NEWS & INFORMATION ROUNDUP

Do you know you can become a councillor
The website http://www.beacouncillor.org.uk/howto/ has useful information on a range of issues including ‘Why be a councillor?’, ‘What do councillors do?’, ‘Could I be a councillor?’


Equalities Body consults on future plans
The former Commission for Race Equality (CRE), now The Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has launched a consultation to seek views on the development of their new strategic plan. A series of events and an online consultation are requesting your views on a 3-year plan to be published in April, as well as an equality scheme and new grants programme.
http://equalityhumanrights.dialoguebydesign.net/default.asp


Awards for All England to close
Awards for All England which is the lottery grants scheme for community groups, will close in its existing form in March. The Big Lottery Fund announced that ‘Awards for All England’ will close, but groups will still have access to equivalent levels of lottery funding through programmes run by the four providers that administer the current scheme. These are Arts Council England, the Heritage Lottery Fund, Sport England and the Big Lottery Fund and they will handle applications individually through existing or new programmes.

The scheme, which has been running for seven years, offers grants of between £300 and £10,000 to small groups and community organisations. The Big Lottery Fund said that the total amount of money available would remain the same and that the new system coming in would make the application forms shorter. Groups whose work fall into more than one category will now have the opportunity to apply to more than one provider. However there have been questions about the transparency of how the decision to implement the new structure was made

See http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/News/DailyBulletin/859132/Awards-England-close/AB1E8BCC240F6CA7CB10A80A79992277/?DCMP=EMC-DailyBulletin


Office spaces for 80 charities in London from Can Mezzanine
A new office space designed specifically for small charities is to open in the centre of London.
The 36,000-square-foot refurbished building in the Old Street area will offer space for up to 80 charities when it opens in the spring. It will double the office space operated by the social landlord Can Mezzanine and brings the total number of organisations it provides with low-level rents to about 200. See http://www.can-online.org.uk/pages/mezzanine.html


New code to avoid trustee conflict
Trustees should prevent potential board conflicts becoming personal by introducing a code of conduct when things are going well, according to a new Charity Trustee Networks guidance document.

‘Codes of Conduct for Trustees’, which was launched on 19 November by third sector minister Kevin Brennan, says small charities need only "some basic ground rules for behaviour". The guidance can be downloaded free from CTN's website http://www.trusteenet.org.uk/resources and it contains three sample codes of conduct, as well as advice on drawing up and using a code.


Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks update
The Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) has updated its guidance on CRB checks which provide important protection, for people who use social care services. You are required by law to get checks from the CRB if you are:
Applying for registration, the ‘responsible individual’, or a member of staff working in a social care service regulated and inspected by CSCI.
The guidance includes information and advice on:
• The different levels of CRB check and when they are needed
• When staff can begin work before their full CRB check arrives
• When previous CRB checks can be accepted
• The new independent safeguarding authority (ISA)

See http://www.csci.org.uk/professional