‘Ears to the Ground’ is a new quarterly feature that we will be posting here on the Involve Yorkshire & Humber blog.
Our trustees represent our membership and they are an experienced and sharp bunch of people! So we know that what’s pressing their button will be of interest to you.
At each board meeting, we’re asking for their ‘hot topic’, so that we can share it with our wider readership. We hope this new feature will be informative, sometimes fun, and always useful for its finger on the pulse.
We’d be interested to hear your comments. If you want to take anything further, join in the discussion or hear more about about an Ears to the Ground topic, please post your comments in the box below.
The topics below were raised at the July 2013 Involve Yorkshire & Humber Trustee Board meeting.
Jan Novitsky – Jan identified the loss of a ring-fenced budget to local authorities for family learning – parents, children, carers etc. NIACE has been gathering evidence and has established an independent inquiry into family learning, under the chair of Baroness Valerie Howarth. The inquiry is due to launch in October 2013.
Mandy Wilson – Following an audit of what residents want to see in their village, a community group has set up its own playscheme, mainly using volunteers. The scheme has a venue space and playing field donated from a local cricket club in South Yorkshire.
Mandy was recently interviewed on Radio 4 about localism. So far there are only three neighbourhood plans approved in the country and these recognise the long term support that is needed to get this far – but for how much longer will support be available?
Janet Wheatley – Working on VCS solutions to integrated care and helping to get people out of hospital and prevent emergency admissions. Read more about Rotherham Social Prescribing Service.
Mark Gamsu – Involved in two rapid intelligence projects in Sheffield and Wakefield looking at how voluntary sector perspectives and knowledge can be sit alongside statistics used by Joint Strategic Needs Assessments and commissioners. The Sheffield projects have looked at food poverty and food banks; the Wakefield projects at vulnerable families and children. Each used social reporters to gather evidence about voluntary sector work in these areas.
Jim Steinke – Involved in a national project with six voluntary sector agencies, bidding together to the Home Office for consolidated advice and guidance services for asylum seekers. This is a new model of service and a new mindset. It sets a challenge to national organisations about which is the best level of delivery. The VCS is in competition with private sector organisations.
Jan Novitzky – Identified the loss of a ring-fenced budget to local authorities for family learning – parents, children, carers etc. NIACE has been gathering evidence about this for launch on NIACE website soon.
Casey Morrison – The National Trust, which works with 70,000 volunteers, has developed a streamlining support system using volunteer self-management (rather than being managed). It plans to save millions of hours in administration time across 300 sites by 2015, allowing people to book their volunteering on laptops, tablets and smartphones.
Gil Chimon – Introduced the ‘Who will love me when I’m 64?’ report:
- A network of good quality relationships is important in all stages of life, but particularly in later life as they benefit physical and mental wellbeing.
- Relationships have been missing from the current debate around ageing society.
- There are three pillars to a good later life – health, financial security and good personal relationships
- The government has no coherent cross departmental strategy to deal with our rapidly ageing society. Read the full report here
Jan Thornton – DetroitSoup.com is a monthly dinner funding micro-grants for creative projects in Detroit, with participatory budgeting at $5 each. The concept is taking off across the US. Jan noted that there are some similar things in Yorkshire & Humber, but asked; how can we take an idea like this, and expand it, or give it a wider platform? Speakers corners?
Jan also reported on the MPIG Minimum Practice Income Guarantee for GP practices in rural areas, which will start to be phased out from 2014. It was established to offset the rurality of some GP surgeries. The proposed replacement scheme will take the pot of cash and share it out across all GP surgeries. 38 degrees are campaigning against the changes.
Please do share your comments in the box below – we’d love to hear what you think of our new Ears to the Ground feature.
