mySociety, the organisation trying to make access to government and information easier, has launched a new campaign to encourage Parliament to publish bills (the draft laws going before it) in a more useful manner.

The campaign’s name, Free Our Bills, could unfortunately trigger rather a lot of spam filters.

A guide to working with volunteers from disadvantaged backgrounds was launched at the national GoldStar conference in Birmingham recently. The Good Practice Handbook is intended to encourage and help voluntary organisations across the country to target and work with volunteers from less traditional backgrounds, e.g. without qualifications, with disabilities or long term illness, from Black and Minority Ethnic groups.

It can be downloaded (a rather large 7.5MB, 120 pages), or a print copy ordered, via http://www.goldstar.org.uk/goldstar_downloads.html.

Compact Voice is inviting those working in voluntary organisations to take part in focus groups on sector independence. These will look at whether the Compact agreement between government and the sector is fulfilling its commitment here, and if the Compact can be used more effectively.

The focus groups are in London on 24th April and 2nd May, in Birmingham 25th April, York 1st May (morning or afternoon). Lunch and travel costs will be provided. Contact Stefan Simanowitz at NCVO, email: stefan.simanowitz@ncvo-vol.org.uk or phone 020 7520 2486.

UPDATE: The focus groups dates have been changed to   London on Tuesday 20th May (2pm - 4pm) and Friday 6th June (11am-1), York on Thursday 22nd May (am/pm) and Birmingham on Thursday 5th June (am/pm).

The government is consulting on ‘Participatory budgeting: a draft national strategy’, or ‘community kitties’, and wants feedback on how it could get participatory budgeting being used in all local authority areas by 2012. There are already 22 local authorities signed up as pilots.

Communities Department news release at http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/728340 or go direct to the consultation documents at http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/communities/participatorybudgeting. Respond by 10th June.

A range of new content has been added to the Finance Hub web site, for funding advisors, voluntary groups and social enterprises.

The site has ‘Expert Guides’ covering areas such as taxation, VAT, the accounting treatment of grants versus contracts, and more. http://www.financehub.org.uk/new_web_content.aspa

Two new guidance notes from the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators cover building a specimen skills register for a charity’s board of trustees and the board’s powers to delegate specific functions.

Available as pdf downloads (about 100kb each) from http://www.icsa.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=461Itemid=0, or see the news items currently linked from the front page, http://www.icsa.org.uk.

A set of online resources with a focus on promoting employer-supported volunteering programmes in smaller businesses has been launched by Volunteering England. Research from Ashridge Business School found that while small and medium size business owners wanted to give something back to the community they lacked time and accessible information.

The new resources include a search facility to make it easier to find partner organisations that offer Employer-Supported Volunteering. VE news item, or go direct to the ESV section of Do-It: http://www.do-it.org.uk/wanttovolunteer/evsvolunteering.

Following the announcement of major funding for voluntary sector support in Scotland over the next 3 years (see earlier news), Scottish Government officials have said that this is the last time for separate funding of Volunteer Centres and the Councils of Voluntary Service network.

Both Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations and Volunteer Development Scotland accept that the structure of the third sector has to change. The government is saying that there are no pre-determined outcomes, so it will be interesting to see how things develop.

SCVO news item at http://www.scvo.org.uk/scvo/NewsAndEvents/ViewArticles.aspx?f=h&al=t&pid=7030

Recently added to the online case studies of risk assessments compiled by the Health and Safety Executive is one for a village hall. Likely to be applicable to many small community buildings - http://www.hse.gov.uk/risk/casestudies/villagehall.htm.

HM Revenue and Customs is reassuring charities that there will be no change in how they reclaim Gift Aid, with the introduction of transitional relief. This extra money will be added automatically and not need to be reclaimed separately, although there will be some delay while the legislation behind the Budget goes through the parliamentary process.

Third Sector reports that umbrella bodies in Scotland and Northern Ireland are pressuring their governments to match the Chancellor’s commitment to help small charities in England claim Gift Aid. This was part of the response to the Gift aid consultation, announced alongside the Budget, http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/News/790777/ (registration required).

Less welcome for many charities is the news that from April 2009 employment agencies will have to charge VAT on the full costs of supplying staff to an organisation, not just on their own admin charge. This could have a significant impact on voluntary organisations unable to claim back VAT fully if they use a lot of temporary or bank staff.

Charities with a turnover below £2 million are invited to apply to have a short, awareness-raising film made at a fraction of the usual cost.

This is the fourth series of Volunteer Films launched by Media Trust, and as well as a broadcast quality film, with guaranteed airtime on Community Channel, a DVD and internet version is supplied, for a total cost of £1,000.

Applications have to be in by 31st March, see http://www.mediatrust.org/latest-news for details or email volunteerfilms@mediatrust.org

‘E-campaigning ideas’ is a compilation of suggestions and case studies put together by Advocacy Online, covering engaging supporters, maintaining the interest of online communities, promoting online campaigns, and evaluating campaigns.

Download (pdf, 499kb) via http://advocacyonline.net/cms/cmsloader?bYxPYy&view=281,21,2804,0,-html.