About SCVS

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  ChangeUp

What it is (and what it isn’t)

Contrary to some stories we hear, ChangeUp isn’t a Home Office fund which Voluntary Organisations can apply to for financing new projects – sorry!

It is a special fund set up across the country to ensure that enough serious planning and consultation goes into building proper infrastructure for the voluntary sector over the next few years. The vision as set out in a comprehensive Home Office paper last year looks like this –

‘This Framework sets out a bold but achievable aim – that by 2014 the needs of frontline voluntary & community organisations will be met by support which is available nationwide, structured for maximum efficiency, offering excellent provision which is accessible to all while reflecting & promoting diversity, & is sustainably funded.’

The ‘Framework’ acts as a catalyst to make serious plans for the future and aims to strengthen frontline voluntary & community organisations in six important areas which we know need strengthening -

• Performance Improvement
• Workforce Development & Leadership
• ICT
• Governance
• Recruiting & Developing Volunteers
• Financing Voluntary & Community Sector Activity

The Slough Infrastructure Consortium Advisory Group has been set up to develop ChangeUp, and SCVS has been appointed by the Consortium to make it happen in Slough.

So far, what we have done is to commission Community Research to establish what people in Slough really need from voluntary organisations. This is being carried out by teams from the community, trained and managed by the Race Equality Council. Complementary to that we have conducted research with Frontline Delivery organisations in Slough, which focus on how well they think their work is being supported in the six areas set out.

We are also liaising with other organisations in Berkshire on IT delivery issues, and consulting with key players in the future for Slough, looking for helpful feedback coming from stakeholders such as –

Slough Borough Council
Primary Care Trust
Police Service
Learning and Skills Council
The Business Community

For further information look at:

GOSE site on http://www.raise-networks.org.uk/changeup/

You can now read the Local Infrastructure Development Plan posted here.

Full version

Short version

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CONSORTIA DEVELOPMENT FUND

Download here

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