VS6 Assemblies Video
Earlier this year VS6 published their Assembly Summary Report “Building Back Better with the VCFSE Sector in Liverpool City Region”. The report summarises the key findings and recommendations from four assemblies held throughout 2020 to understand the impact of COVID-19 on the sector and specific community groups and topics including:
Following the success of the Assemblies, VS6 have produced this explanation video to promote both the Assembly Reports, and highlight the effectiveness of the assembly format as a way to engage with the sector at such a crucial time, despite social distancing barriers.
Please take a look and feel free to share it amongst your networks and media:
The VS6 Assembly Reports and associated recommendations have been essential to the conversations they have had with the LCR Combined Authority and have formed the foundations to their LCR VCFSE Manifesto, to which Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram has committed to.
VS6 will continue to engage with the VCFSE sector to understand the needs of the sector and their communities so that they can continue to represent the sector in their work with the LCR Combined Authority and with their partners from the public and private sector across the region.
Please keep an eye out for their next events by following them on Twitter @vs6news and regularly checking their website for the latest news.
Digital Jobs Training
Lockdown and increased home working and learning has meant an increase in the digitalisation of our lives. This has meant that many jobs have changed how they work and so many people are needing to upskill their personal digital skills in order to enter the job market.
Leap, have listened to these issues and are offering free training in new skills for people whose lives have been impaced by the pandemic. The aim is to help them enter digital and creative jobs. Leap ofers short, felxible modules, which are taught online and therefore can be accessed from anywhere.
MORE INFORMATION HERE.
Skills for Growth Programme in Greater Manchester
The aim of the Skils for Growth programme is to provide an up-skilling service to VCSE organisations across Greater Manchester. This programme can be tailor-made with the ambition to help improve productivity across the workforce, which in turn will help your organisation to prosper.
What your organisation can expect:
Develop your team with skills
Maximise future growth
Reshape your organisation
Improve your team’s wellbeing
Funding your growth
Support for individuals is also available to:
Explore training providers and grow skillset
Help maximising opportunities
Guidance improving your CV
Develop interview techniques
Skills for Growth is delivered by Growth Company (GC) Business Growth Hub with GMCVO and funded through the European Social Fund, which is commissioned by GMCA.
MORE INFORMATION HERE.
Donations & Fund Reporting Webinar
The Civil Society hosted a webinar at their Spring Summit exploring ‘Donations and Fund Reporting: how to do it right to protect your charity today and into the future’.
Their focus is on how to digitise fund reporting, including the practicalitiies and how to ensure your processes are efficient and SORP compliant. These are all vital, due to the high levels of accountability in fund reporting and the need to comply with all the rules.
Watch the webinar here
From This to That: Changes in the NHS
Confused about the upcoming NHS reconfiguration? Too many acornyms?
VSNW have produced a resource to help extrapolate key information relevant to the sector in light of the upcoming changes as outlined in the Whitepaper.
Click on the image below.
Civil Society Donations & Fund Reporting Webinar
If you missed Civil Society’s Spring Summit, they hosted a webinar exploring ‘Donations and Fund Reporting: how to do it right to protect your charity today and into the future.”
The Green Bullet April 2021
The latest Green Bullet is now available to read. The intention of the Green Bullet is to connect and support networks of voluntary, community and public sector organisations in the region across issues pertaining to the environment.
It contains environmental campaign information, general information, publications, events, resources, consultations and funding.
Women & Covid-19: An IPPR North Report
‘Women in the North: Choosing to Challenge Inequalities’
The latest IPPR North report, written by Amreen Qureshi & Sarah Longlands, was released at the end of April 2021. Their premise for the report circulated around wanting to investigate how women have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. They have taken an intersectional approach to the investigation, which encompasses the impact of pre-existing economic and social inequalities in combination with the disproportionate impact of corona on women. Their view is that the pandemic has further exacerabted pre-existing inequalities across the North for women.
What has been the impact?
Women are more likely to earn less and save less
Challenges in the North exacerbated by austerity
Health and Social Care workers are at higher risk of infection and death (in the UK 77% Health & Social Care workforce are women)
Gender pay gap in the North is wider than other areas of the UK
In response to school closure, women with the lowest income are 9x more likely to report job losses
Unpaid care work has a negative impact on mental health
The pre-existing social and economic inequalities which affected minority ethnic women has made them “less resilient to the pandemic” than other demographics
There has been an increase in domestic violence- (women with insecure immigration status have had particular issues accessing support services)
Policy Responses to Covid-19 for Women in the North
North West Relevant:
Greater Manchester Combined Authority launched the ‘Women and Girls’ Equality Panel’
Lancashire County Council commissioned Northern Power Women and Groundswell Innovation to create ‘Two Zero’: Female (business growth programme supporting female-led Lancashre based businesses)
Salford introduced ‘Tech She Can’
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority launched the ‘Fariness and Social Justice Advisory Board’
Recommendations for Building Back Fairer for Women
The report is explicit in it’s statement that economic recovery should not disregard the importance of furthering gender inequality.
They have 3 thematic recommendations:
Income
The Government’s “plans for jobs” should use targets to focus on employment for support for disadvantaged women and recognise caring inequalities faced by women
Introduction of targets set to level up the North’s gender pay to match the rest of the country
Understanding
There should be a shift in understanding of what constitutes the economy:
Equality impact assessments should be innately part of covid recovery policies
Government and Equalities Office should be more proactive in putting gender equity at the fore of policy development and make it a requirement for departments to publish data in relation to gender
Representation
Every recovery strategy designed by Combined Authority’s should have dedicated components considering more support of women e.g. gender equality panels should represent the diversity of women in the North
Politcal infrastructure gender balance
Devolution and recovery white papers should assess impacts of policies on women
Social Sector Leaders Joint Statement on the Right to Campaign
The Sewell Report was released on the 31st March, a government commissioned report by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities in the UK; the findings of which were deemed highly controversial. The Runnymede Trust’s (who operate as the UK’s leading independent race equality think tank) response to the report which condemned the findings, caused a number of members of the House of Commons to complain to the Charity Commission. This government-led retaliation was not the first time they have complained to the Charity Commission over contrary statements to government commissioned reports.
ACEVO recognise that whilst the charity sector does and should not run along party political lines, their work which is often concentrated on people and communities is in that sense, political. They have issued a joint statement from social sector leaders and are asking for those leaders who wish, to sign up in solidarity to the sector’s right to campaign against injustices and inequalities in our society.
You can find the full list of signatories and details on how to sign up your organisation here.