The Commission on the Future of Volunteering was launched this week (29th March), with Baroness Julia Neuberger as chair, to develop a long term vision for volunteering in England. Established by the England Volunteering Development Council, their press release highlights a number of areas that will be looked at, including emerging trends such as the increasing professionalisation of volunteer management and growing levels of activism and campaigning.

The website is at http://www.volcomm.org.uk, where interim and final findings (due June 2007) will appear.

Do people need professional support to help them find their way around the complicated system of choosing and paying for care?

The Commission for Social Care Inspection has published a ‘Support Brokerage discussion paper’, see http://www.csci.org.uk/about_csci/news/support_brokerage.htm.

Society Guardian comment at http://society.guardian.co.uk/managingnewrealities06/story/0,,1735959,00.html.

Personnel body CIPD have updated their factsheet on record retention issues, giving a checklist of statutory and recommended retention periods for various classes of personnel documents. http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/hrpract/psnlrecrd/retrecords.htm.

New food hygiene regulations took effect from 1st January, consolidating existing general, product-specific and temperature control rules. Organisations producing or supplying food will need to register with the local environmental health department.

Those which have not changed their work since registering or their last inspection will not need to re-register, but will be re-assessed as part of their next inspection.

From Sandy Adirondack’s legal update, http://www.sandy-a.co.uk/employment.htm#foodhygiene.

Criminal Record Bureau fees go up from 6th April. Standard Disclosures will cost £31, and Enhanced Disclosures £36, and no charge for volunteers. Welsh umbrella body WCVA’s Criminal Records Unit are inviting voluntary organisations in Wales to contact them asap - 0870 241 6557. News item.

The announcement for the increase states that the extra income will be used to develop new online services - Kablenet news item (link likely to expire).

A survey on employer supported volunteering is being run on behalf of the Volunteering Hub. They want to hear about how it is resourced and what future support might be needed, along with any thoughts around quality standards.

The survey is online at http://www.preponderate.co.uk/esv/.

The potential of blogs is being explored further with YouthNet having a discussion on “Branding youth volunteering” which will have some input to the new charity launching in May (see above). http://www.youthnet.org/blog/page/blog?entry=branding_youth_volunteering. Some interesting posts so far.

Do-It, the volunteering web site connected to YouthNet, is to launch a series of blogs to allow volunteers to talk about their experiences. They want to recruit bloggers involved with volunteering overseas or campaigning. See http://www.do-it.org.uk/magazine/news/bloggerswanted.

And David Miliband, the Communities and Local Government Minister has become the first cabinet member to launch a blog connected with his position. He sees it as an “attempt to help bridge the gap - the growing and potentially dangerous gap - between politicians and the public”. http://www.odpm.gov.uk/cs/blogs/ministerial_blog/default.aspx.

A Microsoft sponsored competition “to showcase the vision, creativity and dedication of the IT community in the UK” is in 2 parts with one being ‘DesignIT for a charity’. ITers can submit a proposed system design that will benefit charities, with a budget not exceeding £15,000. A team of Microsoft technical specialists will work with the winner to implement their system, with the runners up receiving software for their chosen charities.

Runs to 3rd May, with a public vote over 17th to 24 May. http://www.microsoft.com/uk/technet/designit/default.mspx

(Source: Third Sector)

Communities Scotland has published a ‘How to Guide….Regeneration Outcomes’, to help those needing to report on ‘what has changed’, not just on what actions (government) money has been spent on. http://www.ro.communitiesscotland.gov.uk.

(Source: Third Force eNews)

The Pilot toolkit from Community Action Network (CAN) is a guide to running a pilot project for a social entrepreneurs, but will be of wider interest, going through the 3 key stages of planning, monitoring and evaluating.

Linked from this month’s online newsletter at http://www.can-online.org.uk/News/CANzine/CANNewsMarch2006.htm, or go direct to the pdf file, 716kb, http://www.can-online.org.uk/services/documents/CANpilotonline.pdf.

The first national awards to recognise the achievement of professionals across youth and children’s services have been launched by magazines Young People Now and Children Now.

There are 22 award categories to the ‘Children and Young People’s Services Awards’, many of them relevant to voluntary organisations. http://www.ypnmagazine.com/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=full_news&ID=9785.

Closing date 21st July.

SkillsActive, the sector skills council for play, is developing detailed plans for a register of playwork professionals after a positive response to a feasibility study. It could be running as early as next year, according to Children Now.