Bulletin Contents - 21 July 2010

Oops - O2

Vacancies at Advice Derbyshire

Virgin Trains Offers Charity Staff 20% Off Advance Tickets

Equitable Charity Trust

Communitybuilders Feasibility Grants

Your Freedom

Code of Practice for Personal Information Online

Creating a National Skills Strategy for the Voluntary Sector

How Government NHS Proposals Could Impact on Third Sector

Arts Charities Meet Public Benefit Test, Others Sort Their Plans

Support for Developing Local Compacts

Trustee Guide to Legal and Effective Campaigning

Sector Role in Fostering Community Cohesion

MS Office 2010 Available Soon at CTX

Personal Risk of Being Sued

Oops - O2

Apologies to our subscribers who accidentally received a couple of personal emails on Monday. This related to an inaccuracy in an article in the last eBulletin about O2 'It's Your Community' awards. These awards have been replaced by the O2 'Think Big' awards - www.o2thinkbig.co.uk - funding, support and training for young people to undertake projects.

Vacancies at Advice Derbyshire

Post 1: Diagnostic Advice Worker x2
Location: High Peak CAB, Buxton
Salary LA Scale 22, £19,621 per annum pro rata (actual salary £9,810) plus 5% pension after successfully completing 6 months’ probationary period
Hours: 16 per week including 2 evenings and alternate Saturday mornings

Post 2: Team Leader/Session Supervisor x1
Location: High Peak CAB, Buxton
Salary LA Scale 29, £24,646 per annum pro rata (actual salary £12,323) plus 5% pension after successfully completing 6 months’ probationary period
Hours: 18.5 per week including 2 evenings and Saturday mornings

Posts: initially 3 year funded posts
Closing date: 2 August
Interviews: after 9 August

Working as part of the BIG Lottery funded Access to Advice Project Advice Derbyshire; the post holders will provide a diagnostic advice provision and referral service to a range of advice providers who are part of the Advice Derbyshire partnership.

CVs are not accepted.  For further information and an application pack please contact Maxine Maybury: by email maxinem@advicederbyshire.org or telephone 07810 516571 or visit www.advicederbyshire.org for further details.

Virgin Trains Offers Charity Staff 20% Off Advance Tickets

Virgin Trains – www.virgintrains.co.uk – is to offer charity workers a 20 per cent discount for work-related journeys on its advance train tickets.

The company claims it is the first train operator to make such an offer, which starts on 13 August and includes advance fares for all routes, including peak-time journeys.  Tickets can be booked until 23:59 the day before travel.

To qualify for the discount for their staff, organisations must get at least 10 per cent of their annual income from voluntary sources and must register as a charity with Virgin Trains CharityLine.  If a charity’s annual income is more than £500,000, it will have to provide a link to its accounts on the Charity Commission website – www.charity-commission.gov.uk – as confirmation.

Charity staff travelling under the scheme must travel with identification or a letter of authorisation to prove they are making a work-related journey.

"This is a way we can provide benefits to lots of charities, which we are happy to do," said Richard Burns, communications manager for Virgin Trains.  "We hope uptake will be high."

Equitable Charity Trust

The Equitable Charity Trust is an education charity.  It makes grants of around £1 million each year towards projects for children and young people under the age of 25 who are from disadvantaged backgrounds or who are disabled.

Grants can be made for projects throughout the UK.  For more information and an application form visit www.equitablecharitabletrust.org.uk

Communitybuilders Feasibility Grants

Communitybuilders is offering grants of up to £75,000 to voluntary and community organisations wanting to develop project plans for new or refurbished community buildings.

For more information and details of how to apply visit www.communitybuildersfund.org.uk

Your Freedom

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has launched a website called 'Your Freedom'.  The website provides an opportunity for anyone to suggest ideas to:

• restore civil liberties;
• cut business and charity regulations; and
• repeal unnecessary laws.

Visit yourfreedom.hmg.gov.uk

Code of Practice for Personal Information Online

The Information Commissioner's Office has launched a new Code of Practice on how organisations should use personal information, which explains how the Data Protection Act applies to the collection and use of personal data online.  It provides good practice advice for organisations that do business or provide services online, asking them "be straight with consumers" so that people know why their personal information is being collected, how it will be used and who else may end up seeing it.  Pdf (2.34MB) or Flash versions of the 'Personal information online code of practice' via www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisations/topic_specific_guides/online.aspx

Creating a National Skills Strategy for the Voluntary Sector

Skills Third Sector has launched a consultation on developing a National Skills Strategy as a crucial tool for supporting a skilled workforce.  Consultation events around England have already started but continue in September.  There is also an online questionnaire, closing date 1 October. 

See www.skills-thirdsector.org.uk/research_policy/skills_strategy_consultation

How Government NHS Proposals Could Impact on Third Sector

Charity chief executives body ACEVO has a news item describing some of the measures in the Government's NHS White Paper that would have the greatest impact on the third sector, www.acevo.org.uk/Page.aspx?pid=2021  As a White Paper is a set of proposals, details may change before it comes to implementation.  Official government material at www.dh.gov.uk/en/Healthcare/LiberatingtheNHS/index.htm

Arts Charities Meet Public Benefit Test, Others Sort Their Plans

Further assessments of how charities in England and Wales demonstrate and report on the benefit they bring to the public (the public benefit test) have been produced by the Charity Commission.  Four arts charities ranging from the Royal Opera House to a local theatrical group met the test despite their differences, and the four charities which initially failed to meet the test a year ago have created plans to meet the concerns raised.  News release at www.charitycommission.gov.uk/RSS/News/pr_pb_update.aspx or find both pdf and web versions of the assessment reports here.

Support for Developing Local Compacts

Compact Voice has a new national Priority Areas Programme after a pilot in 2009, which gives tailored support over six months to help with the implementation of a Local Compact.  It is open to all regions in England, and for Compacts (agreements between the local voluntary and public sectors) at all stages, applications by 13 August.

Trustee Guide to Legal and Effective Campaigning

A new guide for charity trustees from NCVO "outlines both what is required by the law and what is good practice in the development and implementation of effective campaigns".  It has been produced in an odd size so may not be easy to print off from the pdf.  See www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/trusteeguidecampaigning or download (pdf, 650KB).

Sector Role in Fostering Community Cohesion

Research by the Young Foundation for Local Government Improvement and Development (previously the IDeA) has examined the role the voluntary and community sector plays in fostering and promoting strong community cohesion. 'Cohesive communities - the benefits of effective partnership working between local government and the voluntary and community sector' is in pdf, 1.65MB, at www.idea.gov.uk/idk/aio/20528985

Office 2010 Available Soon at CTX

Microsoft Office 2010, the latest version of the Microsoft Office suite will be added to the CTX product catalogue later this month.

Office 2010 includes many new features, but possibly most significant are the improvements to collaboration, both within an office environment and over the Internet.

CTX is brought to you by Charity Technology Trust in partnership with the not-for-profit technology capacity building organisation TechSoup.

Through this programme, eligible UK-based charities are able to request donated technology products from Partners such as Microsoft, Symantec and Cisco.

Find out more at - www.ctxchange.org

Personal Risk of Being Sued

A recent court case provides a reminder to company directors about representations they make on behalf of a company.

A company is generally regarded as a separate legal entity so that in the event of any claims it is the company which is claimed against, not the individual directors. However, a director can be held liable for any losses caused where they have assumed some sort of ‘personal responsibility’ for a contract, or any negotiations surrounding it.

In the recent case, a director had personally provided some crucial information to enable the contract to go ahead and this information was relied on and placed into the legal documents for the transaction. However, it eventually transpired that the information provided by the director had been incorrect and vastly elaborated.

The court found that the director had knowingly made false representations and for this reason the director was found to be personally liable for the statements made and ordered to reimburse the losses suffered.

So when a director signs a contract, or anything on behalf of a company, they should always add the words “For and on behalf of the company” after their signature. This will help prevent the other party from establishing that there is some sort of special relationship between you, meaning it will be harder for them to prove personal liability.

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