The Runneymede Response to the Sewell Report
The Sewell Report is a government commissioned publication exploring ‘Race and Ethnic Disparities in the UK’ which was released last week. In summary, it concludes that ‘insitutional racism’ is not prevalent in the UK; the report’s findings and argument have attracted strong criticism from across the country, from academics, journalists and indiviudals alike.
Runnymede, who operate as the UK’s leading independent race equality think tank, have advocated a particularly strong stance against the findings of the Sewell Report. They give several examples of why the findings in the report are not representative of the lived experience of many BME communities. Furthermore, they berate the reports highlighted issues, (such as exploration of the the acronym ‘BAME’ as problematic), and suggest that this also negates BME communities reality.
Runnymede explore the report in the following video:
The Runnymede written response can be found here.
World Health Day 2021
This year’s World Health Day falls in the midst of a global health pandemic. Despite England’s efficient vaccine role out and drastically falling new infection rate, Covid-19 has already and will continue to devastate the lives of many of us.
During VSNW’s Festival of North West Thinking which included a series of online events from October to December last year, we welcomed an array of inspirational speakers discussing different areas- mostly related to the pandemic- and its affect on communities and also the VCSE sector.
In recognition of World Health Day, we want to remind organisations of the powerful words of Farzana Kahn, Director of Healing Justice London, who spoke eloquently during our first event "Covid-19 Recovery: VCSE Leadership Voices Assembly” about ‘health inequalities’.
See some highlights from her opening remarks here:
Further highlights from the event can be seen here.
GM VCSE Leadership Group Economic Vision
The GM VCSE Leadership Group have devised an ‘economic vision’ for Greater Manchester; they hope this vision will guide future conversations in the VCSE, private, statutory sectors and in communities.
The Vision:
They instigate a need to explore alternative approaches to economics by adopting something more progressive.
They propose an inclusive economy that prioritises the needs and interests of all of society and the environment, in contrast with only the interests of corporate power.
They argue that Covid-19 has further exacerbated and harshly exposed the deepening inequalities in Greater Manchester and that now is the opportunity to address these inqualities through empowering communities and society members, organising work and time and combating environmental issues further.
A new, inclusive econonmy
The focus on profit and gain that is currently ingrained in our economic culture prospers at the expense of our happiness & wellbeing. A new, inclusive economy however would be based on the following core values:
Equality & human dignity
Solidarity & community
Autonomy & liberation
Stewardship of environment
Pragmatics:
An inclusive economy would need to encourage community engagement in economics, as opposed to economic development decisions being solely down to professionals & agencies.
Greater social ownership of wealth; through communtity and locally owned businesses etc.
A need for a Green New Deal: secure a fairer society and safe climate by transforming the economy.
Social & mission-led businesses would receive positive noteriety.
Full vision available here
The Liverpool City Region VCFSE Sector Metro Mayor Hustings
VS6 Partnerships are hosting the VCFSE Sector Metro Mayor Husting on the 20th April 2021.
The Hustings is a chance for VCFSE organisations across the Liverpool City Region to ask questions to the candidates, and discuss what is important, not only to your organisation, but also the sector as a whole. This election is of particular importance as the need for a strong leader is of paramount importance as we face a difficult and uncertain future following the pandemic. The sector has shown great strength and resilience throughout the last year. However, going forward we need political support if we are to continue to protect the vulnerable and help our communities.
The Hustings will follow a question-and-answer style structure, with candidates also given the chance to address the sector during their opening statement. In order to organise a broad spectrum of question topics, we ask attendees to please submit potential questions and whether they would be happy to ask them during the event when registering. A selection of questions on the most common question themes will be selected and put to the candidates. We will contact you directly pre-event if your question has been chosen.
Sally Yeoman, Chief Executive of Halton and St Helens VCA, Vice-Chair of VS6 (and also a NAVCA award-winning Chief Exec of the year 2020) will be chairing the event.
Joined by the following party candidates:
Steve Rotheram (Labour)
David Newman (Liberal Democrat)
Gary Cargill (Green)
Jade Marsden (Conservative) - TBC
Sign up here
Bricks, Bytes & Behaviours
Bricks, Bytes, Behaviours
The Invest North Conference was held on the 24th March 2021. The title for this article has been drawn from the closing comments of the facilitator at The North Unlocked seminar. A video of the full seminar can be found here .
Bricks
The element of bricks spoke about the need for quality office space. Our sector does not have the luxury of income/capital that can be spent on updated offices in modern blocks. This does not mean that it cannot happen. It is just that, to date, it has not been a huge priority unless we have been invited to be anchor tenants in a new build scheme.
That having been said there is a trend for larger commercial operations to move offices – partly because of downsizing due to working from home and partly due to the need for increased space due to distancing regulations. Some of these may well be in prime locations and have long leases. There may be scope to work with them to take on space at a far better price than would have been the case. Some income, from a sub-lease, is going to be better than no income from a vacant space. The vacant space may well attract business rates and thus further add to the (non) occupancy costs. If this route is to be explored it is vital that appropriate legal advice is obtained and acted upon. You don’t want an issue to arise if a sub-lease has been created, or a lease assigned, in a manner that does not satisfy the freeholder/head leaser. Also, when considering a move it is important to recognise all costs that are incurred – including down time, printing, possible new phone numbers (or diverts) etc. Whilst a move does not have to be for life it does have to be for a reasonable anticipated period.
Bytes
As one would expect the bytes section was all about IT. In this seminar it was mainly about infrastructure roll out and how that would attract commercial operations and business to the North. The pandemic has shown how important good IT is. It is important to ensure that both equipment and connectivity is as good as possible. If staff are going to be working from home there may be merit in assisting in upgrading home connections etc. Such a policy may create a tax position for the employee as this could be seen as a benefit in kind. Appropriate advice should be obtained, and documented, to protect the position of the employee. There is also a danger of a two tier terms and conditions of employment. A new employee who has relied on a phone based ISP may not have the capacity to upgrade to a fibre/line/land based system. What do you to then, particularly when other employees may well be paying for their own systems?
Behaviours
This then leads to the behaviours section of the talk. The input, from this, was from the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel Development). This occurs towards the end of the video (38 minutes onwards). It contains many important learning points for the sector. Please take a look- it is brilliant.
Andrew Rainsford, Research & Policy Officer
April 2021
Digital Training for Not-for-Profits
Many VCSE organisations have had to suddenly adapt to working online and many with dwindling resources pushed to the edge. At a time when the sector is needed more than ever, in order to help protect our communities face this pivitol moment in our lifetime, we need to provide organisations with the necessary tools to carry out this vital work. Beyond are offering free digital training to all nonprofits working with covid-affected communities in England.
Examples of courses available:
Developing a Cyber Resilient Organisation
Equity by Design
Prototyping in Practice
Digital Safeguarding for your Services
Building Strong Relational Skills to Sustain Organisational Change
Working and Being Together Online
Design Thinking for Times in Crisis
The Joseph Roundtree's Annual Poverty Report 2020/21
Much of the studies and reports undertaken at the moment have surrounded the impact that the pandemic has had on increasingy poverty levels since the start of lockdown.. However, the Joseph Roundtree Foundation’s annual report has highlighted that actually many members of our communities were already at high risk of poverty. The pandemic has exacerbated these poverty risks and have “hit the hardest” those already struggling.
Their report shines light on the changing nature of poverty since the pandemic took hold and includes insights from the Povert Action Group.
Their main recommendations include:
“We need as many people as possible to be in good jobs. Unemployment is expected to rise in the coming months, and we need to see further bold action to retrain workers and create good quality new jobs.
We need to improve earnings for low-income working families and ensure more people are in secure, good quality work. Government must support people in the lowest-paid jobs, or people working part-time, to move into higher pay and access sufficient and secure working hours, including bringing forward the Employment Bill.
We need to strengthen the benefits system. At a minimum, we need the temporary £20 per week increase to Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit to be made permanent, extending this same lifeline to people on legacy benefits such as Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance.
We need to increase the amount of low-cost housing available for families on low incomes and increase support for households who have high housing costs.”
These recommendations should be taken into account during the upcoming local elections. We need politcians to listen to reports such as this and implement socio-economic strategies which address these issues in order to curb further rising inequalities.
Full report can be found here.
VCSE Sector 'Jargon Buster'
The VCSE sector is notorious for using a plethora of acronyms and complicated semantics in it’s narrative and discussions about the sector. As we are coming up to the elections in May, there will increasing networking and zoom events contemplating the sector, sharing ideas and devising solutions to problems. The sector’s ‘jargon’ therefore will be constantly used and not always understood by everyone.
GMCVO have in light of this, produced a ‘jargon buster’ document in order to help anyone understandably a little overwhelmed with the sector’s rhetoric. This will be extremely useful for organisations and employees across the secto and make conversations more accessible for all.
Greater Manchester Mayor VCSE Sector Hustings
GMCVO are hosting the VCSE sector Mayoral Hustings event on April 14th 12-1.30pm, ahead of the 6th May election. The successful elected Mayor’s power will significantly affect VCSE organisations across Greater Manchester, and therefore, it is vital that we find a leader who is willing to put our sector at the centre of their build, back, better plan.
The Hustings will be a chance for organistions across the sub-region to scrutinise candidates ahead of the election. The VCSE manifesto will be sent to the three main party candidates ahead of the event.
The candidates attending are:
Andy Burnham (Labour & current Mayor)
Laura Evans (Conservative) &
Simon Lepori (Liberal Democrat)
GMCVO are asking attentees to think about and answer the following questions:
1. What is your own biggest issue at the moment?
2. What do you think is Greater Manchester’s biggest issue? (not counting Covid-19)
3. What comment or question would you like to put to the candidates?