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Cheryl Hodgson and Lois Arnold from Social Services outlined the way in which they currently work with a number of organisations but agreed there was a need for more information on the range of groups and services and that knowledge was sometimes patchy, depending on the experience of individual members of the team. Forum members also outlined the need for organisations to be kept up to date with changes within Social Services and we discussed how we could improve the information flow in both directions.
A number of specific action points were discussed and agreed:-
Social Services staff will identify relevant information about how their teams work and consider how to keep us posted on changes
We will run an introduction to the voluntary sector session as part of their induction programme for new staff
Individual groups will have the opportunity to do 10 minute presentations at Social Services team meetings. We will liaise with Social Services and groups to arrange a rota.
We will organise a lunchtime fair later in the year when groups will attend with leaflets and information and Social Services staff will be encouraged to come along and talk to local groups.
We will provide information about how they can get copies of the Directory of Voluntary and Community Organisations
They will consider including voluntary groups when they are organising training events and courses.
Everyone agreed it was a very useful meeting that should help to improve future joint working.
The Forum also received an update on local events and initiatives. A very successful children�s conference was held last week and lots of parents had attended to talk about their needs. It was also reported that Children�s HImP sub-groups are expanding to increase voluntary sector representation and involve parents, and Lorna reported that the HImP Executive had agreed that the Vulnerable People�s Advisory Group should have voluntary sector representation.
Information was distributed on the progress of the City Locality HImP plan, together with details of the local PCG budgets and a newsletter about the development of a Health & Social Care Trust bringing together mental health services across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. Copies of these papers will be sent to everyone on the Health Forum mailing list, or you can contact the CVS office if you would like copies.
A copy of the published Welfare to Work Joint Investment Plan was circulated. Groups were very impressed with the document and found it very accessible and a refreshing change from the usual tedious format. Several people wanted copies, and you should contact Social Services if you would like a copy for your group.
The Cambridgeshire Learning Partnership has asked different bodies to take the lead in each district and the CVS has been asked to lead the work in Cambridge City. Each district will develop its own ways of working and we will be working with other partners in the City to develop a local learning plan by December 2001.
A benefit of using lead bodies from different sectors is that this will enable us to explore different ways of developing a local approach. There will be an evaluation of the work at the end of the year to assess how effective different approaches have been.
Some Voluntary Sector Training Forum representatives met during March to exchange information about various local initiatives. We have met with the North Anglia Open College Network to progress work on the accreditation of programmes and have discussed the need to support local work to train trainers and group work facilitators.
We are also planning to organise a day to look at innovative ways of working with people with basic skills needs. More information about this in the next edition of CVS Community News.
The next stage is to develop content and there were different ideas emerging on how this should be done. We are proposing a series of short workshops to bring together voluntary sector groups, council members and officers to discuss the key issues that have been identified in more detail and to develop the content for each section.
Each workshop would focus on an identified issue (such as funding, consultation, accountability etc) and groups could attend those which they felt were relevant to them. The CVS would be involved in developing and contributing to each workshop - to represent those groups who have made it clear that they expect us to take the lead on their behalf. Whether or not groups contribute to the process of developing content we will ensure that all groups have the opportunity to consider and respond to all the drafts that are produced.
We are still discussing these ideas with council officers and expect that the next stage of this work will take place during the month of June.
Liz Railton, Director of Social Services, outlined the pressures on Social Services and the limitations on resources available to meet priorities. She also recognised the increased pressure on the voluntary sector, often left to pick up the pieces for people no longer eligible for Social Services support, and the lack of resources available to us to cope with the increased demands for services and participation.
A lot of the discussion focussed on joint working. Liz said she was firmly committed to joint working as the best way forward and acknowledged that there is still a long way to go. We highlighted some of the difficulties for us: lack of awareness of appropriate voluntary sector provision amongst many Social Services professionals; lack of dialogue between the voluntary sector and Social Services to inform policy and service developments on both sides; the omission of key voluntary sector provision from local service mapping exercises; the lack of transparency in terms of the commissioning process; impossible deadlines for key consultation documents; and of course the lack of resources to enable us to participate as fully and effectively as we need to.
With strong commitment to joint working on both sides, we felt we should be able to overcome some of these barriers and develop much more effective partnership working. We explored a number of ways in which we could improve joint working. These included: inviting the Area Managers to a future Forum meeting so that we could develop a direct dialogue with them; voluntary organisations being proactive in making direct contact with relevant workers; a regular briefing outlining relevant changes, policy initiatives, funding programmes etc; and an offer to contribute to and test out the new improved Social Services information service. Liz was asked to think about some of the issues and suggestions that had been made and to come back to us with a response and any subsequent thoughts on improving joint working arrangements. As a first step we will be inviting local managers to the next Health Forum meeting on Monday 21st May.
PCG TO PCT. Kusam Leal, Corporate Business Manager for Cambridge City PCT, did a presentation outlining the reasons for moving to PCT status at this stage. It was noted that South Cambs PCG are also moving to PCT status and that most of the issues are relevant to both PCGs.
It was difficult for us to immediately respond to some of the questions being asked - particularly about the configuration of some of the current Lifespan services that will be taken on by the PCTs. It was agreed that Kusam would prepare a short paper summarising the services that would be affected by the change and would send this out to Health Forum members together with the list of questions they are seeking responses to.
We will also be running a serious of workshops designed to support you to implement high standards of management and practice.
Our �Quality Workshops� programme will be linked to the quality standards in PQASSO (Practical Quality Assurance Systems for Small Organisations), a national quality system developed specifically for the voluntary sector by the Charities Evaluation Service. These practical workshops will offer you an opportunity to review your organisation�s practices, review examples of good practice and develop a clear understanding of what you need to do to bring about any improvement. Each workshop will provide information about the PQASSO standards - but you will find the workshop useful even if you want nothing to do with PQASSO!
Details of the first workshops are set out in the What's On listing and a booking form can be obtained by 'phoning the CVS office, Tel: 464696 or e-mailing us at: [email protected]
Inevitably the time has come for us to review our membership fees to enable us to maintain our current services and support - and to continue to ensure effective voluntary sector representation across a wide range of policy arenas.
In reviewing our membership fees we considered a number of issues:
Firstly, the membership fee has remained �12 for many, many years.
Secondly, the CVS has increased its services and support during that time and the Executive Committee feels that it is reasonable to expect our membership to acknowledge the value of the services we provide.
Thirdly, we also felt we should consider the particular needs of small, unfunded community groups. We think it�s important that smaller community groups play an active role as part of the local voluntary sector and that larger groups should pay more to support the less well funded organisations.
So we have decided to introduce a new membership fee structure, based on the income of the organisation. From 1st April, the following fees will apply:-
For groups with an annual income of:
| less than �1,000 per year | no charge | |
| �1,000 - �25,000 | �15 per year | |
| �25,000-50,000 | �20 per year | |
| �50,000-�75,000 | �25 per year | |
| Income over �75,000 | �30 per year |
We hope you will agree that this is a fairer system - but if you have any concerns then please write to us and let us know.
Please return the membership renewal form to us as soon as possible.
The participants came from varied backgrounds in the following fields: homelessness, housing, health, mental health and addiction. The object of the afternoon was to encourage open discussion. It was felt that this was needed, especially after the conviction of the Cambridge Two and the resulting fear and confusion. Working with drug users can often place people in almost impossible positions with conflicting responsibilities to clients, organisations and the law.
The main themes that came out revolved around protection from the law, changes in attitude and approach (e.g. partnership working), more resources (including easier access to detox) and more training, support and guidance. The Police were often experienced as inconsistent, and there was confusion about what Section 8 actually says and the distinction between policy and law. The notion of a forum with agency and police representation was universally approved. Included within the desire for more co-operation, was the need for a holistic outlook where the drug issue could be addressed within the context of the user�s whole life.
Some felt, and this is certainly my view, that there needs to be a healthy dose of realism introduced into society�s expectations. First we have to accept that despite our best laws and policies many drug addicts will continue to use. If we are not going to lock them all up (where they can still buy drugs), then we need to look at where and how we would rather they used, including whether there are ways of cutting the dealers out of the equation. Similarly, how can someone sensibly plan with their client for the future if their drug habit cannot be discussed? This means there must be options for them even with a declared problem, there must be people in which they can confide without being informed on, and workers and organisations need to beconfident that they can address these issues within the law. Without these in place we are simply skirting around the problem.
All in all, most people came away feeling that the afternoon had been a useful way of networking, airing concerns and sharing ideas. However, some people found it difficult to engage with the subject and participate, due in part to the overwhelming response and subsequent increase in discussion group sizes. We have been invited to feedback from the conference to the Drug & Alcohol Reference Group at the end of April, who will in turn feedback to the DAT. We will express our concerns there and ask for more guidance for those working in the voluntary sector.
Francis Beadle, Conference Organiser
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