Community Action Northumberland | CANNY News August 2011

'CANNY NEWS' bulletins are sent each month, between the quarterly hard copies of CAN News.
As always, if any of the information included might be of interest to your colleagues and friends, please forward this bulletin to them.
We also always welcome any feedback so feel free to contact us.

Contents
CAN's AGM
Office to Let
Village SOS Active Campaign
VCS Support Services
CiLCA - Certificate in Local Council Administration
Parish / Town Council Training
For the fifth time - Buried Treasurer found Alive!
Capital Fund for health and social care bodies
Sport England Inspired Facilities Fund
Comic Relief Community Grants
Protecting Community Assets
Open Public Services
Rural Policy Survey
Waste Collection & Disposal - VCS Premises
The U Northumberland
Emergency Rest Centres
Countryside Crèches
Forum Focus

CAN'S AGM
The Annual General meeting of Community Action Northumberland will take place on Thursday 3 November at 2pm in the Town Hall, Morpeth. The formal business will include consideration of the annual report and accounts, and the next steps will be taken to put in place the new governance arrangements, based on the CIO (Charitable Incorporated Organisation) legal structure.

This AGM will also be a celebration of our 60th birthday.

Our AGMs are open to all who are interested in CAN's work, regardless of formal membership.

Further details will be published later in September.

Office to let in Morpeth Town Centre
The office is on the first floor of Tower Buildings, our HQ in Morpeth, with views South towards Carlisle Park and is available to interested voluntary organisations.

The size is 10' 3" x 11' 8" - approx 119 sq ft (3.56m x 3.13m - approx 11.14 m²): sufficient room for one or two people together with their desks and other furniture.

Charged on a break-even basis, the offices in Tower Buildings are occupied by voluntary organisations which are happy to work together and share communal facilities such as the meeting-room, waiting room, WCs and kitchen.

Annual charges are approximately £1600 per annum (rent and services).
Contact Carol Megson at CAN on 01670 517178 or carolmegson@ca-north.org.uk

Village SOS Active Campaign
The Village SOS Active Campaign will give around 250 awards of between £10,000 and £30,000 to kick start community businesses that bring people together in villages across the UK and support activities and enterprises that will tackle the challenges they face. Application forms will be available from 24th of August.

Village SOS is a joint Big Lottery and BBC initiative to inspire and stimulate community-led action to undertake worthwhile local projects. A series of six TV programmes are taking place on Wednesday evenings on BBC 1 at 8pm, featuring a variety of projects, ranging from an artisan bakery in a renovated water mill, a centre for arts/heritage/library, a canal-side pub, and others.

Central to Village SOS is the www.villagesos.org.uk website, which offers a range of tools and information to help people bring their ideas for community business to life.

The website is backed up by an Advice Line, which is a single port of call for any question about setting up or running a community business in the UK. For free expert guidance call 0845 434 9123 or email advice@villagesos.org.uk.

Community Action Northumberland will be supporting Village SOS locally through ACRE, our umbrella body, any organisations interested in applying should go through the Village SOS website or helpline in the first instance.

VCS Support Services
A further two briefing papers have been produced by Connect4Change regarding plans for VCS support services in Northumberland.

To download the papers please go to our forum page.

CiLCA - Certificate in Local Council Administration
Congratulations to CAN colleague Norman Dunn on his attainment of the CiLCA qualification: the Certificate in Local Council Administration. CiLCA was originally designed for parish council clerks but it is also open to anyone with an interest in developing the effectiveness of their parish councils.

Norman began to compile his CiLCA portfolio last winter. He registered his application and submitted it in April. Following the initial assessment, here-submitted the four sections where improvements were needed, and he received confirmation of his success in July. Well done Norman!

Details of the CiLCA qualification are available from Louise Currie or by phone on 01670 500816.

Parish / Town Council Training
The following training events for all town/parish councils have been arranged;

Financial Management
Monday 12th September 2011
Tower Buildings, 9 Oldgate, Morpeth NE61 1PY

New Clerk / 'Refresher' Training
Monday 19th September 2011
Tower Buildings 9 Oldgate, Morpeth NE61 1PY

New Councillor / 'Refresher'Training
Thursday 15th September 2011
Alnwick Community Development Trust, Fenkle Street, Alnwick & Tuesday 20th September 2011, Hexham Community Centre, Gilesgate, Hexham NE46 3NH

The sessions will run from 7.00pm – 9.00pm and the usual charge of £5 per person will be made. If any individuals wish to take part in the training, please complete and return the booking form.

For the fifth time - Buried Treasurer found Alive!
MONDAY 26TH SEPTEMBER 2011 – 2.00pm-4.00pm (Venue to be decided)

The perennial chore of producing the year end accounts for the annual meeting has been banished for ever! No more searching for the treasurer under a mountain of paper! The BOSS Project's 'Easy Accounts' training has already set free dozens' of community group treasurers who have mastered (in less than an hour!) a simple computer programme which produces the annual statement of accounts in 30 seconds! Unbelievable? Read on.

Clerks of Parish and Town Councils - In the Autumn we will be also running a similar training event for you – watch out for details.

Capital fund for health and social care bodies
The Social Enterprise Investment Fund - Capital Growth Fund has now been launched. It offers capital grants to VCS bodies providing health, care and well-being services, of between £50k and £150k to aid land- purchase, property renovation or a number of other capital purposes. The closing date for application is very tight: 16 September. Grants have to be spent by the end of March 2012.

For more details visit the Social Investment Business website

Sport England Inspired Facilities Fund
The Inspired Facilities fund could help you refurbish or upgrade your sports facility; or convert an existing building into a venue suitable for sport and accessible to the whole community.
Community and voluntary organisations, including parish and town councils can apply for grants worth between £20,000 and £50,000. At least 70% of the available funding available is set aside for these groups with the other 30% available to Local Authorities.

Five funding rounds have been announced with the first one ending on the 28th of September 2011 and the final round in 2013 / 14.

Visit the Sport England Website for more details

Comic Relief Community Grants
Comic Relief is making grants of between £1,000 and £10,000 available to local projects that are addressing economic and social deprivation.

Priority will be given to small community and voluntary organisations in areas of disadvantage that have a clear understanding of the needs of their community.

The closing date for applications is 26 September and for this round only, they are aiming to spend at least 50% of the money available on projects that increase access to sport and exercise for people who face social exclusion and isolation.

Visit the Community Foundation website for more details and to apply.

Protecting Community Assets
As part of its 'localism' agenda, the government is exploring a number of ways to enable communities to safeguard the future of key premises, such as shops, garages, pubs, community centres, etc.

In addition to the 'Community right to Buy' provision, the DCLG is now consulting over ways to address the problem of businesses (usually breweries and pub companies) closing down the last pub in a locality and selling it with a restrictive covenant to prevent its continuation as a pub.

The consultation document can be seen here

Open Public Services
The Cabinet Office has published a White Paper 'Open Public Services' which sets out the Government's vision for the reform of central and local government service-delivery. The vision is based on five principles: choice, decentralisation, diversity, fairness and accountability. Overall, the proposals are very radical, which means they will be welcomed by some people, but will terrify others.

Chapter 4 on Neighbourhood Services is a concise (three pages) picture of current and some new proposals, including:

the Localism Bill's Community Right to Buy, Build and Challenge
asset transfers
safeguarding changes to VCS funding
local council takeover of certain principal authority services and regulatory functions
easing the creation of new local councils (in unparished areas)
reviewing the financial framework of local councils
neighbourhood planning
police-community 'beat meetings'
support for disabled people into elected office
community influence over neighbourhood budgets.

The White Paper itself can be viewed here

There is scope to contribute to a brief 'listening period' via a dedicated website (follow the link, above) until 30 September.

Further plans, for the implementation, will be published in November, with individual departments publishing progress reports from April 2012.

Rural Policy Survey
John Courouble, the Senior Policy Officer at the County Councils Network, is undertaking a part-time MSc in Public Policy.

This survey is part of an MSc dissertation examining how, and how effectively, rural policy is made in England, and how the circumstances of rural areas are taken into account in that process. It should take no more than 5-10 minutes. Please feel free to pass the link on to others you feel may be interested.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9DG8RXM

Waste collection and disposal – VCS premises
One of the ways in which the County Council supports local voluntary groups is to provide a free waste collection and disposal service for village halls, community centres, charities' offices and similar premises. The free service is available to low-waste generators: ie one general bin, and one recyclable bin. Those who need more bins have to pay for the service, albeit at a discounted rate for charities.

This service forms part of the County Council's household waste collection system. Household waste collection days have been reviewed, and any new collection days will be introduced from mid September.

THE U NORTHUMBERLAND
The U is the Young Foundation's newest venture in partnership with NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts)

The U Northumberland is the second of three pilot sites around the UK launching in 2011/2012,
offering fun, 90-minute learning sessions delivered by local volunteer Hosts.

The first Host Training event will take place in Hexham on Saturday the 10th and Sunday 11th September, followed by a dress rehearsal, which Hosts can attend either on the 15th or the 20th September.

The focus of the first key skills module is "Be a Lifesaver", teaching Hosts 7 key skills for responding to common medical emergencies. More information can be found on our website

Emergency Rest Centres
Crookham Village Hall has become the first designated 'rest centre' of its kind in Northumberland. Crookham responded to the County Council's call for village and community halls to sign up to offer space as a safe haven in the event of an evacuation during major incidents.

Rest Centres, which can be called into action during power outages, floods or any other incident which would require people to evacuate their homes, are usually used short term (less than 48 hours) and supported by staff working under the County's Civil Contingencies Rest Centre Guidance.

NCC are keen to recruit other village and community halls to provide the best possible coverage in the event of an emergency. For more information or to sign up please contact: Nigel Fisher, Civil Contingencies Officer on 01670 591208 or e-mail nigel.fisher@northumberland.gcsx.gov.uk

Countryside Crèches
Tynedale Women's Training Group (TWTG) provides advice, support and opportunities to women across the west of Northumberland.

It runs a social enterprise called 'Countryside Crèches' which provides a mobile crèche facility in order that parents and carers are able to access training, meetings, community events and social functions. The service operates throughout Northumberland with qualified, experienced and CRB cleared staff; it works to OFSTED guidelines and is competitively priced.

All toys, activity materials and equipment are provided. All profits are used to support the work of
Tynedale Women's Training Group.

For further details ring Janice Walker or Lynda Salvesen (01434 60674) or email twtg@hotmail.co.uk. Please leave a message if no-one is in the office.

Forum Focus

ESF Community Grants
Grants of up to £12,000 to groups undertaking activities to overcome barriers to training and employment.

43 Fund - Call for Applications (deadline 31/8)
Grants of £500 to £4,000 for amateur dramatic societies, amateur drama groups, amateur community theatre and amateur performing arts groups.

Heritage Lottery Fund Workshops
Wednesday 26 October 10:00am - 1:00pm at the Briardale Centre, Blyth, NE24 5AN

Holding back the Flood - Morpeth 2nd September
Event to raise awareness of how local communities can effectively engage with the planning system with regard to flooding

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