In this article, Elaine Alsop, Charity Finance Consultant, tackles the important changes to SORP set to be released in Autumn this year. Take a look here.
In this article, Kalli explores how remote working has benefited the team at DSC, whilst also diving into some of the ways we’ve prioritised our team’s mental health. Take a look here.
A group of volunteer-based charities have called for the government to introduce paid statutory volunteering leave. Scouts, Girlguiding, St John Ambulance and the Sea Cadets are amongst the charities that are a part of the campaign that says the move could reverse the decline in volunteering numbers. Read more here.
To address the underrepresentation of Global Majority communities in mental health support services, Young Kensington & Chelsea (Young K&C) and the Young Westminster Foundation have launched the ‘Community Solutions: Improving Mental Health Awareness in Global Majority Communities’ grant, in partnership with the Vibrant & Healthy Communities (VHC) Programme
The grant offers a total funding pot of £640,000 over two years, with eligible organisations able to apply for up to £15,000 annually, totalling a maximum of £30,000 for projects running from April 2025 to March 2027. The funding supports new or existing community-based initiatives, including training sessions, awareness-raising workshops, and projects targeting children, young people (up to 25 years old), and their parents or carers. The primary objectives are to increase mental health awareness, facilitate open discussions, enhance self-management of mental wellbeing, encourage utilisation of mental health services, and foster positive attitudes towards mental health within these communities.
Non-profit organisations such as registered charities, Community Interest Companies (CICs), or constituted community groups with a proven track record of working with the specified demographics in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) and/or Westminster are invited to apply.
Priority will be given to Global Majority-led organisations—those with more than 50% of their senior leadership or trustees from Black, Asian, mixed, or other racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds—and to organisations with an annual turnover of less than £500,000.
Applications must be submitted by 11:59 pm on the 5th March 2025.
Useful Links:
The DPO Centre, a leading Data Protection Officer resource centre delivering expert data protection and privacy advice, invites applications to their Charity and Community Fund, which provides charities and not-for-profit organisations access to their data protection consultancy services at an 80% reduced rate. Applicants will receive support from subject matter experts and data protection professionals to help decrease the potential for compliance failure across their organisation, leading to fewer data breaches. Organisations can apply for funding of up to £10,000 towards a range of consultancy services, including data protection training, policy drafting and reviews, data sharing, impact assessments, and gap analysis. The DPO Centre has set aside a £150,000 funding pot, split into 3 application periods throughout the year. The closing date for this application period is the 1st May 2024. Funding Towards Data Protection Consultancy Services (UK)
Grants of up to £5,000 are available to registered charities to support projects that equip people (18 or older in order) from disadvantaged groups with the communication skills necessary to gain employment. Priority will be given to projects that target people experiencing multiple deprivation or other groups facing major hurdles to employment, especially women, people with physical, mental, or learning disabilities, refugees and asylum seekers. The funding is being made available through the Thomas Wall Trust, and the deadline for stage 1 applications is the 5th May 2025. Applicants successful at this stage will be invited to submit a stage 2 application. Grants of up to £5,000 Available to Increase Employment Opportunities for Disadvantaged Adults (UK)
NHS data published in November 2024 shows that 9.6% of reception-age children were obese in 2023-24, up from 9.2% in 2022-23, with children as young as two treated for obesity-related illness in England and experts warning of a public health crisis. Among children aged 10-11, the proportion who have obesity fell slightly from 22.7% to 22.1% but remained higher than the 2019-20 level of 21%. Recent research by the Food Foundation indicates that bad diet is causing a record amount of disability among people across the UK who are overweight or obese. NHS England has said that it was spending £6.5bn a year on treating obesity-related ill health across all age groups in England.
Labour, in its general election manifesto, committed to banning advertising junk food to children along with the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to under-16s. The government intends to ban junk food advertisements from television before the 9pm watershed. It also aims to give local authorities enhanced powers to block the development of fast food outlets near schools to tackle obesity. Further measures are being examined by the government, with officials canvassing the public health sector for policy ideas, including on how to combat obesity, and ministers keen for the want the NHS to take a more proactive role on prevention. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said that he is prepared to take “much bolder” action on preventing illness. “There’s diet, there’s healthy lifestyle, we are going to have to get into that space.” Since 2021, meanwhile, NHS England has established 30 specialist Complications from Excess Weight clinics designed for children aged between two and 18 with health complications related to severe obesity, providing specialist treatment and developing tailored care packages with families, which can include diet plans, mental health treatment and coaching, the NHS said.
The government has come under pressure to be bold on public health from chef and food campaigner Jamie Oliver, Henry Dimbleby, a co-founder of the Leon restaurant chain, who drew up Boris Johnson’s food plan, and Anne Longfield, former Children’s Commissioner for England. Oliver urged Keir Starmer to learn lessons from the success of some of the tough anti-obesity measures that have been implemented internationally, such as Amsterdam’s education of primary schoolchildren about healthy eating, restrictions on junk food packaging in Mexico and Chile, and Colombia’s sugar and salt taxes. Dimbleby advised the Prime Minister to regulate the food industry to force it to make its products healthier. He said: “If we are to move from treating sickness to preventing it, it is essential that we change the way we eat. Now is the opportunity for the government to introduce policies to ensure that everyone can access the foods needed to keep them healthy, and that the food industry is regulated to stem the relentless flow of junk food that has become a lethal cultural norm.” Longfield has proposed extending the sugar tax to sugar-sweetened drinks such as milkshakes.
This symposium will provide an opportunity for stakeholders – including healthcare professionals, schools, charities, and local authorities – to learn about existing efforts to reduce childhood obesity, evaluate the new Labour government’s commitments in this area, and assess the policy changes needed to tackle this growing public health challenge and improve diets among children.
Programme
- Understand the current state of childhood obesity in the UK, its trends, drivers, and impacts
- Evaluate the new Labour government’s plans for tackling childhood obesity
- Exchange best practice initiatives among local authorities, schools and the NHS for tackling childhood obesity
- Compare the different approaches taken to tackle obesity across the four nations of the UK
- Assess how the NHS, regulators and other stakeholders can embed a more proactive, preventative approach to public health
- Exchange views on the bold, innovative changes required to significantly reduce levels of childhood obesity
- Examine the role played by NHS specialist clinics in treating and tackling childhood obesity
- Learn about and evaluate anti-obesity measures taken internationally
To register for the briefing, please click here.
NHSE have a peer support group, led by and for individuals with care experience. NHSE hope that this group will be a tremendous support for anyone working in the NHS who has an experience of care, both if they have just started work in the NHS, or if they have been with us for a long and worthwhile career!
Please do pass this on to any colleagues who you may know would value joining – Click here
This new article by DSC Researcher Sevi Marshall explores the key challenges and changes local authorities have experienced in the past few years and how this could impact the VCSE sector. It follows up on DSC’s 2023 Grants for Good report and lays the background for the second edition, to be published in 2025. Take a look here.
The Big Give is to open a match funding campaign to support charities working to improve the lives of vulnerable, disadvantaged or underrepresented women and girls in the UK. The Women and Girls Match Fund is making up to £10,000 in match funding available to enable charities that are led by and for women and girls to run their own match funding campaign during one week in October. Priority will be given to applications from charities that are led by Black and minoritised women and girls, LGBTQI women and girls, or Disabled women and girls. Charities wanting to participate in the campaign have from the 7th March 2025 until the 30th May 2025 to submit their application. Match Funding Campaign to Support Vulnerable & Underrepresented Women & Girls (UK)
sobus
20 Dawes Road, London, SW6 7EN
Telephone 020 7952 1230
Email info@sobus.org.uk
Registered Charity No.1071089
and Company Limited by Guarantee. Registered in England No.03471416
Sobus is a new Community Development Agency for Hammersmith & Fulham. It has been created through the merger of the Community and Voluntary Sector Association Hammersmith & Fulham (CaVSA) and the Fulham Community Partnership Trust (FCPT). Building on the strengths of both organisations, sobus aims to provide a wider range of support services for local charities, community groups, social enterprises and start up businesses.