority need who refuse to co-operate would be provided with advice and information only.

8.         All young people leaving care will be deemed to have a local connection in the area of the local authority that is responsible for providing them with leaving care services under the Children Act 1989.

9.         Applications are provided with the right to request a review in relation to the prevention and relief duties.

10.       The bill introduces a duty on specified local agencies to refer those either homeless or at risk of being homeless to local authority housing teams.

11.       The secretary of state has a power to produce a statutory code of practice to raise the standards of homelessness support services across the country.

12.       A local housing authority must satisfy itself that specific requirements are in place where it secures accommodation for vulnerable households in the private rented sector.”

G&T communities and how you can support them

A lack of Gypsy and Traveller sites contributes to issues of disconnect from the broader community, and poorer education outcomes for children from Gypsy and Traveller communities.

According to CIH report in Dec 16, this is a complex problem with no quick solution but it is possible to deliver well-managed Gypsy and Traveller sites which subsequently leads to a reduction in these issues.

See the report below:

GypsyTravellerSitesDec16

Big society update Nov 16

Office for Civil Society (OCS) Local  – November / December 2016 FOR INFO Update

Office for Civil Society (OCS) Updates:

 

Updates from other Government Departments:

Stakeholder Updates:

 

Office for Civil Society (OCS) updates:

  1. #LocalCharitiesDay – 16 December 2016

We’ve kicked off the countdown to #LocalCharitiesDay on 16th December and we’re encouraging small, local charities across the UK and everyone who supports them to get behind the campaign. You can find out more about the day in the Minister for Civil Society Rob Wilson’s blog marking 1 month to go.

 

We’d really appreciate your support in the coming weeks and on the day itself, and you can find out how to get involved in our #LocalCharitiesDay toolkit. You can also download our Accessible Toolkit.

 

We’re also encouraging everyone to sign up to our #LocalCharitiesDay Thunderclap now.

 

Small, local charities can sign up for fundraising training opportunities on and around Local Charities Day, and take part in Localgiving’s #GiveMe5 campaign.

 

Please share the attached #LocalCharitiesDay flyer with your local contacts and partners – please share this with your contacts

 

 

  1. #GivingTuesday – Tuesday 29 November

 

We are looking forward to once again celebrating #GivingTuesday, the annual international day of giving, which this year is on 29th November.  

 

It’s a great opportunity to showcase all the incredible things civil society does and encourage the public to get involved. Last year £6,000 a minute was raised for UK charities and it broke the world record for most amount of money donated online in 24 hours.

 

You can read more about #GivingTuesday and ways that charities, businesses and individuals can support it on the website. We encourage everyone to get involved on the day.

 

 

  1. Government Inclusive Economy Unit (GIEU)

 

As you may already be aware, we recently announced that the Social Investment and Finance Team, which the Centre for Social Impact Bonds is part of, has been relaunched as the Government Inclusive Economy Unit.

 

Our work on the 2016 Social Investment Strategy, including Social Impact Bonds, will continue as before. The new identity reflects the growth in the scope of work of the team, and the importance of this work in delivering the priorities of the new government. An inclusive economy works for all sections of society, in particular expanding opportunity for those who are struggling to cope.

 

In other news, the Department for Communities and Local Government launched their outcomes fund for SIBs to tackle rough sleeping. This fund is separate to the Life Chances Fund and more details on how to apply can be found here.

 

Finally, this week we published our new animated video – this explains how social impact bonds work and highlights some of the key benefits for the stakeholders involved. We hope that this will be helpful for sharing with your networks and moving your projects forward.

 

Full details of Government policy on Inclusive Economy and Social Investment can be found on the Inclusive Economy pages

 

 

 

  1. #iwill Fund

 

As #iwillWeek 2016 gets underway an investment of almost £50 million has been confirmed, that will help increase the number of young people taking part in social action. The ‘#iwill Fund’ is a £40m joint commitment of seed funding by Government and the Big Lottery Fund, boosted today by Comic Relief, Pears Foundation and UK Community Foundations. Together these match-funders will invest an additional £9.6m into the #iwill Fund.

 

Currently four in ten young people regularly take part in social action, which includes activities such as campaigning, fundraising and volunteering. The #iwill campaign is working to get at least six in ten 10-20 year olds taking part by the year 2020. This significant new investment will help achieve this goal.

 

The #iwill campaign aims to ensure that 60% of 10 to 20 year-olds across the UK are taking part in meaningful social action by 2020. The first three match funders we are working with are:

 

  • Pears Foundation who will be supporting activity within education, health and social care as well as scaling and supporting successful models to grow or sustain.
  • UK Community Foundations will create small grants for local social action opportunities through their network of 43 Community Foundations across England.
  • Comic Relief will develop opportunities for young people from areas and backgrounds currently least likely to participate; working in co-production with young people over the next few months to design the initiative to launch in Spring 2017.

 

 

  1. Centre for Social Action Innovation Fund – 4 learning reports published

 

Nesta have released 4 reports that capture the learning from their work on the Centre for Social Action Innovation Fund set up in partnership with the Government’s Social Action Team in 2013. There’s lots of great learnings in there and they’re well worth a read. Enjoy!

 

Lessons learnt: This report details findings from Nesta and the Cabinet Office’s support of 52 social action innovations, showing that social action transforms lives and, when embedded in public services, also has a transformative effect on institutions.

 

What does it take to go BIG? Building on their previous publications, Making It Big and In and Out of Sync, this report shares lessons and practical insights from the 52 projects supported by the Centre for Social Action Innovation Fund, on what it takes to scale a social innovation.

 

Power of Peer Support: This report reflects on the value of peer support and shares practical insights from 10 of the organisations we worked with through the Centre for Social Action Innovation Fund.

 

Cities of Service UK: This report details the impact and insights of the Cities of Service UK programme – working with 7 local authorities to mobilise nearly 10,000 volunteers.

 

 

  1. End of Life Social Action Fund – evaluation published

 

This report provides an independent evaluation of the End of Life Social Action Fund.  It reports on the impact of social action in the community for people at the end of life.

This document looks at key findings and lessons learned from the evaluation of the End of Life Social Action Fund. The Cabinet Office commissioned Lancaster University’s International Observatory on End of Life Care and the Institute for Volunteering Research to conduct the evaluation.

Six organisations, covering eleven sites nationally, were funded between January 2015 and March 2016 to deliver social action befriending services.

 

 

  1. Charities Act 2016 – New Fundraising Rules

 

New rules for charity fundraising start on 1 November 2016. They affect the trustees’ annual reports of larger charities that fundraise from the public, as well as the contents of the agreements that must be in place when professional fundraisers or other businesses (‘commercial participators’) raise money for charities.

 

 

Updates from other Government Departments

 

 

  1. DCLG Controlling Migration Fund

 

This prospectus explains how local authorities can access the Controlling Migration Fund.

The Controlling Migration Fund is designed to support local areas facing pressures linked to recent immigration.

The Fund will be available over the 4 years from 2016-17 to 2019-20, and is in 2 parts:

  • a local service impacts part of £100 million, to help English local authorities and their communities experiencing high and unexpected volumes of immigration to ease pressures on local services
  • an enforcement part worth £40 million to direct enforcement action against people in the UK illegally in order to reduce the pressure on local areas

 

  1. Domestic Violence Fund

 

This new fund will be used to increase refuge spaces and other accommodation for women fleeing domestic violence.  Local authorities can now bid for a share of a £20 million fund to support victims of domestic abuse.

 

Applicants are required to submit bids no later than 5pm on 16 December 2016 to DomesticAbuse.Fund@communities.gsi.gov.uk

 

 

  1. Community Resilience framework for practitioners

 

This guidance helps emergency planners ensure communities are central to emergency planning, response and recovery.

 

There are 3 sections to this guidance:

  • the context for community resilience – how community resilience relates to personal, business, local and national resilience. It outlines how to support community resilience and what the benefits of community resilience are for communities and emergency responders
  • steps for increasing community resilience – how emergency planners can implement a community led approach to emergency planning roles, responsibilities and partnerships to build resilient communities – how everyone can work together to support resilient communities

 

  1. Neighbourhood Planning Bill: Policy Factsheets

 

These factsheets provide further background information on the measures within the Neighbourhood Planning Bill.

 

The factsheets cover:

  1. neighbourhood planning
  2. planning conditions
  3. planning register
  4. compulsory purchase

 

 

Stakeholder Updates:

 

  1. Big Society Capital – Get Informed – Social Investment for Boards

 

HAS YOUR BOARD CONSIDERED WHETHER SOCIAL INVESTMENT COULD HELP DELIVER YOUR MISSION?

 

GET INFORMED offers practical support, guidance and information to help board members of charities and social enterprises understand the opportunities and risks of social investment.

 

 

  1. Access – Invest for Impact Fund and Reach Fund

 

The Access Foundation has launched a new investment readiness programme – The Reach Fund.

 

Funded by Access – The Foundation for Social Investment, this programme aims to help more charities and social enterprises secure the investment they need to help them grow.

 

 

  1. Big Potential – Breakthrough and Advance Funds

 

Big Potential, a Big Lottery Fund grant fund, will deliver approximately £20m of grant funding over 3 years to eligible VCSE organisations with the aim of improving the sustainability, capacity and scale of VCSE organisations in order that they may deliver greater social impact.

 

The programme aims to raise awareness of the social investment market and support VCSEs who want to prepare themselves for social investment or winning contracts.

 

Big Potential has two possible application routes – Breakthrough and Advanced.

 

Breakthrough – Eligible VCSE organisations will be able to access specialist one to one support from the Big Potential programme partners before making an application for a grant to undertake more in-depth investment readiness work with one of Big Potential’s approved providers.

 

There are two different types of grant; Preliminary Grants and Investment Plan Grants. Preliminary Grants are available to VCSEs at the initial stage of their social investment journey that are yet to determine what type of social investment will be appropriate for their needs. VCSEs can apply for Preliminary Grants of between £20,000 to £30,000.

 

Investment Plan Grants are available to VCSEs that already have a social investment proposition and know what the deal might look like. VCSEs can apply for Investment Plan Grants of between £40,000 to £50,000.

 

VCSEs can apply for both types of grant but we would not expect any one organisation to receive more than £75,000 in total.

 

Advanced – The Advanced route of Big Potential will be available to VCSEs that are clear about how social investment could work for them and can describe a potential deal or interest from investors and need help to close that deal. The Advanced route is also available to organisations that need help securing a contract. Grants of between £50,000 and £150,000 are available.

 

 

 

  1. More Than a Pub Fund

 

More than a pub: The Community Pub Business Support Programme is a unique two year programme established to help support community ownership of pubs in England. Its value is £3.62 million and is jointly funded by the Department for Communities and Local Government and Power to Change.

 

A comprehensive package of business development support, advice and loan and grant funding has been developed to assist community pub businesses consider their viability at all stages of their development which includes:

 

  • A flexible package of support including:
    • an advice line
    • events
    • workshops
    • peer-to-peer study visits
    • business development advice.
  • Flexible bursary awards of up to £2,500 (inclusive of VAT) to fund pre-feasibility costs such as public consultation and valuations.
  • Combined loan and grant funding up to £150,000 but not exceeding £75,000 in grant contribution (average grant is expect to be c. £37,500, average loan may be around £42,800).

 

 

  1. NCVO guidance on consortia and competition law

 

NCVO has recently published some guidance for the VCS on consortia, including a complete step-by-step guide to setting up a contract-ready consortium, with downloadable examples and template documents.

Also, in response to requests for advice from NCVO members, they have clarified competition law as it affects charities forming partnerships, consortia, making joint bids, etc.

17.Near Neighbours Fund – https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-funding-to-boost-diverse-communities-during-inter-faith-week

 

Details of Grants at – https://www.cuf.org.uk/near-neighbours-grants

 

The Near Neighbours programme offers small grants of between £250 and £5,000, as seed funding for local groups and organisations

working to bring together neighbours, and to develop relationships across diverse faiths and ethnicities to improve their communities.

 

Grants have offered funding to a broad range of work; environmental, social, cultural, artistic, and sporting, that furthers the programme’s aims of encouraging community interaction and social action.

 

Near Neighbours grants include the following criteria. Projects should:

 

  • Bring together peoples of two or more different faiths and/or ethnicities, to build friendships and develop relationships of trust.
  • Work locally. We want to see people who are living very locally (i.e. in the same street, estate or neighbourhood) come together.
  • Work sustainably. We want to see long term and natural relationships grow, that will last beyond the period of funding.
  • Work to improve the community. We want to see people working to make their communities a better place to live.
  • Involve diverse people in planning and implementation. People from more than one faith group and/or ethnicity are involved in planning and implementing the proposal.

The programme works in a number of key locations across England. The north team (this is their newsletter) are active in the northern towns/cities of Bury, Rochdale, Burnley and Oldham; Leeds, Bradford and Dewsbury. In the midlands we are working in Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Sandwell, Walsall and Dudley; Leicester and Nottingham. In the south we operate in Luton and across most of London.

 

 

 

Paul Schofield

Senior Policy Adviser | Office of Civil Society

Youth & North of England

E: paul.schofield@cabinetoffice.gov.uk  M: 07825 257069

Follow us on Twitter @dcms

Follow me on Twitter @litpauls

Health and Housing Guide

This new Health & Housing quick guide by Housing LIN provides practical resources and information on how housing and health can work together to prevent and reduce hospital admissions, length of stay, delayed discharge, readmission rates and ultimately improve outcomes; in particular, signposting to examples of joint working that have prevented a hospital admission or reduced health inequalities.

Quick-Guide-health-and-housing

Latest of equalities

Here is the latest briefing from HDN:

HDN-eBriefing-November-2016

I am currently training Board members on the HDN Board development programme.

We have 20 mentors and 20 mentees in the North of England, if you are interested, get in touch.

There is a similar programme in London and the South

Standards for accessible information – NHS

NHS England has produced a briefing about the Standard for Accessible Information that all providers of the NHS care must follow from 1st August 2016.

The Standard directs and defines a specific, consistent approach to identifying, recording, flagging, sharing and meeting individuals’ information and communication support needs, where those needs relate to a disability, impairment or sensory loss.

Here is the report from the CfPS website:

161117-Accessible-Info-Std-for-HOSCs (1)