‘The value added by community involvement in governance’ is a report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation looking at the benefits, costs and difficulties of community engagement in Local Strategic Partnerships.

http://www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/findings/government/0406.asp.

The latest round of National Offender Management Service grants scheme to support projects by voluntary and community organisations working with offenders and their families is open for applications, to 15th September.

See http://www.hmprisonservice.gov.uk/news/index.asp?id=5377,22,6,22,0,0.

Plans for the next round of Community Radio licensing have been released by the regulator Ofcom. It is going to be done on a region-by-region basis, starting with South West England and South Wales with applications accepted from 16th August to 7th November.

See http://www.ofcom.org.uk/radio/ifi/rbl/commun_radio/tlproc/secondround/ (note pdf file is 340kb).

Stage 2 of a consultation for the development of community learning and development National Occupational Standards is being run by Lifelong Learning UK, the skills council for learning professionals.

As well as a number of events around the UK, feedback can be made via the web. http://www.lluk.org/events/cld_consultation_events_06.html.

(Source: NICVA eNews)

The new Compliance Support Strategy from the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator aims to provide charities with an overview of OSCR’s priorities and approach to facilitating compliance with the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005.

A four page pdf.

A recent factsheet from personnel professionals’ body CIPD provides introductory guidance on teamworking, its benefits, team roles, selection and leadership etc. http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/maneco/general/teamwork.htm.

A book providing basic health and safety advice and information to charity and voluntary organisations has been published by the Health and Safety Executive, working with the Charities Safety Group and the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health. ‘Charity and voluntary workers A guide to health and safety at work’ via http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/charity.htm.

A number of HSE leaflets are now available in Polish: http://www.hse.gov.uk/languages/polish/index.htm. And some charities may find the new ‘Managing Shift Work’ book of interest: http://www.hsesro.com/View_Article.aspx?id=135.

‘Fire Safety Risk Assessment - Residential Care Premises’ has now been added to the list of guides published in anticipation of the new fire regulations coming in from October. It can be downloaded from http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1162106, or ordered in hard copy.

The TUC’s ‘Temperature at Work - heat. A guide for safety representatives’ may be of wider interest, particularly at present. In the absence of legal maximum working temperatures, it looks at this from a general health and safety perspective and gives ways of tackling problems.

http://www.tuc.org.uk/h_and_s/tuc-12183-f0.cfm.

The first ever benchmarking report on e-campaigning in the UK wants to gauge the current state of online activity as well as establish best practice benchmarks.

Susie Wright, on behalf of the eCampaigning Forum, is looking to collect as much material as possible, and would welcome more organisations to contribute. Email: suzewright@googlemail.com asap. All participants will receive a copy of the report in the autumn.

The Rural Initiative for Social Economy is a new project which aims to ‘promote and support the sustainability and growth of social economy organisations in areas of rural disadvantage’, in the six counties of Northern Ireland and 6 southern border counties.

They will provide mentoring support, host cross-border visits, encourage clustering, offer other learning activities and ready social enterprises to apply for and access loan finance. http://www.rise.ie.

(Source: NICVA eNews)

Northern Ireland’s umbrella body NICVA has completed a salary survey for the sector. As well as pay, it looks at workforce composition with regard to age, gender, contracts and job titles.

The report will be launched in the first week of August: key findings and more information are at http://www.nicva.org/index.cfm/section/news/key/nicva_salary_survey_2006.

Terrence Higgins Trust, one of the biggest HIV charities in England and Wales, has announced a merger with Glasgow-based PHACE Scotland to create THT Scotland. Scots rivals have been branded the move ‘secretive’ and claim the charity has a history of aggressive business tactics.

See Third Force News item.