Social Firms UK

Inclusion has been commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions to develop a Social Justice Toolkit that will provide an easy-to-use overview of Social Justice Indicators (based around 5 key themes which includes Employability) in all local authorities.

They have developed a survey to gather your views on Social Justice, how it affects your area of work, and how you would use a Social Justice Toolkit. Your input would be very valuable to them and the development of the toolkit. It should take no longer than 10 minutes to complete and can be accessed here.

The application process for this year’s Stelios Award for Disabled Entrepreneurs in the UK is now open!

An application form and leaflet are available below.

For alternative formats of the application form, please contact the Project Support Team at innovation@lcdisability.org or on 0845 671 7173 (option 1).

In order to apply and be in with a chance of winning £50k for your business, you must meet the following criteria:

Simpler Income Tax – Cash Basis and Simplified Expenses In the Budget statement on 20 March, the Government announced that two new measures - together called Simpler Income Tax – are being introduced to help small businesses to do their income tax. For the 2013/14 tax year onwards, unincorporated businesses whose income does not exceed the VAT registration limit will be able to choose to work out their tax on the money that flows in and out of their business; this is what is meant by “cash basis”. Using this scheme will mean that these businesses will avoid the need to make year-end tax adjustments, required under current rules that were designed for more complex businesses.

The 2013 round of The People’s Millions is open.

The Peoples Millions is an annual TV competition run by Big Lottery Fund and ITV which awards Lottery funding to community projects that will improve the lives of local people. This year there are four awards of up to £50,000 on offer in each of the 19 ITV regional news areas across the UK.

The competition is open to voluntary and community sector organizations, schools, local authorities, health bodies and social enterprises.

Are you a Social Enterprise offering Health and Social Care Services? Why not sign up to our FREE online directory? In just 10 minutes your organisation could be advertising on the ‘Shop for Change’ website, a website dedicated to helping change the world through social enterprise. Hundreds of other Social Enterprises have already signed up, now it’s your turn, all you need to do is follow this link.

Practical Support and Solutions to Engage in PbR in the Criminal Justice Sector

3SC recently won a Ministry of Justice grant to design a Capacity Building action plan to develop the capacity and capability of VCS organisations to successfully participate in upcoming justice sector PbR programmes. This is being delivered by a partnership comprising of 3SC, Clinks, Third Sector Research Centre, Candour Collaborations and Common Capital. 

The House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts published their report on the Work Programme Outcome Statistics on 13/02/13.

The Work Programme is estimated to cost between £3 billion and £5 billion over five years. This report considers the performance to date and finds that the Work Programme’s performance for its first 14 months of operation—from June 2011 to July 2012—fell well short of the Department’s expectations. Not one of the 18 providers has met their contractual targets.

Overall, only 3.6% of claimants on the Programme moved off benefit and into sustained employment, less than a third of the 11.9% target, and well below the Department’s own estimate of what would have happened if there had been no Work Programme running at all.

Senior occupational physician Dr Paul Litchfield has been appointed to carry out the fourth independent review of the Work Capability Assessment, the Department for Work and Pensions announced 26/02/13.

The review aims to continue a process of ensuring the assessment is as fair and accurate as possible in helping people back to work if they are able, while giving financial support to those who need it.

Dr Paul Litchfield will continue as Chief Medical Officer and Director of Health, Safety and Wellbeing for BT, a post he has held since 2001, while carrying out the review. His fields of expertise include mental illness and the impact it can have on work prospects. As a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council, he has also played a key role in raising the profile of the economic impact of chronic disease.