Notice Board

CRB Checks for Volunteers
In June, the Office of the Third Sector released guidance to make clear what groups using volunteers need to do about Criminal Records Bureau checks. This is intended as a reply to concerns that some volunteers are being put off by the CRB check process. Obviously, organisations do need to manage risks in people doing voluntary work with children or vulnerable adults and there are some legal requirements but this new guidance tries to explain where a formal CRB check fits with other steps such as interviewing, training and getting references.
Link: Guidance on CRB Checks for Volunteers (pdf)
Link: Criminal Records Bureau

Third Sector Survey
The Office of the Third Sector is carrying out a Third Sector Flexibility Survey addressed to third sector organisations that are currently delivering public services or have been involved in their delivery in the last 12 months. The survey is a follow up to the Cabinet Office publication “Excellence and Fairness: Achieving world class public services”. Through it the Office for the Third Sector aims to improve its understanding of what supports and drives innovation in Third Sector public service delivery.  If your organisation is currently involved or has been involved in public service delivery in the last 12 months, please take the time to complete the survey and return it by 8 September 2008. Click here to complete the survey. Please return this survey even if it is incomplete. All answers are valuable.
Link: Cabinet Office - Third Sector Survey

'Bye 'Bye Ruth
MACC's Children and Families worker Ruth Craven is to leave us in mid-August. She's going to work for a organisation that provides support to the Vietnamese community in Cambodia. I know I speak on behalf of all of us at MACC that she will be greatly missed both as a colleague and a friend. During the last three years she has done a great deal to increase the participation and influence of the voluntary and community sector in the children and families agenda and has earned the respect of colleagues in both the voluntary and statutory sectors. We wish Ruth all the very best for the future and the exciting challenges which lie ahead.
Mike Wild, Director of MACC

Manchester Infrastructure Support Survey
Manchester City Council has launched a consultation survey on the support services currently available for voluntary and community sector organisations. These are currently being provided by Novas Scarman Trust   The information provided will identify how the current service is being used and gaps in provision - which will shape the tender for the new contrct for this work. MACC strongly encourages all local voluntary sector organisations to take part in this survey: there is a clear need to develop the range of support available to the sector and this is the big opportunity to communicate that message to the people who commission the service. Follow the link below to take part. The deadline is 30th September 2008.
A hard copy of the questionnaire can be downloaded from the City Council website or is available from: The Third Sector Team, Corporate Performance Group,  Manchester City Council,  PO Box 532, Manchester M60 2LA   tel: 0161 234 3141.
Link: City Council Infrastructure Support Survey

Urgent Care in Central Manchester
Manchester Primary Care Trust, working with Central Manchester Practice Based Commissioning Group and Manchester City Council, is developing a full specification for urgent care services in Central Manchester. They are asking providers including the voluntary and community sector to contribute to the "design stage" - this will ultimately shape the service specification. If you're interested in contributing to this, you should contact the Greater Manchester Commissioning Business Service (link below) by 20th August 2008.
Download: urgent_care_reform.pdf
Link: Greater Manchester Commissioning Business Service
Link: Manchester PCT - Urgent Care Programme

Every Organisation Matters: mapping the children and young people's VCS
The National Council of Voluntary Child Care Organisations (NCVCCO) and the National Council for Voluntary Youth Services (NCVYS) have recently published new research mapping the size and scope of the children and young people’s voluntary and community sector. The executive summary, full report and press release are available to download from NCVCCO's website:

Link: NCVCCO

Towards a strategy to support volunteering in health and social care
"Consultation Workshops” at the Gujarat Centre (GHS Enterprise Ltd), Preston on the 8th September 2008. The Department of Health recognises that volunteering plays a huge potential role in the context of more flexible, responsive and patient-focused health and social care services.  This consultation exercise is designed to discuss and debate the five key elements of the “Towards a strategy to support volunteering in health and social care document”

• Support for individual volunteers
• Effective management within organisations
• Commissioning environment and infrastructure
• Promoting partnership
• Leadership
  

Capacity Building Support to develop partnerships
Are you a voluntary and community sector organisation that works with children, young people or families? Would you like to improve your sustainability and increase your profile? Do you currently work collaboratively with other VCS organisations or would you like to develop closer working with other organisations? If you answered YES to all these questions then please read on....
MACC is offering practical, tailor-made capacity building support to voluntary and community organisations that wish to work together and develop their collaborative working.  We recognise that developing partnerships and making them work effectively can be challenging and time-consuming. We have a Business Improvement Budget, with which we can buy in expertise and practical support to help you to develop your partnership ideas.
We will be offering this service for the remainder of 2008-09. Due to the limits this places on our time and resources, we will only be able to offer this service to groups who have already identified potential or existing partners that they wish to develop their relationship with. For further details contact Alison Tansey at MACC for further information (alison@macc.org.uk or call 0161 834 9823).

Consultation on GP out of hours services in Manchester
Manchester PCT is planning to re-contract for the provision of GP services which operate outside normal opening hours. They have set up a short online survey to gather views on some of the key ways the new provider should operate. To take part, please click on the link below.
Link: Out of hours survey

The Children's Plan
The Children's Plan is a ten-year vision to make this country a better place for children and young people. It aims to raise attainment and aspirations for this and future generations, closing gaps in educational achievement and ensuring standards of educational excellence for everyone.  The aim of the Plan is to:

• strengthen support for all families during the formative early years of their children’s lives
• take the next steps in achieving world class schools and an excellent education for every child
• involve parents fully in their children’s learning
• help to make sure that young people have interesting and exciting things to do outside of school
• provide more places for children to play safely.
  

A beginners guide to children and families workforce development (Aug 07)
Produced by NCVCCO and Homestart this publication is for individuals and organisations that are uncertain about what 'workforce development' means in relation to children's services.  This booklet introduces the main features of the children's workforce development agenda and explains why these are important.  It concentrates on the basics but includes information about where to go to find out more.

Link: Download the report from NCCVO (pdf)