18 January 2012 – 8:25 am
Yesterday I attended a workshop as part of Community Action on Health and Newcastle CVS’ research to find out how the VCS think the NHS reforms in Newcastle will affect them. The discussion started promising as the results from the GP research was shared; 26 out of the 31 respondents said they believed the VCS [...]
11 November 2011 – 12:39 pm
Please excuse the extraordinary length of this blog. It is a speech that I will be giving on Saturday at the TUC conference i Newcastle that I wanted to share with you. It has become customary to start a speech by saying how delighted that I am to be here, well actually I’m not delighted [...]
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 [...]
*GUEST BLOG FROM VONNE BOARD MEMBER GEORGE COURTICE* It has happened to us all. You think you have got your head around something and then suddenly you realise you haven’t really got a clue. I experienced it a few months ago when VONNE was invited to attend a Customer Forum meeting, organised by Northumbrian Water, [...]
16 September 2011 – 12:41 pm
The first email to drop in my inbox this morning had me smiling with delight. The Sheila McKechnie Foundation Award winners have been announced and the winner for the ‘Take Action’ catagory was Kathleen Carter from Thrive in Stockton. I first met Kathleen and other members of the Thrive team at the VONNE Awards Ceremony [...]
9 September 2011 – 4:22 pm
Whilst it might be a very quiet afternoon in the office; I know the VCS will be out there working hard to bring about change to benefit their local communities. To help I have been developing webpages with information and tools about where support is available to help you campaign to influence policy. From blogs, to [...]
2 September 2011 – 2:16 pm
I was pleased to see the widespread news coverage our latest survey results received. Every 6 months for the past 2 years we’ve been tracking the impact of the economic downturn on North East voluntary and community organisations. It’s given us a wealth of evidence to show that the situation has deteriorated considerably over that [...]
Last week was such a busy week that my feet barely touched the ground and upon reflection I have to say the highlight of my week was a round table event to discuss ‘What Next for Policy Development in the North East’. We had two great speakers; Abigail Scott Paul from Jospeh Rowntree Foundation and [...]
As the Localism Bill travels its journey through the House of Commons its become subject to many changes. Last week it seemed every day something new was challenged or removed. Blink and you will miss the latest version! Main things to note from last week are the amendments made to a proposal for Shadow Mayors. [...]
I attended a meeting yesterday, which followed on from NEPACS’ conference in May. The purpose of the meeting was for prison officers, VCS organisations and national organisations to discuss next steps. It was fantastic to hear that because of the funding received from the Policy and Representation Partnership that so much partnership working has come about [...]