cedric's blog

Amending Freedom of Information - Government proposals on changes to the Freedom of Information Act could have a serious impact on obtaining official documents. [Voluntary Sector news]

Have you heard of the Common Assesment Framework?  Do you know what a Lead Professional is?

The Common Assessment Framework (CAF) and Lead Professional (LP) working are a key part of the Change for Children programme which attempts to transform services for children with additional needs so that the child's, rather than the services', needs are at the centre.

This change agenda is led by five linked outcomes (be healthy, stay safe, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution and achieve economic well-being), which require a holistic understanding of children.

The ChangeUp hubs are to lose their commissioning powers from Spring next year but have been thrown a lifeline with the announcement that Capacitybuilders will continue to fund them until March 2008.

At its meeting last Wednesday, the Capacitybuilders board adopted a number of recommendations from chief executive Simon Hebditch as to the most effective model for boosting the efficacy of the sector.

Issue 5 of RUCKUS, the NYA's online magazine for young people is available for free download. RUCKUS brings together articles and includes contributions from young people.

The Department for Education and Skills is to launch a major investigation into the effectiveness of local safeguarding children boards.

If there was any doubt about the significance of Local Area Agreements it has been blown away by the latest local government white paper.

In the words of the government web site -

"The aim of this White Paper is to give local people and local communities more influence and power to improve their lives. It is about creating strong, prosperous communities and delivering better public services through a rebalancing of the relationship between central government, local government and local people."

Connexions have  allocated £300,000 in 2007-8 to voluntary and community sector projects that explicitly target young people not in education, employment or training (NEET).

This will be split into two separate streams -  £250,000 will be available for projects and £50,000 will fund £1000 grants at local level.Each local authority area will receive an allocation – see attached paper for details.Timetable -

PC owners will spend £3 billion on anti-virus software next year and many small business and home users pay their annual subscriptions without checking the dozens of free alternatives available.