NVSC - Newham Voluntary Sector Consortium
January 27, 2005
Vulnerable Adult Protection Legislation Revised
Government guidelines introduced in 2000 mean that organisations working with vulnerable adults must have an Adult Protection Policy. We report on the development of the Newham's Adult Protection Committee charged with implementing a multi-agency approach of policy development.
Often the first place a vulnerable adult may go to confide and ask for support in relation to abuse, the voluntary sector plays an important role in adult protection, with many agencies and groups having contact, and relationships of trust, with a vulnerable adult.
The term 'vulnerable' covers anyone who may not be able to look after themselves and their interests without support and includes a wide range of groups such as those with learning or physical disabilities, mental health needs, older people, people with serious or long term illnesses, refugees, and even substance mis-users.
Government Guidelines
In response to Government guidelines regarding the protection of vulnerable adults, Newham has established an Adult Protection Committee that has started work on a set of revised multi-agency Adult Protection Policy and Procedures. Requiring all relevant local agencies such as the police, care and health providers to work in partnership, the Committee is led by Social Services, with an Adult Protection Co-ordinator having responsibility for working with all relevant sectors and ensuring their participation in the process. Every Newham group that supports 'vulnerable' adults will be impacted by the changes that if not adhered to, may result in unsuccessful statutory funding applications.
The voluntary and community sectors have a key role in alerting, and reporting allegations of abuse to the appropriate agencies and may subsequently be required to co-operate with investigations. If a group receives statutory funding it will be expected to have an adult protection policy in place, as well as provide training and support to all their staff and volunteers in this area.
Draft Policy
An initial draft of the Newham Adult Protection Policy and Procedures was circulated to voluntary sector groups that attended a meeting called by NVSC and Healthy Living Network in September 2004. The general view of these groups was that the policy and procedures were complicated, confusing and left many unanswered questions about the role of the voluntary sector and the re-sourcing of training.
As a result of the comments made at this meeting, the policies and procedures are being rewritten and simplified. Once completed, the procedures will be put together in a manual that is hoped will be used for training purposes, with further information about training and relevant procedures for alerting and reporting available then.
Spring Launch
If the re-writing of the revised policies and procedures go according to the projected timetable, it is anticipated the manual will be launched in spring of this year.
By Alys Daines of Newham Healthy Living Network
Community Fund Restructure
The Big Lottery Fund has announced that it is to end grantmaking in England by its well established ‘Community Fund’ regional committees and regional offices.
Instead, grant assessment and grant awards will normally come from one of two new ‘operational centres’ in the Midlands and the North of England. The changes will take place ‘over the next two years’. However, the existing Community Fund grants schemes in England will continue to run unchanged at least until April 2005. For further information visit www.community-fund.org.uk.
Nationwide Foundation
The foundation focuses on tackling disadvantage and deprivation through: Volunteering programmes, which also have a focus on projects concerning children and young people leaving care, crime and justice.
Grants of up to £10,000 are available. For an application form and guidelines call 01793 655113 or see www.nationwidefoundation.org.uk for information.
Small Grants Awards
This scheme awards grants of up to £500 for innovative community based projects that empower homeless and ex-homeless people and are currently not receiving as many applications as they would like.
This means there will be a good chance of being successful as long as the criteria are met. The next deadline is April 15th. Call 020 7737 5500 or email:awards@groundwell.org.uk for more info.
Community Centre Grants
In the past 5 years the Lloyds TSB Foundation has given over £5 million to community centres including grants for kitchen refurbishments, new equipment and improving physical accessibility.
Visit www.lloydstsbfoundations.org.uk for more information.
B&Q Better Neighbour Grant
Through the Better Neighbour Grant Scheme, schools, community groups and charitable organisations can apply to their local B&Q store for funding to support community projects.
Funding of £50 - £500 in the way of materials (except electrical, gas and petrol items) is available. Each store has limited funds and applications must meet the criteria. Visit the B&Q website for more information.
Faith in Action
Held Tuesday November 30th nearly 400 people packed Stratford Town Hall to participate in Newham's first Multi Faith conference. The aim of the day was to develop a Faith Action Plan and explore ways in which people of different faiths could work together to address the social challenges facing Newham today.
Guest speakers included MP for East Ham and Financial Secretary to the Treasury Stephen Timms, Methodist Minister Ron Smith, Moulana Yunus Dudhwala, Multifaith Manager of Newham University Hospital NHS Trust and Monhinder Singh Cheena of the Sikh Federation. In his keynote address, Stephen Timms referred to ‘the vitality of faith in today's Britain’ and went onto say that in “21st century Britain, faith has more and more to say…"
Workshops - Delegates took part in workshops that focused on issues such as health, education, women in faith, youth culture, older people and the arts. Feedback from each workshop will form the platform of the Faith Action Plan that once completed will be submitted to Newham's Civic Partnership.
Sector Meetings - NVSC hold regular bi-monthly Faith Sector meetings open to all that consider themselves to belong to a faith group in Newham. Please see the Diary for further details.
Newham Equalities Feedback
In summer 2004, Newham Council held a consultation meeting to discuss its progress in delivering its Race Equality Scheme and the Equality Standard for Local Government action plans. Held at West Ham Football grounds, the meeting was hosted by Sarah Ruiz, NVSC Director.
Speakers included Valerie Brown - Race Equality in Newham (REIN) Director, with interactive voting and workshop discussions led by Councillor Neil Wilson- Mayoral Advisor for Social Inclusion & Equalities and Dave Burbage - the Chief Executive. The consultations aim was to discuss the Councils achievements delivered so far that promote equality of opportunity, and to welcome views and comments about future priorities. The information from the consultation is an important part of how Newham drives change to lead to visible improvements to the quality of life of Newham’s residents. Your views will continue to be sought in the future. For a copy of a full report please contact Nasim Patel at nasim.patel@newham.gov.uk or on 020 8430 3540.
Need a Caterer?
We are a small friendly efficient catering company specialising in cold fork and finger food buffets. We are happy to cater for events, meetings and AGM's.
We can cater to suit your individual tastes or preferences for business or private functions. Please contact us for more details and our full choice of menus and desserts. Email: ferialdesai@aol.com or call 07985668013 for info.
Community Learning Chest & Community Chest
Below are the Community Learning Chest and Community Chest successful applications for December 2004, showing the organisation name followed by the amount awarded.
Community Learning Chest
Black and Ethnic Minority Community Carers Forum £4,958.00
Deaf Roots £2,947.15
Disability Integration £4,170.00
Flanders Community Centre £3,700.74
Girassol Women’s Organisation £903.50
Newham Somali Homeworkers £3,848.00
Omega Community Living £4,069.00
Real Life Parenting Services Ltd £4,775.00
Roma Support Group £1,872.00
Theatre Venture £4,985.18
Urban Unity £3,891.00
Community Chest
African and Caribbean Voices £4,125.00
African Healthcare & Counselling Services £3,299.00
Ascension Community Trust £3,041.00
Beckton Activities Centres £4,092.40
Chandos Community Centre £2,331.47
Council of African Voluntary Organisations £3,560.00
Disability Intergration £3,252.00
East 13 Christian Trust £5,000.00
East 7 Film Project £1,438.00
East London Refugee Trust Ltd £3,999.00
East London Skills for Life £4,000.00
Flanders Community Centre £4,285.43
Forest Gate Times £4,814.98
FWOG Outreach Centre £2,794.00
Int. Swahili Pentecostal Church Community £3,530.00
Kann Kids £700.00
Latin Smile UK £3,611.50
Malayalee Ass. of the UK Trust (MAUKT) £2,040.00
Newham Somali Homeworkers £4,974.60
Omega Community Living £4,622.96
One World Foundation £4,988.00
Race Equality in Newham £2,510.00
Reform Corporation £2,270.00
SHPRESA £4,987.00
Tam Tam Tales Trust £4,367.00
The Unity £4,500.00
Upton Lane Cricket Club £3,700.00
Voluntary Sector Update
The agenda for the last Voluntary Sector Meeting seemed to set itself following items raised at the previous meeting. High up on the agenda was ‘How to Obtain Money from the Corporate Sector’, which had been discussed previously.
East London Business Alliance (ELBA) have agreed that they will run a session on Thursday 24th March as part of the sector meeting on this subject. The half day seminar will include case studies and presentations from Voluntary Organisations that successful obtained monies and contributions in kind from businesses and presentations from the private sector. Information will be distributed nearer the time.
I have also organised a Regeneration Tour for representatives from Voluntary Organisations on Wednesday 2nd February 9.30am – 12.00pm. There are important issues surrounding the changes that are happening in Newham and it was agreed that a regeneration tour would help answer questions people may have. Please contact me to book. I would like to take this opportunity to remind organisations that they are encouraged to carry out presentations at sector meetings on their organisations or specific projects they are running. The agenda for these meetings and the way in which they are run is the voluntary sectors responsibility. If there is an issue you would like included on a future agenda please do not hesitate to contact me.
I look forward to seeing you at the next meeting.
Corrine Hutcheson - Voluntary Sector Development Officer
Community Sector Update
Since the last Sector Meeting we have been working on addressing the issues raised at the last meeting in November 2004. For an overview of all issues please see the November Community Sector Bulletin.
1. Strengthening the Sector We have prepared a training programme - please see the Training Section for details. At the next sector meeting there will be a presentation on current training opportunities where training can be booked. Those unable to attend the meeting can complete the training questionnaire sent to all community groups with their invitations for forth coming sector meetings.
2. Representation of Community Groups at the Civic Partnership - It was established that there was some confusion in relation to the roles and responsibilities of the various parts of the LSP structure. A review is underway and Colin Watts will report back to us at the next sector meeting.
3. Funding - Over the past few months there have been three joint funding surgeries, organised with other small funders in Newham. Not all have been well attended and we will evaluate providing further surgeries. Ali Ahmed, NRF Grants Manager, NVSC will explain the appraisal process at the next sector meeting and give an overview of successful and unsuccessful projects and answer your questions.
4. Affordable Office Space & Venues - We will be researching community sector space in Newham with the help of ARVAC and Aston Mansfield. Groups interested in this should attend the next sector meeting. Please let me know if you are not receiving invitations to Community Sector Meetings or if you have changed your address.
Renate Ruether - Greaves - Community Sector Development Officer
Berlin Black Media Conference
Three Newham community groups attended the Black Press Conference in Berlin. BFM Communications, represented by Menelik and Priscilla, Radio Africa, represented by Ruth, and Mabe ya Mbila, represented by Koko. Funded by Community Chest via Newham Voluntary Sector Consortium, the trip was the brainchild of Renate, Community Sector Development Officer at NVSC.
Renate explained,
“...to encourage networking between European Black Media organisations and with British groups currently unrepresented in the annual event, I thought it would be a good experience for Black media groups from Newham to attend and meet with groups from all over Europe.”
The journey started at Stratford Centre where we took the coach to Stansted to catch the flight to Berlin. Arriving at Tegel airport 12.45pm Berlin time, we had a short sleep, then walked to the Berlin Haus der Kulturen der Welt, where the event was being hosted for registration and listened to the opening address by event organiser Michael Kueppers (for info: www.cybernomads.net).
Menelik and I attended the Black Media Congress in Berlin as part of a group of media organisations. We were representing Black Filmmaker Communications (BFMC), a social enterprise formed by Black Filmmaker Magazine to make the creative industries more accessible to Black & Ethnic minorities.
A three day event, the trip enabled us to network with similar agencies across the globe. On the second day, we set up our stall and put our magazines on display which is still the only magazine in the world to focus on black media and received much interest from native Berliners and the other visitors. We met some very interesting people from different sectors of the industry such as a South African filmmaker, a French actress, a US distributor and famous black artist Keith Piper from the UK.
We enjoyed the seminars and learned alot about the experience and interpretation of media internationally and how to compete in a global market. Rosemary Emodi, of the GLA, gave a particularly inspiring speech about how different countries are trying to connect together on the subject of the African Diaspora to improve equal opportunities in Europe. We came away from the last day having made key contacts and now friends with whom we have kept in touch. We also made our presentation and hopefully exposed people to the accomplishments of black people through the magazine and how we can learn to create our futures in media by building a strong network, taking advantage of new technology and getting funding from the appropriate places.
We left Berlin happy in the knowledge that we increased awareness of films and media in a German black community, but lacked cultural fabric. The Congress left us with the sense of achievement made by black people on a global scale and how to plan a path of progress.
Story told by Priscilla Igwe, Menelik Shabazz & Koko Kalambay Kayibi.
FREE online community workshop to be won!
Etribes is offering charity subscribers of DSC e-news the chance to win a FREE workshop to help you decide if an online community will work for your organisation.
Issues covered will include: membership, community tools, rules, legal issues and on-going management. To enter email your contact details, plus why you are interested in creating an online community, to competition@etribes.com by 24 January 2005. See www.etribes.com/competition.
Have you seen NVSC’s Online Diary?
For up-to-date information on events, training and to be in the know, check out NVSC’s 'online diary'.
Contact Renate to publicise your event.