Blog
Nigel Rose
Voluntary and community sector organisations (VCSOs) are often asked to make voluntary cuts in their funding by public authorities such as Councils. How do they to decide “What to Offer”?
The starting point is that this is a negotiation, even if the whole process is done by email/letter. The public authority is negotiating with you about a variation in a contract. It makes no difference if it is…
Mike Wild
A lot of people in the local voluntary sector are going to be very angry today. They’re going to feel threatened, undervalued, rejected and hopeless. The Council’s budget proposals will make horrible reading for many people who’ve been working very hard for a long time to make a difference in the city. For some groups this will mean cuts to services and activities. For many it will mean many job…
Arts & culture, People/communities experiencing racial inequalities, Capacity Building, Children and Families, Commissioning , Community Engagement, Crime and Disorder, Environment, Equalities, Faith, Funding, Health and Wellbeing, Homelessness, Learning, Skills and Employment, LGBTQIA+, Mental Health, Older People, Physical Disability, Policy and Influence, Transgender, Volunteering, Young People, Other
michelle.foster
Wikipedia defines Open data as ‘…the idea that certain data should be freely available to everyone to use and republish as they wish, without restrictions from copyright, patents or other mechanisms of control.’
So in plain English we have published data which you can use for whatever you like!
We’ve very pleased to be releasing our data on groups on our database, volunteers that are registered…
Mike Wild
Four weeks to go and the Spirit of Manchester Festival is building up nicely.
Below is a Google Map of all the venues and events in the Spirit of Manchester Festival. It's my hope that over the next few weeks, we'll see more and more markers on this map. Wouldn't it be great if we could cover the city? If you're a local voluntary sector group and you've not yet got involved, there's still time.…
Arts & culture, People/communities experiencing racial inequalities, Capacity Building, Children and Families, Commissioning , Community Engagement, Community First, Crime and Disorder, Environment, Equalities, Faith, Festival event, Funding, Health and Wellbeing, Homelessness, Learning, Skills and Employment, LGBTQIA+, Mental Health, Older People, Physical Disability, Policy and Influence, Transgender, VCM, Volunteering, Young People, Other
miriam.belfield
Out of the many reasons I applied for an internship, probably the one I dwelt on most was the fear of being unprepared for the real world come summer 2015 when I graduate. As I scrolled through available opportunities nothing appeared to spring out at me and I had almost become resigned to the fact that I would return home for the summer in search of any sort of employment that would tide…
Mike Wild
One of the things I love most about working in the voluntary sector is that if you have a really good idea you can generally find a way to make it happen. It might take a while – things like our State of the Sector and Civil Economy work were on my wishlist for years before we were finally able to publish the finished work. But sometimes you can be taken by surprise at how fast you can go from…
Arts & culture, People/communities experiencing racial inequalities, Capacity Building, Children and Families, Commissioning , Community Engagement, Community First, Crime and Disorder, Environment, Equalities, Faith, Festival event, Funding, Health and Wellbeing, Homelessness, Learning, Skills and Employment, LGBTQIA+, Mental Health, Older People, Physical Disability, Policy and Influence, Transgender, VCM, Volunteering, Young People, Other
Mike Wild
In the last few weeks, we’ve seen announcements of the Queens Award for Voluntary Service and the Birthday Honours. Of course I always check these to see if any local people or groups have won recognition for their work and it’s been great to see Manchester well represented. Here’s a quick list
Queens Award for Voluntary Service 2014
Abraham Moss Warriorshttps://localgiving.com/charity/…
Mike Wild
I’ve just come back from being on the BBC Breakfast sofa talking about volunteering. As is always the case with these things, it’s all very rushed and last minute and it’s over in a flash. Actually that’s one of good things in a sense because it gives you less time to panic! It was a great opportunity to fly the flag for volunteering in the middle of Volunteers Week and to talk about the sheer…
Nigel Rose
In part 1 of this article I sketched out some issues to consider when taking into account evidence of past performance in decision-making about funding. In part 2, I attempt to provide some answers.
It would be easier if there was a simple right way to approach the problem - a set of rules about what to do - but commissioning of services is usually fairly messy. It is an attempt to reconcile and…
Mike Wild
I've not added anything to my blog for ages - lots of ideas but no time to write them up properly! Anyway, I'm delighted to be posting this guest blog by Katy Goldstraw, Manchester Met Student. Katy is currently working on a PhD thesis on the impact of austerity on the voluntary sector and is working with Macc to talk to local groups and share her findings. You can access her research here http…
Nigel Rose
There are two common complaints I hear from voluntary sector organisations about procurement (grants and contracts) from public bodies.
The first is:
"Why isn't good performance rewarded and recognised?"
"We've done a good job, we've exceeded out targets and/or delivered more than we said we would yet this doesn't seem to make any difference when it comes to the next round of funding!"
The second…
Mike Wild
Before Christmas, Mike Wild (Chief Executive of Macc) and Nigel Rose (Macc’s Strategic Lead on Commissioning) met with Geoff Little (Deputy Chief Executive of Manchester City Council) and Carol Culley (Assistant Chief Executive, Finance and Performance). We wanted to discuss the impact not just of the next wave of public sector cuts but the prolonged effects of recession. We also wanted to…
Arts & culture, People/communities experiencing racial inequalities, Children and Families, Commissioning , Community Engagement, Community First, Crime and Disorder, Environment, Equalities, Funding, Health and Wellbeing, Homelessness, Learning, Skills and Employment, LGBTQIA+, Mental Health, Older People, Physical Disability, Policy and Influence, Transgender, Volunteering, Young People, Other