News & Developments

The recovery walk will start at the Proact Stadium on Sheffield Road. Meet at 9.30am. The walk will start at 10am and will finish at the Assembly Rooms at Chesterfield Market Hall. For those who do not take part in the walk, meet at the Assembly Rooms at 12 noon.

The recovery event will commence with an agenda of:

• Dear Albert - a character award winning feature documentary about recovering from addiction
• Local Life Stories
• Guest Speakers and the launch of the new Derbyshire Recovery Website

Lunch and Refreshments provided.

For more information and to reserve your place please contact Hope Springs  01246 540 431 - email: hopesprings540431@gmail.com

The NHS approved exercises can be adapted to suit all abilities, so can also be made more challenging as well as easier.

The class starts on 18 September at 10am in the Old School Room at Hope.  The aim is to keep the class relatively small so that participants can be monitored. This may therefore result in running several classes.

Attendees must book a place and complete a health screening prior to attending the class. There will be a charge of £5 per class. 

For further enquiries or to book a place, please contact: Lisa 07971 243470

What this consultation is about - providing the highest quality care and meeting a wide range of needs is our priority and to continue to do this we need to plan for the future. As part of this planning we are reviewing all our residential care homes. They all provide the highest levels of care to our residents and many of the buildings already meet modern day standards. However, we know that some could benefit from an upgrade and some others do not or could not meet modern standards because of the age or design of the buildings.

We also need to take into account the growing older population and the rising number of people in the county who need specialist care, including people with dementia. While these numbers are growing, the amount of money we have as a council is being cut, making it even more difficult for us to make ends meet. We know that people value our residential homes − that is why we want to continue to provide residential care homes where we can. However, not all our homes could be updated to a standard we think people expect and deserve and some cost more money to run than others. In some areas where we have homes, there are other organisations providing the same type of residential care.

We have some difficult decisions to make if we want to continue to offer high quality residential care in some areas, as well as providing older people with other choices like extra care, home care and specialist dementia care.

We have no choice but to consider closing a small number of our care homes so that we can try to meet the needs of our growing older population and work to balance the books in the future. However, we would stress that no decisions will be made until councillors have considered the views of everybody who might be affected.

We are proposing to close five homes across the county, including Ecclesfold Resource Centre in Chapel-en-le-Frith.

Full details of the consultation are on the DCC website.

Through this award, the CVS wants to celebrate and commemorate voluntary activity for personal and community growth. The award is intended to recognise outstanding contributions based in the Derbyshire Dales. 

The Celebrating People Award is open to all community groups in the Derbyshire Dales, small or large, newly formed or long established. 

To apply please contact Sarah Paisley or Jonathan Simcock at DDCVS for an application form. Applications must be received by Friday 18 September. The award and cheque will be presented at Derbyshire Dales CVS Annual General Meeting on Thursday 8 October at Dale Road Methodist Church Hall, Darley Dale. Contact Sarah Paisley or Jonathan Simcock: Tel 01629 812154  Email enquiries@ddcvs.org.uk  Download a form from www.ddcvs.org.uk 

A local legal advice charity, Derbyshire Law Centre, based in Chesterfield, has been praised by the Legal Aid Agency in a recent review of its Housing and Homeless work done under its legal aid contract with the Agency.  The Law Centre was awarded a rating of Competence Plus (2) in the category of Housing Law as its work was found to demonstrate a high degree of competence.  

The review report stated, ‘Overall, this is a well-run service with a balanced and thoughtful approach to casework. Record-keeping was comprehensive. There was a clear commitment from all caseworkers to promote and protect the rights of clients. Regular appearances at court for clients, under the legal help at court scheme, showed an efficient use of resources’.  The report also felt that ‘caseworkers were really up-to-date with their legal knowledge’.  One case was particularly praised as ‘A superb piece of work showing how a caseworker’s in-depth knowledge of the subject area can turn around a client’s life’.

Derbyshire Law Centre is the only advice agency in Derbyshire that has a legal aid contract in housing, community care and debt across the county. It also provides free specialist legal services in employment, immigration, mortgage repossession and tackling hate and harassment. For free legal advice, please contact the Law Centre on Freephone 0800 707 6990.

www.derbyshirelawcentre.org.uk 

Safe and Sound  is a charity whose new Hub & Spoke project  is  offering a  free service to the voluntary sector in Derbyshire  who wish to  train their workers in identifying and responding to cases of child sexual exploitation   and  provide support and guidance when working with children and young people. 

Safe and Sound  can offer a package of support including:

• Training to raise awareness of CSE, risk indicators, how to work effectively with young people, and how to report concerns and information.
• Advice on how to manage complex cases and engage young people.
• Advice and guidance  on  organisational policies around CSE in line  with  national guidance.
• Guidance on best practice to support victims of CSE and advice on police involvement and the court process. 
• Support agencies in raising awareness of the risk of CSE amongst their young people and with parents/carers and families.

For more information please contact Sarah Brown  Case Advisor 07726 693705 
sarah.brown@safeandsoundgroup.org.uk

NCVO’s recent Financial Sustainability Review highlights how the voluntary sector is responding to significant shifts in policy and resourcing. In parallel there is growing scrutiny of the charity sector and higher expectations around transparency and accountability. At a global level, the UN Sustainable Development Goals will be ratified in September 2015, with commitments for every member government, not just to the world’s poorest people but to tackling rising inequality, including here in the UK.

Given that context, it is felt to be the right time to pause a little and take stock, to ensure Comic Relief are efficient, effective and evolve appropriately as a partner, grant maker and social investor.  Comic Relief won’t be accepting proposals to our UK Main Fund after midday 1 October 2015 although funding for small grants in the UK up to £10,000 remains available through UK Community Foundations. Comic Relief will be making some gradual changes, which will be communicated more widely in early 2016.

Heart Research UK is now accepting applications for its autumn grant round, which closes on 31 August.

Community and voluntary organisations, registered charities, and other not-for-profit organisations based and working in the UK may apply for grants of up to £5,000 and up to £10,000. The charity is looking to fund new, original and innovative projects that actively promote heart health and help to reduce the risks of heart disease in specific groups or communities. Projects can address a variety of issues including healthy eating, physical activity and smoking cessation - with the key focus of improving heart health.

heartresearch.org.uk/grants

The Big Lottery Fund, in collaboration with a wide range of organisations, has established the new £30 million Help Through Crisis programme to fund projects that draw on the strengths and personal experience of people facing hardship crisis so that they can overcome immediate difficulties and be ready for opportunities and challenges ahead.

The funding is intended for voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations to provide immediate support to individuals currently living in crisis or at risk of crisis as a result of hardship, as well as to provide tailored support, advice and advocacy to enable people to address difficulties and be in a better position to their improve circumstances in the future.

www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/global-content/programmes/england/help-through-crisis