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Voluntary Sector North West
St. Thomas Centre
Manchester
M12 6FZ
Tel: 0161 276 9300
Fax: 0161 276 9301
Email: info@vsnw.org.uk
Consultation responses
Caring for our future: shared ambitions for care and support submission
VSNW wrote this submission following the feedback received from around the North West to this Department of Health consultation. The form requests feedback around seven questions including personalisation, modernisation and early intervention.
Cabinet Office's Lottery draft policy directive
Our nationally acclaimed briefing (picked up by NAVCA, NCVO and Directory of Social Change) highlights five points:
► Lottery funds should be the catalyst for innovative social investment
► Commitment to focus on funding the third sector
► Need to adequately define “Social Enterprise”
► Lottery funding should not be a substitute for Government spending
► Funds should be distributed on evidenced need that includes consideration of communities of interest and identity
Open Public Services White Paper (OPSWP) consultation submission
Reflecting on the five principles of OPSWP (accountability, fairness, diversity of provider, choice and decentralism), VSNW's submission seeks a model of public services that can provide effective and innovative answers for specific communities rather than a model most acceptable to the largest block of 'customers'.
In this context, VSNW's submission considers how the voluntary and community sector can play its part in supporting the development of diverse markets.
NW submission to ACEVO's Commission on Youth Unemployment
This joint submission by One North West, the Women’s Solidarity Forum and Voluntary Sector North West on Youth Unemployment outlines isssues relating to:
► Early intervention
► Incentives to private sector organisations
► Tackling discrimination
► Learning the lessons from the Future Jobs Fund
► Supporting VCS to engage in the Work Programme
► Beyond growth
Strengthening Womens Voices in the North West
The Women’s Solidarity Forum in partnership with VSNW, One North West and Oxfam, delivered an event at the end of May that brought together seventy one women from across the women’s voluntary and community sector (VCS) in the North West to respond to Government’s Strengthening Women’s Voices consultation.
Best value: new draft statutory guidance consultation response
VSNW recommends that:
1. The definition of 'best value' is strengthened in order to:
i. embed, and develop a better understanding of, social, environmental and additional economic value in order to commission better services and further improve current services
ii. develop a strategic procurement tool for authorities to build big local economies and encourage mini, neighbourhood-level enterprise zones
2. The Duty to Involve is not repealed
NW Voluntary and Community Sector Future Forum Response
A meeting with the voluntary and community sector in the North West took place with the Dept of Health as part of the 'Listening Exercise' on NHS Reforms. Members of the Dept Health listened to the issues and concerns of those organisations who work with patients and service users in the region. This is the response VSNW submitted based on the discussions that took place on 23rd May 2011.
Consultation Response to Healthy Lives, Healthy People - our Strategy for Public Health in England
VSNW wrote this response drawing on the two consultation events that were held in the North West - Preston and Warrington - attended by over 100 people. It is a response to the Strategy document and also to the two consultation papers on Commissioning and Funding Routes and the Outcomes Framework.
Liberating the NHS: A Revolution for Patients - An Information Revolution
Voluntary Sector North West has written this response based on feedback received at consultation events and a call for responses.
Liberating the NHS: A Revolution for Patients - Greater Choice and Control
Voluntary Sector North West has written this response based on feedback received at consultation events and a call for responses.
Supporting a Stronger Civil Society
VSNW's response to the consultation includes recommendations for Government to:
► Make the most of Local Infrastructure Organisations
► Use the consolidation grant pot to support shift in local infrastructure organisation’s services to suit new policy context
► Do more to help build ‘Big Local Economies’
Modernising Commissioning Green Paper
VSNW's response calls for a commissioning process that helps to build 'Big Local Economies' through:
► "Co-designed" equality-proofing
► Adoption of 'social value' in scoring
► Outsourcing VCS monitoring requirements to VCS-owned brokerage support
VSNW's submission to Future North West consultation
VSNW has responded to Future North West, the regional strategic framework document which draws on the Regional Strategy (RS2010) consultation process over the last two years.
Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS - Transparency in Outcomes Response
VSNW wrote this response based on the information gathered at the Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS Consultation event held on 7th September 2010 in Manchester attended by over 100 people from the voluntary and community sector.
Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS - Regulating Health Care Providers Response
VSNW has written this response based on the information gathered at the Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS consultation event held on 7th September 2010 in Manchester attended by over 100 people from the voluntary and community sector.
Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS - Local Democratic Legitimacy in Health Response
VSNW has written this response based on the information gathered at the Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS consultation held on 7th September 2010 in Manchester attended by over 100 people from the voluntary and community sector.
Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS - Commissioning for Patients Response
VSNW has written this consultation based on the information gathered at the Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS consultation event held on 7th September 2010 in Manchester attended by over 100 people from the voluntary and community sector.
Submission on Local Enterprise Partnerships to the BIS Select Committee
VSNW's submission to the BIS Select Committee on Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) recommends Government publishes formal guidance asking LEPs to ensure formal VCS representation in their constitution and the benefits of VCS inclusion.
VSNW's response to the National Lottery Shares consultation
In our submission to the consultation, VSNW:
► Questions the thoroughness of the Impact Assessment
► Calls for a more fully developed rationale for the policy change based on VCS need
► Calls for reconsideration of the proposed phased April 2011 change
Regional Leaders' Board Accountable to the North West
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VSNW wrote in support of 4NW's model of a Leaders' Board for the North West that incorporates social, economic and environmental partners (SEEP) alongside strong local authority representation. The North West is the only region proposing a model that would include a representative from the third sector.
Regional Strategy (RS2010) Part 1 consultation response
Working with five sub-regional partners, 1NW and North West Environmental Link, we engaged over 200 organisations directly in the consultation events to develop our response to RS2010.
The response is quite lengthy but some key messages from the sector we have raised are the role of volunteering in the strategy (currently too understated) and the role the third sector can play across all four strands identified to ensure we meet the ambitious aim for the NW.
Shaping The Future Of Care Together: Green Paper
VSNW submission: There is widespread VCS recognition that there is a need to develop a care system which provides equitable access across the region to services that reach an agreed standard of quality.
In responding to this consultation VSNW focussed on two aspects that impact on VCS groups delivering health and social care services in the North West:
►national versus local funding schemes
►joined up approaches
Regional Strategies and Leaders' Boards consultation response
VSNW’s consultation response places particular emphasis on:
►Mainstreaming the equalities impact assessment within the Sustainability Appraisal process
►Clarifying the right for local authorities to determine the structure of their regional Leaders’ Board
►The benefits of formal third sector inclusion on the Leaders’ Board
►Potential for equal emphasis on geographic and identity/interest communities
►The offer for regional third sector involvement in developing the national core sustainability framework.
Refreshing the Compact: a framework for partnership working
VSNW's response to the proposed new national Compact calls for:
►the means to further embed aspects of the Compact
►light touch initiatives to support third sector delivery of large programmes like DWP's
►closer links between Equalities Impact Assessments, strategic commissioning cycles and grant funding
We would also advocate consideration of the National Audit Office's Intelligent Monitoring recommendations.
Submission to the North West Regional Committee on the impact of the recession
VSNW's submission focused on the need for debt advice and measures to support the voluntary and community sector (VCS). The hearing took place on 15 June. Notes from this will be available shortly.
The Principles and Issues of the Regional Strategy (RS2010) VCS consultation
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Briefing summarising the response is available here:
Briefings: Regional Strategy Principles consultation response (#13)
Third Sector Action Plan response
The three key points of VSNW's response to the Government's consultation on actions to support the third sector through the economic downturn are:
- Ensure that the voluntary and community sector appropriately, directly and strategically engages with economically focussed decision-making processes at every spatial level.
This way the potential, perspective and knowledge of the sector be embedded and fully support the work of private and public sector partners to minimise the impact of the economic downturn - for the benefit of badly affected communities and VCS groups - and support economic recovery. - The Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill offers a key opportunity to guarantee voluntary and community sector engagement in local economic assessments.
- Construction projects in partnership with the voluntary and community sector could be fast-tracked.
NCVO's response is available here: http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/policy/index.asp?id=12266
Empowerment Fund consultation
Update on consultation responses and launch of Empowerment fund.
North West regional strategy evidence base
Includes an outline of the scope of the voluntary and community sector in the North West. A short version, not linked to explicit sources of evidence, which focuses on the size of the sector in the North West, is published as Briefing #08.
Prosperous places: sub national review consultation
Featured Event
Open Public Services - Passage of a bill workshop
This VSNW/Parliamentary Outreach Service event will explore the stages that the bill would go through, their relative importance and ways to engage and influence
Latest News
Transforming Local Infrastructure Fund results announced
The beneficiaries of the £30 million fund to help transform and modernise local charity support services have been announced by Nick Hurd, Minister for Civil Society.
North West Operational Programme - Call for projects
The European Regional Development Fund 2007-13 is announcing a Priority 4 and Priority 5 call for project applications.
Events & Trainings
VSNW’s list of events & training opportunities for VCS groups in the North West
