New compulsory National Living Wage

Government announces new compulsory national living wage

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has announced in the Budget that, from April 2016, there will be a compulsory national living wage (NLW) for workers aged 25 years and older of £7.20 per hour, rising to £9.00 per hour by 2020. 

This compares with the current adult national minimum wage (NMW) of £6.50 per hour – rising to £6.70 per hour from 1 October 2015. In practice, it means that there will be a ‘premium’ over and above the NMW for workers aged 25 and over.

The Government’s aim is for the NLW to reach 60% of median earnings by 2020 and the Low Pay Commission will be asked to set out how this can be achieved and so it will be asked to recommend the level of the NLW to apply from April 2017.

The NMW will continue to apply to workers under the age of 25.

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Tackling Child Poverty At A Time Of Austerity

4in10 logo

4in10 presents:

TACKLING CHILD POVERTY AT A TIME OF AUSTERITY

With £15bn of cuts to the welfare budget between 2010 and 2015 and further cuts to come in the next Spending Review, this is the time to discuss the link between child poverty and austerity.
Austerity has provided policy makers and service providers in the statutory and voluntary and community sector with some challenges and opportunities in tackling issues of child poverty in London.
CHILD POVERTY AND AUSTERITY is a capacity building seminar by 4in10 to explore the impact of austerity on issues of child poverty in the capital. The workshop will bring together speakers from think tanks, frontline service delivery and policy making to share insights into austerity and child poverty.
When: Thursday 17th September 2015
12.30pm – 4.00pm
Where: Conference Room, The Foundry,
17 Oval Way, London SE11 5RR
What: Please see overleaf for further details
CHILD POVERTY AND AUSTERITY is the first in 4in10’s Capacity Building Workshops. The workshop will bring together members of the 4in10 network with academics, policy makers and service delivery staff from both the voluntary and statutory sector across London.

The workshop will be an opportunity to:

– Hear up-to-date research on living standards, deprivation and child poverty in 2015
– Discuss the impact of welfare reform on child poverty in London
– Hear how the voluntary sector and local authorities have developed creative and empowering ways of tackling austerity and child poverty
We want to explore
– Why child poverty in London is higher than in other parts of the UK
– What are the London specific challenges and opportunities regarding tackling austerity and child poverty?
– What are key policy asks in London to tackle child poverty in the context of the spending cuts?
To register: please visit http://4in10workshop1.eventbrite.co.uk/
or contact Ade Sofola at: ade.sofola@childrenengland.org.uk
The registration deadline is Monday the 14th of September 2015 and places will be allocated on a ‘first come, first served’ basis.
Organiser:
4in10 is a network of organisations working to end child poverty in London, based at Children England and funded by City Bridge Trust and Trust for London. www.4in10.org.uk.

 

 

4in10 children live in poverty

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Healthier Homes Training

Join us for Healthier Homes training:
helping local people live more comfortably and safely at home

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham invite you to attend a free training session as part of their Healthier Homes project.

Imagine living in a home which you can’t keep warm and struggling with damp and mould on your walls. Imagine risking a fall each time you use the stairs because there’s no handrail, or a shock each time you use the lights because the wiring is so old. Imagine not having enough to eat, or not being able to eat a balanced diet, because you don’t have access to or money for good quality food.

Too many people living in our Boroughs face these problems every day, putting their health and wellbeing at risk. Healthier Homes training is designed to help.

Healthier Homes training is available free of charge in the Boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham. The training is designed for frontline workers, volunteers and others who work with vulnerable local residents.

Training sessions will be held on:

– Tuesday 15 September (2pm – 4pm) – Kensington Town Hall
– Wednesday 23 September (2pm – 4pm) – Hammersmith Town Hall
– Wednesday 7 October (10am – 12pm) – Kensington Town Hall
– Wednesday 14 October (10am – 12pm) – Hammersmith Town Hall

Book your place now at http://healthierhomes.eventbrite.com.

We can also offer dedicated training sessions for frontline teams; please email: liz.warren@se-2.co.uk to find out more.

By attending the training you will:

– Gain a better understanding of the health and wellbeing risks we find in people’s home, particularly related to cold and damp, home safety and poor nutrition
– Learn about ways to identify local residents who may be struggling at home
– Find out about solutions and support that are available for local residents and how to make referrals into local support services
– Help local people live more comfortably and safely in their homes, reducing their need for hospital and GP services

The training will be interactive and informative, giving you the chance to ask plenty of questions and practice your skills.

Bookings can be made online at http://healthierhomes.eventbrite.com or by calling 020 8469 1333.

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Voluntary Sector Providers and Potential Providers for Adult Social Care Roundtable discussion

Voluntary Sector Providers and Potential Providers for Adult Social Care
Roundtable discussion

 

Desta has been commissioned to conduct a market mapping and shaping exercise of the voluntary sector for adult social care.
As part of this, we have organised three roundtable discussions for voluntary organisations which either already provide adult social care services or which would like to do so in the future. We are especially interested in providers and potential providers of home care services or providers which might support home care services through, for example, befriending services.

The discussion will look at the challenges and opportunities of providing these services, the barriers that might prevent new providers from delivering services, and the kinds of support that existing and potential providers need to deliver and grow their services.
Organisations are welcome to attend any one of these events.
Monday 20 July 1-3pm The Dalgarno Trust – please book here.
Tuesday 21 July 10.30-12.30pm White City Community Centre – please book here.
Wednesday 22 July 10.30-12.30pm One Westminster – please book here.

Best wishes,

Shani Lee

Chief Executive

Desta Consortium

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Consultation on Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing in your area

We want to talk about Children & Young People’s mental health and wellbeing

Where: Anteroom, Ealing Council, 14-16 Uxbridge Road, W5 2HL (10 mins walk from Ealing Broadway)
Who: This event is for children & young people, for commissioners and medical professionals, for the voluntary sector and providers of health, care and education services to share experiences and contribute to the development of plans across Ealing, Hounslow, Hammersmith and Fulham. We want to find out your views on Future In Mind and what you think are the key priorities for your area
Contact: Likeminded@nw.london.nhs.uk to confirm your attendance – or with any questions
When: Thursday 16th July, 4-5.30pm

CYP flyer 16th July

Future in Mind – one page summary

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A third of top fundraising charities fail Google ‘mobile-friendly’ test

Google has implemented a new mobile friendly test for people and organisations to check if their website is truly mobile friendly. Sites that google does not deem friendly lost their ranking in the search engine page lists
Over a third of major charities have failed this test.
Does your site meet googles standard? check by using the link below. If it does not google lists the items that need amending to make it more friendly.

Take the test

A third of top fundraising charities fail Google ‘mobile-friendly’ test

One in three top charities’ websites, including Oxfam, the Royal British Legion and British Red Cross, will fall down search rankings after failing Google’s new ‘mobile-friendly’ test.

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Free personal training from a qualified cycling instructor

Your staff can benefit from free personal training from a qualified cycling instructor. Tailored to their needs and location, this on-bike session covers everything they need to know about commuting by bike.

If your staff members are interested, they should email cycletraining@tfl.gov.uk with the subject line ‘Bulletin offer’ and include their name, organisation name, phone number and preferred start location.

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Larger charities urged to test their resilience against fraud

The Charity Commission is encouraging larger charities to make use of a free tool aimed at helping them assess their resilience against fraud.

The  Self-Assessment Fraud Resilience (SAFR) Tool, designed by accounting firm PKF Littlejohn and based on large databases managed by it and the Centre for Counter Fraud Studies at University of Portsmouth, is based around 29 questions and allows an organisation to establish how well it is protected against fraud:

  • how well it understands the nature and cost of fraud
  • whether it has an effective strategy to address the problem
  • whether it has a counter-fraud structure which helps it implement its strategy
  • whether it takes a range of pre-emptive and reactive action to counter fraud
  • the extent to which fraud is addressed and managed like any other business issue

The commission has circulated the SAFR tool to all registered charities with an annual income of over £1m – of which there are around 6,700 – and encourages them to complete it before the end of March.

Charities completing the self-assessment will receive instant results, giving them a fraud resilience rating out of a maximum 50 score, and telling them how well they have scored relatively (by percentile) against the hundreds of organisations across the charity and other sectors who have already measured their fraud resilience. Charities will also receive an estimate of how much they lose to fraud each year.

The regulator stresses that charities’ responses will be strictly confidential. The commission will have no access to individual responses but will see an overview of outcomes, which will allow it to identify areas of particular strength or weakness and thus help it focus and improve its guidance for charities.

There is no agreement over the extent of fraud affecting charities, but the commission says that there are no grounds for believing that charities are any less vulnerable to fraud than other types of organisations.

 

 

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Many trustees don’t understand their basic duties, Commission policy head says

Too many charity trustees “don’t understand their basic duties”, the Charity Commission’s policy head told a conference today.

http://bit.ly/16SnluA

 

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Read Lord Bew’s blog on provision of public services by private and Voluntary Organisation.

Lord Bew, the Chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, has published this blog discussing the provision of public services by private and voluntary organisations. In the blog, Lord Bew explains that the public have a clear expectation that all providers – from whatever sector- should observe common ethical standards

Read more http://bit.ly/1EYlCTq

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