The Mindful Employer web site (http://www.mindfulemployer.net) aims at “increasing awareness of mental health at work and providing support for businesses in recruiting and retaining staff.”

There’s a variety of resources referenced here. The one which led us here, the recently published ‘Mindful Employment Practice Resource List’ (under Good Practice http://www.mindfulemployer.net/good_practice.html), appears to be one of the least generally useful.

OSCR, the Scottish charity regulator, has had such a large response for copies of its new ‘Guidance for Charity Trustees - acting with care and diligence’ that from the end of last week (15th September) it won’t send out hard copies but refer people to the OSCR web site instead.
They can then download it as a pdf, and print/copy as necessary.

New charities will get a printed copy, and sector support bodies may still have a supply.

News item or download the pdf, 191kb.

Northern Ireland umbrella body NICVA has published the report of its latest ‘Viewfinder’ opinion survey of the voluntary sector. This one looks at attitudes to the summer marching season, ending academic selection, training of board members and more.

Download this (pdf, 178kb) or previous reports from http://www.communityni.org/index.cfm/section/article/page/commni_viewfinder_0906.

‘Social Enterprise in Primary and Community Care’, written by Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, promotes greater involvement of the third sector in the provision of health and social care services across the country. It is published by Social Enterprise Coalition and can be downloaded or ordered from http://www.socialenterprise.org.uk/Page.aspx?SP=2008. Community Newswire item at http://www.communitynewswire.press.net/article.jsp?id=656927.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Rosie Winterton announced appointments to the board of the first national social enterprise organisation that will provide self-management courses and services to people with long-term health conditions. News release at http://www.gnn.gov.uk/Content/Detail.asp?ReleaseID=226129&NewsAreaID=2.

The National Day Nurseries Association has issued a report to government which reveals that there are huge problems with free Early Years entitlements. New guidelines ban ‘top-up’ fees, needed where local authority funding isn’t sufficient.

NDNA news at http://www.ndna.org.uk/PressOffice/display.asp?ID=185&Type=2, or Children Now item.

Three sector support organisations, chief executives’ body acevo, finance bods CFDG and the Institute of Fundraising, are investigating ways of sharing premises and their finance and ICT back office functions.

A feasibility study on closer collaboration, funded from ChangeUp money, also suggests that informal collaboration would increase collective impact of regional events, events administration, human resources and membership administration.

Third Sector news item: http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/charity_news/full_news.cfm?ID=19923.

Star ratings for providers of adult care services in England (excellent, good, adequate or poor) are due to be introduced from mid-2007 by the Commission for Social Care Inspection, subject to a consultation running to 14th November.

Go to http://www.csci.gov.uk/about_csci/publications/quality_ratings_consultations.aspx for download options.

Scottish charity regulator OSCR has published its latest list of organisations that it will be removing from the charity register this month.

The 641 charities on it have “failed to respond to the Regulator’s considerable efforts to make contact and have until 21st September to ask OSCR to review its decision”.

With the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 coming into force very soon (1st October), all employing organisations need to be addressing the issues now, if they haven’t already done so. To emphasise the seriousness, Anthony Collins Solicitors charities e-briefing points out that eight years after introducing age discrimination laws, a fifth of tribunal claims in Ireland concern are on this issue. And while volunteers should not be treated as employees, and we haven’t seen any specific advice on the matter, it seems sensible that volunteering policies should be in line where appropriate.

Sandy Adirondack’s Legal Update has a good round-up of the implications, plus further links: http://www.sandy-a.co.uk/employment.htm#age. Or get hold of the ‘Be Ready’ CD-Rom, containing a copy of the full age regulations, Acas guidance and more advice for employers, from http://www.agepositive.gov.uk/agepartnershipgroup/pages/contact_us_ordering.htm. Good starting page on Acas site is the ‘Hot Topic’, with a short check list to get employers thinking: http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1046.

‘Making insurance simple - A guide to insuring your charity’ has been produced by Zurich, one of the main providers of sector-specific insurance.

While the guide does refer to their own insurance policies, as long as you are aware that other insurers may have different ways of referring and grouping risk areas, it provides a helpful run down of the main areas and a comparison base.

Download pdf, 108kb, or request a copy.

Health and Safety Executive has updated its ‘Welfare at Work’ leaflet, covering the provision of adequate and appropriate facilities - such as toilets and drinking water - for the people you employ (which charities etc. are likely to want to take as including volunteers wherever possible).

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg293.htm?ebul=hsegen/29-aug-06&cr=04.

‘Open Source Development and Distribution of Digital Information: Technical, Economic, Social, and Legal Perspectives’ is a University of California at Berkeley course.

An online copy of the syllabus, at http://harbinger.sims.berkeley.edu/osdddi/f06/Syllabus, links through to a wealth of reading material, as well as giving some offline references.

(Source: Nonprofit Online News)