The Investment Fund will provide funding to voluntary and community sector organisations to work with Lewisham Council to find new ways of working that will support people to live independent lives, do the things that are important to them and play their part within their local community.

Applications need to be submitted by 20th January 2012.

VAL is planning to do another free short walking tour of the sector, stopping off at a range of voluntary sector projects that are based in the Forest Hill area. The tour will start outside Voluntary Care Centre offices (300 Stanstead Road, SE23 1DE) at 1.30pm on Friday 14th October. If you would like to register please email: jonathan@valewisham.org.uk

TV across the UK is going digital. This means the existing analogue TV signal will be switched off and replaced with a new, stronger digital TV signal.  The London TV region will start to switch to digital from 4 April 2012.

Voluntary Action Lewisham has been appointed by Digital Outreach to work with the voluntary and community sector in Lewisham during the run-up to the digital TV switchover by providing grants, materials, free training, support and guidance to enable you to help the people you support. Gary Davis will be helping front-line groups across Lewisham to support their more vulnerable clients in making the switch to Digital TV, which happens from April 2012.

We know that some people you support may be worried about the switch to digital TV. They will turn to a local organisation that they know and trust, such as yours, for information and advice. The core target groups are:

• Older people

• People who are socially isolated

• People with sensory, mobility or dexterity impairments

•  People who have mental health conditions

• People whose first language is not English

• People with learning difficulties.

What we can offer

• A Small Grants fund to help fund events, activities and initiatives that get switchover and Help Scheme information to as many people as possible.

• Free briefing sessions to enable your staff and volunteers to feel confident to give switchover and Switchover Help Scheme advice to people they support.

• Free leaflets and promotional material which you can use at events and activities.

To find out more about the project or to organise a briefing session, order leaflets and promotional material or the small grant scheme, please contact: Gary at gary@slcvspartnership.org.uk or 07877 768307

About the Switchover Help Scheme

The Switchover Help Scheme is run by the BBC, under an agreement with the Government to help older and disabled people make the change to digital TV. Every eligible person will be offered practical help to convert one of their TV sets to digital in the run-up to switchover in each region.

To find out more about the Help Scheme and whether you are eligible, visit helpscheme.co.uk  

About Digital UK

Digital UK is the not for profit organisation responsible for leading the digital switchover. To find out when you switch, and for more information about switchover, visit www.digitaluk.co.uk  or phone 08456 50 50 50.

About Digital Outreach
Digital Outreach Ltd (DOL) is one of the UK’s leading and most extensive providers of community outreach and engagement services. Digital Outreach has been appointed by Digital UK and the Switchover Help Scheme to deliver the community outreach programme by working with voluntary and community sector organisations throughout the UK.    www.digitaloutreach.org.uk

"well organised, speakers were excellent and covered areas discussed with passion and great insight"

Our Sector Conference, 22nd September, Catford

Post conference Information

Below you'll find information from Our Conference 22nd September including

• Power point presentations (Click on the links for Anne Power's Cooperation and the Localism presentations below)

"very interesting points of view from all the speakers. Excellent platform for ideas and sharing views. Thanks VAL!"

• Feedback and supporting material from the discussion sessions (see word documents below) 

• (Please note due to a technical problem we will not be able to include links to video of conference presenters at this time)
  

The use of Social Media within the Voluntary and Community Sector is just beginning. For many organisations and people this is a worrying time with a real concern that organisations will lose control of their identity.

There is a danger that organisations, or individuals within organisations leap in without any planning and that the entry into social media is disjointed and fails.

As part of the ICT Champion role, funded by NAVCA, a series of publications and workshops have been developed to support organisations as they start to consider using social media.

For more information: http://www.wmictchampion.org.uk/comms_strategy

Alongside the rest of the voluntary sector, we are preparing for the impact of public sector spending cuts as they start to come through.

Working with over 200 non profit organisations a year the Cranfield Trust have already seen a wide range of problems as a result of the recession and know that many voluntary sector organisations will face tough challenges as spending cuts start to bite.

The Cranfield Trust has 20 years' experience in providing free management and consultancy services to the charity and not-for-profit sector. They can help act decisively to manage key areas of concern and ensure you still reach the people that need you most.

Highly skilled business volunteers bring a fresh perspective and seasoned eye to tackling short term issues that will help provide long term stability. From cash flow analysis to staff restructuring a pool of over 600 experienced volunteers have the expertise to provide creative solutions where and when you need them most.

If you are struggling with any of the following:

• Managing cash flow
• Forecasting and scenario planning
• Setting appropriate performance indicators
• Reviewing strategy and business plans
• Retaining and managing staff resources
• Facilitating merger or collaboration talks

Then call now to arrange for free, professional support on: 0844 8003390

The Council will be moving its servers to a new data centre.  As a result no Council IT services or systems will be available from midnight on Wednesday 16 February until 8am Monday 21 February.

 The Council’s website will be affected with only a limited number of pages available.  It is also likely that e-mails will not be received by the Council during this period.  Anyone visiting the Council’s website at this time will however be able to see telephone numbers for the Council’s main services.  Telephone systems will not be affected.

The change to a new centre follows negotiation of a new service provider and contract. The new contract will result in a saving to the Council of £250,000 a year.

At the Shaping our Future conference, organised by the Stronger Communities Partnership, held on September 24th, Karl Wilding from NCVO gave the following presentation on the Big Society

More of Karl's presentations can be found on the Prezi site. A similar powerpoint based presentation entitled "Surviving or thriving in the Big Society?" can be found on the slideshare website.

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Budget Updates

There were a number of announcements in last weeks budget that will affect Voluntary and Community Groups. Rather than listing each one we have provided links to the analysis provided by a number of organisations:

NCVO

• NCVO | Budget 2010: How will it affect you?
• Third Sector Foresight | Implications of the budget

ACEVO

• ACEVO | Policy: George osborne delivers emergency budget
• ACEVO | Spending cuts and the emergency budget analysed on new cutswatch.org.uk website
• ACEVO | Cutswatch

Directory of Social Change

• DSC | Emergency budget 2010

j4b

• j4b | Emergency Budget 2010 – What It Means For The Community Sector

News Shopper

• News Shopper | LEWISHAM: Council outlines £60m cuts over three years

Direct Gov

• Direct Gov | Budget 22 June 2010
• Direct Gov | VAT - Value Added Tax
• Direct Gov | Income Tax and National Insurance rates for 2010-11

Future funding applications

When making funding applications remember two changes:

• VAT will rise to 20% on 4th January 2011
  

  The standard rate of VAT (Value Added Tax) will rise to 20 per cent from 4 January 2011. The current rate is 17.5 per cent.

• Employee and employer NI rates will increase by 0.5% in April 2011
  

  The government has announced that the employee, employer and self-employed rates of National Insurance contributions (NICs) will increase by 0.5 per cent from April 2011 in addition to the 0.5 per cent increase announced in 2008.

  There are also changes to the starting point for paying National Insurance and increases to the personal allowances. These may mean that some low-paid or part-time workers do not pay tax and/or national insurance.