‘Better business – a strategy and action plan for social enterprise in Scotland’, from Communities Scotland for the Scottish Executive, lays out four strategic aims:

• Raising the profile and proving the value of social enterprise;
• Opening up markets to social enterprise;
• Increasing the range of finance available to develop social enterprise;
• Developing the trading capacity of social enterprises by providing better business support.

There is £1.5 million to support this over the next year. More and link to report download (pdf, 1.19MB) on news release.

Last week’s parliamentary questions to the Duchy of Lancaster/Cabinet Office included discussion on the impact on Gift Aid of next year’s cut in income tax, and the level (and accessibility) of government funding allocated to the third sector. Some further measures around tax effective giving are promised for the next pre-Budget report (sometime in the autumn).

Hansard record of the session.

The consultation on proposals to amend fee regulations on Freedom of Information requests has opened for a second period with a supplementary paper. This invites views on the principle of amending the original 2004 Regulations, raising the possibility (welcomed by the Campaign for Freedom of Information, http://www.cfoi.org.uk) that the government might leave the current arrangements untouched, rather than introducing extra costs and restrictions.

New deadline is 21st June. Department of Constitutional Affairs, http://www.dca.gov.uk/consult/dpr2007/cp2806.htm.

Also, Out-law.com reports that the Information Commissioner’s Office submision to the original consultation said that if public authorities used existing rules properly there would be no need for the proposed changes. http://www.out-law.com/page-7943.

Local and regional voluntary sector manifestos are being produced by various sector bodies across Scotland aimed at council and Scottish Parliament candidates in the forthcoming elections. As reported by national umbrella SCVO, in Highland they have been asked to listen to the voices of the voluntary sector, value their work and create a climate in which voluntary activity can flourish.

SCVO news story at http://www.scvo.org.uk/scvo/TFNPR/ViewTFNPR.aspx?pr=5756 includes a link to the full manifesto. Third Sector magazine also covers the subject, focusing on the manifesto produced by Fife Council for Voluntary Service. http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/channels/Policy/Article/651161/ (registration required).

Capacitybuilders, England’s voluntary sector infrastructure development body, is reviewing the effectiveness of ChangeUp Consortia. There are around 130 of these across the nine regions, with regional, sub-regional and local groupings, set up to develop capacity building programmes locally. This is part of Capacitybuilders funding policy development for 2008-2011.

Feedback is requested by 25th May. See http://www.capacitybuilders.org.uk/info/story/default.asp?item=54 or Charity Finance news item at http://www.charityfinance.co.uk/charitynewsalert/issue24/changeup.asp.

The Electoral Commission has launched a second round of its Partnership Grants Scheme, which provides grants of up to £100,000 for organisations which work to involve more people in the democratic process.

They particularly want to target young people not in formal education, people from ethnic minority communities and people with disabilities. Closing date 25th May.

See http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/your-vote/partnershipgrants.cfm.

A new programme to create at least 20 new social enterprise ambassadors has been put out to tender by the Cabinet Office.

Applications are needed by 2nd May - see details.

This year’s Enterprising Solutions Awards, the national awards for social enterprises that are innovative and dynamic, have been launched, supported by the Office of the Third Sector.

http://www.socialenterprise.org.uk/CMS/page.aspx?SP=2072.

A new Councillors Commission on the role of local councillors is examining the incentives and barriers to a wider range of people standing as candidates.

It is inviting public participation in the process, with an online forum focusing on a different question each month, from April until September. Some interesting contributions already at http://forum.communities.gov.uk/councillorscommission.

Major changes to how Welsh politics work, brought about by the Government of Wales Act 2006, are covered in a new section on the Welsh Assembly web site, http://new.wales.gov.uk/gowasub/gowa/changes/?lang=en.

The difficulty of attracting charity trustees (or management committee members for other non-profits) is getting a fair amount of coverage. Two articles of interest:

‘I’ll help with that, but don’t ask me to lead it!’ is written by American volunteering consultant Susan J. Ellis, http://energizeinc.com/hot/2007/07apr.html;

while Third Sector has a News Focus article titled ‘Would you be a trustee these days?’ looking at the pressures and rewards from a British perspective, http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/News/649405/trustee-days/.

The Coffeehouse Challenge is a project from the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) which aims to get local people to come together over coffee to talk about community issues they care about and to take action.

There’s a small funding pot to help ideas develop with events taking place in June, July or August, supported by Starbucks who can provide space and complimentary refreshments. http://www.coffeehousechallenge.org, or Community Newswire item at http://www.communitynewswire.press.net/article.jsp?id=1257344.