A second round of the Department of Health’s Social Enterprise Investment Fund has been announced.

It has £11 million capital and £6 million revenue funding available to support the development of social enterprises in health and social care such as women’s refuges, migraine clinics and exercise programmes for the elderly. Submissions required by 31st July.

Alongside this is an ‘Innovation for Life Challenge Fund’, of up to £100,000 for local health and social care commissioners and their partners which come up with innovative ways of using social enterprise solutions to meet local health and well-being challenges and to tackle health inequalities.

Links to both the above via DH Social Enterprise page.

GuideStar UK, the online database of charities, over the next year is to test the feasibility of extending the facility to include Northern Ireland charities and launching a standalone GuideStar Northern Ireland. It will take into account the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland expected to launch later this year.

The feasibility of developing national GuideStar systems in another 5 European countries is also being investigated by GuideStar International, with funding from the European Commission - see http://www.guidestareurope.org.

Volunteering England and the Institute of Volunteering Research have created a specific set of web-based tools for sport organisations to assess their own volunteering impacts.

This is part of a project which tested the current Volunteering Impact Assessment Toolkit with 100 volunteers and players across three sports, and a final report about the methods and findings behind those new tools has also been published. The latter, ‘A Winning Team? The impacts of volunteers in sport’, can be downloaded as a pdf, 307KB.

The sport tools to measure impact of volunteering are available via http://www.volunteering.org.uk/sport, or read press release.

A research project commissioned by the Office of the Third Sector is looking at effective and innovative consultation with the third sector in England. Due to report by the end of October 2008, key questions are

* How can government most effectively consult with third sector organisations?
* How can it reach organisations normally under-represented in government consultations?
* Are there specific ways in which consultation with the third sector differs from other government consultation?

OTS news item.

‘Preparing Britain for the future: the Government’s draft legislative programme 2008-09′ was published last week (14th May), two months earlier than last year’s first such consultation on the proposed new laws to be introduced in the Queen’s Speech.

The four themes of the 18 bills and other non-legislative actions are: Making the most of your potential, Personalisation and Improvement of Public Services, Economic Stability and Handing Power Back to the People.

Read more online at http://www.commonsleader.gov.uk/output/page2391.asp, or download the full document (pdf, 428KB), from http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/cm73/7372/7372.asp. Responses by 6th August.

The model governing documents for charitable companies (GD1) provided by the Charity Commission have had to be withdrawn for revision due to clashes with requirements under the Companies Act 2006, Third Sector reports (http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/News/807172/, registration required).

The Commission’s registration pages are at http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/registration/default.asp.

The information resource site Fumsi has an article looking at UK Government Information on the Internet.

Written from a business information perspective but a useful rundown of key sources and recent changes. http://web.fumsi.com/go/article/find/2776.

A new forum around the concept of connecting neighbourhoods using digital technologies has been set up by DC10plus, a local authority led social inclusion body.

Connecting Neighbourhoods Forum is for the private sector, voluntary and academic stakeholders to collaborate, discuss and produce strategies and solutions. http://www.connectedneighbourhoods.org.uk.

While its Event Safety Guide is in the process of being revised and updated, the Health and Safety Executive has issued a clarification on the position of paramedics and ambulance technicians at events. http://www.hse.gov.uk/entertainment/issues.htm.

HSE’s FAQ (frequently asked questions) on Display Screen Equipment (VDUs) has been updated.

It covers issues such as How can I protect my eyes? and How do the regulations apply to work with laptops? http://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/faqs/vdubreaks.htm.

Action Earth provides grants of up to £50 to assist groups in England, Scotland and Wales in carrying out environmental projects by the end of July.

This year, there are also a limited number of £250 grants, only available in Scotland and funded by Scottish Natural Heritage, specifically intended for biodiversity projects. Apply a.s.a.p. at http://www.actionearth.org.uk.

(Source: Third Force eNews)

‘Amazing People’ is a new initiative to match up community organisations in South Yorkshire with potential volunteers and business partners, set up by South Yorkshire Open Forum.

News item from South Yorks Times, http://www.southyorkshiretimes.co.uk/news/Initiative-aims-to-link-up.4010855.jp, or go direct to http://www.amazingpeople.org.uk.