The Volunteering Hub and Volunteering England are looking at how to improve the accessibility of their services, particularly for the deaf community. They are keen to hear from those working with deaf volunteers on what has worked well or been challenging, and on what volunteering roles deaf volunteers have been involved in.

Contact Kate Engles, phone 020 7520 8913, email: kate.engles@volunteeringengland.org.

A ‘Community Ownership and Management Review’ has been announced by Communities and Local Government minister Ruth Kelly, to “review the powers, policies and barriers to make it easier to transfer assets to local communities”.

Headed by the Chief Executive of the London Borough of Lewisham and working closely with Ed Miliband (the third sector minister), it will report next spring.

Press release: http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1002882&PressNoticeID=2246, Kelly’s speech: http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1503149

Chief executives body Acevo has been pushing the benefits of voluntary organisations delivering public services. In a submission to a government review led by Sir David Varney, case studies from its members illustrate how they can, “often in the form of early interventions, … offer excellent value for government as well as greatly improving outcomes for service users.” The examples are divided into Crime and correctional services, Health and social care, Employment services, Children’s services. News item at http://www.acevo.org.uk/main/index.php?content=newsitem&news_id=253 includes link to the document (Word format, 179kb). This does give a more practical angle on quite what all the fuss is about.

A collection of essays, ‘Returning to its Roots? A new role for the third sector in probation’ has been published in time for the party conferences by the Social Market Foundation, working with the Rainer charity. Extracts and link to the download (pdf, 450kb) at http://www.smf.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=235.

In an interview by Society Guardian with Britain’s first minister for the third sector, Ed Miliband, he states that the idea of charities being major public service providers has been overplayed.

He also indicates that an NCVO supported amendment to the “public benefit” clause in the Charities Bill, due to complete its parliamentary process in the next couple of months, is unlikely to get government backing.

http://society.guardian.co.uk/futureforpublicservices/story/0,,1875946,00.html.

Volunteering England has launched a campaign to promote Volunteer Centres and increase public awareness of them as the places to go if you want to volunteer.

There’s a campaign website at http://www.volunteercentres.org. Or see News item.

Volunteering England and National Association for Voluntary and Community Action have signed a Memorandum of Understanding at NAVCA’s conference last week.

Kevin Curley, NAVCA chief exec, said “In the past too much energy has been wasted at local level in pointless arguments about which organisation should lead the work needed to support volunteering …… It doesn’t matter …… as long as volunteers get good support in every part of England.” http://www.navca.org.uk/news/vememorandum.htm.

On the second attempt the AGM of NAVCA, the umbrella body for local sector support bodies (CVS), has agreed a proposal to allow other types of local infrastructure organisations to join, such as Learning and Skills Consortia, Community Empowerment Networks and BME infrastructure.

There will be a new set of membership criteria, which will be “demanding” and those failing to collaborate locally are likely to be turned down. NAVCA’s trustees are to “‘weed out’ weak LIOs”, although we guess this only applies to new applicants, not existing CVS members. They are also promoting a Performance Standards and Quality Award to encourage improvement.

News release on the latter at http://www.navca.org.uk/news.

Legislation to set up a new ‘vetting and barring scheme’ to protect vulnerable groups in Scotland is expected to be introduced to the Scottish Parliament in late September, according to a recent Third Force eNews.

The scheme will build on the current protection of children structures and will also bring vulnerable adults (’adults at risk’) into the system. Amendments to the ‘Bichard Bill’ are likely to be introduced in the new year, and SCVO is bringing together a coalition of voluntary groups to put pressure so that consideration is given to how it will work on the ground.

If your organisation has an interest, contact policy coordinator Russell Gunson, email: Russell.gunson@scvo.org.uk

Late addition: see The Herald’s piece on the issues, 25th Sept.

Idealware, the web site providing candid reviews of software of interest to nonprofits, added a feature on blogs over the summer.

Getting started with blogging software is a good place to start (! ) - http://www.idealware.org/blogging_software/2006/06/introduction.php.

Sight loss charity RNIB has put together a Software Access Centre, giving information and advice on testing and evaluating computer software for accessibility, obtaining software and the relevant legislation. This complements the existing Web Access Centre.

(Source: E-Access Bulletin)

The latest newsletter from the Centre for Charity Effectiveness at City University has, as usual, a number of interesting items. For instance: a case study on using the European Foundation for Quality Management Excellence Model, leadership and the next generation of charity leaders.

The quiz could be fun too. http://www.centreforcharityeffectiveness.org/Newsletter_Sept06/Sept06frontpage.htm

The Campaigning Effectiveness Programme, run from NCVO, has launched a survey to find out what organisations (in England) think about campaigning and what support, training or resources would be useful, along with assessing existing knowledge on the issue.

Five respondents picked at random will get a copy of ‘The Good Campaigns Guide’. Runs to 1st December - http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/ce/index.asp?id=2844&menuId=345.