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NEWS, INFORMATION & UPDATES:vSchools Ends 29 July 2010
VSCHOOLS – NOTIFICATION OF TERMINATION OF FUNDING FOR THE YOUTH COMMUNITY ACTION PROGRAMME
Dear Colleague
It is with great regret that I am writing to inform you that the Department for Education has terminated its funding for the vschools programme, part of the Youth Community Action Programme in schools, with immediate effect. v is obviously disappointed with this decision and the potential impact this will have on young people.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest and engagement in this programme. We have worked hard to champion and pioneer this work with schools, young people, local authorities, regional bodies and third sector organisations and, within a short space of time, received positive feedback and engagement from a wide variety of sources.
If young people in your school have been logging their volunteering and community action activities during the summer term and summer holidays, they will still be able to receive a vfifty vinspired award. Please e-mail v at vschools@vinspired.com to inform them, and a member of the vinspired awards team will be in touch with you.
Yours sincerely
vschools Adviser - Leicestershire & Rutland V fears 90 jobs will go after £8m schools volunteering programme is abolishedBy Kaye Wiggins, Third Sector Online, 29 July 2010 The youth volunteering charity says Department for Education's decision to cut vschools is 'complete folly' and won't save much moneyNinety staff at volunteering charity v have been told their posts might be made redundant after the Department for Education abolished the charity’s £8m schools volunteering programme.V received all of the funding for its vschools programme, under which schools were allowed to make community work part of their curricula, from the Department for Education. The programme was launched in January, with one-year government funding worth £8m.The 90 staff include school advisers who were auditing existing community schemes at schools and offering suggestions for new volunteering projects.
Jayne Colquhoun, corporate affairs director at v, said it was "complete folly" to close the vschools programme.
"The government wants to set up a National Citizen Service scheme, and this programme was preparing young people for that," she said.
Colquhoun said v was told yesterday that the scheme would be abolished and had launched a consultation with its staff about the redundancies.
In a statement, Terry Ryall, chief executive of v, said: "The decision not to fund vschools is a big blow for the big society. This government, like all others, will be judged by its actions rather than its words.
"In just four months vschools has established a universal volunteering and social action initiative for every state secondary school in England. Feedback from schools and local government has been universally positive and welcoming."
The statement said savings to the public purse as a result of scrapping the scheme would be minimal, because the start-up funding had already been spent.
A statement from the Department for Education said: "The action needed this year to address the deficit is unprecedented. The government is still fully committed to youth volunteering. Young people of all ages can and do already volunteer, with their families, at school and in the wider community.
"The National Citizen Service programme will act as a gateway to the big society for many young people."
Government scraps £146m youth volunteering programme
By Janaki Mahadevan
Children & Young People Now 29 July 2010 The government has announced it is to scrap the Youth Community Action programme, which aims to encourage all 14- to 19-year-olds to take part in volunteering.
Started under Labour in March this year and backed by £146m of government funding, the pilot programme was designed to increase opportunities for teenagers to take part in community action initiatives with the ambition that all young people would eventually contribute at least 50 hours of voluntary work by the age of 19.
But the programme, which was being introduced through pilots in secondary schools in five local authorities in England, school support packages for all secondary schools and the Entry to Employment Programme, has been axed as part of the coalition’s measure to tackle the country’s financial deficit.
A Department for Education spokeswoman said: "The action needed this year to address the deficit is unprecedented and the government has to make some difficult choices in order to achieve the necessary savings. We are still fully committed to youth volunteering.
"The National Citizen Service programme will act as a gateway to the big society for many young people by supporting them to develop the skills and attitudes they need to get more engaged with their communities and become active and responsible citizens."
But responding to today’s decision, Terry Ryall, chief executive of youth volunteering charity V, which delivers Vschools — the initiative supporting community action in secondary schools as part of the Youth Community Action programme — condemned the decision.
"We are extremely disappointed and alarmed by the decision to end the Youth Community Action programme," she said. "Everyone — political parties, the voluntary sector, teachers, the public and young people themselves — have been calling for years for all schools to get involved in social action and Vschools was delivering this.
"In just four months, Vschools has established a universal volunteering and social action initiative for every state secondary school in England. Feedback from schools and local government has been universally positive and welcoming."
She added that the move contradicted the government’s big society agenda and is a false economy as "any actual savings to the public purse will be minimal, indeed potentially non-existent when set against the return on the investment that could have been achieved by letting the programme run as planned".
The DfE spokeswoman added: "Organisations such as V, with valuable experience of working with young people, have much to contribute to the [NCS] programme and we hope they continue to play a part in helping young people play a bigger role in their community."
v Cuts 28 July 2010 ANNOUNCEMENT FROM V - 28th July 2010: Dear Colleague
I am contacting you to let you know that the Office of Civil Society (OCS) has asked v to find savings of 5% from our budget for this year 2010-2011. They have also said that our Match Fund will be capped at £10m rather than £15m.
In looking at how we manage these reductions, we are keen to preserve all of the impressive work currently underway and to protect opportunities for young people to get involved in volunteering and social action. So we have decided that we can make the savings by not proceeding with a planned grants round linked to the Olympics. This programme was to be targeted at community based organisations to inspire young leaders.
On the Match Fund we anticipated that there was likely to be a cap this year and we have therefore not targeted new Match Fund partners but instead have concentrated on making the case for continuing the Match Fund and attracting potential new partners for the next financial year. All existing Match Fund commitments can be met.
I want to reassure you that by targeting the savings in this way we will avoid any job losses within the organisations that v funds.
In asking v to make this saving OCS is keen for us to know that we are not being unduly targeted. They themselves are having to find savings from their own internal budgets and our savings are probably considerably less than they are asking of other organisations. As you will know from reading the press or from tv and radio reports, this coalition Government is making substantial cuts across the range of Departments. Part of their strategy for dealing with the public spending deficit seems to be to demonstrate that they are making cuts to public spending which go deep and from which no organisation is spared.
Our priority now as always continues to be to find ways for young people to fulfil and develop their potential by contributing to their communities.
Kind regards
Terry Ryall
Chief Executive, v |
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