24 November 2011 – 10:41 am
Today is my last full day in the office and therefore my last blog. Although you may hear from me on here again on the 1st December should we be successful with our recent funding bid. Announcements are being made early next week so watch this space. So I just want to take this opportunity [...]
21 November 2011 – 11:41 am
More activity in the policy world today as the awaited Housing Strategy – Laying the Foundations – is launched. This includes a £400million investment to create £16,000 new homes. Strategy is available on the DCLG website. I particulary liked the suggestion by the National Housing Federation which offered an alternative approach to work with social [...]
18 November 2011 – 4:26 pm
A full scale audit into the impact and outcomes of Big Society activity is underway and a report will be available early 2012. The sector has been invited to comment on the format of the consultation and how success is being measured , this opportunity is open until 28th November. The audit will focus on [...]
17 November 2011 – 4:53 pm
As part of the project wind down I have just had a purge of my contact lists. What a trip down memory lane that turned out to be. As you would imagine my list is explansive and dates back to the mid 2000′s so understandably, some are now obsolete. Interestingly though its not just people [...]
15 November 2011 – 12:15 pm
I am currently preparing for the North East Networks meeting – 25th Nov at South Shields Town Hall. The five independent empowerment networks have come together monthly as part of the Big Society project which ends in two weeks, so each group will be considering the way forward and whether to self organise and share [...]
11 November 2011 – 11:32 am
Following on from yesterday’s blog I just wanted to promote the My Future unlimited course. This is aimed at anyone considering consultancy, freelancing or interim management and is run by New Skills Consulting. The next one is running in Newcastle on the 24th November. I found this really useful in helping me think about what [...]
10 November 2011 – 11:28 am
My current project will finish at the end of November and VONNE awaits news on a funding application for me to manage a new project. That doesn’t sound unusual or particularly newsworthy, as I know I am not alone in this predicament in the sector. However the twist is that we receive notification of success [...]
8 November 2011 – 5:14 pm
You can now follow the daily progress of the Community Organiser Programme on line. Locality , the national organisation managing the programme, has set up a website, cocollaborative.org.uk where you can learn about the host organisations and follow blogs from the organisers. The media has reported very mixed opinions of the programme which claims it [...]
4 November 2011 – 4:17 pm
Following the third reading of the bill on the 31st October another element has been amended. The reading focused on how local authorities would respond to public petitions and it was decided that part of this would be removed. Referendums will now be limited to just neighbourhood planning and council tax rises. This follows concerns [...]
