Briefing 5
Government’s Third Sector Action Plan
“Real Help for Communities: Volunteers, Charities and Social Enterprises
The Government has published “Real Help for Communities: Volunteers, Charities and Social
Enterprises”
which pledges up to £42.5 million to help volunteers, charities & social enterprises deliver extra real help to those that need it most, during the global economic downturn.
The Govt. will target £15 million of the Action Plan’s £42.5 million of measures at advice, employment, mental health, family breakdown, drug and/or alcohol use services and invest £16 million in local services for communities that are in greatest risk of deprivation.
Key features of the Govt’s key initiatives include:
£15 million Community Resilience Fund
This Resilence Fund will have 2 elements that will be targeted at local authority areas that are considered most at risk of increasing levels of deprivation as a result of the recession which will be:
- a grants programme for small and medium service providers in the local authority areas:
organisations offering services that specifically relate to needs resulting from recession will be prioritised e.g. debt advice, family breakdown services, skills development programmes etc.
- the development of stronger commissioner engagement with small/medium providers in these areas: The programme will be delivered as an extension of the Office of the Third Sector’s (OTS) existing National Programme for the Third Sector Commissioning
The Resilence Fund is in addition to the £130 million already committed to the Grassroots Grants programme meaning more small grants to more community groups.
Up to £10 million investment in volunteer brokerage scheme for unemployed people
The Dept. of Works & Pensions working closely with the OTS will invest up to £10 million in a new initaitive to give around 40,000 job seekers access to work focussed volunteering opportunities as part of their job search starting in April 2009.
Scheme will allow job seekers who have been unemployed for at least 6 months & feel that volunteering will help them get back to work, to access suitable work focussed placements without their benefits being affected.
The Govt. will introduce other measures at new and expanding social enterprises as well as small and medium sized third sector providers inclduing:
- A £16.5 million modernisation fund to support viable third sector organisations to access specialist services in order to restructure & become more resilent & effecient in the recession e.g. help with cost of mergers, partnerships & moves to more efficient sharing of back office functions for at least 3000 third sector organisations.
- A £0.5million investment in the School for Social Entrepreneurs to expand its ‘action learning’ programme to support social enterpreneurs & increase number of people it trains to become social entrepreneurs, particularly those working in deprived communities
- An independent review of the incentives for investment in social enterprise
- Information specifically for the third scetor organisations about impact of recession on pension services
To order a copy of publication call 0845 014 0010 and quote URN 09/Z1 and title of publication
Office of the Third Sector, Cabinet Office, Admirality Arch, The Mall. London SW1A 2WH
Tel: 020 7276 6400
Email: OTS.info@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk
Visit: www. Cabinetoffice.gov.uk/thirdsector
For further information contact:
BME Leadership and Engagement Project
The Asian Health Agency
Tel: 020 8571 5038
Email: leadership@taha.org.uk
BME Leadership and Engagement Project aims to strengthen voice & increase engagement & participation of BME communities in elected & appointed bodies, strategic partnerships & regional forums across London
TAHA acknowledges financial support from London Councils
