NAVCA, ACEVO, Community Alliance, Social Enterprise Coalition, and NCVO are holding a joint, high level Conservative Summit with Shadow Ministers to discuss the contribution third sector organisations can make to the delivery of public services. This follows a letter from 250 ACEVO members to the Chancellor setting out ways in which real reforms to public services could lead to better outcomes and savings for Government.

The Conservatives have now agreed to a Summit on the 18 March in London. Nick Hurd and his colleagues Francis Maude, Andrew Lansley, Oliver Letwin, Philip Hammond, Nick Gibb, Andrew Selous, Maria Miller and Alan Duncan have all agreed to take part. George Osborne will be making a special announcement at the conclusion of the Summit. For more information and to book your place for £90 visit www.acevo.org.uk/conservatives complete the booking form or email events@acevo.org.uk

Alison Seabrooke, from the Community Development Foundation, and Kate Housden, Improving Local Partnerships Manager at NAVCA, discuss engaging people in local decision making. They discuss the Take Part programme, addressing the democratic deficit and links between participative democracy and formal democratic roles. They also talk about the all party commitment to engaging local people in decision making and ensuring that it is embedded after the election and not just political rhetoric.

• Download the podcast interview (mp3, 3.2MB)
• More information on NAVCA’s democracy days (part of the Take Part programme)

 
4 March 2010

The Office of the Third Sector and IDeA are holding an online conference on the third sector and the recession on IDeA’s online third sector community of practice between 10 and 12 March. It will include an online presentation and Q and A by Neil Cleeveley (NAVCA’s Director of Policy and Communications) on 11 March.

Angela Smith MP, Minister for the Third Sector will be opening the conference on 10 March. To take part you will need to join the community by logging on to www.communities.idea.gov.uk/welcome.do and searching for ‘third sector’.

NAVCA encourages our members to take part - this is work that promotes the role of our members in helping the local third sector through the recession and into recovery.

On 16 March between 1pm and 3pm, the Chair of Big Lottery Fund, Sir Clive Booth, will be taking part in a live web chat. You can send your questions to BIG for Sir Clive to answer online between now and 16 March. www.bigchat.org.uk

NAVCA has commissioned The Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (CRESR) at Sheffield Hallam University to investigate the ways in which local support and development organisations help front-line organisations to reduce re-offending by ex-prisoners.

A short questionnaire has been produced for NAVCA member organisations.

The results of the survey will help NAVCA to build up a picture of current activity and shape the work programme for 2010/11.

The survey closes on 19 March.

We wish to appoint a suitably qualified and experienced contractor to deliver high quality training on contracts.

NAVCA has a good track record of delivering training that is tailored to the specific needs of staff of our members and other support and development organisations; practically focussed, up to date, relevant and competitively priced. We wish to deliver a number of one-day introductory training events to staff of local support and development organisations and other third sector organisations on understanding contracts, at various locations throughout England.

• Download the Invitation to Tender (Word, 342KB)

The closing date for proposals is midday on 6 April 2010. For enquiries, please contact Pauline Kimantas on 0114 289 3982 or email pauline.kimantas@navca.org.uk

Do you…

• work for a local support and development organisation in the London area?
• support local organisation involved in service delivery?
• work with your loca authority or primary care trust on commissioning?
• want to advocate intelligent commissioning in order to achieve better services?

What the day covers:

• Good practice in commissioning processes
• Sharing local experience and knowledge
• A chance to network and find out what other local support and development organisations in the region are involved with

You will hear from The Institute of Public Care about the public sector perspective of commissioning, learn from other organisations about their experience of advocating intelligent commissioning and discuss how you can better advocate good practice in commissioning public services.

Seminar aims: By the end of the seminar you will

• be familiar with principles and concepts of good practice in commissioning public services;
• have a greater knowledge and understanding of how the principles and concepts translate into practice;
• know about some of the arguments, tools and resources available for advocating ‘intelligent commissioning’.

Overall outcome
You will be better equipped to champion good practice in the commissioning of public services.

NAVCA member - £40, Third sector organisation - £55, Public body/other - £130

Event flyer and booking form (PDF, 650KB)

Please note: These seminars are being held throughout the nine regions in 2010. Further dates and venues will be announced in due course.

The recent constitutional mailing asks you to nominate to NAVCA Trustee Board for 2010. This year nominations are required for two Trustee Board places.

This information was sent to your nominated representative and to your Chief Officer.

• Complete the nomination form(s) if you wish to nominate someone for the position of  Trusteefor NAVCA 2010/11 and attach a statement of not more than 200 words written about or by the nominee.
• Ask your nominee to complete the Declaration form
• Return all of the above to NAVCA by 30 April 2010. Any nominations received after this date will not be put forward for election.
  

The member needs to complete the nominated representative form and return to the Resources Team at NAVCA if they do not currently have a nominated representative or if the nominated representative has changed.

To ensure your right to nominate to the Chair and Trustee Board for 2010 please complete and return the nominated representative form 31 March 2010 to resources@navca.org.uk

It is the responsibility of members to notify NAVCA if their nominated representative changes.

All the necessary forms and background information are below for you to download.

• Elections for NAVCA Trustee Board 2010 nomination form plus guidance (Word 241KB)
• Expectations of NAVCA Trustee Board members (Word 104KB)
• Nominated Representative form (form and guidance) (Word 109KB)

The event has been organised by the Department of Health’s Strategic Partners (including NAVCA).

The event will:

• Raise awareness among the third sector of the health inequalities challenge
• Disseminate findings and recommendations from the Marmot Report
• Identify some of the cross cutting issues of particular relevance to the sector
• Provide a forum to develop understanding of the role of the Third Sector in addressing health inequalities
• Help third sector organisations understand how the Marmot Report can support their work.

NAVCA is working alongside the Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) in their promotion a range of tools to help everyone involved with children and young people to work better together.

This is the initial phase of the CWDC’s new campaign to promote a more joined up way of working.

• Find out more about “ All together, a better way of working” via the CWDC website

• Find out more about NAVCA’s work with CWDC

We are inviting proposals for two publications about intelligent commissioning. The working title is ‘Principles into Practice - Advocating Intelligent Commissioning’.

1. A report that illustrates and provides insight into the work that LIOs do to influence local commissioning strategies and practices. The report will include advice and recommendations.
2. A set of individual case studies (approximately 6) that provide more in depth illustrations of some of the examples identified in the report.

The case studies and report must link together to form a coherent product and work as individual stand-alone documents. It is essential that each case study can be read individually, and that they collectively illustrate in depth the main points from the main report.

There is a maximum of £10,000 available for this work, including VAT.

• Download the Invitation to Tender document (Word, 115KB)

The deadline for submission of proposals is midday on 19 March 2010.

If you would like to discuss this invitation to tender please contact Pauline Kimantas, Local Commissioning and Procurement Manager.

Simon Wright and Barney Mynott, NAVCA’s Policy and Communications Manager, discuss Charity Builder.

Launched last year, Charity Builder is an interactive web service that you can provide free of charge to your members. Charity Builder promotes compliance and simplifies administrative tasks. Rather than just signposting advice, uniquely this service interacts with the user to create tailor-made documents such as staff contracts, handbooks and essential policies.

In the podcast Simon talks about ways NAVCA members can maximise the benefit they get from Charity Builder - including increasing memberships, as local voluntary groups and community organisations can only access the site through a NAVCA member.

• Download the podcast (MP3, 4.45MB)
• Listen to the podcast on iPadio
• Visit the Charity Builder website

Third Sector Minister Angela Smith has launched Give with Care, a campaign to stop bogus charity clothing collections. The Association of Charity Shops estimates that between £2.5 and £3 million is lost to charities through theft and people mistakenly giving unwanted clothing to commercial companies in the belief that they are giving to charity.

NAVCA Chief Executive Kevin Curley wrote to the Minister welcoming the campaign. He said “We welcome the campaign and will promote it vigorously to NAVCA members and through them to local charities and community groups”.

Give with Care - letter from Kevin Curley to Angela Smith (Word, 13 KB).

In this podcast Kevin Curley, NAVCA’s Chief Executive, talks to Catherine Sermon about how NAVCA and BITC can work closer together. They talk about BITC’s CommunityMark, which publicly recognises excellence in community investment by businesses and how NAVCA members can find out about Companies in their area with the CommunityMark.

They also talk about how NAVCA members can get involved with BITC’s Give and Gain day, the UK’s only day dedicated to employee volunteering.

You can find out more about BITC, the CommunityMark and Give and Gain Day by visiting the BITC website.

• Download the podcast (MP3, 6.8MB)
• Listen to the podcast on iPadio

NAVCA has responded to the consultation on the NHS constitution. The consultation outlines and asks for comments on an extension of rights members of the public will have to a variety of NHS services.

Organisations that provide local community services on behalf of the NHS will have to take notice of the constitution and the rights to services set out within it. NHS services are increasingly being delivered by local third sector organisations and therefore, once agreed, the constitution will be relevant to a large number of organisations. As NAVCA’s members have connections with a large number and range of patient groups in local areas, they are ideally placed to help promote awareness of these new rights, how patients will be able to use them and what they should do if things go wrong.

NAVCA, in its response, makes specific recommendations about the proposed rights outlined in the consultation document. The response also particularly highlights the implications for the third sector and, where possible, specific implications and roles for NAVCA members.

• Read more information on the consultation
• Read NAVCA’s response to the consultation

For more information on the constitution and its implications contact Jon Burke.

SocietyGuardian has featured a roundtable discussion NAVCA led on the impact of the forthcoming public sector spending cuts on the local voluntary sector.

The feature recognises that many charities and voluntary groups are facing a double whammy: increased demand and yet severe funding cuts.

The session was chaired by Jane Dudman, Editor of Public and included representatives of NAVCA members, our national partners, local government and third sector funders.

• Read: Can the Third Sector do more with Less? Guardian roundtable discussion: published in the Guardian 10 February 2010

NAVCA’s publication Strong Independent Roots was launched today at a reception at the House of Commons.

Strong Independent Roots: speech by NAVCA Chieve Executive Kevin Curley (Word, 109 KB).

NAVCA Chief Executive Kevin Curley wrote to Third Sector Minister Angela Smith on 5 Februrary expressing NAVCA members’ concerns about the Vetting and Barring Scheme.

NAVCA members’ concerns about the Vetting and Barring Scheme (Word, 39 KB).

Kevin Curley’s introduction at the NAVCA Conference held on 3 February 2010 in Reading.

Shining on a Shoestring (Word, 115 KB)

On Wednesday 10 February there will be a full page feature in SocietyGuardian of a roundtable discussion NAVCA led on the impact of the forthcoming public sector spending cuts on the local voluntary sector.

The session was chaired by Jane Dudman, Editor of Public and included representatives of NAVCA members, our national partners, local government and third sector funders.

More details will appear on the NAVCA news pages on Wednesday