Author: admin

Sustainable Communities and HelpWith Seminars for Business, 19th and 26th October as part of Islington Greener Together Festival 

Sustainable Communities and HelpWith are co-facilitating two x one hour seminars for businesses at 9 am on both 19th and 26th October as part of the Islington Greener Together Festival and the run up to COP26. HelpWith provides technical expertise with heating, insulation and carbon reduction plant for new and retrofit buildings, Sustainable Communities on devising zero carbon action plans, change management and business process re-engineering. We can both help suitable organisations access available funding.  

The seminars are open to any charity, social enterprise or business based in Islington or elsewhere nationally. They are described by Islington as ‘aimed at small to medium businesses and charities, this event will demonstrate how carbon emissions can be reduced by redesigning a business product, energy source or process or by upcycling a product’ 

Link https://islingtonlife.london/things-to-do/togethergreener/

Register with Eventbrite via the Islington link

As more people return to use office and community premises, please note this very useful guidance and video from the Health and Safety Executive. This stresses the great importance of very good natural or mechanical air ventilation in rooms and premises to reducing Covid -19 infections. Look for poorly ventilated and stuffy areas in your premises and make sure you improve air flow before use.

The UK government has recently launched the Community Ownership fund. This provides funds of £150 Million over 4 years, typically up to £250,000 capital costs, to contribute to the plans of community organisations to purchase a community asset which may otherwise be lost to the community. The first bidding round ends on 13th August so please follow the link below for more details. Sustainable Communities has considerable expertise in asset transfer and community building development so please contact us if we can assist your bid to this fund.

In July 2021, Sustainable Communities completed a video and sustainability project with risemutual.org to help young people aged 14 and under to learn about sustainability and the environment and to acquire video skills. The project resulted in a pizza evening and presentation of young people’s video work to an audience of young people, parents, staff and managers at the Deco Theatre Northampton on 9th July. A short video will soon be available – watch this space!

Sustainable Communities is working with a number of small and medium size employers and charities to offer young people aged 18 to under 25 years job preparation, work experience and job skills in IT, Administration, video and multi media, play work and environmental sustainability. If you are a young person or employer please contact us at hello@sustainablecommunities.uk

On 3rd March, the UK government announced a new £150 million Community Ownership Fund to help ensure that communities ‘continue benefiting from the local facilities, community assets and amenities most important to them’.

See https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/community-ownership-fund/community-ownership-fund#eligible-projects

The Fund will be launched in June 2021 and follows on from the Community Asset Transfer programme in which members of Sustainable Communities supported a number of local communities across England to take over and manage community assets. To quote from the recent government announcement :

From summer 2021 community groups will be able to bid for up to £250,000 matched-funding to help them buy or take over local community assets at risk of being lost, to run as community-owned businesses. In exceptional cases, up to £1 million matched-funding will be available to help establish a community-owned sports club or help buy a sports grounds at risk of being lost without community intervention.

The Community Ownership Fund will help ensure that important parts of the social fabric, such as pubs, sports clubs, theatres and post office buildings, can continue to play a central role in towns and villages across the UK. This will form part of the UK government’s levelling up agenda, helping support recovery and building opportunity, with funding weighted towards places where community assets can make the most difference‘

Please contact Sustainable Communities if as a community group you need help, including with match funding or governance, in preparing a Bid to the fund.

A good Charity has to 

1. Provide the best use of it available resources to meet its charitable objects– playing to its strengths and working together with well suited partners who have different and complimentary services and strengths so that their combined strengths are more than the sum of their parts.  
2. Work to the strengths of its volunteers and staff, upskilling, empowering and developing volunteers and staff and matching their skills with the organisation’s  needs.  
3. Ensure good governance and be an effective organisation– having a diverse board with different and complimentary skills, a clear strategic direction and effective systems to fully implement what they want to achieve. 

The Scheme applies to six month placements starting throughout 2021 and is intended to help up-skill young people who are disadvantaged by the lack of work experience and employment opportunities following the Covid19 pandemic.  To quote the DWP : 

‘The Kickstart Scheme provides funding to create new job placements for 16 to 24 year olds on Universal Credit who are at risk of long term unemployment. Employers of all sizes can apply for funding which covers:

• 100% of the National Minimum Wage (or the National Living Wage depending on the age of the participant) for 25 hours per week for a total of 6 months
• associated employer National Insurance contributions
• employer minimum automatic enrolment contributions’

The employer or a Gateway provider can also receive an allowance of up to £1,500 to support the placement and to provide essential equipment and training.

Until now, placements were only available to employers or Gateway organisations capable of managing 30 Kickstart placements. From 3^rd February smaller organisations can apply directly for the Scheme and for small numbers and possibly single placements.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-a-kickstart-scheme-grant#criteria

Sustainable Communities can provide HR resources or help to assist organisations

Is your charity checking if trustees are disqualified from being a charity trustee  and that senior managers can be employed in their position?

We have discovered several charities recently that are unaware of the new Charity Commission rules and how the rules may impact on them.

In 2018 new rules came into force about reasons why a trustee may be disqualified from acting as a charity trustee and the disqualification included senior managers positions for the first time.

You can check this out at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/automatic-disqualification-rules-for-charity-trustees-and-charity-senior-positions

The automatic disqualification rules

These apply to all charity trustees and senior manager positions such as at chief executive and chief finance officer level – it is the function, and not the title, of the position that matters.

It is normally an offence to act whilst disqualified. Conviction may lead to a fine, imprisonment or both. If you act whilst disqualified, you may also have to repay any money received from the charity during this period.

If any conviction has been spent then the disqualification no longer applies.

You are disqualified if you have an unspent conviction for

• an offence involving dishonesty or deception
• specified terrorism offences
• specified money laundering offence
• specified bribery offences
• contravening a Charity Commission Order or Direction
• misconduct in public office, perjury, or perverting the course of justice
• aiding attempting or abetting the above offences

Other legal ( non-financial) disqualifying reasons 

• Being on the sex offenders register 
• Unspent sanction for contempt of Court 
• Disobeying a Commission Order
• Being a designated persons (under specific anti- 
• terrorist legislation)
• Being a person who has been removed from a relevant office
• Director disqualification

Other legal disqualifying reasons – financial

A USA developer is converting a Brutalist office building in New Haven, Conn., into a hotel with net-zero energy standards and there are hopes it will be a model for the industry.