ANNUAL REPORT 2012/2013

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ACTING CHIEF EXECUTIVE’S INTRODUCTION 2012 was of course the year of the Olympics and Lynne Regan created the Torch Relay Steward volunteering role which enabled successful applicants to both contribute and enjoy the torch procession and celebrations held in Danson Park. The Partnership Team assisted children and young people’s groups to obtain the Safer Bexley Mark, awarded to them by Bexley Safeguarding Children’s Board for demonstrating good safeguarding practice and also assisted groups to engage with the commissioning process for the new Prevention and Early Intervention Fund now in progress through the new Integrated Commissioning Unit. The Development Team arranged training to help groups through this process and was pleased that work with small groups was continued, even though on a reduced basis because of the change of funder. The Information Team held sessions in GP practices at ‘flu clinics, in partnership with other voluntary groups, that were very successful in raising the profile of the sector within health about the services we provide. BVSC has benefitted from the excellent work by the staff team and the valuable contributions from both volunteers and its Board of Trustees. Particular thanks are due to the Chair of BVSC, Linda Whitby, and the Chair of the Voluntary Forum, Ian Lindon, for their support and guidance during the last year. Julie Bristow, Acting Chief Executive PROVIDING INFORMATION AND RESOURCES This year Pam Sloan, Administration Manager, together with Sharon Allen and Tammi Baker have worked hard to produce and support: • • • • • • 6 editions of our bi-monthly Spotlight Newsletter our website www.bvsc.co.uk 38,996 page views regular e-bulletins a range of fact sheets our Information Desk which responded to 130 information enquiries our Community Directory which is available on our website Printing Service Our photocopying service for member groups is very competitively priced, and we have printed a variety of 83 flyers and newsletters for the groups over the year. GP Surgeries In October Pam organised Information stands at Barnard Medical Centre, Plas Meddyg, and Albion Road surgeries to coincide with the flu vaccination programme. This gave BVSC and other voluntary organisations an opportunity to highlight their services. Three sessions were held at different times during the week at Barnard Medical Centre which was an excellent way to meet and engage with patients of all age ranges. Pam was able to show them how to access the Community Directory, which lists many voluntary organisations, and also how to find out about volunteering opportunities. The photo (right) shows Lynda Munns, Crossroads Befriending Scheme Coordinator, Pam Sloan, Administration Manager at BVSC, and Teresa Macfarlane, Co-ordinator from Advocacy for All Befriending Scheme, at the information sessions. Other groups taking part were Greenwich & Bexley Cottage Hospice, Carers Support (Bexley), and Age UK Bexley.
BRINGING THE VOLUNTARY AND COMMUNITY SECTOR TOGETHER BVSC organised a range of networks and forums to enable groups to come together, receive information and take collective decisions on issues that affected them. Voluntary Forum In May 2012, Ian Lindon was elected as Chair of the Voluntary Forum after previously serving as Vice Chair. Steve Davies from Bexley Mencap was elected as Vice Chair. In 2012, using Bexley’s Performance Reward Grant, which the Council and its partners received for successfully meeting targets set down in their 2008 Local Area Agreement, a bidding process was initiated and grants awarded to a number of voluntary organisations to address key community priorities. During the course of the year, the Voluntary Forum has had a rolling programme of presentations from those organisations that were successful in bidding for the Performance Reward Grant which were of great interest to members and enabled them to gain valuable information about new projects in the Borough. The Forum also held elections to the Health and Wellbeing Executive Group to which Dave Baker of Carers Support (Bexley) and David Palmer of Mind in Bexley were elected and for the Children & Young People’s Partnership Executive Board, Carol McCall of Bexley SNAP and Anne Bennett of Bexley Moorings were both re-elected. The full range of BVSC’s Networks are as follows: Voluntary Forum: for any group in the borough to join and send 2 voting representatives Health and Adult Social Care Network: for groups who work within the field of Health and Social Care. Children and Young People’s VCS Network: for groups working with children, young people and families. Chief Officers’ Group: for chief officers of staffed organisations. Small Groups Network: for representatives of small groups in the Borough. WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP Voluntary Sector Funding Group The Voluntary Sector Funding Group has continued to meet to discuss local commissioning processes, including the Preventative and Partnership Fund. These two funds have now been aligned and will be commissioned during the summer of 2013 so that projects will be ready to start on 1 October 2013. New leases for the voluntary sector were discussed but these have not yet been provided by the Council and the likelihood is that they will not be issued until after the commissioning process has been completed. Partnership Team As the changes to health and social care continued apace this year, Julie Bristow, Partnership Manager (Health & Social Care), Becca Jones, the Children, Youth and Families Partnership Officer, together with administrative support from Mel Shepherd and Liz Cutajar (to July 2012), have focused on supporting the voluntary sector to understand and meet the new challenges ahead. As the Care Trust moved towards becoming a Clinicial Commissioning Group, increasing engagement with General Practitioners (GPs) was important. In addition to the locality presentations, Julie organised a Health & Adult Social Care meeting to which Dr Howard Stoate was invited along with Elizabeth Deeves from Bexley Council who was responsible for the brokerage service within social care. To make the meeting more interactive and promote the voluntary sector, groups were invited to bring along displays and information and, after the main business, they were able to talk with both speakers about their organisations and the services they provided.
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ANNUAL REPORT 2012/2013

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