New
Job Opportunities Online
Click here to see job opportunities
within the Voluntary Sector.
Important Communication -
Announcement of the departure of Dr Ray Jones
from Wiltshire County Council.
Wiltshire
County Council has announced that Dr Ray
Jones, Director of Social Services, is leaving
the authority after 14 years. The budget
situation in the NHS in Wiltshire has led the
council to withdraw from providing integrated
health and social care services. Integrated
health and social care has long been the
ambition of the council as the best way to
provide services to people who use them. Under
Dr Jones’ leadership the council have been at
the forefront of this work which is now
threatened by the current financial situation
facing the county council.
Tackling these
issues will require significant changes to how
adult social services are organised and
delivered. The council and Dr Jones have agreed
that these changes will be best undertaken by a
new director. An interim director will be
appointed shortly.
Prepare for the
Future - Conference held on the 21st March - Feedback
The conference
was held to enable representatives from
voluntary sector partners of the NHS to get
together to discuss ways of preparing for future
developments in health and social care. It is
government policy that the voluntary sector is
to be used more in providing services and they
will, therefore, need to be prepared in order to
take opportunities as they occur.
Click here
to view the feedback report from the event.
Free
Payroll
Charitable organisations with fewer than 50
employees can use a free payroll package from
Payroo available
over the Internet. The package is accredited by
the Inland Revenue (HMRC), is run over the
Internet and is very user friendly. Did we
mention that it’s free? Visit
www.payroo.com for more info.
NEW IT Course
Programme
The Learning
Curve are running some IT courses throughout May, June &
July. Including Basic Internet & Emails, Access,
Digital Cameras, Website Design and more.
Click here to view the full programme.
New Lottery Doorway
A new website was launched in April by 15 UK
National Lottery distributors to make it easier
for organisations looking for grants and
up-to-date information on funding opportunities.
The site is designed to be a “virtual doorway”
directing organisations to funders most likely
to support their application and includes a
“frequently asked questions” section and a link
to case studies of successful applicants.
www.lotteryfunding.org.uk
Wiltshire
Community Web - Launched!
www.wiltshirecommunityweb.org.uk
is now live!
This NEW county wide web initiative will
mean that community groups, small businesses
and others can set up their own website in
less than an hour free of charge.
The site has been designed so that the
websites are very simple to create, meaning
that a fully operational website can be set
up from scratch.
The plan for the Wiltshire Community Web
portal is that it will become the primary
source of public information on the
organisations and the help and support they
provide available on the internet.
Households
Unsuitable to Accommodate a Wheeled Bin
North Wiltshire District
Council - When the wheeled bin refuse
collection system
introduced some properties were deemed to be
unsuitable to accommodate a wheeled bin, on
the basis of the criteria considered
appropriate at that time. Since the
introduction an increasing number of
residents have requested changing from a bag
collection to a wheeled bin collection
service. It is the Council’s aim for as many
people as possible to benefit from the
improved service which a wheeled bin offers,
so if you feel that you are able to
accommodate a bin please ring 01249 706693
to arrange delivery."
To view more information please click here.
New
Courses from the Learning Curve
Some further courses are
being offered by the Learning Curve. They
include Presentation Skills, Interviewing
Skills and more.
Click here for more information.
Employment Law Workshop
Business Link in conjunction with two local
solicitors have developed a workshop
specifically on the topics around Employment
Law. Employment Law is a complex area,
getting it right means keeping in touch with
developments, thinking out your policies and
implementing them with care. The workshop
costs £44.65 per delegate and is being held
in Melksham, Swindon and other venues.
Click here to download the flyer.
Funding Surgeries
Need funding advice? Our
dedicated Funding Advice Worker, Mary
Waters, will be holding all day advice
surgeries on the 16th May and the 20th June.
Call on 01249 654089 or email
beth@cvsnw.org.uk to book an
appointment.
Charities Bill Update
The Charities
Bill completed its passage
through the House of Lords and
received its first reading in
the House of Commons in November
2005. However a date has yet to
be set for a second reading. The
Charities Bill updates the legal
definition of charity and
provides a modern, effective
regulatory environment for
charities. It has considerable
support both within the
voluntary and community sector
and beyond. NCVO (The
National Council for Voluntary
Organisations)
is continuing
to campaign for the Bill to be
reintroduced at the earliest
opportunity and for it to be
strengthened in a number of
areas, particularly in relation
to the proposed public benefit
requirement. Further information
about the Bill and copies of
NCVO briefing papers are
available at
Charities Act Campaign
Boring
Presentations are a Yawn for Most Managers
Surprise, surprise a new survey has
revealed that most managers believe
presentations are too long, with
anything over 20 minutes being
considered a big turn off. The survey of
more than 300 managers by training firm
PTP Training & Marketing revealed that
97% found it difficult to stay alert
during business presentations.
Two-thirds said any presentation that
goes on for more than 30 minutes was too
long, with the majority opting for an
ideal duration of between 10 and 20
minutes.
The key reasons for business
presentations being seen as a bore are
more to do with the lack of skill of the
presenter rather than the content of the
presentation. The main reasons for
poor performance included lack of
confidence in presenting material,
reading word-for-word what is written on
visuals, using too much information on
the slides, and addressing the slide
rather than the audience. Marc Holland,
managing director of PTP said: "Death by
PowerPoint is a common phenomenon where
many presenters see their role as simply
reading the slide contents. This is a
sure-fire way to lose your audience
within the first few minutes and it is
easy to see why 30 minutes of this is
the maximum people can stand."
Author:
Mike Berry
BTI Beyond the Immediate
- Update from Age
Concern Wiltshire
Many thanks again to all those who supported
the conference as well as the Wiltshire
Older People’s Strategy meeting on 26 April
– now we really have to work hard to make
sure the research findings are put into
action!
Please click here to view the Proposal
for taking the project forward into Phase 4
and a new Phase 5 ie IMPLEMENTATION! To find
out more about the BTI project please
click here for a synopsis.
Voluntary Sector Forum - Next Week
The Voluntary Sector
Forum is on Tuesday 9th May at Corsham
Community Centre from 12 - 2pm (lunch
provided). Please let me know if you would
like to attend (beth@cvsnw.org.uk)
Members of CVS & Directory of Voluntary
Organisations in North Wiltshire
We keep a list of current
members on our website (http://www.cvsnw.org.uk/voluntary/index.htm)
if you spot any errors please let us know.
We prefer, where possible, to put a link to
your website on this page. We also put
together a Directory of Voluntary Groups in
North Wiltshire, this is updated annually
and available both as a hard copy and on our
website (http://www.cvsnw.org.uk/voluntary/Directory.htm).
Are you in the Directory? If not let us know
and we can include you in the next update.
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