Guides and Toolkits
Fair Access to Care Services
Fair Access to Care Services (FACS for short) is a system for deciding how much support people with social care needs can expect, to help them cope and keep them fit and well. It applies to all the local authorities in England. Its aim is to help social care workers make fair and consistent decisions about the level of support needed, and whether your local council should pay for this. A leaflet is available here entitled Fair Access to Care Services (FACS) - Your questions answered
The Equality Act 2010
The Equality Act 2010 replaces the previous anti-discrimination laws with a single Act. It simplifies the law, removing inconsistencies and making it easier for people to understand and comply with it. It also strengthens the law in important ways to help tackle discrimination and inequality.
A quick start guide is now available which is intended to help employers understand how they can use new positive action provisions to improve diversity in their workforce when recruiting and promoting candidates. The new provisions come into force on 6 April 2011.
The Act protects people from being treated less favourably because they have a protected characteristic. The relevant protected characteristics in employment are:
- age
- disability (see page 10)
- gender reassignment
- marriage and civil partnership
- pregnancy and maternity
- race (including ethnic or national origins, colour and nationality)
- religion or belief (including lack of belief)
- sex
- sexual orientation
.
Commissioning and the Community Sector – a guide for voluntary and community sector organisations
NAVCA (the National Association for Voluntary and Community Action), as part of a partnership of voluntary and community sector organisations called Kindle, has published "Commissioning and the Community Sector: How community sector organisations can be ready for commissioning".
Follow this link to more information
Pathways through the maze: a FREE guide to procurement law
Help for charities to understand law of public sector contracting
NAVCA and NCVO have jointly published Pathways Through the Maze, the first comprehensive guide to procurement regulations written for voluntary organisations and community groups.
Pathways through the Maze – a Guide to Procurement Law, written by Anthony Collins Solicitors, aims to help voluntary groups understand the legal and practical issues of public sector contracting. It is free to download from the NCVO and Navca websites.
"With the sector playing an increasingly important role in public service delivery, the guide is an invaluable tool to help voluntary groups get to grips with what is often a complex process," said Kevin Curley, chief executive of Navca.
The guide is written specifically for people working for local charities, voluntary organisations, community groups or social enterprises.
Curley added that smaller organisations that did not have legal teams would find the guide particularly useful.
The guide was created in response to a high level of demand for information on procurement and commissioning processes from Navca and NCVO members.
The two umbrella bodies hope the guide will also increase the profile of charities and voluntary organisations in the public sector.
Pathways Through the Maze is essential reading for:
> Anyone in an infrastructure organisation who works with commissioning, procurement and public services.
> All voluntary organisations, community groups and social enterprises interest or involved in delivering public services.
> Public Sector commissioners wanting to improve their engagement with third sector organisations.
All NAVCA members will be sent a free hard copy and you can download an electronic copy at Pathways through the maze: A Guide to Procurement Law Download (PDF, 1.24MB)
Information in part from an article by Paul Jarvis, Third Sector Online, 30 October 2009
2 November 2009
WADES - Making waves against alcohol and drug abuse
WADES are a charity that provides Drug and Alcohol Education material free of cost.
Taking the alcohol and drug fight to schools, community groups and families
The charity began in the 1830’s and today the work has developed into education. It has adopted a non-judgemental approach to alcohol and drugs, offering accurate information about the effects that drugs and alcohol can have, without glamorisation or demonisation.
The educational work has developed into lesson plans written within the guide lines of the national curriculum ‘Primary Science’ Key Stage 2 (7-11) and ‘Exploring Drugs and Alcohol ‘Key stage 3 (11-14). These lesson plans have worked well with primary and secondary schools and community groups for young people.
The Family Manual ‘Protect my family’ from drug and alcohol abuse is for parents and carers providing at each stage of development guidelines to help keep their charges ( 4 years upwards) drug free. Our series of advice leaflets have been developed through the requests from Doctors.
Our plans this year is to continue developing our web site, complete the research and writing of Key Stage 4 Education pack, and write material for School Assembles. We are always searching for new areas where our material may be useful.
Our material is available to anyone on request. All the material is sent out on CD’s or by email for the agency, school or parent etc. to print as required.
This a brief outline of our work today. If you would like copies of our material or like to know more about us and our materials, including:
> Family Poster
> Advice Poster
> Key Stage 2 Poster
> Key Stage 3 Poster
> Worship Poster
Please contact Angela Bebbington. Western Alcohol and Drugs Education Society, Best View, Upton Lane, Dundry, Bristol BS41 8NS. Tel 0117 9644088 Email: wadeseducation@sky.com Reg. Charity No.207028
Tools for you
With the economic crisis creating an increasingly challenging funding environment for third sector organisations, being able to prove and improve the value of your organisation's work is more important than ever.
New Economics Foundation (NEF) this month launches tools for you, a resource that is designed to help development workers and frontline organisations navigate the world of social impact and quality measurement.
The tools for you booklet provides detailed summaries of more than 20 approaches and there is an accompanying tool decider and comparison chart to enable you to quickly weigh up the benefits of different approaches and choose the tool that best suits your needs
Hard copies of the tools for you booklet and accompanying tool decider and comparison chart are available for free from NEF. A handling and postage fee of £4 applies. To request a hard copy, email info@neweconomics.org You can also download the booklet and chart here or for more information, contact Eva at eva.neitzert@neweconomics.org
Code of Conduct For Company Directors/Charity Trustees
The new Companies Act is gradually rolling out and additional provisions come into force on October 1st. I (Daryl Martin – Independent Examiners) put out a summary a few months back. If you are a trustee of a company charity it might be worth reviewing a copy. I am working with 3 charities right now where there are significant conflicts of interest which need to be addressed. 2 charities working together with some trustees in common is not unusual. If you have a similar conflict of interest this could be a good time to review your situation. The time to do it is when relationships and trust levels are high. If they ever break down it’s much harder to address. We can still help but we are into damage limitation, and people start getting hurt. See our notes for further information. Follow this link to the Code of Conduct for Charity Trustees.pdf
Engaging young people toolkit launched
A Community Matters toolkit on engaging young people is now available. The toolkit will be given free to CM members and will cost £9.95 for non-members. The toolkit provides a range of ideas to meet the challenges of effective engagement with young people within a multi-purpose community organisation, and the opportunity to reflect upon and improve practices. A step-by-step approach is taken to getting the most out of young participation, both for the young people and for the organisation involved. There are 7 steps including mapping and researching, planning and consultation, monitoring and evaluation.
If you are interested in harnessing young people’s enthusiasm and promise in constructive and creative ways, this toolkit is for you. Tools and resources for each step are provided on a CD so you can reproduce or adapt them for use in group activities.
To order your toolkit, or for more information, please email your name, organisation, membership number, and address to: roz.ward@communitymatters.org.uk or call 020 7837 7887
Equality Matters - a good practice guide for small to medium sized voluntary or community sector organisations
'BIG is pleased to announce the arrival of ‘Equality Matters – a good practice guide for small to medium sized voluntary or community sector organisations'.
The guide is designed to help applicants think about equality issues and incorporate them into the planning of their projects, whether they are applying to BIG (or another funder) for a grant. It also sets out the equality standards BIG expects from grant-holders. The production of this guide is part of BIG’s drive to promote equality and maximise opportunities for people to take part in the projects we fund.
The guide, which is currently available for download on our website, has been produced with input from external stakeholders and will be reviewed in light of user feedback and then formally launched this autumn, when it will be published in hard copy format.'
Please follow this link to be taken to the guide: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/equality_matters.pdf
