Policy - Regional / National

If you have ever wondered what social investment is all about and what it has to do with you, then Best to Borrow- a guide on social investment published by New Philanthropy Capital will tell you.  

The head of St Cuthbert with St Matthias CE Primary School in Earl's Court, Stephen Boatright has hit out at benefit changes and the impact they will have on pupils at his school.

100 students face the prospect of finding new schools outside the area as benefit changes make local rents unaffordable. 

The Local Housing Allowance has placed a cap on the amount of housing benefit claimants can receive at a level below which 84.5% of recipients are currently required to pay in rent. 

Golborne ward in North Kensington has been ranked the second most deprived ward in London in an update to the 2010 Indices of Deprivation.

It ranked second with a score only .01 below Northumberland Park in Haringey on a measure of the extent of deprivation. The measure counts the total number of people who are classed amongst the most deprived in an area. This differs from the figure for 'average' deprivation which ranks Golborne in 11th place.

The Impact of Austerity Measures on Households with Children.

The Family and Parenting Institute have produced a report carried out by the Institute for Fiscal Studies which examines the propsects for incomes and poverty rates among households with children between 2010 and 2015.

The report highlights disturbing facts which include:

A third of all voluntary sector grant funding was cut between 2005 and 2010 with its value dropping from £4.5 billion to £3 billion. These figures are published in the 2012 NCVO Civil Society Almanac and have been reported by the Local Grants Forum.

The drop which does not take into account further cuts made in the last two years highlight the extent to which there has been a major shift from grant funding to contracting and also the impact of the recession of 2008 - 2009.

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is facing the biggest legal aid cuts in the whole of London with housing, employment, debt, welfare benefits and immigration advice services all affected.

Proposals to reform Legal Aid are currently going through Parliament and could come into effect as early as October 2012.

A critical report on the the whole 'Big Society' agenda published by the Public Administration Select Committee suggests that it is not being coherently implemented, has led to public confusion.

The report published on 14 December goes on to say that Big Society is unlikely to help smaller voluntary and community organisations who still face barriers to funding through current commissioning and contracting policies. 

Church of England Bishops have added their voice to those concerned about the effects of planned welfare reforms on the poor.

In an open letter to the Observer newspaper they labelled the proposals to impose a £500-a-week benefit cap on families as "profoundly unjust".  They have called for significant amendments to the Welfare Reform Bill which they say risks pushing "some of the most vulnerable children in the country into severe poverty"

London Councils which represents the capital's 33 boroughs will soon be consulting on further cuts to its grants scheme.

It is proposing cutting its budget to £10m for 2012/13 and then to £8m a year from 2013/14 onwards. It's budget for 2011/12 is £20.77m down from £26 in 2010/11.

It's original plans to introduce bigger cuts for the current year were challenged in a judicial review which forced it to rerun it's consultation.

A decision on the exact budget for the next financial year will be made in January 2012. 

A new report from NCVO based on evidence gathered from the voluntary and community sector makes several recommendations to government to lessen the risk of this summers riots being repeated.

The report is the result of a summit which took place in September which reflected on the causes of the riots. Over 100 people attended and amongst their recommendations are closer working between community groups and statutory bodies to put in place an 'early warning system'.