In January 2012, brap published a briefing paper entitled ’18 years on: reflections on the Stephen Lawrence verdict’.

This paper uses the recent verdict in the Stephen Lawrence trial as an opportunity to reflect on what works in the promotion of equality, fairness, and cohesion.

Please visit the brap website to read the full briefing paper.

In January 2012, the chief executives and directors of more than 30 non-governmental organisations, including the Equality and Diversity Forum, wrote to The Times asking that legal aid be protected where it matters most — ‘to people on low incomes struggling with complex and serious problems, unable to resolve them without specialist help’.

Please read the letter that was sent to The Times.

[Source: EDF]

Communities Minister Bob Neill has today given more councils the go-ahead to tackle historic pay inequalities.

Thousands of local government employees – mostly women on low pay – are legally entitled to backdated pay following years of being paid less for doing equally valued jobs. Equal pay directions enable local authorities to settle their equal pay commitments over an affordable period of time by raising money on their assets. (more…)

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles announced that throughout 2012, faith communities will lead a series of volunteering days encouraging communities to come together to help improve their local neighbourhoods.

Recognising the role of faith in inspiring charitable work, the Department for Communities and Local Government is supporting a Year of Service. During the course of 2012, nine faith communities will in turn hold volunteering days, inviting people of other faiths and people of non-religious beliefs to join in. Each of the days will focus on a different social action theme, such as ‘community clean ups’, planting trees in a local park, or cooking lunches and could be based around an existing religious festival like Lent or the Sikh festival commemorating the Martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev, or an existing volunteering day such as the Jewish-led Mitzvah Day or the Hindu-led National Sewa Day.  (more…)

Shadow charities minister Gareth Thomas says this shows the agenda is ‘not taken seriously’ by the government

The big society ministerial committee, a group of government ministers set up to lead the government’s work on the big society agenda and coordinate departments’ policies on the voluntary sector, has not met for almost 10 months.

The committee was launched in July 2010, soon after the coalition government came to power, and was chaired jointly by the Cabinet Office minister, Francis Maude, and the communities secretary, Eric Pickles.

An Office for Civil Society spokesman said at the time that all secretaries of state whose roles affected the voluntary sector had been asked to appoint a minister in their department who would be responsible for implementing the big society agenda. These ministers would form the cross-government committee, he said. (more…)

Government outlines new recruitment practice

The Government is to announce proposals aimed at ending discrimination at the point of job application.

Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, will launch the proposals officially at an event on Thursday night.

He said: “The fact is, workplaces across Britain desperately need to be opened up. Too often it’s who you know, not what you know, that counts. (more…)

The Government is commissioning a new Equality Advisory and Support Service to provide a high-quality service helping individuals in England, Scotland and Wales who have problems with discrimination.   It will give expert advice and support, tailored to people’s individual circumstances, with a particular focus on  providing in depth support to vulnerable and disadvantaged individuals to find early and informal solutions where possible. Everyone will be able to use the new service, whatever  their means. It will strive to meet the highest standards of accessibility for everyone – including people with disabilities and those for whom English is not their first language. Its services will be available in Welsh. (more…)

This strategic plan has been developed following a wide ranging consultation with external stakeholders including the charity sector, the Government, Parliament and the public, as well as an internal consultation with our people. A key message that emerged was that the Commission, taking into account its reduced resources, needs to focus on what only the regulator can do: 

Introduction 

• Registration of charities;
• Generic guidance;
• Statutory advice or permissions;
• Transparency through charity annual returns; and
• Investigation of alleged wrongdoing. (more…)

One North West & Voice4Change are holding an event: Big Society and Equality – Making it Happen

10am at 4pm

St Thomas Centre, Ardwick Green North, Manchester M12 6FZ  (more…)

Newcastle CVS is working closely with VONNE to monitor the impact of the spending cuts on the voluntary and community sector in the North East. 

VONNE has been running this impact study since 2009, and is actively tracking any changes.  The Millfield House Foundation has funded some additional work and the research will focus on particular geographic areas, one of which is Newcastle. 

Can you to give up fifteen minutes of your valuable time to fill it in? 

The link to the survey is http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NewcastleJan2012 

The survey closes at 4pm on Tuesday 31st January. 

It is important to have a strong and thriving voluntary and community sector and VONNE has previously used the results from surveys to lobby for additional resources and campaign to highlight the importance of what we do and the impact on those we support.