Blog
Mike Wild
This morning I was in the happy position of being able to present our new research into the state of the voluntary sector in Manchester. It has been a long-held ambition of mine to be able to show the full extent of the enormous contribution which voluntary organisations, community groups, social enterprises and the community work of faith groups make to the city.
Like many of the major…
People/communities experiencing racial inequalities, Capacity Building, Children and Families, Commissioning , Community Engagement, Community First, Crime and Disorder, Environment, Equalities, Faith, Funding, Health and Wellbeing, Learning, Skills and Employment, LGBTQIA+, Mental Health, Older People, Physical Disability, Transgender, VCM, Volunteering, Young People, Other
Nigel Rose
One way of describing my role as Strategic Lead on Commissioning is that it is “to improve commissioning between public authorities and the voluntary and community sector (VCS) ”. This raises the question “what is a public authority?”
The definition of public authority is particularly important in the procurement phase of commissioning as there are special rules that dictate how procurement…
Nigel Rose
Salford Foundation is one of the very few VCS organisation in Greater Manchester that has trialed the cost benefit analysis (CBA) model developed by New Economy and a central plank of the Greater Manchester Community Budgets pilot. The CBA was carried out on the Together Women Project as part of ongoing attempts to prove the worth of the project and attract funding from public authorities. The…
Manchester City Council are reviewing a range of voluntary and community sector contracts/grants and are proposing to expand the use of volunteering as a way of reconciling increasing demand for social care support with cuts to social care funding.
This has triggered some concerns and debate within the VCS and within the Macc team about the proposed project that will ‘stretch their local offer on…
The Manchester Black and Minority Ethnic Network (MBMEN) at its February networking event heard from speakers about the changes that are coming to the Welfare system. Participants expressed great concern about the need for more information and worried about the impact of the changes on families, friends, children and vulnerable communities.The Government says it has instituted welfare reform to…
Climate change affects us all, especially the most vulnerable and it’s really important that we all engage with this issue; it’s not going away! The Manchester BME Network in partnership with its members, MC-UK, Creative Hands and Salford Refugee Network is undertaking a project looking at “Climate change and BME Communities “with a specific focus on two vulnerable communities; older people…
If you've chatted with Walt over the last few months, or been involved in one of LSEN's discussions around community learning, you might have heard Walt talk about Wisdom Councils. Wisdom Councils are an approach to community engagement and eliciting 'community voice', which we in LSEN have been excited about for some time, and which we can see has real potential for organisational and community…
When the Work Programme was first introduced as part of the new Welfare to Work agenda the LSEN organised a number of meetings, seminars and events to inform voluntary organisations about the opportunities and risks of getting involved in the Programme as a sub-contractor.
It became clear, early on in these discussions, that the Programme did not recognise the difficulties many people at a…
The Department for Communities and Local Government recently launched a competition to discover and support organisations that can deliver community-based English language programmes in the following identified areas of the North West
Bradford, Kirklees, Blackburn with Darwen, Hyndburn, Oldham, Manchester, Rochdale, Pendle
This competition is open to all organisations and further information can…
This week, LSEN hosted a meeting about Community Learning in Manchester. It was the third such meeting, and took place in the impressive and inspiring surroundings of Gorton Monastery. Over 30 people attended from a wide variety of sectors and organisations around Manchester.
Walt Crowson gave a background to this series of community learning meetings, and updated on ongoing work in the key…
Hello Everyone,
I’m sure some of you will have heard that I will be leaving Macc at the end of this week. I’m off to pastures new (and cold) where I will be completing my Applied Psychologist training for children and young people in Glasgow. I’m very much looking forward to the new challenges this will bring.
I have really enjoyed the last three years at Macc working in a sector that is…
In LSEN, we're quite excited at the moment about Open Badges as a means of promoting and strengthening informal and learner-led learning.
Open Badges are a way of accrediting learning, skills and achievements - both big and small. They also allow accreditation to be granted outside of traditional institutional pathways. Virtually any organisation or individual can issue a badge, about virtually…