ChangeUp East
As a result Home Office and Defra have made funding available to the East of England to support delivery and development of this work. The purpose of the funding is to support strategic development and capacity building of Voluntary and Community Sector Investment across the 6 counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire.
Latest news
The Defra Early Evaluation of the Infrastructure Investment Programme has now been commissioned. To view the evaluation document, please see 'Related Documents' further down this page - selecting 'Defra Early Evaluation of the Infrastructure Investment Programme'.
Government Office for the East of England is supporting the Active Community Unit in the Home Office in taking forward many of the recommendations of the HM Treasure publication - The Role of the Voluntary and Community Sector in Service Delivery - A Cross Cutting Review.
This document made 42 recommendations to enhance and support the sector's role in delivering public services.
Work on taking these recommendations forward includes:
- The launch of £125 million Futurebuilders fund
- Voluntary and Community Sector Infrastructure - A Consultation Document.
- The Cross Cutting Review recommended that 'Government and the Voluntary and Community Sector should develop a coherent shared strategy to underpin capacity in the sector'. A consultation document has now been published and responses were invited up to 22 December 2003.
- A regional consultation event was held on 2nd December at Homerton College to discuss the document and gain responses from the sector.
- The consultation has been followed by the production of a Voluntary and Community Sector Capacity Building and Infrastructure framework.
- Early Spend funding has been allocated to the East of England from both the Home Office and Defra to support the development of infrastructure work across the region.
- Modernising Charity Law. Changes are proposed by the Strategy Unit, endorsed by the Home Office, on Charity Law. At the heart of the proposed changes is a clarification of what Charity is, placing a strong emphasis on public benefit. Changes include:
- a new list of charitable purposes
- a public benefit test. All charities must demonstrate that they provide public benefit
- public character checks for charities high fees.
For further information contact the Charity Commission
