CVA news

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A New Place for Young People in Croydon?

Across England people are starting to get going with applications for a lot of cash to pay for new spaces for young people by making a bid through MyPlace.

Croydon wants to try to get some of this cash (up to 5 million) to make things better for our young people by providing a new facility of some sort. Here's where you come in. What ideas do you have? Do you care about this? You can get involved easily by going online to: www.talk2croydon.co.uk/myplace

Get involved in this buzz and your ideas will be used as part of a joint bid.

MyPlace will only fund projects that have real participation of young people in the development, design and future of running of the project. We have to compete for the money and so may not be successful. The deadline is September 2008! Here’s a link to information about the bid:
www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/prog_myplace

Croydon is the largest of the London boroughs with over 30,000 young people from a wide range of ethnic and social backgrounds. We hope it will be possible to provide a new purpose built facility, developed with and for young people and communities. Keep fingers and toes crossed and get involved.

For more information go to:
www.talk2croydon.co.uk/myplace or contact Christine Cleveland or Jo Gough at Croydon Voluntary Action.

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1000s of Everyday Conversations
with the local NHS

The Croydon Primary Care Trust (CPCT) is developing its strategy for patient and public involvement (known as PPI) in health. A draft strategy called '1000s of everyday conversations' is available. It's been out since May 2008 and has already been discussed by loads of people at many events. Just to give you a hint of what you can find in the strategy here’s the main values that the PCT are planning to commit to:

• We will build on the best
• We see PPI as part of the solution
• We will remove the barriers to engagement
• We will deepen and extend local partnership work
• We will tap into what happens at the frontline
• We will make better use of data about the patient experience (Insight)
• We will foster a new approach to involvement in commissioning

You can contribute to an online discussion at: www.talk2croydon.co.uk/buzz/patient-and-public-involvement-health.

David Gilbert, the CPCT Interim Director for Patient and Public Involvement, wants to make sure this strategy does not sit on the shelf. There will be lots of work going on to make sure recommendations are followed through with specific opportunities to engage on projects. One of the early projects will be about 'health aspirations' under the banner of 'Do Something Different'.

Croydon Voluntary Action (CVA) is working closely with CPCT to ensure Croydon people and voluntary groups can benefit from this new era of community empowerment in health.

You can contact David Gilbert on 020 8274 6000 David.Gilbert@croydonpct.nhs.uk, www.croydon.nhs.uk/
Or contact Jo Gough on 020 8683 5901 or jo.gough@cvalive.org.uk

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Croydon Community Development Centre
Address: Extension of funding for Croydon Children’s Fund!

On the 18th July 2007 Ed Balls the new Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families announced that a sum of £456 million would be released in a mission to drive up school standards and improve the lives of every child in the country. He said” Our aspirations are straightforward and ambitious. Every child deserves to be safe and loved and have a healthy and happy childhood, free from harm. And every child should have the chance to make the most of their talents and fulfil their potential. “

Part of this funding included a £396 million investment to continue the work being undertaken by the Children’s Fund over the next 3 years, supporting projects that specialise in early intervention and prevention and having a notable impact on school attendance. The Children’s Fund targets children aged 5-13 and services are often delivered by the voluntary and community sector.

Funding was initially ring-fenced and distributed through local Children’s Fund partnerships. In future the new money will be distributed through local authorities and pooled with other funding to form a new area-based grant. The government however is encouraging local authorities and their partners to maintain a strong engagement of the voluntary and community sector in using these funds. In Croydon it has been decided to extend the current Children’s Fund projects until March 2009 and Croydon Voluntary Action will remain the accountable body with responsibility for management of the programme.

For further information please contact:
Christine Cleveland,
Children’s Fund Programme Manager
Tel: 0208 653 0353
email: christine.cleveland@cvalive.org.uk

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Up, up and away!

Croydon has a new Infrastructure Development Plan. Feel forgiven for not recognising immediately what this is, but rest assured that it contains a vision for how VCS support needs should be met in Croydon for the next ten years.

Readers may be familiar with the ChangeUp agenda, or even with Capacitybuilders. This is the Government programme challenging agencies like CVA to review whether their services can be delivered in more effective ways. Joined by Croydon BME Forum, Croydon Disability Forum, CNCA, Volunteer Centre Croydon and our LBC and PCT partners, we consulted you in November on your priority support needs.

Headline services the Consortium are now planning to deliver in response to your feedback include the following:

Infrastructure Business Plan 2008-11

Infrastructure Development Strategy 2008-14

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We are pleased to announce that CVA has successfully bid for £66,000 to run a Summer University programme (for young people) in Croydon in partnership with local voluntary groups and the Council.

Contact Nicole Beckford nicole.beckford@cvalive.org.uk
020 8683 5915 for information

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Community Campaign Day

With a measly eight public holidays a year (10 in Northern Ireland), Great Britain has fewer holidays than the average for EU member states. In fact, only Romania has fewer days than we do. Public holidays are an immensely popular part of life in the UK. These national days of celebration also play a vital part in ensuring that we have a proper balance between our working lives and the rest of our lives. We need time to pursue our hobbies, to exercise, to learn, to get involved in our local communities and to have fun. read more... http://www.communityday.org.uk/ http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/index.asp?id=7532

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Welcome to online democracy in action

Talk2Croydon offers the people of Croydon a platform to discuss public services, start discussions/ campaigns and voice opinions. As well as being able to raise issues that matter to you, knowing that the site will be viewed by the borough's decision makers, will mean you'll be able to find out what changes as a result.

Since arriving on the scene in September 2007 Talk2Croydon has made a big impact. By July 2008, 557 members registered on Talk2Croydon with 5,021 visits and an average time of 16 minutes spent on the web tool. Of those visitors that chose to define their ethnicity, 86% defined themselves as White British, 6% as Black/Black Caribbean and 5% Mixed White and Black Caribbean. The majority of visits came from UK with 62 from USA, 15 from Belgium and 11 each from Germany and India.

By logging on to www.talk2croydon.co.uk you can...

start a buzz
an online discussion or campaign around a particular topic,
or add your views to an existing buzz/ poll or survey

link up
with Croydon projects, network with others who share similar work or concerns.

The site is a hub for public engagement activities and includes a searchable database of activities, a calendar of events and a skills database. GET INVOLVED visit www.talk2croydon.co.uk.

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New CVA Project to Strengthen Parent and Family Support

A new project, funded by the Parenting Fund, is off-the-ground at CVA and aims to build the capacity of parenting groups by providing one-to-one in-depth group work, customised workshops, and access to workforce development opportunities. The project will also promote action learning for senior managers and frontline workers.

CVA will organise an in-depth course to develop expert community-focused facilitators that will provide sessions for local parenting groups and enable them to meet the new national occupation standards.

One of the aims of the project is to encourage a rigourous debate which will lead to the re-framing of the existing Children and Young People's Network and ensure that family support/parenting groups have a say in developing local policy and planning with the Children's Trust. It is also hoped that the project will bring about a more effective dialogue between statutory, voluntary, and other providers.

For more information contact Bhupendra Solanki, CVA Capacity Building Manager on 020 8683 5916 or via email at bhupendra.solanki@cvalive.org.uk.

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Campaign on CRB Checks Successful

The main priority of the Volunteer Organisers' Forum in recommendations to the Compact was to ensure ongoing resources for an umbrella body to do free Criminal Record Checks for voluntary groups which involve volunteers with children or vulnerable adults. This was agreed in the 2003 Compact. However when the council changed the way it carried out its Human Resources function and with the number of checks on volunteers on behalf of voluntary organisations rising to 600 annually, they have been questioning whether they can provide this service free of an admin fee.

We are very pleased to announce that after extensive lobbying through the Community Network and other sources, Croydon Council has agreed that CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) checks for staff and volunteers will be carried out without an administration charge for organisations which the council supports through commissioning arrangements, direct funding or through funding administered through partnership arrangements within the Local Strategic Partnership. Any other cases would be decided on individual merit.

A letter from Councillor Margaret Mead and Councillor Enley Taylor to the Volunteer Organisers' Forum stated that: "Increasingly volunteers are supporting vulnerable people, both young and old. It is essential that voluntary organisations can have confidence that the people they are recruiting as volunteers can work with vulnerable people with the minimum of risk. Withdrawing the facility of free CRB checks would be an impediment and potential disincentive to voluntary and community organisations (VCOs) to seek those vital safeguards. We have concluded that the cost to the Council does not outweigh the risk of imposing a charge to VCOs for the service."

The council will continue to operate an "approved list" system and the Lead Signatory in the council is liable for any checks and must be satisfied that external organisations have appropriate child protection and/or vulnerable adult protection policies and procedures in place before they can join the list.

Those organisations who are already on the approved list will continue to receive free checks.

New groups should contact their funding officer or, if they do not know who their funding officer is, they should contact David Freeman on david.freeman@croydon.gov.uk . They should not contact the Human Resource department direct. Groups can also get advice from the Volunteer Centre's Good Practice Team on 020 8684 2727.

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Consultancy
Specification

Croydon PCT is committed to developing an organisational culture that values people from all sections of the community as well as the contribution each individual can make to our work.

We have an established Equalities and Diversity Steering Group, which provides strategic direction for equalities and diversity in the PCT. The steering group is a sub group of the Board

The Equalities and Diversity framework in Croydon PCT includes:

These can be found on our website www.croydon.nhs.uk in the menu section Equalities and Diversity.

The PCT already has in place Equality and Diversity training for all staff. We are now looking for the provision of additional training in specific areas to supplement this.

We are looking for organisation(s) or individuals to provide some additional training for Croydon Primary Care Trust in Equalities and Diversity issues identified below and invite written quotations for providing one or more of the following:

1. Equalities and Diversity Induction Training

From 2008, we intend to provide a half hour session on Equalities and Diversity, as part of the corporate Induction Programme. The successful provider will design the content of this half-hour session and design and run one train the trainer session (half day) for a small group of approximately 6 development practitioners, who will deliver this session on a rota basis.

Objectives:
By the end of the ‘train the trainer’ session, participants will:

The objectives for the session on the Induction Programme are similar and are set out as follows.

Objectives:
By the end of the Equalities and Diversity Session on Induction Programme, participants will:

2. Equality Impact Assessment Training

The Equalities and Diversity Steering Group has recently agreed a revised Equality Impact Assessment Template and Equality Impact Assessment Guidance.
The successful provider will design and deliver two training sessions on the Equality Impact Assessment process.

Equality Impact Assessment Training (One day)

The successful provider will provide a one day training course for a core group of directorate equality and diversity representatives and other key individuals, who may need to support and advise others in completion of Equality Impact Assessments in relation to new services, strategies or policies.

Equality Impact Assessment Training (Half-day)

The successful provider will provide a shorter version of the Equality Impact Assessment training for anyone who may be involved in the completion of equality impact assessments, including managers and staff representatives. It is anticipated that we will need three half-day Equality Impact Assessment Workshops with approximately 20 participants at each.

Objectives:
By the end of the Equality Impact Assessment Training participants will have:

An overview of the legislative framework for equalities and diversity and human rights and knowledge of the duty of the PCT, as a public authority, to promote equality in relation to race, disability and gender.

3. Board Seminar on Equalities and Diversity (One day or Half day)

The successful provider will design the content of a Board Seminar on Equalities and Diversity, indicating how they would address this in a one day seminar and in a half day seminar.

Objectives:
By the end of the seminar, Board members and Professional Executive Committee (PEC) members will have:

Specification of Required Skills and Experience:

Excellent, up to date, knowledge and expertise in equalities and diversity.

Method of Application:

If you are interested in providing one or more of the training interventions specified above and meet the specification of required skills and experience we would like to hear from you.

Please note that this is a one stage quotation process and we are asking for written quotations. There is no subsequent further tender, so all relevant information should be included with your submission at this point.

You should provide:

For an informal discussion please contact Tricia Harrison, Assistant Director Organisational Development by telephone on 020 8274 6069 (Monday - Wednesday) or you can contact her by e-mail at tricia.harrison@croydonpct.nhs.uk Please apply by e-mail to Madeleine Richards, PA to the Director of Quality and Performance Improvement, at madeleine.richards@croydonpct.nhs.uk by 10 December 2007

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Children’s Fund Programme Holds Themed Workshops

As the Children’s Fund Programme nears its end, a series of workshops are being held to share lessons in best practice from its work in preventing deprivation among children in Croydon.