Councils around the country are gearing up for this year’s local democracy week, which takes place from Monday 13 to Sunday 19 October. Resources on offer from the LGA include a resource pack for citizenship teachers, featuring successful lesson ideas from up and down the country, and advice on how to hold political speed dating sessions, mock elections and more. Councils can order the information packs from Ben Dudley, the LGA’s local democracy week co-ordinator, by emailing ben.dudley@lga.gov.uk. There is also a wealth of information online at http://localdemocracy.lga.gov.uk

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6 October 2008
© LGA

Senior civil servants and sector figures agree that more collaborative working, alliances, acquisitions and mergers in the sector are inevitable in the current economic climate, according to Stephen Bubb, chief executive of Acevo. Bubb was speaking after an ‘away day’ he helped to organise last Friday that brought together 14 permanent secretaries of Government departments, cabinet secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell and 15 prominent Acevo members.

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1 October 2008
© Paul Jump, Third Sector Online

Communities Secretary Hazel Blears will this week outline plans to make it easier for more people, from all walks of life, to volunteer for key roles in their local community. Ms Blears wants to modernise the list of activities that entitle people to time off from work to better reflect the kind of roles available and encourage more people to participate - also helping to widen the pool of skills, expertise and experience available. Magistrates, school governors and members of health bodies or police authorities already have time off entitlements. But Hazel Blears wants to take a fresh look at whether this should be extended to other roles to better reflect modern life and the needs of local communities.

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25 September 2008
© Communities and Local Government (National)

The event – for both children and adult services colleagues already familiar with an outcomes approach – will consider how councils might use an outcome-focused approach to drive local area agreement priorities. There will be an opportunity for councils to share their experience of what really drives better outcomes, to consider the value of local and community report cards and to hear from other councils who have begun to embed the ‘outcome based accountability’ thinking both in the planning and delivery of children’s services. Date: 5 November 2008. Duration: 10 – 15.30. Location: Holiday Inn, Coram Street, London, WC1N 1NT. Cost: free. For any queries, please contact:
Janine Dancey, telephone: 020 7296 6816, email: janine.dancey@idea.gov.uk

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24 September 2008
© IDeA

IDeA have commissioned a new report on measuring equality at a local level to help authorities gather equality data. Measuring equality at a local level - the full report (PDF, 63 pages, 599KB): http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/aio/8850673 The new comprehensive area agreements (CAA) will specifically test outcomes of ‘how well inequality is being addressed’. To tackle these issues, councils will need to demonstrate they know their communities. They will need to understand both their local community profiles and key ‘equality gaps’ often experienced by different communities. Councils will therefore need to understand national equality data and where this can be supplemented by local data sources. Accessing and analysing this information will be crucial to delivery on a number of key national indicators. The report clarifies the need for high quality equality information across the sector. It informs local partners of the availability of equality information in a wide range of data sources at a national and local level.

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22 September 2008
© IDeA

The Government began the biggest ever survey of the voluntary sector today. Around 104,000 not-for-profit organisations in England are being invited to respond to its inaugural National Survey of Third Sector Organisations . The results will be used to assess how well local authorities are promoting the voluntary sector.

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17 September 2008
© Paul Jump, Third Sector Online

The government has unveiled plans to give residents more say over how the £1.5bn working neighbourhoods fund is spent as part of wider efforts to increase community influence on public spending. The proposal was included in a national strategy launched this week alongside 12 participatory budgeting pilots, also known as community kitties. Ministers believe increased public involvement on crucial spending decisions will help overcome political cynicism, as well as helping councils meet their new duty to involve residents. It has yet to be decided how local people will be engaged in setting priorities for spending on worklessness, or whether they will be able to directly control a portion of the funding. Such issues are likely to be clarified in forthcoming guidance. Most of the 12 pilots named this week are being led by councils, but ministers are looking at how the model could be taken on board by other parts of the public sector.

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18 September 2008
© NewStart

The biggest challenge ahead for the new asset transfer unit is to persuade councils in England that handing over disused public buildings to communities will help them achieve their objectives, according to Hazel Blears. The communities minister told New Start asset transfer ‘must be connected with what people care about like jobs and homes and support for people in their neighbourhoods’. Her comments came after she announced the Development Trusts Association (DTA) would lead the unit with support from the Local Government Association and national federation Community Matters. The unit, which was first announced in the community empowerment white paper in July, will provide advice to residents and councils by drawing on lessons learned from the successful transfer of 20 buildings to local organisations.

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17 September 2008
© NewStart

This guide is published jointly by NAVCA, IDeA and Urban Forum with the support of the National Empowerment Partnership to provide information on how local authorities work and what they are responsible for. It is designed to help people understand what their council does and help community groups have a greater say in local decision making. It provides essential information to help citizens and groups make the most of opportunities to influence decision-making and hold their council to account.

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13 September 2008
© NAVCA

Building on a recent report on achieving world class public services, the government’s Cabinet Office and HM Treasury are surveying third sector providers on their innovation in public service delivery. They want to reach organisations that are currently delivering public services or have been involved in their delivery in the last 12 months, with responses due by 8th September.

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© VoluntaryNews

26 August 2008