Hello and welcome to the this week's edition of the Network's online e-newsletter.  This new format will reduce the number of e-mails by placing all of the information on this on-line web-based format. If you have any information about your activities, services, new vacancies or any other information that if you would like to promote for free here in this newsletter, then please contact myself at the office on 0191 565 1566 or wendy.hadlington@sunderlandcommunitynetwork.org.uk

Please feel free to forward this newsletter onto others.  If you know of anyone who needs a printed version of this, please contact me on the above telephone and e-mail.

BUZY, BUZY, BUZY

Jeanette Harold, Network Coordinator - Dear Members, There is now a national Empowerment Partnership and out representative is Jo Dean from Nottingham Community Network. She has reported back on her most recent meeting, see below.

Online support - www.peopleandparticipation.net is going to be the place to remember to keep looking. NEP will be using the site to promote all the interesting practice, guidance etc.

Regional Consortia - I know you've heard this message a lot but I do strongly encourage you to get involved with the regional consortia in your area. In the next month or 2 they are putting together their plans for the next two years. You need to influence this! They should also be a more reliable conduit between your local work & the national picture than I can really hope to be.

Money - Apologies to all. I did put together an outline proposal to draw down funding for someone to help us put together our good practice. Unfortunately I missed the tight NEP deadline. Tempted to offer excuses, but I won't. It was my fault. There should be another chance to resubmit in December, which I will do.

NEP still doesn't know about whether there will be money in 2008: watch this space. If there is I still think we should be looking at a coordinator to help CENs work together better.

18 Empowerment Champions - The 18 Local Authorities are getting together with IDeA in January 2008 to decide what being an 'empowerment champion' means. IDeA now have an empowerment section on their website: take a look to see what advice & help the councils are getting http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=7381994

What I said on your behalf

• That NEP needs to think about influencing LSPs as well as local authorities.
• That NEP needs to consistently highlight the need for independent support for community voices - local authority staff cannot advocate strongly for communities where their employer thinks otherwise
• That NEP should be using its influence NOW to support CENs as we negotiate locally for our continuation. We need to still be around if all this exciting work is going to be delivered.
• That we need to remember that it takes money to deliver this - we should highlight where there are available funding streams or specialist resources (such as asset transfer or community kitties) and where work has to be paid for out of local 'mainstream' money
  

Also at our delegates meeting tomorrow we are working through the priorities for the LAA’s. You will recall that at a members meeting in the summer we discussed our top 5 priorities which I forwarded to Lee and you can find on the web site. I did ask at the time that you have those discussions within your own organisations and forward any results to us or Lee, to date I have not received anything. You will find here a series of cards below with a list of priorities, that you can use with your colleagues to find what they believe to be the priorities. To complete the exercise you need to identify the seven priorities in each of the broad areas and send the back to me with the name of your organisation and I will happily pass these on to Lee.

The Compact launch went very well and it was good to see so many of our members there – we have to be in it to influence it!

Kind regards, Jeanette

CARDS BY LEE

Wendy Hadlington - Network Administrator - This week I have been settling into my new abode.  Almost everything has a place now, but I can find nothing!  Yhep, you know how it goes!  On the 29th November we held a Delegates meeting. Lee Cranston gave an update on Local Area Agreements. I will upload the notes from this meeting onto the network website as soon as possible.  Last Tuesday I attended the Refreshing the Sunderland Compact Event at the Stadium of Light. I, like many others was a bit unclear as to what the Compact is all about, how I could get involved and make a difference.  Thanks to clear,concise presentations from Ian Dodds from Government Northeast, Jane Hibberd, Assistant Head of the Community Development Team and Martin Horrocks, Company Administrator from Sunderland CVS it is all a lot clearer now. You can find out more about the Sunderland Compact here.

HOT OFF THE PRESS!

Detailed below is a statement from the Northern Rock Foundation regarding their plans for the future:

Northern Rock Foundation is supported through an annual donation of 5% of Northern Rock plc's pre-tax profits. To date, the plc has donated £190 million to us, making it one of the UK's most generous corporate donors. We do not know for sure what will be the outcome of the continuing negotiations at the bank, but we do know everyone there is working hard to secure a good future for the company and its stakeholders, including us. We would be delighted by any solution that retained the bank as an institution, safeguarded jobs in the North East and maintained the Foundation. But the Foundation's Trustees are constitutionally unable to influence the outcome of any bid, and the bank cannot tell us about its discussions and we do not ask. So, while we wait to see the results of the negotiations, the Trustees have to act in the best interests of the Foundation and plan its work next year very carefully.  Read on here!

View the very latest BBC news on this including how the Rock plan to spend £7million less in 2008

Last Weeks News!

Last week Jeanette told you about some very interesting publications put out by the Department of Communities and Local Authority. I have attached them below.  Jeanette would urge you to look at them and respond where you can. Remember you can always send your responses to us and we will formulate responses. She will be looking to disseminate the information from the documents over the coming weeks

NHS South of Tyne & Wear Proposal to increase uptake of Cervical Screening in Sunderland, Developing a Collaborative Approach with the Voluntary & Community Sector

Why is Cervical Screening an issue?

The national cervical cancer screening programme has been in existence since 1988. The programme has operated successfully for a number of years and research has estimated that it has saved many lives since its implementation. Unfortunately, it is thought that the programme is now becoming a victim of its own success. Due to the success of the programme many women are now unaware of the risks of cervical cancer and uptake of screening has fallen, particularly amongst those women aged under 35. This has occurred at a time when we know that young women are probably at higher risk than ever before due to them becoming sexually active at an earlier age than was the case in the past.

In Sunderland there has also been a downward trend in uptake and coverage is lower amongst the younger population.

To find out more, click on this link: http://www.sunderlandcommunitynetwork.org.uk/tellus-issues.asp

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