Today’s Education Guardian has a piece on a Liverpool church being transformed into a skills centre for local people, with mixed funding from Futurebuilders alongside money from European Regional Development Fund.

The centre, opening in September, will see young people aged 14 to 19 learn practical skills and qualifications linked to employment.

The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) assumed many of its new responsibilities and powers from 1st April, and others come in from 24th April, such as the need to get their consent on name changes. There are a whole raft of updates and changes to the web site set up by the previous, more limited incarnation, at http://www.oscr.org.uk.

A new publication is ‘Guidance for charity trustees on consents and notifications under the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act’ - http://www.oscr.org.uk/Publications.aspx. And various transitional arrangements have been made via Commencement Orders, such as one allowing “cross-border charities” to call themselves charities in Scotland until 23rd February 2007, to allow time to apply for entry in the Scottish Charity Register.

The Charity Commission has produced new guidance for streamlined removing of medium sized charities from the Register.

‘Dissolution, winding up and removal from the Register for medium sized charities’ (CSD 1077A), pdf 45kb, http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/library/supportingcharities/pdfs/csd1077a.pdf.

The second phase of a consultation on Rural Development in Scotland seeks views on how money should be spent in rural areas. Minister Ross Finnie says that “implementing a Rural Development Plan will require a joined up approach in which local communities and government are working together.”

News release at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2006/04/04140441 or go direct to http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/04/03100240/0. Responses by 27th June.

HM Revenue and Customs has published draft clauses to help charities understand what the Budget’s package of measures to protect charitable reliefs from abuse mean. This covers transactions with substantial donors, non-charitable expenditure and extension of restriction on gift aid payments.

They welcome comments on the draft legislation. See http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/charities/aa-legislation.htm.

Direct entry to the second year of a part-time BSc in Community Development at the University of Ulster is possible for those with five or more years experience in the voluntary sector.

The university is offering a week long intensive course, Accreditation for Prior Experiential Learning, in May as a first step.

See CommunityNI for more: http://www.communityni.org/index.cfm/section/events/key/event300306.

From BBC News, Wales:

The first community radio station to be set up in Wales is under threat after an assembly government grant of £80,000 was refused.

GTFM, which was set up in Pontypridd in 2002, was the first radio station in Wales to be supported by the UK Government, with EU backing.

It is run by five full-time staff and volunteers but has warned of closure unless funding can be secured.

More on BBC News.

As said on Community Media discussion list:

“it would be a sad day for the sector for one of the pioneers do go off air - before most of the new licence holders have even gone on air. It would also be a disgrace if the Welsh Assembly let their only pilot - and the only UK station so far to pioneer a student/community partnership - go under.”

Acevo has launched what it claims to be “the first online learning resource for the sector”. VolResource has been listing a number of online courses for several years, so maybe they mean the first one specifically targeted at chief executives in this country.

The Virtual Learning Resource Centre, developed in partnership with Ashridge Business School, is only available to acevo members, but read more here.

A ‘Manifesto for volunteering in Europe’ targeted at European decision makers has been put together by the European Volunteer Centre, which is a network of volunteer development agencies and volunteer centres. Available in pdf format, 407kb, http://www.cev.be/Documents/CEVManifesto.pdf. (Link from Volunteering England)

It includes a call for a European Year of Active Citizenship through Volunteering, which Third Sector recently indicated could be 2009 or later (http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/charity_news/full_news.cfm?ID=18078).

Details of a further 26 government funding streams included in Local Area Agreements from the next financial year (2007/08) have been announced, by which time Round Three will have been rolled out LAAs across the whole of England. http://www.odpm.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1002882&PressNoticeID=2131.

Funds are ’streamlined’ under 4 headings: Children and Young People, Healthy Communities Older People, Safer and Stronger Communities, Economic Development and Enterprise.

And ‘Guidance for Round Three and Refresh of Rounds One and Two’ of LAAs is also out, http://www.odpm.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1164930.

mySociety, the organisation behind PledgeBank and the ‘contact-an-MP’ site WriteToThem (http://www.writetothem.com) has launched its second call for proposals.

It is after ideas for an internet facility which can help the civic, community or democratic aspects of people’s lives. Just the one winner, identified with public involvement, will then be built by its core team and any willing volunteers.

See http://www.mysociety.org/proposals2006/about, or read The Guardian’s ‘in praise of’ editorial on PledgeBank: http://www.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,,1746799,00.html.

A decision by the Information Commissioner that it was reasonable for a local authority to charge large sums for photocopies of planning documents has been overturned by the Information Tribunal, in its first decision relating to the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

Friends of the Earth press release.