Blogs

I was in Langport in Somerset the other day and there in a wonderful open space alongside the River Parrett were some nice wooden benches. So what, I can hear you say. Well, at least one of these benches was curved, forming a U shape, intending (I guess) to make it...

The government has recently decided that Somerset will become a unitary council. So goodbye, in 2023, to Taunton Deane, Mendip, South Somerset and so on. And North Yorkshire is going down the same route, with Cumbria effectively being split into two unitary councils....

Earlier this year, we were working with the Lions Barber Collective – a charity promoting mental health and suicide awareness - training barbers (and others in the hair and beauty industry) to recognise signs of poor mental health, ask direct questions, listen...

Thinking of setting up a charity – think again (please)  The pandemic has got a lot of people thinking – about the importance of family friendship and the inequalities in the world today. It’s also got people thinking about what they can do about it – one of the...

There seems to be plenty of rhetoric around the importance of collaboration in the social purpose sector. Most people think it’s a “good thing” and many organisations will have collaboration, co-operation, openness and partnership written into their mission and...

There’s a charity I know pretty well that swiftly shifted to home working for all their staff when the Covid pandemic started to ramp up. It wasn’t really a problem – a lot of their staff worked from home, at least part of the time, anyway. They worked with...

One of the questions we often ask during an evaluation is “what would you miss if the service wasn’t here”?  Other questions we ask include:  “what would your life be like if the service hadn’t been here for you”?  and “if the service was in a fire, what would you...

Many of the people we speak to in small charities and social enterprises are struggling.  Having been in full battle mode through lockdown, delivering services above and beyond what they normally do for vulnerable clients… there’s no end in sight - its not getting...

The Covid-19 crisis has put, amongst many, many other things, the financial stability of voluntary and community organisations in the spotlight. Good practice means organisations should hold an appropriate level of funds in reserve to help them cope with the...