Community and Voluntary News Aug/Sept 2007

• A report by the National Audit Office claims that mainstream employment programmes are failing to reach the most disadvantaged households. Schemes such as New Deal for Lone Parents and the New Deal for Partners have helped some people into work but have failed to reach almost 3 million households where nobody works. The report recommends more partnership working between agencies and more support of small scale community and voluntary groups who are often better placed to target the hardest to reach workless people. For more information see Helping People from Workless Households into Work.
  
• A report by the Audit Commission claims that the relationship between many councils and the voluntary sector is blighted by poor commissioning practice. It states that Councils tend to treat voluntary bodies all the same but in reality the sector is very diverse. The Chairman of the commission said that “procurement practices need to change, but it’s up to the sector to help Councils select the best organisations to deliver local services”. For more information see Commissioning from the Voluntary Sector.
  
• According to a study by the Young Foundation many third sector organisations are unable to cope with the size of funding awards from the Big Lottery Fund. The report recommends that the Fund should devote more time to helping recipients to “deliver a wider public benefit and to manage investment more consciously”. For more information see Improving Small-Scale Grant Funding for Local Voluntary and Community Organisations.
  
• A report by the National Audit Office claims that large charities spend on average £400,000 a year on managing funding arrangements. Large charities which deliver public services have between 95 and 4000 funding arrangements with public bodies, making the process unnecessarily complex and costly. For more information see Public Funding of Large National Charities.
  
• Staff working for social enterprises are twice as likely to be pleased with their jobs as those in other sectors. A survey of people working in 160 social enterprises by Social Enterprise London revealed that 64% of people who worked for social enterprises wanted to be in the same sector in 5 years time. For more information see Social Enterprise and Employment Practices.
  
• The Welsh Assembly Government has announced that the flagship community regeneration initiative Communities First will be over-hauled. It will be re-named Communities Next and will change focus from capacity-building to more practical help. A spokesman from the Wales Council for Voluntary Action said “there is a concern from some people that politicians don’t understand you will not get successful involvement of service providers in Communities First areas unless you have strong, confident communities. To get that you need to fund capacity-building”