BSSEC » Covid-19 recovery planning

New BVSC report reveals detailed picture of the impact of the Covid crisis on Birmingham’s VCS — and the sector’s contribution

November 26, 2020

A new report just published by BVSC reveals a fascinating and detailed picture of the impact of the Covid crisis on Birmingham’s voluntary and community sector. Birmingham Voluntary Service Council: State of the Sector 2020: Digest of Headlines brings together key findings from

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Micro-fund opens to grassroots community groups in Birmingham

November 26, 2020

BVSC has just announced the following: The Brum Recovery Micro Fund is set up with funding from Birmingham City Council and is aimed at unconstituted and grassroots community groups in the city. Groups can apply for between £500 and £2,000 to support activity that responds to the need

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‘Levelling Up Our Communities’ — new report by Danny Kruger MP published

September 28, 2020

Further to this post, Danny Kruger MP has completed his report on civil society and communities that Boris Johnson tasked him with producing and it has just been published… I started to read Kruger’s report, Levelling Up Our Communities: Proposals for a New Social Covenant

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BVSC state of the sector survey has never been more important

August 25, 2020

UPDATE 09/09/20: BVSC’s state of the sector ends on Friday 11th September Further to this post, this is a reminder to say that BVSC’s ‘state of the sector’ survey has never been more important. This year the survey has been completely redesigned to help gauge t

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Women’s Enterprise Hub — evolving to meet new needs

August 17, 2020

Since 2015 iSE has been delivering specialist enterprise support for women from its Women’s Enterprise Hub on Ladypool Rd, Sparkbrook. This was a partnership between iSE and Birmingham City Council. Things have moved on significantly. In March 2020 iSE secured a fifteen year lea

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Scottish Government urged to put third sector at the heart of recovery for a “wellbeing economy”

August 05, 2020

Regular readers will be aware that we have been trying to stay abreast of new documents that have a direct relevance to Covid-19 recovery planning (see all posts). What this reveals is that in England, Covid-19 recovery planning is still seen primarily as economic recovery, with an em

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Lloyds Bank Foundation announces £7.4m Covid recovery fund

August 03, 2020

Lloyds Bank Foundation has recently announced that a new £7.4m Covid recovery fund for small to medium charities will open for applications today. It is encouraging to see that Lloyds Bank Foundation is recognising the need for this funding to be unrestricted, enabling recipients to u

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‘A new life for the high street’ — report from the Social Market Foundation

July 27, 2020

Again, I’m indebted to David Alcock of Anthony Collins Solicitors on whose LinkedIn feed I saw mention of this. The Social Market Foundation has just published an extremely interesting report called A new life for the high street. Some will know that I have been trying to keep u

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Birmingham City Council launches important public health survey to assess impact of Covid-19 on city’s residents

July 27, 2020

Birmingham City Council has launched an important public health survey aimed at gauging the personal impact of Covid-19 on Birmingham residents. The survey asks about your background, your understanding and views regarding Covid-19 and the impact that lockdown measures have had on var

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Wales sets out plan to put social enterprise at the heart of Welsh economy and society

July 15, 2020

Social enterprises, support organisations and the Welsh government have worked together to produce a bold and ambitious vision for the sector in Wales. Transforming Wales through Social Enterprise, published by Wales Co-operative Centre, significantly raises the bar in terms of sector

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Free WiSE Wednesday webinar from iSE — Recovery, Innovation & Growth: 22nd July

July 15, 2020

iSE CIC announces the expert speaker for the next WiSE Wednesday webinar on Wednesday 22nd July 2020 at 10.00am. She is award-winning social entrepreneur Daniella Genas, founder of She’s The Boss and international speaker on innovation, motivation and growth, an

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New BVSC survey seeks views of voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sectors on impact of Covid-19 and recovery prospects

July 14, 2020

BVSC‘s chief executive Brian Carr has just announced that the organisation is launching a major new survey to help gauge the impact of Covid-19 on the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sectors in Birmingham. His statement, issued today, reads: The C

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National Lottery and partners announce £18.7m Social Enterprise Support Fund

July 13, 2020

This terrific news, just in… The Social Enterprise Support Fund, a brand new £18.7m support fund for social enterprises, funded by The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK, has just opened and is taking applications now. The Social

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‘Recharge the West Midlands’ — does this offer the kind of economic, social and community recovery we all hoped to see?

July 07, 2020

In earlier posts I have been trying to keep abreast of a variety of recovery planning initiatives, including recent proposals and reports. Up for consideration today is Recharge the West Midlands — Kickstarting the West Midlands Economy. This is West Midlands Combined Authority&

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PM asks Danny Kruger MP to review role of civil society during coronavirus crisis and ensure it is supported as part of recovery

June 29, 2020

I’m indebted to an email from the Directory of Social Change for this item. Apparently, Danny Kruger MP (Devizes) has announced on his Twitter feed that the Prime Minister has asked him to work closely with Baroness Barran, the Minister for Civil Society in DCMS, to re

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Pressure for a fairer, greener, juster recovery increases

June 29, 2020

Pressure is growing for an economic and social recovery that is fairer, more just, and greener. A recent YouGov poll reported in The Guardian indicates that just 6% of the public want to return to an unchanged ‘pre-pandemic’ economy. A recent letter to the government

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West Midlands may lose £280m in unspent Covid-19 grants for businesses

June 29, 2020

There is an excellent piece on Dave Lane’s LinkedIn feed and on his consultancy website Development in Social Enterprise analysing recently released figures for grants made to businesses under the Small Business Grants Fund (SBGF) and the Retail, Hospit

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Build back better — Bill Grimsey report on the future of town and city centres post-Covid-19

June 23, 2020

Bill Grimsey has spent a lifetime at the top of retailing in the UK, Hong Kong and South Africa, during which time he regarded it as his mission ‘to clone every town in the UK with the same brands’. And he did, and in the process, as he readily acknowledges, he put paid to

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New body established to plan recovery of region’s cultural sector

June 17, 2020

I’ll mention this here because it’s something I only found out about by accident. It may also have escaped the notice of some cultural, arts and creative enterprises. Culture Central is leading a new body responsible for planning the recovery of the West Midlands̵

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Locality report calls for communities to be at the heart of recovery planning

June 16, 2020

In a recent post we wrote about a Covid-19 Social Economy Update published jointly by BSSEC, iSE and Birmingham Social Enterprise City. We have been using this briefing paper to inform and influence key policy-makers and decision-makers — including Ministers — a

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