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GAVCA News
Gloucester City Council Grants and Community Services Forum: Feedback on Proposed Grant and Budget Cuts from Sally Pickering
Many VCS members attended a lively meeting in December as part of the council’s budget consultation meeting, where our dismay at the scale of the cuts proposed was voiced. The main concerns were the blanket approach to the cuts, rather than basing them on an assessment of likely impact, and the Councils priorities, and also the fact that they seemed to be out of proportion with the overall percentage savings required by the Council.
GAVCA organised a campaign of letters, and emails from VCS organisations to all councillors, and senior officers in the Council.
Due to concerns that the Cabinet member with lead responsibility for the VCS was not at the meeting, GAVCA organised a further meeting with Cllr Kathy Williams, which was also attended by the leader of the council, Cllr Paul James. Several VCS members attended to put our case again face to face.
As a result, the Cabinet have now proposed to reduce the cut to half of the original level. This would mean: 4.7% in 2010-11, 9.3% in 2011-12 and 3.3% in 2012-13, a total of 17.3% as opposed to 40%. This is what the VCS reps had agreed would be acceptable to the VCS, recognising that we have to take some share of the cuts and is therefore a significant victory for the collective voice of the Forum.
We are still not happy with the way these cuts will be implemented. The proposal is to:
- honour existing grant agreements
- renew grants to all lunch clubs
- no new grants next year
- blanket cut of equal percentage to all organisations with SLAs
- major review of all funding over coming year.
The VCS feel that we have been asking for that review throughout the past year and nothing has been done and so a blanket cap is being proposed because there is no clearer evidence on which to base any alternative plans. We are keen to make sure this work now goes ahead in the coming year.
More GAVCA News
- Funding Fair: 2 February 2010
- On February 2nd over 100 people from the voluntary sector mostly of Gloucester and Cheltenham came to City Works, Gloucester for a Funders Fair. Groups were able to listen to presentations from Lavinia Sidgwick of the Summerfield Trust; Philippa Davies from the Heritage Lottery Fund, Lyndsay Perkins from the Big Lottery and Awards for All, Emma from BBC Children in Need; Jane Jarman from Gloucestershire Community Foundation and Clare Mahdiyone from the Social Enterprise Centre.
- There were also people from CCLA a company who provides support with investment and property management and the Gloucestershire Environmental Trust. All the funders held surgeries throughout the afternoon. The whole day was held together with Top Tips for Fundraising run by Mary Boucher who had also put together really good packs of funding information. People left having had a really useful session, talked directly to many funders, been given surgeries by those funders and support from Camilla Hale of GAVCA and Angela Gilbert of Cheltenham VCA and had a lovely comfortable venue at Cityworks with excellent refreshments. Look out for the next one some time in the summer.
- Gloucester VCS Forum Meeting - December 2009
- The Gloucester VCS Forum held their last meeting of the year on February 8th at GAVCA. There was a lot of feedback on the grants situation, on the work of the Gloucester Partnership which is restructuring over the next few months and on the consultation for the Commissioning protocols between the sector and the County Council. For more details see the forum minutes.
- GAVCA Chair Awarded MBE
- The Chair of GAVCA’s Executive Committee has been awarded the MBE for promoting diversity in the community.
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Robin Agascar is included in the Queen’s 2010 New Years Honours List, having been nominated by the Gloucestershire Constabulary for whom he also works as a voluntary Chair of its Independent Advisory Group (IAG).
Temporary Deputy Chief Constable Mick Matthews said he was an extremely worthy recipient of the honour. He said: “Robin is a critical friend to the Constabulary and provides invaluable advice and guidance in a number of forums as well as constructive feedback in the formation of new policies and procedures. He provides an invaluable link with the community we serve and we are extremely grateful for his continuing advice and support. I am delighted that Robin’s work has been recognised in this way and congratulate him on behalf of the Constabulary.”
Robin said: “I feel very proud and quite moved that the Constabulary has felt that I’m a worthy recipient of such an honour".
Robin has been a Member of GAY-GLOS (previously Gay & Lesbian Friend Helpline Gloucestershire) since 1991 as a volunteer, trainer, secretary and part-time paid sessional worker. He provides a significant link for the Constabulary with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-sexual community and as such has been a vital source of information when setting up certain events.
Robin is also a member of the steering group set up to improve the reporting of sexual offences, particularly from the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual community. In the last 12 months, he has undertaken significant work with the Constabulary in the development of Independent Advisors critically evaluating our Stop and Account and Stop Search data.
In addition, Robin is an active member of the County Hate Crime Strategic Group and was proactively involved in the first county wide hate crime seminar that took place in February 2009. He has been an advisor to the force on training issues and also sits on a number of sub groups of the Gloucestershire Criminal Justice Board.
Robin has served as a Trustee of GAVCA for over 6 years, and as Chair for the past three years. He also sits on the VCS Assembly Board and the Gloucestershire Compact Group, which he chaired for two years when it was first established.
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