Unshackling Good Neighbours

Today's All Party Parliamentary Group on Civil Society and Volunteering covered Lord Hodgson's report on Unshackling Good Neighbours. The full document can be found on the Cabinet Office website. Particularly intriguing is the list of 20 things that you can do without permission!

The report details over 600 examples under three headings:

What stops people volunteering?

What stops people giving money?

What stops charities growing?

Taking each of these in turn. The main issues around volunteering around risk of litigation, the perceived need for insurance, the CRB process and the myth that volunteering impacts on benefit claims. A couple of actions have been implemented - especially around standardising insurers approaches to insuring volunteers - and displaying posters in Job Centres to spell out that volunteering does not in fact impact on benefits.

There is a public attitude to risk which inhibits organisations. A prevailing presumption of failure ties services in knots with ever more detailed risk assessments and preventative plans. There is a need to differentiate between systemic failures and random events.

Giving is inhibited in part by local authorities attitudes to licencing eg of collections, non-standard regulations around lotteries and a need to find a way to encourage social investors who may seek a return on their money, which would then be reinvested.

Not all charities will want to grow - and where their focus is local then why press the matter. Regulatory overlap is a big inhibitor. A hospice might well be subject to 11 different regulators and servicing their needs increases back office costs. Regulators overlap eg OFSTED ask about health and safety and CRBs.

Withdrawal of cheques would have impacted on smaller charities - where two cheque signatories are required and financial controls would have been difficult. However, the decision to stop cheques has been reversed.

Commissioning approaches have also caused problems - and the costs of participating in tenders needs to be restricted and commensurate with the size of the tender. Equally monitoring arrangements need to be lighter where smaller figures are involved, and remain consistent throughout the term of the service delivery.

Paul Emery then presented a new innovation - My Community Starter - an online tool for groups providing end to end solutions to setting up community groups. The process can be completed in about an hour - at the end of which all the governance documents needed can be downloaded. There have been over 14000 unique visitors to the site to date. Zurich are behind this, though their insurance is not pushed. Even though they have a £75 insurance package providing £5m of cover for upto 50 volunteers.

A really interesting meeting - and I saw Andrew Marr in the corridor!

I am very interested in testing the My Community Starter approach for small organisations - please get in touch if this is something that you need, and we can test it together.

IT Health Check

Flourishing are exploring the development of a new service - an IT health check for your organisation.

The starting point will be a series of questions about your existing systems. This will include telecoms, data management, social media and so forth.

Then we will explore with you the ways that effective IT could enhance your organisation and assist you in achieving your objectives. This is likely to be an iterative process involving staff and volunteers, as well as discussions with your users or beneficiaries.

We will produce a costed set of recommendations - alongside potential funders to approach to achieve the changes we suggest.

Finally, we will work with you to develop funding applications, and to manage any changeovers from one system to another. This could include training for key staff if need be.

If this is of interest to you - please contact us to discuss.

Olympic Truce - an update

Here are a few notes prepared for the Olympic Steering Group in Barnet.

There are fabulous opportunities for local faith and community groups to get involved. Open up your doors to show the events on big screens - turn it into a community event, and show hospitality to the people in your area. The BBC have confirmed that they will be showing every minute of the games.

Olympic Truce

The Olympic truce was a time when conflicts would cease so that athletes could travel safely to compete in the Olympic games.

London Borough Faiths Network are suggesting that local boroughs could take the concept of the Olympic truce and use it as a banner for initiatives that bring faiths together, resolve conflicts and achieve peaceful outcomes. Rather in the manner of Inter-faith week - each borough would develop responses that work locally.

The Truce is something that LBFN members can relate to because it naturally brings religious groups and the public sector (community safety, police, youth services, domestic violence teams, schools, etc) together towards the same end.

Each nation hosting the Olympics declares the truce through its parliament. The truce is expected to run for 100 days starting on 9^th June 2012.

Activities so far in Barnet

ü Participated in LBFN meetings on the subject – including one in September with Duncan Green.

ü Briefed the Barnet Multi-faith Forum, who are now considering their activity.

ü Briefed CYPNet.

ü Met with More than Gold Director – and identified local contact.

ü Briefed the Barnet SCB – Faith and Culture sub-group

ü Briefed Lucy Somali.

Resources

Duncan Green has said that there will be a Faith 2012 Inspire pin badge and logo available to tag faith activities inspired by the Olympics. The requirement is that they must be open to the community (of all and no faith) and not evangelical. There should be a clear benefit to the community. Applications close at the end of September.

Get Set is a programme of resources for schools to pick up the Olympic theme. There are activities for all ages from 3 to 19 years, as well as fact sheets and advice for educators.

More than Gold – mobilizing churches to offer hospitality, open events screening Olympic events, schools resources etc. The community festivals model is promoted with accompanying training to deliver these effectively. The local contact for Barnet is also part of the Copthall Stadium development team. To date one of Barnet’s towns is picking this up actively. (KW in contact, and attending a More than Gold event in Watford on 19^th October 2011)

Visit Jewish London – website for visitors and athletes developed with the Jewish Volunteer Network.

Faiths Forum for London are getting involved. (KW linked to this)

Oasis Community Learning – developing a 100 days of peacemaking programme with a logo for branding local activities. Resources will be made available – and the challenge put out “what can you do?” This is part of their schools work around the Restoring Peace theme, and is endorsed by the UK government. (KW following up the link)

London Boroughs Faith Network are co-ordinating local grassroots faith responses, and disseminate information through their blog. A sub-group is due to meet with the Home Office to discuss the involvement of faith groups with Olympic activities (KW is a member of the LBFN, and part of the group to meet the Home Office)

Piece of Gold – private companies to sponsor Lego bricks to be loaded onto a trailer and taken to different locations for communities to construct

Local activities for Barnet?

Prior to the games:

- Hospitality and volunteer stewards from faith communities along torch route.

- Mill Hill School is the pretraining venue for archery and hockey.

- Barnet Multi-Faith Forum are planning an event to promote the truce concept (details to be agreed) (KW briefed them on the event and JG attended the LBFN)

During the games:

- Opening faith and community venues to show televised Olympic events

o Co-ordinate and publicise

o Existing venues with large screens and PA systems

- Schools project work, highlighting existing resources

- Commissioning summer 2012 youth activities through Futureversity, and sports activities for other age groups through the small grant and Milly Apthorp programmes

- Concerted efforts to tackle hate crime and promotion of third party reporting through faith communities

- Multi-faith prayer walks around crime hotspots in the borough

- New community safety initiatives

- Gun and knife amnesties

- Peace festivals – or theming the local community festivals around peace, using Boris’ bunting

- Support for Street Pastors work in areas of conflict

- Taster events to provide residents with the opportunity to try Olympic sports.

After the games:

Dates for regional activities open to the public

21^st September 2011 – Peace One Day – celebration at the O2 arena, London – a 365 day countdown

21^st December 2011 – POD concert in Istanbul – 9 month countdown

21^st March 2012 – POD concert in the US – 6 month countdown

2^nd – 5^th June 2012 – Queen’s Diamond Jubilee

9^th June 2012 – multi-faith celebration in Trafalgar Square, to launch 100 days of peace. Showcasing activities where GB is active, but there is more to do. The aim is to mark the beginning of the truce as part of the Olympic event. Could include:

A gun and knife amnesty

Interfaith relationships

International development

The Northern Ireland experience

21^st June 2012 – Opening of the London 2012, POD festival and Derry/Londonderry 3 month countdown

14^th - 15^th July – Interfaith walks across London supported by the The South London Interfaith Group.

21^st – 26^th July – Torch is overnight in Walthamstow, Bexley, Wandsworth, Ealing, Haringey and Westminster.

27^th July – 12^th August – Olympic Games

29^th August – 9^th September – Paralympic Games

21^st September 2012 – Peace One Day concert in the Olympic stadium, headlined by Elton John

There will be a post games, multi-faith, celebration event as the truce is handed on to Brazil for 2016.

NB:

The 40^th anniversary of the Munich 1972 tragedy will be marked during the games.

Ramadam falls from 21^st July to 20^th August 2012.

Other activities planned by London Boroughs

St Johns church in Waterloo is reflecting on aspects of war as the bicentenary of the battle of Waterloo is not far off. In 2012 the focus is on war and peace. From 13^th to 17^th July there will be a festival with a youth slant to it, including exhibitions, debates and a commissioned piece of music drawing on texts from different faiths on the subject of peace.

The East London Mosque is developing a programme to challenge Islamaphobia in sport, and also knife crime.

Restoredrelationships are a Christian organisation addressing domestic violence, and plan to raise the profile of this issue under the Olympic truce banner.

Sikhs in the City will have multi-faith teams running in relay across all boroughs in the first and second weeks of January 2012 – finishing in Stratford at the Olympic stadium. They are a worldwide group, organizing multi-faith relay races for men and women.

The Lambeth Mediation Service are deploying their Peace Ambassadors, recently involved in post riot facilitated dialogue.

Greenwich multi-faith forum and local involvement network (LINk) have merged in response to cuts in funding. So their focus is on health and wellbeing across the faiths, with a sports focus for 2012.

Nominated torchbearers

Approx 30 torchbearers crossing Barnet, perhaps 8 will be local residents

Mark Healey – Green Man Community Centre, East Finchley – also LGBT work

Sally Dryden – St Barnabas Church, Woodside Park – community work

ASEND

For the last couple of months I have been working with a colleague, Barbara Ball, to set up a new organisation - ASEND.

ASEND is a one stop shop for schools, colleges, nurseries etc looking for assessment, support and training to provide for disabled and SEN children and young people.

We are recruiting SENCOs, educational psychologists, speech and language therapists, advisory teachers, CAMHS professionals and many others with skills and experience to work as multi-agency teams supporting schools to deliver high quality support.

A lot of work has gone on behind the scenes - and www.asend.co.uk has now been launched. We have publicity materials for schools and advisors, as well as thorough procedures to ensure that we deliver focussed and effective services for our clients.

This week we will be at the TES SEN exhibition - talking to schools and potential advisors about our service. Look out for us!

Safeguarding Award

Wow!!

Some of my work has been nominated for an Emerging Best Practice in Safeguarding award. The results will be announced at the London Safeguarding Children Conference on 5th December 2011.

Over the past 18 months I have been working for Barnet on a Pan London project to increase awareness of safeguarding issues in faith and BME communities.

Scroll to the end of the attached link to see details of the nomination.

AidExcel launches with the support of Barnet's mayor

Just a short post with a photo of Faith, Director of AidExcel Support Services - with Karen and Simon, and Mayor Lisa Rutter, with her husband.

A really great launch event for this fabulous organisation supporting BME parents of disabled children in the London Borough of Barnet.