We hope you are all enjoying the festive season. Read our December newsletter highlighting blogs from the new social research and data lead at London Plus. We would also like to say thank you to everyone who attended our conference ‘Civil Society: What Next for London?’. It was a fantastic turn out and insightful hearing the manifesto asks from key members of civil society.
Now you can have your say by voting for your top asks. Please head to our website where you can read the manifesto asks, download the presentations from the day and find the link to the mentimeter questions, which you can use to vote. Votes close Wednesday 18th December.
Please share the manifesto asks on our website with your colleagues and networks (https://londonplus.org/news/london-plus-asks). It would be great if we had as many people vote on the asks as possible so that we have a robust civil society ask for the mayor.
Latest from London Plus
London Plus Appoints a New Chief Executive
In November, we were pleased to announce the appointment of Martin Brookes as our new chief executive. You can read about Martin in our press release. He will take up the post at the start of 2020.
Introducing Lucy Smith, Social Research and Data Lead at London Plus
Our new Social Research and Data Lead at London Plus writes about what she hopes to achieve for London’s civil society. Lucy is looking forward to working closely with your organisations to harness data and develop the tools you need. Lucy says “data becomes an integral part of the hard work that charitable organisations do to keep London an open and inclusive space for everyone. And I absolutely love this.”
Trustee recruitment
We are continuing to recruit for new trustees. Our recent skills audit identified a need for skills, knowledge and connections in campaigning, enterprise, finance and influencing. If you’re interested and want to find out more, please head to webrecruit or visit our website.
Events and Training
Charity Fast Track
The Charity Fast-Track Foundation Course trains new recruits in the sector to become ‘charity ready’ covering how charities operate, make money, communicate, drive change and deliver impact. Visit their website to find out more.
The FSI subsidised training
The Foundation for Social Improvement (FSI) has a range of heavily subsidised training courses (£12.50-£25.00) taking place in London this February 2020. Covering core fundraising methodologies, governance, charity leaders’ responsibilities and much more. Book your places now!
Reports
European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) and the Third Sector
New Europeans have published a report looking into the role of the third sector in supporting individuals to access the EUSS [PDF]. Third sector organisations are often well placed to support individuals needing assistance with their EUSS application, however 43% of the ‘wider’ voluntary sector surveyed for the report had not heard of the scheme. If you haven’t got time to read the full report or want to hear more from New Europeans please see links to the following:
- Article on their event and report in partnership with Brexit Civil Society Alliance
- Why the changing Landscape of EU migration is an issue for the Voluntary sector report [PDF]
- Unsettled Status Report [PDF]
If you are looking for additional advice on an EUSS application you can download information on the scheme in 27 languages.
Supporting the growth of social prescribing in London
Guest blog Jill Wiltshire, Health Team GLA
The Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise Sector (VCSE) are at the very heart of social prescribing. Read Jills blog about the growth of social prescribing in London. Jill highlights that whilst, social prescribing is not new for the vcse sector, the acknowledgment of its benefits within the NHS long term plan and increased funding provisions are. How will the ambitions in the Next Steps for Social Prescribing report support the growth of social prescribing in London?
Resources and funding
Safeguarding
Take a look at NCVO’s free resources – briefings, guides, tools, podcasts and videos to help keep your organisation safe. They are straightforward, practical and based on real world experience and the best expertise from across the voluntary sector.
IT for Good
ITFG (IT for Good) helps charities modernise their organisations with support for web design, cloud migration, computer systems and more. Most of their work is free or low cost. Find out more on their website.
The Mayor of London UEFA EURO 2020 Grants Programme
This funding opportunity linked to the EURO 2020 tournament is based on three strands and has funding available from £500-£10,000 per project. There is a workshop for guidance on the application 7th January 2020. Deadline for applications 9am 20th January 2020.
Pressat newswire scheme
The newswire scheme is a service for charities looking to gain media coverage for donations, awareness of highlighting campaigns. If you have a press release or an announcement you can add it to newswire for free which will reach thousands of journalists and media organisations.
What do we think?
With so many new tools and resources now available online it can be daunting deciding what to use. Each newsletter our social research and data lead will be rating a tool or resource so that you can see the pros and cons before you spend time using it yourselves. If there is a tool or resource you would like us to review let us know: info@londonplus.org.
Google forms
Google forms is an excellent survey tool. Once you’ve signed up with a gmail account, you can design and distribute surveys for free. The tool lets you set your own questions and choose from a range of data instruments, from attitudinal scales, to tick boxes and verbatim comment boxes. It also has a free analysis feature which provides a breakdown of results in real time, including bar graphs and pie charts. You can also export the data into a spreadsheet (CSV) which is compatible with software such as excel.
Our rating: 4/5
Data
Standards for the collection of equalities data: Disability and Impairment
Does volunteering in London reflect the diversity of the city?
Welfare safety net inquiry
Late last year, the Work and Pensions commission initiated an inquiry into the UK’s welfare safety net, asking for written submissions on the state of the system and its fitness for purpose in 2018 Britain. We gathered information from civil society and the public sector to help respond to these questions. They published their latest report in the summer which we have been cited in. Thank you so much for all of you who responded to our survey to enable us to answer those questions. It is so important to work collaboratively so that we can help to amplify the voice of civil society organisations.
Indices of Multiple Deprivation: how to explore the data in your area
Read Lucy’s guest blog for the Datawise London series where she explains what the Indices of Multiple Deprivation are, busts the jargon and gives a short Excel tutorial on how to explore them for your area. Superhighways share lot’s of useful digital tips and resources (including this blog!) in their newsletter which you can sign up for on their website.
A final note…
Seasons Greetings!
We would like to wish everyone a happy festive season and New Year! Thank you for all of your support and partnership work this year. Without this we would not have been able to achieve all that we have in our first year as London Plus. We are excited to be welcoming Martin to the team next year and continue to build our relationships with civil society in London.
