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Here 4 Bradford District & Craven Communities logo

Council budget consultation – update from the VCSE sector.

The response to Bradford Council’s recently announced budget proposals is still ongoing.

In case you haven’t seen or you’d like a reminder, the current budget proposal would see over £1 million in funding cut from voluntary sector support over the next 3 years, starting with an immediate cancellation of VCSE support services. The funding, totalling £460,000 per year is used to ensure that charities, voluntary and community groups and social enterprises can continue to exist.

If the Council’s budget proposals go ahead, this would lead to an 83% cut in council funding for services that support the sector. This puts at risk:

  • Development Officers (help with funding, governance, business planning, safeguarding, marketing, other 1:1 support)
  • Information and news (Briefing Bradford, social media and website resources)
  • Training and events (including Big Advice Day, Volunteers Week, Trustee Week)
  • Volunteering support (recruitment, training)
  • Networks and collective voice (Leaders, EDI, Young Lives, Health and Care, Supporting Communities)
  • Activity to speak up for the sector and raise issues at strategic level
  • Allocation of Council small grants (e.g. for prevention and early help)
  • Brokering corporate support (including business volunteering, financial resource, pro bono support)

There are lots of other proposed cuts including to the Supporting Communities team, changes to adult social care with a focus on prevention and reduction in the use of adult social care, closure of three household waste recycling sites and cuts in funding to libraries and leisure services.

In our last update, we shared that representatives from across the VCSE sector have come together to work on a joined-up sector response; encourage people to use their individual, organisational and community voices to respond to the consultation; and to find out answers to many of the questions we all have.

Here 4 BDCC and Network Central have now, together, submitted an initial response which includes some questions and proposals for consideration and response by CBMDC. This is leading on to further conversations with decision makers to advocate for the sector, both in terms of infrastructure and continued support to VCSE and grassroots services. We have also held a number of consultation events where attendees had the chance to speak with Council colleagues about the budget proposals. Thank you to those that attended.

We will continue to have these conversations, and will provide further updates as we have them.

In the meantime, please see our consultation guide for details of how to submit your own consultation response. Where you are both, part of a VCSE organisation, and a resident of Bradford District, please do submit separate responses for each perspective. We encourage you to read the papers and think about what could be lost if the proposals go ahead before you respond.

Please see and share this video response from Kerrie-lee Barr, Development Director at VCS Alliance.

How to have your say? bit.ly/haveyoursay-budget. Tell them about what we did for your group, what impact it had and what would have happened if our support wasn't there.

Budget consultation guide

The current Bradford Council budget proposal would see over £1 million in funding cut from voluntary sector support in the next 3 years, starting with an immediate cancellation of VCSE support services. The funding, totalling £460,000 per year is used to ensure that charities, voluntary and community groups and social enterprises can continue to exist.

If the Council’s budget proposals go ahead, this would lead to an 83% cut in council funding for services that support the sector. This puts at risk:

  • Development Officers (help with funding, governance, business planning, safeguarding, marketing, other 1:1 support)
  • Information and news (Briefing Bradford, social media and website resources)
  • Training and events (including Big Advice Day, Volunteers Week, Trustee Week)
  • Volunteering support (recruitment, training)
  • Networks and collective voice (Leaders, EDI, Young Lives, Health and Care, Supporting Communities)
  • Activity to speak up for the sector and raise issues at strategic level
  • Allocation of Council small grants (e.g. for prevention and early help)
  • Brokering corporate support (including business volunteering, financial resource, pro bono support)

We encourage you to read the budget proposal document which can be found on the CBMDC website. The section relating to VCSE Infrastructure is 4.29 but the wider document covers other budget proposals and sets context. Do also read the Equality Impact Assessments before responding – specifically see the EIA linked to the VCSE Infrastructure proposal. 

When you are ready, we would ask you to think about:

  • What Infrastructure Support you accessed / what we did for your group
  • What impact this support had on your group and the people that you support
  • What might have happened if our support wasn’t there, or what might happen in future if we’re not around to help
    • No Development Officer to ask questions
    • No Briefing Bradford/resources all in one place
    • No free training and events
    • No support recruiting volunteers
    • Nowhere to feed in collective voices
  • Where would your clients/service users go if you were to close?
  • What are the potential implications for the Council budget if your service or support was not available to residents?
  • Any other comments you would like to make about the value of the support you have received.

Now you’ve read our guidance, you should head to bit.ly/haveyoursay-budget and complete your response. If you have any direct links to councillors, please also contact them to offer your feedback on the proposals.

If you’d like to attend an event to feed into the consultation, your last opportunity to do this is the Leaders Network Special on January 23rd, taking place 10:00 to 12:00 at Fountains Church, BD5 0BQ.

If you’d like to attend one of our Area Network events to take part in a conversation about what future sector support might look like in light of this consultation, please look at our calendar and book. These take place from 1st February.

You must respond by 17th February, but we urge you to respond sooner than this if you can.

If you need any support with your response, please contact one of our Development Officers who will be happy to help.

Statement from the VCSE sector about the Council Budget Consultation.

On Wednesday 3rd January 2024, Bradford Council announced plans to cut their budget in a bid to avoid bankruptcy.

The plans will see over £1 million in funding cut from voluntary sector support over the next 3 years, starting with an immediate cancellation of all VCSE support services. The funding, totalling £460,000 per year is used to ensure that charities, voluntary and community groups, and social enterprises such as yourselves, can continue to exist in Bradford District and Craven.

Additional proposals include:

  • Cuts to voluntary sector infrastructure
  • Cuts to the Supporting Communities team
  • Changes to adult social care with a focus on prevention and reduction in the use of adult social care
  • Closure of Ingleborough Children’s Outdoor Centre
  • Closure of three household waste recycling sites
  • Cuts in funding to libraries and leisure services
  • Increase in fees and charges across the council, including Council tax

The proposed cuts to voluntary sector infrastructure could potentially end all support to the sector including: support, advice and guidance to groups (via Development Officers); information and news (including Briefing Bradford); support to bring organisations together for collective action; work to bring income to the sector; support with recruiting volunteers; strategic involvement and Voice of the sector in key decision making; coordination of voluntary sector responses to priorities, emergencies and crises and more.

We know this will be very concerning and disappointing for many of you. We know there will be lots of questions, from what specific services could be lost, what will be left after the proposed cuts, what this might mean for your organisation. We do not have the answers to these questions, yet.

We would like to reassure you that we are working on it. A planning meeting has taken place between representatives from a number of organisations including: Community Action Bradford & District, Participate, VCS Alliance, HALE, CNet and REN. We were also joined by the Mental Health Provider Forum chair, Give Bradford, Equality Together, the Act as One board (Craven), and the VCSE Senior Responsible Officer of the West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board.

From this meeting, we came up with a list of actions, which involves a lot of fact finding and trying to answer some of those questions. We ask that you trust us to do this work and tell you when there is something to be told, we will include an update in this newsletter each week even if there is nothing new to say. We may need your support to mobilise a sector response in due course and we will come back to you for this.

We will also be running a number of meetings and events over the coming weeks, which will be an opportunity for you to join the conversation. These are:

Equality Diversity and Inclusion Network Meeting, Tuesday 16 January 2024 (2pm to 4pm) online.

Young Lives Network Meeting, Thursday 18 January 2024 (10am to 12pm) in person at Park Lane Centre.

Leaders Network Special – Council Budget Consultation, Tuesday 23 January 2024 (10am to 12pm) in person, central Bradford (venue to be confirmed).

Shipley area network – Capacity Building, Thursday 1 February 2024 (10am to 4pm), in person at Highcroft Youth Centre.

Bradford West area network – Capacity Building, Tuesday 6 February 2024 (10am to 4pm), in person at Manningham Mills.

Bradford South area network – Capacity Building, Wednesday 7 February 2024 (10am to 4pm), in person at TFD Youth Centre.

Keighley area network – Capacity Building, Thursday 8 February 2024 (10am to 4pm), in person at Central Hall.

These events will be used to determine how we can adapt resources to meet future need, continuing to support you to thrive, taking into account a potential change in resources.

It is extremely important that the voluntary sector comes together to have their say in these consultations so we can present a joined up and consistent response.

In the meantime, if you would like to be kept updated, you can keep an eye on Briefing Bradford, our social media channels and any relevant emails you may receive from us.

Please see and share this video response from Kerrie-lee Barr, Development Director at VCS Alliance.

Trustees Week Panel Event and Q&A

What is a trustee? A trustee is a volunteer that sits on a board and helps to decide how a charity is run. Are you a trustee already, or would you like to be?

As part of Trustees’ Week 2023, Here 4 BDCC would love you to join us at our Trustee Panel Event and Q&A on Tuesday 7th November. The event will be a great opportunity to hear from our speakers and find out more about what being a trustee involves, some of the common challenges that trustees face plus what support or solutions may be available, and how trustees and paid staff can work collaboratively.

There will be a range of fabulous speakers each sharing their own personal and professional experience and journeys. This will be followed up with a question and answer session where you can ask any questions you may have about trusteeship – we will allow questions to be submitted in advance or you can ask on the night.

As a sector, we are particularly interested in increasing diversity within charity trusteeship so we especially welcome those from underrepresented communities, people of colour, LGBTQ+, disabled people and younger people.

On the night you can expect:

  • 17:00 Networking and drinks
  • 17:30 Panel discussion
  • 17:45 Question and answer session
  • 18:30 Mingling and round up
  • 19:00 Close

When? Tuesday 7th November, 17:00 to 19:00

Where? The Bright Building, University of Bradford, BD7 1DB

Who for? Existing charity trustees, or anybody interested in becoming a trustee

Who by? The event is being run by Here 4 BDCC, a consortium of Bradford charities

We encourage you to take a look at and share the event poster with anybody who may be interested.

Register on our Events Calendar. We look forward to seeing you there!

funding top tips

Funding Top Tips

Did you miss the Here 4 BDCC Funding Top Tips Area Network? We recently visited each of the five constituency areas to talk about contracts and grants with a focus on top tips.

Thanks to everyone who attended, we hope you enjoyed the session as much as the team did. If you were unable to attend, you can view the questions posed to our panel on the here.

For further information on the two main speakers, visit Go4Growth for support with contracts and Give Bradford for more information about their upcoming grants programmes.

We will return to the five constituency areas in the first week of June to celebrate Volunteers Week. In the meantime, please do get in touch if you need any support by emailing info@cabad.org.uk.

Queen Elizabeth II in Centenary Square Bradford

Community Action pays tribute to Her Majesty, The Queen.

The whole of Community Action Bradford & District, is incredibly sad to hear the news of the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, a woman who tirelessly championed charity and community throughout her life, being patron of over 600 charities during her lifetime.

We remember with fondness the times she visited Bradford, having come to the city 5 times in her 70 year reign – her first visit being in 1954, just 18 months after her coronation. Her most recent visit was in 2012 when she visited Saltaire as part of her Diamond Jubilee tour of the nation. Queen Elizabeth’s presence will be long remembered in our district.

Her loss will be felt by the people of Bradford and District, the UK and the world where she was held in such high affection and esteem. Our thoughts are with The Royal Family at this sad time.

We will be halting our usual social media activity as a mark of respect during the period of mourning, this will resume after the state funeral.

Big Advice Day

A successful Big Advice Day!

This years’ Big Advice day was held at Kala Sangam and hosted by the Here4BDCC consortium. With a fantastic turnout it was quite the success! Whilst important information was shared with those who attended, lunch was a great success with many people enjoying the selection provided to them by Kala Sangam. Cupcakes were on hand also, kindly provided by The Cellar Trust Café.

Here 4 BDCC buns
Anthony Waddington speaking at the event

We heard from our guest speakers, Anthony from Participate and Sonjia from Hale, who helped deliver information about the Here4BDCC partnership and what we will be delivering over the next few years, our ethos, how we are putting it all together and what it means for you.

Speaking about the event, Anthony told us “It was such a privilege to attend the Big Advice Day event, and be able to talk about the fantastic work that is going on in the background for our communities. Participate prides itself being able to deliver volunteering functions and much more to the consortium and we look forward to the differences we can make to people’s lives.”

If you were unable to attend the big advice day this year, then don’t worry! You can find information about the consortium here: www.cabad.org.uk/here-4-bdcc/

Big Advice Day Social

Big Advice Day Social

Small Charity Week is coming up between Monday 20th and Friday 24th June 2022. Here 4 Bradford District and Craven Communities (Here 4 BDCC) are hosting a series of online events and workshops throughout the week. These will be on topics like safeguarding, social media and funding. 

With the pandemic putting a stop to any in-person events and networking opportunities for the last couple of years, we wanted to welcome you all back with a social event, face-to-face!

The Big Advice Day Social is a free event for the voluntary and community sector in Bradford District and Craven. An opportunity to network and make connections with other groups and individuals in an informal evening setting. Get and give advice on shared challenges.

The event will see a number of voluntary and community groups come together, recognising that the experts in this sector are largely yourselves! Hosts and members of the Here 4 BDCC consortium, Community Action, Participate, HALE and the VCS Alliance, will also be in attendance to answer any specific questions you may have or signpost to further support.

When and where is the Big Advice Day Social?

The event will take place on Tuesday 21st June from 17:00 to 19:30 (last entrance at 19:00) at the Rooftop Café, Kala Sangam, Bradford, BD1 4TY. There will be a buffet and drinks provided.

Numbers are limited, please make sure you book your place so you don’t miss out. You will also be asked about any dietary requirements and access needs upon booking.

If you have any questions or would like more information about the event, please email sarahm@cabad.org.uk or call 07422 966142.

To see the full calendar of events for the week, visit our events page

As we return to in-person events, we are mindful that Covid-19 has not gone away, therefore we will be keeping windows and doors open (weather dependent) for increased ventilation; and encouraging attendees to keep a social distance. While face coverings are not mandatory, you are welcome to wear one.

Big Advice Week flier

Coming Up: Big Advice Week!

To celebrate Small Charity Week 2022, Here 4 Bradford District & Craven Communities (Here 4 BDCC) are putting on a whole series of events. Get ready for… Big Advice Week!

Small Charity Week is a campaign first established by the Foundation for Social Improvement (the FSI) to celebrate the small charity sector. Taking place between Monday 20th and Friday 24th June 2022, the week will see charities up and down the country putting on a range of events to celebrate the work of the voluntary sector in their city.

In Bradford, this will see the Here 4 BDCC consortium, led by Community Action Bradford & District in partnership with Participate, HALE and the VCS Alliance, come together to put on a variety of workshops spanning 4 days.

Timetable of events:

Date:Event Title:Time:Delivery Method:
Monday 20th JuneMeet the funder: Easyfundraising12:30 to 13:30Zoom
Tuesday 21st JuneGetting started with safeguarding10:00 to 12:00Zoom
Charity or CIC, what’s the difference?12:30 to 13:30Zoom
Big Advice Day Social17:00 to 19:30Face to face
Wednesday 22nd JuneApplying for small grants13:00 to 15:00Zoom
Thursday 23rd JuneIntroduction to social media10:00 to 12:00Zoom
Citizen Coin Bradford12:30 to 13:30Zoom

You can book onto these events by visiting our Training Calendar. More events may be added so do keep checking back!

Of particular interest is the Big Advice Day Social taking place on Tuesday 21st June, from 17:00 to 19:30 at the Rooftop Cafe (Kala Sangam). With the pandemic putting paid to any in-person events and networking opportunities for the last couple of years, we wanted to welcome you all back with a social event. Nothing too formal, pop in, mingle and maybe get some advice for your group while you’re there!

Save the date and look out for further details coming soon.

If you have any questions or would like more information about any of the events taking place, please email sarahm@cabad.org.uk or call 07422 966142.

Work with us: Network Officers!

Would you like to work with us at Community Action? Well now is your chance.

Community Action, under the Here 4 Bradford District and Craven Communities (Here 4 BDCC) consortium, are hiring 2 Network Officers.

The role(s) will involve working on the voice and influence strand of the VCSE Support and Improvement Programme, engaging with, developing and motivating others.

There are 2 full time equivalent posts available, fixed term for 3 years. You will be responsible for ensuring that the diverse voices of the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector are heard and engaged in leadership and advocacy. You will also be expected to support sector leaders, using consistent intelligence and insight to fulfil the role.

We are looking for people with the ability to develop good relationships with both internal and external partners. The ability to get on with people at all levels is a must, as is being a good listener. These skills, plus a desire to learn is more important than previous experience in these, or similar, roles.

If you would like to find out more about the programme, you can watch our Sector Briefing video.

If you would like to talk about the role(s) before applying then please email Soo Nevison – soo@cabad.org.uk or Anthony Waddington – anthony@participateprojects.org.uk.

Download the Role Description for more details. Application is by CV and cover letter explaining how your skills, experience and interests meet the requirements for the role. Completed applications should be sent to recruitment@cabad.org.uk by the deadline which is 17:00 on 9th May.

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