We are currently in the process of refreshing our identity which includes a new logo, an updated website and new, enhanced membership packages.

Over the coming weeks you will begin to notice our new logo.  It has been designed to reflect our continued role and commitment in informing, connecting and influencing.  Our website is also in the process of being updated, helping to make it easier to find the information you need to help you in your work.  Finally, our membership packages are currently being re-vamped offering a range of benefits depending on the level of membership chosen.  Social purpose organisations based in the South West will be able to join for free with limited benefits.  However for the cost of £100, the same organisations will be entitled to full membership giving them 25% off all our events and services, a reduction in advertising job vacancies, access to a members only section of the website, free advertising of news and events on our website and through our networks, a tailored e-newsletter and much more.  Public and private sector organisations will be able to join for a fee of £150 which will provide them with the same benefits, along with some specific benefits for their sectors.

Whilst we transition to the new membership packages, membership is on hold.  All current members will receive free extended membership until the new packages are launched.  Anyone who is currently not a member but is interested in becoming a member of South West Forum should continue to check our website where the new packages will be launched along with a new fully automated facility to join and pay online.  As an incentive to join we are currently offering non-members a refund in the difference of cost between the member and non-member rates at our events until the new packages are launched.

Hearing the Unheard (Ivybridge)

Venue: The Watermark, Ivybridge, PL21 0SZ

Date / Time: Wednesday 27^th June 2012, 10.00am - 3.30pm

This one-day event showcases a series of case studies from a recent programme called ‘Inclusion Innovation’ where projects across the South West, each focusing on a different ‘marginalised’ group, made use of a modest amount of funding to help the groups get  their voices heard.

Attendance is FREE but prior booking is essential

Download event flyer (PDF 323KB)

BOOK ONLINE

Social Networking: Why? (Exeter)

The Social Networking: Why? Workshop is taking place on Monday 18th June at the University of Exeter.
An interactive workshop designed for voluntary groups, social enterprises and other businesses to learn how social networking can really help them improve their communications, marketing and influence.

Expert speakers and sessions include Julie Hawker (Cosmic) on thinking strategically about social networking and the latest trends and developments and Louise Pendry (University of Exeter) and Jessica Salvatore (Amherst College, Massachusetts) on the critical success factors for dynamic on line networks. People who have used social media successfully will share their experience of what does and what doesn't work.

Please download the Event Flyer (320KB PDF)

For more information please visit the Event Page or BOOK ONLINE now.

South West Forum Conference: Proving your IMPACT (Exeter)

The South West Forum conference, Proving your IMPACT is being held at the Rougemont Hotel by Thistle, Exeter on Wednesday 13th June 2012. It is to help voluntary organisations understand why measuring impact is important for their organisation. Hear first hand what funders and commissioners want you to measure. Choose and implement the best measurement tools for your organisation and get to grips with Social Value.

Practical guidance and real-life case studies on the tools and methods available to monitor, measure and evaluate outcomes to demonstrate impact to funders and commissioners.

Expert Speakers
Learn from expert speakers from commissioners,funders and impact specialists on current thinking around impact measurement including voluntary sector case studies. Speakers include: Peter Bailey (BIG Lottery) and Nicky Stevenson (The Guild).

Workshops
6 Practical, informative workshops to help you build your impact toolkit:

Please download the Event Flyer (510KB PDF) and Draft Programme (293KB PDF)  

For more information please visit the Event Page or BOOK ONLINE now.

Better Connected

With support from Arts Council England we have just published a short guide to help arts organisations and the wider voluntary sector recognise their common interests and develop fruitful collaborations, partnerships and joint working.

Arts projects and activities run by volunteers and/or voluntary groups constitute a large part of the wider voluntary sector; we estimate that there around 8000 to 9000 voluntary cultural organisations in the South West. Yet arts organisations have tended in the past to network mainly with each other and operate within their own distinctive structures. Similarly many of the providers of support and representation for the voluntary sector (often called infrastructure organisations) have tended to focus on groups working in the fields of social welfare, health, learning and community development and are not always good at engaging organisations and groups in the arts (and sport and environmental) sectors. We hope the Better Connected guide will break down some of those divisions and arts projects and groups to benefit from closer relationships with organisations working in other fields and vice versa. Report editor Stephen Woollett would welcome your comments and observations on the guide; contact him via stevew@southwestforum.org.uk

For more information, please download the Better Connected guide (139KB DOC).

Public Health Reform: Engaging the Voluntary and Community Sector 

South West Forum, The Care Forum and NHS South of England worked in partnership to deliver two free conferences on public health reforms in Exeter on Monday 26th March and near Bristol on Tuesday 27 March. 

Through a combination of keynote speakers and workshops, voluntary and community sector organisations and partner agencies heard about the high level changes taking place in public health at a national and regional level and about how they can engage with those changes at a local level.
The keynote speaker at both events was Dr Gabriel Scally, Director of Public Health, NHS South of England. 

At the Exeter event on 26th March other speakers included Debbie Stark, Director of Public Health, Torbay Council; Deborah Fisher, VCS Commissioning Officer, Devon Consortium and Ilaria Geddes, Research Fellow, UCL Institute of Health Equity. 

At the Bristol Event on 27th March other speakers included Dallas Pounds, Executive Director of Service Growth and Operations, Terrence Higgins Trust as well and Ilaria Geddes, Research Fellow, UCL Institute of Health Equity.

Copies of the speaker presentations and workshops can be downloaded here

How are the cuts affecting you

Please help us get a picture of how the public sector spending cuts are affecting voluntary and community groups in the South West and elsewhere in England by completing a national Regional Voices survey. We are frequently asked by the media, funders and government bodies "how the voluntary sector is responding to the cuts" and it is essential that we have good evidence and data to provide an accurate and up to date assessment.

Click on this link Surviving or Thriving? Regional Voices Survey for the on line survey which will take just a couple of minutes to complete.  We will also collect responses from delegates at South West Forum events over the next couple of months and will publish the results as soon as possible after they have been collated in June.

Community Engagement Training for the Public Sector 

Do you want to support your team or agency to be more open and responsive to community influence? New developments such as the Localism Act, health reforms and elected Police & Crime Commissioners coupled with reduced budgets mean that public agencies need to be smarter and more effective at community engagement.South West Forum is offering this two-day training for the public sector to help you improve how your agency engages with the community and the voluntary sector.

The training is taking place between 31st May - Friday 1st June 2012. It is open to those with training or facilitation experience. It is primarily aimed at the public sector, but also open to colleagues in the voluntary sector who are familiar with the ‘Voice’ framework and have a good relationship with public agencies so will be able to put the echo framework into practice with the public sector.

For more information please visit the Echo Facilitator Training page

Local Infrastructure 2012 Networking Event 

The networking event for local infrastructure organisations organised by South West Forum proved to be a great success. We attracted a good range of organisations from across the region who showed a real appetite for sharing information and knowledge. Participants heard about the Forum's plans for the future, including a new membership and partners' scheme, and identified how the Forum can support them to be more effective. The opportunity to hear from and talk with the new NAVCA Chief Executive Jo Irvin was widely welcomed. The afternoon session focussed on the Big Lottery Fund's "Building Capabilities for impact and legacy" discussion paper. This is a really important document which sets out BiG's thinking around a more market and demand driven approach to providing support to the frontline. It generated a very healthy debate at last week's event. We do encourage you to respond direct to BiG and share your views with SWF to stevew@southwestforum.org.uk.  Deadline for responses is 15th March. Find the document at  www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/buildingcapabilities

A note summarising discussion and key points from the event will be available shortly.

Local Enterprise Partnerships

Summaries for each LEP in the South West – each including a map, profile of their area, LEP priorities, Board members and contact point - are now available.

South West Forum in partnership with the Employment and Skills Partnership held a joint, free, event on 29th September 2011, to look at the changing landscape of skills and employment. The event was aimed at voluntary and community sector organisations, public sector agencies and training providers.

This film clip captures some of the key messages from the conference and highlights the need for small and medium sized organisations to work together, collaboratively, as subcontractors and delivery partners in skills and employment.

Speaker presentations and reports from the day can also be accessed at: www.southwestforum.org.uk/valuing-voluntary-action

South West Forum Annual Conference 2011

Presentations from our Annual Conference, held on Wednesday 16th November, are now available, as well as photos videos and tweets from the event. View the SWF Annual Conference page

Joining Up for Sustainable Growth - South West Stakeholders Conference

Community groups are the vital link

South West Forum is urging the region’s new Local Enterprise Partnerships [LEPs] to work with and involve voluntary groups and social enterprises.

In a report, The Vital Link, launched at the Valuing Voluntary Action conference in Taunton on 29th September, the Forum reveals that while there are instances of good practice, most of the LEPs being set up to drive local economic development are not connecting with community and voluntary groups in their area.

Read further information and download the report 

LEPs with Social Purpose - The Vital Link: latest news

During Summer and Autumn 2011 South West Forum supported its Voluntary Value partners to run a roadshow of events around the South West on increasing engagement and understanding between Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and social purpose organisations. These events had a particular but not exclusive focus on skills and employment.

Download the full report (143KB PDF)

Transforming Local Infrastructure – Latest News
Voluntary organisations in Somerset have set up a website (www.somerset-tli.org.uk) to make it easy to access information, documents, meeting notes and draft proposals relating to the county’s developing partnership and bid for Transforming Local Infrastructure funding.

Please do let us know if other TLI partnerships are establishing websites or other open communication platforms.

Who's Listening to the Big Society - New Report from South West Forum
SWF has just published a new report raising concerns that while the government might talk of ‘taking power away from the politicians and giving it to people’ the reality is rather different.

We surveyed each of the 15 county/unitary areas across the South West about how voluntary organisations have dialogue with local public authorities, and how marginalised groups are involved. The report includes case studies of creative and successful ways to help voluntary organisations have a voice.

Read more...

Spotlight on VCS Cuts
South West Forum Chief Executive, Stephen Woollett, appeared on Radio Devon on the morning of Tuesday 2nd August talking about the cuts affecting the voluntary sector in the SW. You can listen to the broadcast at: www.bbc.co.uk (skip to 1 hour 5 mins). This follows on from his appearance on BBC Spotlight last week (Tuesday 26th July). The news item focussed on the plight of String of Pearls, a Crediton based charity that works with offenders' families. Steve offered an insightful contribution reflecting the concerns of the VCS, not only in the region but nationally. Read more...

 South West Health and Care Network: join now!

South West Health and Care Network membership is free. Members receive a weekly ebulletin containing health and care related news and events as well as priority notifications of consultation activities and events.  To join the network email jane@southwestforum.org.uk with your request.

A meeting of voluntary and community sector leaders from the South West region took place on 26th May in Exeter and was fully subscribed with around 40 representatives from organisations working with patients, service users and carers from throughout the South West. Read feedback from the meeting and the SW Regional response

Find out more at www.southwestforum.org.uk/healthnetwork

 Mapping the Cuts 

It is absolutely vital that the impact of public sector funding cuts is publicised and understood.  That is why South West Forum is a partner in a new, national initiative to record the cuts online: www.voluntarysectorcuts.org.uk

Currently there are only a few cuts recorded in the SW region – whilst it would be nice to believe this is the case, the intelligence we are receiving on a daily basis from members and contacts tells us it is very unlikely. Those already listed tell a grim story.  Cuts to SWF funding are listed there too.

If your statutory funding is going to be cut or reduced please visit the site and fill in a very simple form to show the impact the cuts will have.

South West Forum - Operational Plan 2011-2013
SWF has produced its Operational Plan for 2011-2013. The plan identifies the services which the Forum is seeking to develop and provide from April 2011 onwards.
Read more...

Guide to South West MPs
South West Forum have produced a simple guide to the 55 South West MPs – with their photograph, name of their constituency and party and a brief commentary on their main interests.

For more information please download: Guide to the 55 South West MPs  (811KB PDF)

We prepared this guide for our very successful reception for South West MPs and are happy to share it. (If you can reciprocate with something equally useful for us then feel free!).

Stephen Gilbert MP (Newquay & St Austell) and Richard Graham MP (Gloucester) hosted this special event for SWF in the House of Commons on Wednesday 17th November 2010.

The focus of the event was “Big Society in the South West” and SWF used the occasion to present a report pulling together the feedback from the local Big Society events we have supported and promoted in partnership with local networks and support organisations.  The event was kindly supported by Foot Anstey Solicitors.

Local Enterprise Partnerships
Strong Local Economies need Strong Local Communities
SWF have produced a ten point Action Agenda which we are calling on those developing LEPs to adopt. LEPs provide a great opportunity to forge a strong local alliance between business, local authorities and wider civil society to drive the growth of local economies. We are urging LEPs to recognise they have the capacity to bring together the government's desire for business-led economic growth with the Big Society agenda for greater community involvement and a much enhanced role for civil society organisations.

Download the Action Agenda. (155KB Word doc)

 For the latest relevant LEP news visit our LEP Watch page.