Now the aim is for homeless people to receive better help once they leave hospital thanks to £10m funding announced by Public Health Minister, Anna Soubry. The funding pot will support voluntary organisations to work with the NHS and local authorities to address this, and it will also be used to ensure better intermediate care is available after discharge - vital for recovering from health problems such as TB.

Rick Henderson, Chief Executive of Homeless Link, said:

“This investment is fantastic news and will go a long way in addressing a real issue around the way the NHS deals with homeless people leaving hospital. Patching people up and sending them back out to the streets where their problems will recur only leads to readmission and continued problems.

“This issue has existed for too long. We hope this investment will be the catalyst for hospitals, councils and charities to work together to stop this cycle of homelessness, poor health and readmission once and for all.”

Funding should be used to deliver the following outcomes:

• an increase in the proportion of homeless patients who have appropriate accommodation to go to on discharge from hospital.
• an increase in the proportion of homeless patients who leave hospital with support for ongoing healthcare needs in place.
• improved patient experience of admission and discharge process.
• a reduction in re-admissions to hospital.

The deadline for applications is 12 noon, 8 July 2013. Applications from consortia are encouraged, and should be voluntary sector led. Further information and application details are available on the Gov.UK website.

The aim of the Awards is to find the UK’s best and most dedicated rural crime fighters whose actions have made the biggest difference to their local neighbourhoods. There are four award categories, each with a cash prize of £1,000 up for grabs, including Individual Crime Fighter/Innovation Award, Local Bobby Award, and Community Scheme Award

Entries should be submitted online by midnight on 31 May 2013.

More information on the NFU Mutual website.

The Centre for Social Action’s Innovation Fund is designed to support organisations with fresh, original ideas that will enthuse and energise people to get involved in social action and helping each other, working alongside public services.

Nesta is managing the £14m Innovation Fund on behalf of the Cabinet’s Centre for Social Action. The Fund can provide financial support from £50,000 to £500,000 to individual ventures or programmes.  This will usually be in the form of grants, and in most cases Nesta would expect funding to be matched from other sources. Non-financial support will also be on offer.

The first priorities for the Fund are:

• helping people to age well, particularly by supporting people over 50 to have a purpose, a sense of well-being and to be connected to others
• enabling people with long-term health conditions to have a better quality of life, particularly through the use of peer to peer networks and groups
• supporting and encouraging young people to succeed and find employment, for example through mentoring, coaching, and peer-to-peer networks
• using new approaches to "impact volunteering" to mobilise volunteers to increase and enhance the outcomes achieved by public services

The expectation is that these priorities will be open for applications for no more than six months, so you have until October.

The Fund is open to charities, social enterprises, public sector and commercial organisations. A number of organisations can apply together, but one must act as lead and take responsibility for the others.

Full information is on the Nesta website.

Three categories have been added since last year. These are Best Start-up, Rising Chief Executive and Volunteer Manager. Other categories have been adjusted to make them more attractive to smaller organisations. But the purpose of the awards remains the same - to discover and showcase the outstanding campaigns and big achievements in charities and voluntary organisations of all shapes and sizes over the past year.

Entry is free for voluntary organisations and the deadline for submitting entries is Thursday, 30 May. The awards will be judged by a panel of experts drawn from the sector.

Submit your entry online now.

The Office of Budget Responsibility has revised down its forecast for growth and the latest unemployment figures are still poor. Claimant unemployment is expected to remain above 1.5 million through to 2016, peaking at 1.63 million in early 2014. Nevertheless the Chancellor expects 600,000 more jobs in 2013.

Spending

• A 1% reduction in most government departments, although schools and the NHS will be protected.
• Spend on international aid will be maintained at 0.7% of national income, but this means that it will reduce by £135m in 2013/14 and £165m in 2014/15 to reflect the downward revisions to national income
• Public sector pay increases will be subject to 1% limit up to 2015/16, and also looking to make savings from progression/incremental pay increases.
• There will be strict management of Annual Managed Expenditure – the demand led government spending, most of which is accounted for by welfare expenditure. This does not bode well for people of working age, as there are still commitments for those of pension age.

Not-for-profit sector

• Consultation by summer 2013 on tax relief on investment in social enterprises
• Government will consult on proposals to make it easier to claim gift aid through a wide range of digital giving channels, including options for enabling donors to complete a single gift aid declaration to cover all their donations though a specific channel.
• Guidance for volunteer-run events to reduce ‘red tape’; confusing guidance has previously deterred volunteers and got in the way of events which are valuable to local communities, so a single document is to be published on www.gov.uk

Public services

• Ongoing reform of public services will be required. Government is establishing a new multi-agency network and will announce plans to extend the benefits of Whole Place Community Budgets approach across the country at the next Spending Review.

Business

• £2,000 Employment Allowance to offset employers’ National Insurance Contributions to particularly help SMEs and charities from 2014.
• A Business Bank which should particularly help SMEs access finance.
• Confirmation of recommendations in Lord Heseltine’s Review, which will see much responsibility for economic growth pass to Local Enterprise Partnerships.

Families and welfare

• Tax free child care scheme from 2015. The Government will provide 20% of working families’ childcare costs, up to £1,200 for each child. Households in which all parents work but do not receive support through tax credits (or Universal Credit, once it is established) will be eligible, so long as neither parent earns over £150,000 a year. It will be phased in from autumn 2015, and initially will cover children up to the age of 5. Disabled children up to age 16 will also be eligible. The plan is that the scheme will eventually cover children up to the age of 12.
• For parents who currently receive childcare support through tax credits and in due course Universal Credit, an additional £200m of support will be provided within Universal Credit; government says this is equivalent to covering 85% of childcare costs for households qualifying for the Universal Credit childcare element where the lone parent or both earners in a couple pay income tax. The new Universal Credit offer will be phased in from April 2016. The details of how to provide this support will be determined as part of the consultation on the scheme for parents not in receipt of Universal Credit, to ensure the two schemes operate effectively together.
• Flat rate state pension from 2016. There will then be no second state pension, and contracted out schemes will cease, resulting in increased NI payments. This could hit voluntary organisations still linked into local government pension schemes.
• Government will introduce a £72,000 cap on reasonable social care costs and extend the means test from April 2016. The threshold below which people get some state support with residential care costs will rise from £23,250 now to £118,000 in 2016, when the cap is introduced.

Housing

• Help to Buy: – £3.5bn capital spending on shared equity loans up to 20% of value of new build house (individual provides 5% deposit and loan from government of up to 20%, repayable when the property is sold); £130bn mortgage guarantees from 2014 for three years for higher loan to value mortgages to help people who can afford mortgage repayments but not the deposit. There are concerns that neither measure, which will apply to properties up to £600,000, will address the underlying problem of not enough homes being built, and could even help create another housing bubble.
• Government to double the existing affordable homes guarantee programme, providing up to an additional £225m to support a further 15,000 affordable homes starting in England by 2015.
• A social rental policy to be set out in the 2015/16 Spending Round
• Following the recent consultation on ‘Pay to Stay’ proposals to ensure that social housing households on high incomes make a fairer contribution, there will shortly be steps towards allowing social landlords to charge market rents to tenants with income of over £60,000.
• Right to Buy for social housing tenants – government is to look at simplifying the application process, and will reduce the qualifying period before tenants become eligible for Right to Buy from five years to three years.

Environment

• Promoting investment in shale gas; development of proposals by summer 2013 to ensure that local communities will benefit from shale gas projects in their area.
• Development of two Carbon Capture and Storage projects.
• September's 3p fuel duty rise scrapped.
• Tax incentives for manufacture of ultra low-emission vehicles.

Other

• Personal income tax allowance to rise to £10,000 from April 2014.
• Beer duty to be cut by 1p with effect 24 March, annual inflation +2% rise in beer duty to be ended, but "duty escalator" to remain in place for wine, cider and spirits. This has obviously put a question mark over the government’s stance on tackling alcohol abuse, and it will shortly be publishing its response to its alcohol consultation.

Spending Review 2013

The next spending round will spell out more detail on a number of fronts, and this is due to take place on 26 June. However, the Chancellor confirmed that instead of the £10bn worth of savings he had previously signalled, he will be looking to achieve £11.5bn. The government’s themes for the 2015/16 spending round will be growth, efficiency and public service reform, including localism and fairness.

Full details about the Budget are on the Treasury website. 

If this applies to you then be sure to book a place or two at our briefing session with Winchester Action on Climate Change (WinACC), which will help you develop an action plan for making your hall more energy-efficient.

You will hear from an expert on reducing energy consumption and learn about how charities and groups in Hampshire have improved their premises and made savings on their energy bills.
 
The session will take place at the Meon Hall in Meonstoke on Wednesday 27 March, from 7.30 to 9.30pm.  Places cost just £5 each and you can book your place now.

Anything from youth and environmental projects to schemes that improve employment prospects or help people in need are in with a chance of bagging the Big Lottery Fund cash, provided that entrants can convince their community through a broadcast on ITV regional news that their idea is worthy of the prize.

The competition opens today for entries from voluntary and community groups; local authorities; schools; statutory health bodies and branches of organisations or partnerships. More information and entry packs are available on The People's Millions website.

To keep up to date with all the latest news use the hashtag #pplsmillions on Twitter, or join us on Facebook.

The deadline for completed entries is 12 noon on Monday 13 May 2013, so don't miss out!

Digital Unite, one of the UK’s main providers of digital skills learning, is calling for local organisations and volunteers to take part in its Spring Online Campaign this April. It wants everyone who knows their way around a computer to hold taster sessions in their communities to help older people and less confident users get to grips with technology.

It’s free to take part in the campaign and there is chance for event holders to win cash prizes. Digital Unite offers a host of ideas, advice and marketing materials on its website at www.digitalunite.com/spring-online and will help you to publicise your event.

If you’d like to hold a Spring Online event, register your details at www.digitalunite.com/spring-online, call 0800 228 9272 or email springonline(at)digitalunite.com

This is a free event organised by WinACC and supported by DECC Green Deal Pioneer Places funding. It aims to bring people together from across Hampshire who are taking action in their communities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – and provide the opportunity to share ideas, learn from each other and look for joint projects. Suggestions for topic discussions include Green Deal, Energy Companies Obligation (ECO), maintaining energy and enthusiasm in a community group and getting the message across through a pop up shop.

To book a place, email events(at)winacc.org.uk with your name, group, email, postcode and phone number. Any questions or queries should be directed to susie.phillips(at)winacc.org.uk or 01962 827083.

The classes will look at case studies, provide practical tools and offer the direct experiences of experts to guide organisations through what is required to win and deliver public service contracts. The classes will also allow organisations to focus on specific areas where they need to improve key skills, including writing winning bids; adjusting to changes in the tender process; developing consortia; and financial skills such as how to profile and manage risks.

Funded by the government through the Office of Civil Society, the classes are designed and provided by a cross-sector partnership of Acevo, Avanta, Capita, Ingeus, Navca, NCVO, Serco and Social Enterprise UK. Pro-bono support has come from the private sector partners.

The first classes will take place in both Manchester and London on 26 and 27 March 2013. Masterclasses in other locations across England will take place throughout the year until March 2014.

Sessions cost £25 per delegate to attend, with a maximum of 25 places available for each session.

Further information can be found on the KnowHow NonProfit website.