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LawWorks is the operating name of the Solicitors Pro Bono Group.

The Solicitors Pro Bono Group (SPBG) is an independent charity which aims to increase the delivery of free legal advice to individuals and communities in need. 

Website : http://www.lawworks.org.uk/?id=home

Email :    enquiries@lawworks.org.uk

LawWorks
10-13 Lovat Lane
London
EC3R 8DN   tel : 020 7929 5601

They are located about two minutes walk from Monument tube station.     Link to Map

Further Information

LawWorks for Community Groups provides quality legal advice to those in the voluntary sector – free of charge! Thanks to a national network of volunteer lawyers, free business law advice can be provided to community groups, small charities and social enterprises who do not have funds to pay for legal fees.

 LawWorks for Community Groups can help with a wide variety of legal matters, including:

• Company law: (such as advice on commercial contracts; how to incorporate as a company; updating and amending the organisation’s Articles of Association etc.);
• Employment law: drafting, reviewing and updating employment contracts and staff handbooks.
• Intellectual property law: advice on registering a trademark and data protection issues.
• Property law: advice on lease terms; assistance with negotiating tenancy agreements.
• Other areas advice is available on include: charity law matters; tax/VAT matters; insolvency and help in drafting contingency plans; insurance law matters; health and safety law matters; general commercial matters etc.

To apply, please visit the LawWorks website (www.lawworks.org.uk) and complete the online application form under the “Charities” section. 

 Applications are reviewed by the Community Groups team who will help organisations understand the scope of advice that they require. They will then select the right volunteer lawyer for the case and put you in contact with them. All of the volunteer lawyers treat these cases just as they would treat ones for which they have been paid.  It really is that simple!

 Any questions? Please call The Community Groups team on 020 7929 5601 or email lcg@lawworks.org.uk.

Grassroots Grants is a three-year scheme to March 2011, aimed at very small local community groups. Sussex Community Foundation holds budgets for Brighton & Hove, East and West Sussex.

Who can apply?
Not for profit, voluntary or community groups who:
• Have been active in their local community for a year or more
• Have an average income over three years of less than £20,000 per year, taken as an average turnover for the last 3 financial years (or over the life of the group if less than three years old).
• Work for the benefit of their local community
• Are led by volunteers
• Have a written set of rules or constitution

Size of Grant
Applications can be made for between £250 and £5,000. Groups can apply more than once until they have received a maximum of £5,000 in total.

Download a Grassroots application form and grant guidelines or request a pack from our office on 01273 403980 or info@sussexgiving.org.uk.

This Project ended  inMarch 2009

 ‘Promoting Social Enterprise’ was one of 18 projects set up  under the auspices of the Local Enterprise Growth Initiative to promote enterprise growth in the Hastings and Bexhill area. The project commenced in December 2006 and is due in its present form to finish in March 2009. The Project  made contact  with in excess of 100 community organisations or social entreprenurs with over 220 face to face contacts having been undertaken during the period. These contacts range from individual with an idea to share to third sector organisations needing to diversify and to become more enterprising to statutory organisations needing to be made more aware of the whole concept and possible benefits of social enterprises.

Download the mid report below and global numbers

Burwash is currently running a local consultation. Download the Burwash Local Action Plan Questionnaire from here. Details of where to return it are on page 10. Please return BY 14th July 2008.

RVA has 2 digital video cameras and for use by community groups wishing to make short films. The equipment is not available for use by private individuals or for commercial purpose.

The equipment is free to use by RVA members. Membership of RVA is free to community groups operating within Rother District. Click here to find more information on membership

Contact the RVA office on 01424 217259 for more information

RVA and AmicusHorizon developied a pilot project aimed at providing an affordable trustworthy gardening service to vulnerable communities in Rother.

Download the final report here

Local Area Agreement Update Bulletin No 2

General Update

We are now deep in the world of negotiating targets against our chosen indicators with the Government Office (GOSE), with a final submission date of 30 May 2008. In some cases arriving at agreed three year targets is proving a little problematic. There are a number of reasons for this; firstly the definitions for each of the National Indicators (from which the LAA indicators are drawn) have changed from the original guidance; for others the Government has chosen to delay the introduction of indicators by a year, this is often where the indicators (and their measurement) are new so baselines and appropriate collection mechanisms need to be established; finally those indicators that relate to the Place Survey are also likely to be delayed, as following a national pilot of the Survey a number of concerns have been raised as to whether the Survey accurately demonstrates public perceptions in the areas trying to be measured. We will be required to 'refresh' our LAA later in the year (January 2009) and this should offer the opportunity to firm up on indicators and targets.

The Local Government Association (LGA) has produced a 'league table' of the top 20 indicators being chosen for inclusion in LAAs across the country. This can be accessed here. (You will need to scroll down the page). In East Sussex we have 16 of those top twenty indicators in our submission.

The LGA has also produced a Councillor guide to LAAs and this is available to view or download here. It offers a general overview of LAAs and should be useful to others as well as elected members.

Submission Template

The final column in the LAA submission template requires us to show for each indicator which is the Lead Agency and which Statutory Partners are engaged in helping to deliver on specific indicators. The Statutory Partners with a 'duty to co-operate' in the LAA are named by Government and feature in the the attached list. Where they are helping to deliver on a specific indicator they must be named on the template against the relevant indicator. In addition we will include Non Statutory Partners (ie other partners not named as Statutory Partners in the draft statutory guidance), such as informal partnerships, professional groupings, voluntary and community groups, and business sector groups where they too are involved in the delivery of specific targets.  We have until 30 May, the date of the final submission, to show which partners have signed-up to each target. If you know your organisation will contribute to delivery and should be a named partner, please contact the indicator lead to discuss further.

The LAA is being considered in a number of forums before the final document is submitted to the Government Office. The LAA Project Board will review progress on 15 May, East Sussex County Council will consider it on 20 May and the East Sussex Strategic Partnership on 22 May, it will go to the East Sussex Chief Executives Group on 29 May. Once the LAA targets have been finalised and submitted  on 30 May, thoughts will turn to developing detailed action plans for each indicator.  Organisations will want to ensure they build the targets into their business planning processes.

Indicator Specific

There are two indicators that GOSE is still seeking to have included in the LAA and where we have not yet reached agreement to their inclusion. These are NI 169 - Non-principal roads where maintenance should be considered and NI 154 Net additional homes provided. Discussions continue on both of these indicators. One indicator previously included in the list is being dropped; that is NI 172 - VAT registered businesses in the area showing growth. This was an indicator specific to the Hastings area and linked to their Working Neighbourhood Funding, however Hastings is likely to focus its work with small businesses who do not reach the VAT threshold, so this is an inappropriate indicator.

If you have mislaid the previous newsletter, or require again any of the more basic information on the LAA, this can be accessed on the ESSP website www.essp.org.uk . On the home page follow the link to 'what we do' and it will lead you to the LAA.

Alison Horan

Head of Community Partnerships
01273 481381
alison.horan@eastsussex.gov.uk

Local Area Agreement Update Bulletin No 1

Welcome to the first edition of a bulletin designed to keep you in touch with what is happening around the development of a new Local Area Agreement (LAA) for East Sussex. The bulletin is intended for a wide audience including Partner Organisations, Elected Members, the LAA Project Board, Team and Indicator Leads. Please circulate it to anyone else you think would find it useful.

As this is the first bulletin it will provide some basic information and links to where you can find more information in case you are not familiar with the background on the need for a new LAA. (Hyperlinks highlighted in blue will take you straight to the documentation). Future bulletins are likely to be much shorter and their frequency will depend on their being relevant information to share.

A Local Area Agreement (LAA) is a three year contract negotiated between central government and local government setting out the priorities for a local area and how these will be tackled in partnership. The LAA also provides a way of strengthening partnerships and partnership working, pooling budgets and streamlining performance management systems. Our first LAA was due to run from 2006- 2009, but Government has required all top tier authorities to develop a new LAA by June 2008. The East Sussex Strategic Partnership (ESSP) were very unhappy with this requirement, as partners were in the middle of successfully delivering our first LAA and in the process of developing a new sustainable community strategy in an integrated way with the other LSPs  and local authorities in East Sussex. A letter was sent to the Minister of State - Hazel Blears requesting relaxation for the timetable and here is the response received from John Healey MP.

A sub group of the ESSP is acting as a Project Board for the development of the LAA and this is supported by a Project Team of Officers. The process and timetable for developing the LAA were outlined in a report to the ESSP. Since then we have had confirmation that the LAA must be submitted by 30 May 2008. This timetable is very tight and certainly not what the ESSP would have wished, in order to ensure full engagement by partners and especially the voluntary and community sector.

The LAA consists of 'up to 35' indicators drawn from the Government's National Indicator Set (NIS) of 198 indicators, plus 16 mandatory indicators originating from the Department for Schools and Families (DCSF). Local Authorities are required to monitor all 198 indicators but the LAA set of indicators will have stretching targets set against them over a three year period. Some indicators in the NIS also match with those set for other agencies such as the Police, Health and the Fire Service.

Priorities within the Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS) that are not able to be included in the LAA (i.e local indicators) will be included in the Action Plan for the SCS to be developed later on this year.

All of this information and more, can be accessed on the ESSP website www.essp.org by following the button ' What We Do' on the left of the homepage.

General Update

A list of draft indicators was submitted to GOSE on 28 March. The list contains 32 indicators, although there are caveats against a number of indicators that will need to be ironed out during the negotiation process. Each indicator has an identified lead officer and a corresponding Government Office (GOSE) contact, the list of indicator leads is attached in this spreadsheet . In many cases indicator development will be supported by an existing partnership or multi-agency group, for others, new contacts and links are being put in place. 

GOSE have given us inital feedback on the submitted list; this suggests that they are broadly in agreement with our list. They have two or three that they would like to see included and will engage in further debate with the Project Board and Team around these indicators. A combined meeting for the Board and Team with GOSE is being held on 14 April.

Indicator Specific

The final Guidance for the new National Indicator Set (from which the 'up to 35' LAA targets are drawn) was issued on 1 April 2008. Unfortunately for almost all indicators there are some changes from the previous draft set issued in February and CLG have not thought to track the changes between the versions. This will mean hours of additional work in checking on changes. Indicator Leads are urged to ensure that before they enter into negotiations with partners and GOSE that they are clear about any changes that may have been made since the indicator was proposed for inclusion.   Any issues created by this should flagged asap to Alison Horan alison.horan@eastsussex.gov.uk

The Government has decided to drop one indicator, NI 31 - Re-offending by registered sex offenders, and added one new indicator on play - NI  199.  185 national indicators will come into force on 1 April 2008. The remaining 13 indicators will be subject to further consultation in the summer before final definitions for them can be released. Guidance on the methodology for the Place Survey will be issued shortly.

Alison Horan
Head of Community Partnerships
01273 481381
alison.horan@eastsussex.gov.uk

The RVA E Bulletin is produced monthly and contains links to stories and resources available on the internet that may be of interest to community groups in Rother.

Download a recent edition below from the left hand menu.

The Community Meeting Room in the Old Bank Chambers, Bexhill is available for hire.

It can seat 12-14 people, is fully accessible, and has a disabled toilet and kitchen facilities.

To use or book the meeting room please contact us for more information or complete the booking form below and send it to us. Sessions are:

• 07.00 to 12.30pm

• 13.00 to 16.30

• 17.00 to 21.00

The charge is £20 per session for members, £40 per session for non-members.

If Payment is made in advance a 50% discount is applicable to these rates Download the Email Booking form to sumbit via email or the Postal Booking Form to fax or post.