Norwood Community Group

Jackie Meldrum is our local councillor and holds a surgery at the times below:

Third Saturday of the Month – 3pm to 4pm at West Norwood Library

First Saturday of the Month – 11am to 12 noon at Nettleford Hall, West Norwood SE27 9JX

Jackie's correspondence details are:

Lambeth Town Hall
Brixton
London
SW2 1RW

Telephone 02078 671 5595
Email jmeldrum@lambeth.gov.uk

http://westnorwood.wordpress.com

NCG are moving with the times, and will be upgrading its present accounting systems with a recognised Charities accounts package .

From the end of the financial year April 2010, Norwood Community Group Services will be working with a new accounting package from Paxton's

Please follow the link below.

www.paxtoncharities.co.uk

BTKA Karate in partnership with NCG Services, are now  based at the The Old Library Centre 14-16 Knights Hill West Norwood London SE 27 0HY, all are welcomed, instructors will determine who is suitable to participate.

Free Entry- Discipline essential !

All are welcomed- 7pm -8.30pm each and every Monday !

 

For further information on BTKA, please go to our links page.

Friday 16^th July, 2010

 

 

 

Norwood Community Group

14-16 The old Library

West Norwood

London  SE27 0H Y

 

 

Dear Provider,

 

Reductions in funding 2010/11 and changes to contract end-dates

 

As a result of the current financial climate, and new Government measures, public sector finances are under considerable pressure. The Children and Young People’s Service (CYPS) needs to deliver savings as part of Council wide measures to meet government reductions in funding to children’s services. We have been looking at all areas of CYPS funding, and you will probably be aware that CYPS is re-structuring to reduce expenditure across all its services. We also need to make savings in a range of our contracts during 2010/11, including the voluntary sector.

 

CYPS greatly values its voluntary sector partners and between 2008 and 2010 has made significant additional investment in services providing universal and targeted services for children and young people. The Council is committed to protecting front line services wherever possible, and although it is not possible to guarantee the same level of funding in the future, our aim is for these reductions in funding to be manageable, and not destabilise the sector. We are also looking ahead to re-commissioning for 2011/12, though we are expecting a significant reduction in government grants to support our activity in that year and beyond.

 

The relevant areas of service are:

• Children’s Centres health and family support services
• Childcare improvement
• Middle Years (5-13) targeted services (Children’s Fund) – funded by a specific grant
• Universal Youth services
• Targeted Youth services – funded by a specific grant
• Adventure playgrounds and other play services

 

The approach to funding reductions is based on the following principles:

• the sustainability of the voluntary sector as a whole and as far as possible, of individual providers
• the options available within the terms of our contracts with providers
• the terms of the Lambeth Compact between the Council and the voluntary sector
• the Council’s equalities duty
• the transition to the next commissioning programme.

 

In keeping with these principles, we opted for an across the board reduction in the fourth quarter funding allocation (Jan-March 2011) as follows:

 

• A 35% reduction in fourth quarter funding allocation for providers with an annual contract value of £100K and over (equivalent to an 8.75% annual reduction). This affects Early Years commissioned providers only.

 

• A 25% reduction in fourth quarter funding allocation for providers with an annual contract value under £100K (equivalent to a 6.25% annual reduction). This affects Early Years, Middle Years, APGs and Youth commissioned providers.

 

• Four Play Pathfinder providers will lose their fourth quarter funding as it has not yet been committed.

 

For providers who receive funding from more than one of these sources, we have treated these as separate, and have not added them together when applying the percentage reduction.

 

We are giving providers six months notice of this reduction in the fourth quarter allocation to enable planning of cash flow to minimise the impact on organisations. In the current circumstances, we believe this approach is the most manageable for providers, and so the least likely to destabilise the sector. We also see it as the most equitable option.

 

Information for Middle Years (5-13) and Targeted Youth commissioned providers

 

The government has also recently announced in-year cuts to the grants which fund the Middle Years and Targeted Youth programmes. These are part of the overall Area Based Grant to Lambeth. Unfortunately this will delay our notification to the Middle Years and Targeted Youth organisations about their level of reductions, but we hope to do this by late August, giving four months notice. These providers should assume their reduction will be at a minimum the level above, namely 25% on quarter 4 funding.

 

Contract end dates

 

All contracts with Early, Middle Years and Youth providers are of 3 years duration. Early years contracts expire on 31^st March 2011. Currently the Middle Years and Youth contracts are not due to expire until the summer /autumn of 2011.

 

The contract end dates will now be aligned so they all end on 31^st March 2011. This means that Middle Years and Youth contracts will now end on 31^st March 2011.

 

We are taking this measure to be able to coordinate re-commissioning for these areas for 2011/12, and also because of the uncertainly about the financial position generally, and the levels of government funding for 2011/12 onwards.

 

These changes to the contract end dates do not apply to the Adventure Playgrounds and the Play Pathfinder contracts.

 

Re-commissioning in 2011/12

 

Depending on the level of government funding, we plan to re-commission for 2011/12 onwards. We will be informing all providers about the new commissioning process for 2011/12 in the autumn.

 

Support

 

We have informed Lambeth Voluntary Action Council (LVAC) about these reductions, and have been advised by them about the importance of adequate notice, and the kind of support you would need to help you manage the reductions. A programme of support will be offered consisting of:

• Signposting to existing sources of help
• A providers workshop
• Individual support.

 

We will circulate details about this in the near future.

 

The notification

 

1.         In keeping with the Contract Termination Clause in the contract, we hereby give you advance notice of the early termination of your contract for Targeted Middle Years, Universal and Targeted Youth contracts. The revised termination date is 31^st March 2011. This early termination notice only applies to Targeted Middle Years (5-13), Targeted and Universal Youth contracts.

 

2.         In keeping with the Variation Clause in the contract, we hereby give you notice of a variation in your fourth quarter funding allocation for the following contracts:

 

 

Service	Original Quarter 4 allocation	Revised Quarter 4 allocation
Universal Youth	£	£

 

 

This will be your final payment for this contract.

 

Some providers may find it easier to manage the funding reduction and minimise impact on existing services by scaling down service delivery outputs across the remaining quarters or confine the service adjustments to the fourth quarter only. Please contact your commissioning officer to discuss reprofiling the service delivery.

 

We would be grateful if you would also set out for your commissioning officer the implications for your organisation, including your ability to provide a service to vulnerable groups. This will help us monitor and report on the impact.

 

I appreciate this is difficult news for Providers, but hope that the notice we have given allows time to manage the reduction in a measured fashion.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

 

 

Sandy Cotton

Assistant Director

Youth Services

London Borough of Lambeth

 

TUESDAYS

Tia Chi Classes 11.30am - 12.30pm

Luncheon club for 12.30pm - 2.30pm (home cooked meals)

Line Dancing 3.30pm - 4.30pm

at Nettlefold Hall, West Norwood Library

1 Norwood High Road SE27 9JX

Reply to clover.williams@yahoo.co.uk