East Midlands Grant Holder Event
The East Midlands networking event for grant holders will be on 28 October in Nottingham Albert Hall, accommodating up to 60 person. The time and agenda are yet to be arranged. Through a mixture of networking and information exchange, grant holders will be able to make contact with other funded groups who might share similar objectives or support their work. Spaces at these events are limited and will be allocated on an invitation only basis.
Consortium Business Plans 2008-11
In 2007-08 Capacitybuilders launched the Consortia Development Fund to support local and regional partnerships of support providers in reviewing and developing their consortia as robust partnerships, and to look to the longer term improvment of sector support in their areas, developing strategic plans to 2014, with more detailed business plans to 2011.
The Business Plans include evidence of local need, and priority outcomes and projects, many of which have received funding from Capacitybuilders Modernisation Fund.
Business Plans for East Midlands:
- Derbyshire Consortium
- Leicestershire Consortium
- Lincolnshire Consortium
- Northamptonshire Third Sector Infrastructure Steering Group
- Nottingham Consortium
- Rutland Consortium
Improving Reach Awards in the East Midlands
Out of £17M of Improving Reach grants.over £1.3M has been awarded to the following East Midlands applications:
£282,700 South Northants Volunteer Bureau
£128,743 Partnership Council
£61,849 Age Concern East Midlands
£270,000 Derbyshire Learning and Development
£210,000 African Caribbean Citizens Forum
£231,026 Novas Scarman Group
£165,000 Lincolnshire CDA
A full list of Improving Reach recipients is available on the Capacitybuilders website.
New Regional Manager for the East Midlands / East
Richard Weller has been appointed as Regional Manager for the East Midlands / East of England. He joins Capacitybuilders on secondment from The Big Lottery Fund, where he was Policy and Partnerships Manager.
Richard will work alongside the existing Manager for the region, Kally Barot, co-ordinating the delivery of funding and resources to voluntary and community support organisations across the area. Having worked, in and with, the voluntary and community sector throughout his working life, Richard Weller brings a wealth of experience to his role, stating how he feels “passionately about the development of the voluntary and community sector”.
His career started in the North of England with a local Citizens Advice Bureau before moving to the East of England in 1998 to work as a Regional Development Officer for the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux. This role provided Richard with the opportunity to learn a lot about the region and its political structures and in 2001 he joined the Community Fund as Development and Communications Manager. Here, he led a small team, targeting messages and funding to areas and communities within the region.
At Capacitybuilders, Richard will act as a vital communication link for the ChangeUp programme, establishing and managing relationships with a range of organisations, to understand the needs of the sector and peoples’ involvement with ChangeUp, to identify gaps, and to encourage partnership working. He joins the team on August 27th.
East Midlands Case Studies
Capacitybuilders website has the following case studies for ChangeUp projects in our region:
- Leicestershire & Rutland matchmaking service brings communities and funders together
- LeicesterShire volunteers gain website, guides and workshops as centres join forces
- Lincolnshire's Community Bank is transforming forgotten funds into a community windfall
- Lincolnshire’s social challenge translates into a thriving local service
Capacitybuilders Consortia Development Fund
Engage East Midlands hosted a meeting on 20 February to commence discussions about the East Midlands’ allocation of the Consortia Development Fund (CDF).
First announced in the Destination 2014 strategy launch in December 2006, the CDF is a national, £7m package of support for consortia to develop in line with Capacitybuilders’ high level aim that, by March 2008, each region will have the necessary evidence base and structures to ‘look outwards’ and negotiate/collaborate with other partners to deliver high quality infrastructure services to front line 3rd sector organisations.
The CDF is not about funding the development of individual organisations or the delivery of specific projects; it is about Capacitybuilders bringing national consistency to the delivery aspects of ChangeUp so that consortia nationally can demonstrate that they are fit for purpose by achieving four prescribed strands:
- Development of consortia against benchmarks
- Region-wide consortia collaboration
- Strategy to 2014
- Plans for 2008-2011
The allocation for the East Midlands is £658,700. The East Midlands Infrastructure Steering Group (EMISG) will need to decide at its meeting on 5 March how the CDF is distributed in our region, in line with the Capacitybuilders national timetable for the CDF programme. More information will be posted on this site after that meeting.
A key document that will be used in the process will be an adapted version of the diagnostic toolkit produced by Defra, Progression through Partnership. A copy of this document is provided below but it should be borne in mind that additional elements will be used in the CDF programme.
Related documents:
Capacitybuilders Guidance Notes on CDF for ChangeUp Consortia 
169k
CDF - Letter to Lead Bodies in East Midlands 
69k
Slides from the CDF Meeting on 20 Feb 07 
180k
Defra Toolkit - Progression Through Partnerships 576k
Destination 2014 - Regional Consultation Event
Destination 2014 is the strategy for the future delivery of ChangeUp. A consultation event for the East Midlands Region took place in Nottingham on 6 February 07. See the report from the Destination 2014 event.
The East Midlands consultation feedback is available below:
Destination 2014 - East Midlands Region Consultation Event 38k
See the National ChangeUp News page for further details of Destination 2014
Regional Analysis for East Midlands
The Good Foundations Consultancy collation and analysis of what has been funded and achieved through the ChangeUp programme, has a three-page regional analysis for the East Midlands:
ChangeUp IIP - Regional analysis and interviews: East Midlands 62k
The following examples have been identified of particularly good projects or successes:
- Reconfiguring the infrastructure in Lincolnshire into three centres.
- High Peak CVS and its IT leadership, including design of the national ChangeUp portal.
- South West Leicestershire’s Playbus – working with travellers and so reached them by putting CVS development workers on the bus.
- Parish churches in Northamptonshire with key messages on volunteering.
Consortia Projects Programme - Grant Allocations
The Consortia Projects Programme for 2006-2008 was the first of the new programmes to be launched by Capacitybuilders. Under this programme funding has been made available to ChangeUp consortia around the country to support the projects they consider are a priority for encouraging the modernisation of infrastructure provision in terms of its sustainability, quality and reach.
Its main aim is to help infrastructure organisations improve their support for frontline voluntary and community organisations through, for example, development of ICT, good governance, recruitment and HR policies, financing and planning.
| Consortium/Project | Lead | Allocation |
| Derbyshire | Derbyshire Rural Community Council | £240,919 |
| Leicestershire | Voluntary Action Leicester | £253,900 |
| Lincolnshire | Lincolnshire Co-operative Development Agency | £260,000 |
| Northamptonshire | Northamptonshire Infrastructure Consortium | £255,100 |
| Nottinghamshire | Networking Action with Voluntary Organisations | £295,546 |
| Rutland | Voluntary Action Rutland | £118,724 |
| Regional Strategy | Engage | £131,460 |
| Nottinghamshire CF | Nottinghamshire Community Foundation | £122,345 |
Consortia Projects Programme - Grant Allocations all Regions 28k
Improving Reach Programme - Grant Allocations
The Improving Reach programme seeks to improve access to capacity building and support for a range of frontline groups / organisations that may not have been reached in previous ChangeUp programmes. Grant allocations have been made as follows:
Improving Reach Programme - East Midlands Grant Allocations 14k
Improving Reach Programme - Grant Allocations (Dec 2006) 195k
Structural Review of Regional VCS Infrastructure Provision in the East Midlands
This report sets out the findings of an independent review of the regional arrangements for the provision of VCS infrastructure support in the East Midlands. It examines infrastructure under the headings: 1) Introduction; 2) What Is VCS ‘Infrastructure’?; 3) What Infrastructure Do We Have?; 4) Is What We Have What We Need?; 5) Where Do We Go From Here?; 6) Key Recommendations.
Structural Review of Regional VCS
Infrastructure Provision in the East Midlands - Final Report (Jun 2006) 256k
Structural Review of Regional VCS
Infrastructure Provision
- Draft Report (May 2006) 744k
