Voluntary & Community Sector Assembly

Back at Voluntary Action Leicester (VAL) after lunch, for another last meeting. This time it's the final meeting of the Steering Group for the Voluntary & Community Sector Assembly. This is another group whose early meetings I'd attended (on behalf of REDP), then been unable to do so for the past several months. In that time, the Steering Group has appealed for nominations for election to VCS Assembly Board, then arranged for elections to that Board take place and for those elected to vote for their own officers. The Board of the Voluntary and Community Sector Assembly is made up of representatives from the following bodies:

• Apex
• The Bridge
• CrossRoads Care
• Diversity Hub
• Focus
• Futures Unlocked
• Groundwork Leicester & Leicestershire
• Leicestershire Aids Support SErvice
• MRC Community Action
• RCC Leicestershire & Rutland
• Voluntary Action LeicesterShire
• Voluntary Action South Leicestershire

In the earlier meetings I attended, my continual refrain was that this Assembly should take care not to duplicate or shadow the operations of Leicester Partnership's Host Organisations for the various Communities of Interest, or their appointed representatives. I must have sounded like a one-note piano, I I spoke about this so often. Well, here we are, several months down the road: the VCS Assembly is a reality and Leicester Partnership's Host Organisation system is about to pass into memory.

Those bodies which had been serving as the Host Organisations never made a deliberate, minuted decision to stand aside from nomination and election for the VCS Assembly, but we all had our own business to get on with. The process went ahead and we weren't really able to get involved, but we were glad to see the work being shared out among the many competent and capable organisations in the city and county.

Now the VCS Assembly is the only game in town (and county) and those seven organisations who came to the fore as the most capable bodies to represent the various "protected characteristics" (as identified in legislation) find themselves distant far from the centre of this work. The VCS Assembly did not deliberately set out to represent the various "equality strands" or "protected characteristics" as Leicester Partnership did, with its designation of Communities of Interest and Host Organisations. I guess we should consider ourselves lucky that we got a small amount of funding over two years for the work we did. The organisations represented on the board of the VCS Assembly are not getting any such remuneration for their work.

Certainly, those around the table don't seem at all bothered about this - and that's probably quite right too. I'm sure that the organisations elected to the VCS Assembly Board (and the individuals carrying out those responsibilities on behalf of their groups) can represent the Voluntary and Community Sector in city and county perfectly well. I hope that the rest of us can take our place in supporting them.

CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE IN COMMUNITY COHESION (7)

At Prospect Leicestershire, Colton Square, this afternoon, for a meeting of our sub-group working on the proposed Centre of Excellence in Community Cohesion. Round the table today:

• Nick Carter (Chair, Leicester Multicultural Advisory Group; Chair, Prospect LeicesterShire)
• Dilwar Hussain (Head of the Policy Research Centre, based at the Islamic Foundation)
• Jasbir Mann (Head of Service, Learning Transformation and Development, Leicester City Council)
• Riaz Ravat (Training Development Manager, St Philip's Centre for Study and Engagement in a Multi-Faith Society)
• Resham Singh Sandhu (Chair, Sikh Cultural and Welfare Society)

As we settle down to our business, I spy one of the Barry Naylors through a glass door, being greeted by someone in the next room. We exchange a wave. Our attention is drawn to a document in which Leicester City Council has outlined five outcomes it has set itself for the period 2010-11. Rather than set about reinventing the wheel, we consider how these outcomes fit with our project. They are laid out in the document as follows:

1. Different communities get on well together.
2. New communities bond together.
3. Everyone in Leicester feels they belong.
4. Young people understand and respect different communities, and adults and young people get on well together.
5. There is freedom from tension.

These are not a million miles away from the old National Indicators (indeed, they'd have been set when they were still live). City Council is likely to have an abundance of information that we can draw on in relation mapping these themes, from the Total Place Survey and other such sources. of course, mapping gives us a picture of what's been going on up till now - but we can't rely on those models to carry us into the future.

With withdrawal of funding for our role as Host Organisation from 31 March, this is one of the activities we may not be able to continue after that date. Without presuming to speak on behalf of the other VCS bodies in the city who have functioned up till now as Host Organisations, I don't know what sort of support this project will get from any of them after 31 March - even in terms of doing the mapping exercise. I think I've made that loud and clear.

I have a brief chat with Resham about his appearance on The Big Questions which was broadcast live from Leicester recently. The producer had contacted the Council of Faiths and asked us to put forward someone who could contribute to the discussion on Islam as being a guide for daily living. This was Resham, but he wasn't called on to speak on the show itself. He tells me that he introduced himself to the production team on the day and said that he wasn't prepared to take issue or disagree with the Muslim women who would be speaking, just for the same of making "good television". So they didn't ask him.

More general chat around the table follows about this topic. We all seem in agreement: no one here likes The Big Questions or anything like it. We discuss other recent instances of Leicester having been covered in the media (such as  Hardeep Singh Kohli's Radio 2 documentary series, "The Great British Faith"). We're of one accord in saying that often we don't recognise Leicester as it's presented in these settings and are often baffled by the people who end up interviewed or speaking on them. Riaz mentions having been approached by someone in the media to provide a soundbite response to the comments by former Justice Secretary Jack Straw about Asian gangs grooming white girls. When he refused to say something inflammatory, he was dropped instantly. Nick is making a presentation to the Interfaith Forum for Leicestershire on Monday about faith and the media (jointly with John Florance and myself). What he says today is that the threshold is set too high in the media for stories about religion or belief. They're unwilling to publish anything about the everyday life of faith communities because it's deemed to be unnewsworthy, so for anything to get coverage it has to be something extraordinary - and that often means something negative.

Leicester Speaks again!

Leicester Adult Education College is the venue for the first planning meeting for Leicester Speaks 2011. I'm only able to get there for the second hour of a two-hour meeting and arrive just as John Coster (from Citizens' Eye) is leaving. John and I were co-chairs for the first Leicester Speaks event last year and Leicester Adult Skills and Learning Service, which sponsors the it, has asked us both to do the same again this year.

We're not sure of national dates for Local Democracy Week yet, but we're planning on running it in Leicester over two weeks: a pre-launch week (beginning Mon 10 Oct) concentrating on schools and colleges, then the week proper (beginning Mon 17 Oct). That second week is Half Term, which will hopefully allow us greater participation from young people.

We've all got our thinking caps on. What can we do for 2011 that will be new and innovative, that can build on what we achieved last year?

We'll probably extend the public launch event throughout the day, rather than run it for an hour or so, as we did last year. We might have (say) three sessions: morning, lunchtime and late afternoon, perhaps with themed groups taking part in certain slots.

We're also commissioning our own mobile Speakers' Corner, to replace the one we borrowed from Speakers' Corner Trust last year.

There's also the possibility of linking up with Birmingham and Nottingham, to give the week some stronger coverage across the Midlands. Leicester Council of Faiths might be able to do something in association with inter faith organisations in those cities.

A promotional event, introducing Leicester Speaks to potential new stakeholders, is being planned for next month. A six-page brochure (with DVD) will be published then, showcasing what was done last year and promoting what can be done later this year.

With withdrawal of funding for our role as Host Organiation from 31 March, this is one of the activities we may not be able to continue after that date. I've made that known to the group.

Find out what happened in Leicester Speaks 2010:
http://leicesterspeaks.wordpress.com/2010/11/04/thus-spake-leicester/

CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE IN COMMUNITY COHESION (6)

At St Philip's Centre for Study and Engagement in a Multi-Faith Society, Stoughton Drive North, Evington, this afternoon, for a meeting of the full group developing ideas the Centre of Excellence in Community Cohesion. I've come with Iris Lightfoote, direct from our morning meeting of REDP. Round the table today are:

• Nick Carter (Chair, Leicester Multicultural Advisory Group; Chair, Prospect LeicesterShire)
• John Hall (Director, St Philip's Centre for Study and Engagement in a Multi-Faith Society)
• Dilwar Hussain (Head of the Policy Research Centre, based at the Islamic Foundation)
• Iris Lightfoote (The Race Equality Centre)
• Sheila Lock (Chief Executive, Leicester City Council)
• Jasbir Mann (Head of Service, Learning Transformation and Development, Leicester City Council)
• Suleman Nagdi (Federation of Muslim Organisations)
• Chief Superintendent Rob Nixon (Leicester City BCU Commander)

The papers produced by our sub-group are accepted, with minor tweaking. Questions persist regarding issues of inclusion within the orbit of this project, but that was voiced and discussed today so it's not going to be set aside. Thanks to remarkably effective chairing by Rob, the meeting's over in 45 minutes. Respect!

We can't allow any perception of this project to make it look like the city is resting on its laurels. Demographics change, policies change - and it's our responsiveness to those changes that help keep Leicester in the forefront of community cohesion.

In connection with the need to conduct a mapping exercise, describing the current scene in terms of community cohesion, it might be beneficial to link up with the research project being conducted by Dr Chris King at the University of Leicester on South Asian places of worship in the city.
With withdrawal of "Host Organisation" funding for the Council of Faiths from 31 March, this is one of the activities we may not be able to continue after that date. I've made that known to the group, in no uncertain terms - but I also proposed a possible way round it.

future funding for Leicester Partnership host organisations

22 December 2010

Dear George

I am writing to clarify the position in relation to future funding for the Leicester Partnership Community of Interest Host organisations.

Within the last week, the City Council has received its funding settlement which has as anticipated, resulted in significant cuts to the local financial envelope available to deliver all of our services into the future. Alongside this a number of specific funding grants have been stopped or significantly cut, including the Area Based Grant which will cease to exist from 1st April 2011. This does require some very difficult decisions to be made which have not been taken lightly.

Elected members are committed to protecting front line services. All services are being asked to achieve this as far as practically possible whilst being mindful of the funding stream notifications and restrictions, needs analysis and developing plans in connection with future service priorities.

It has been the Area Based Grant which has been the source of funding for the Leicester Partnership Community of Interest Host organisations. In view of the pressing financial situation and in order to meet our legal obligations, the principles set out under the Leicester Compact and protect the Council's financial position, I writing to formally advise you that the service you currently provided as a host organisation will not be re-commissioned at the end of the current term on the 31st March 2011 when the arrangement between us come to an end, and in particular no further payments for the cost of the services will accrue. You may wish, given this position, to consider the measures you need to take in respect of the organisations you represent and any staff or individuals that may be effected.

The Council recognises that having strong involvement of the Communities of Interest in the work of the Leicester Partnership is important to its continued success. Much time and effort has been invested on the part of the Host organisations themselves, by the previous Chair of the Leicester Partnership, Voluntary Action LeicesterShire and by City Council officers, in establishing this relationship and in developing the role of the Community of Interest Hosts. Whilst the funding may not be available going forward, it would be our intention, as much as is possible, to continue to build on and develop this approach.

Therefore, if beyond March, as a Host organisation you feel able to continue in the absence of funding, this of course would be very much welcomed and my team will do what they reasonably can to support this albeit recognising the constraints on both parties in terms of future capacity and resources. We very much want to seek to do what we can to support a workable approach into the future, albeit with a reduced level of resources ourselves.

It is always difficult to have to stop funding activities and organisations, and take a change of direction, but I hope you can appreciate that in the current financial climate these tough choices have to be made. In writing this letter I have also been particularly mindful of the potential difficulties that the end of any contract can mean for individual organisations and hence our desire to ensure we give you sufficient notice of our decisions.

I would like to take the opportunity to formally thank you for the work you have done to date as a Host organisation for the Leicester Partnership, and will no doubt continue to do during the remaining funding period, and where possible beyond this.

I should be grateful if you would acknowledge receipt of this letter by completing and returning the attached pro-forma.

Your sincerely

Q2 monitoring

Meeting this afternoon in the Welcome Centre with Andrew Tovell, who is responsible for monitoring our performance against the requirements of our contract with Leicester City Council.

There are two aspects to this contract: one, the delivery of what's called our "Core Service"; the other, responsibilities as what's called a "Host Organisation". Without going into detail, the former could be described as our inward-facing work (the day-to-day co-ordination of the functioning of the Council of Faiths), while the latter could be described as our outward-facing work (the relationship between the Council of Faiths and the wider community).

I'm still surprised at how much refining, how much fine tuning these reports require. You'd think it would be a simple matter to say what we did and when we did it. But to be effective, our reports have to be more nuanced than that.

Second quarter is often harder to survey effectively. It coincideswith school holidays, there's often a drop in activities because people are away. In our case, several of the activities to which we devoted our energy - such as the demonstration by the English Defence League, the celebration of Leicester Speaks (AKA Local Democracy Week) - happened in October, which is in the third quarter. So our report shows a lot of preparation that paid off in the next monitoring period.

We need to focus on outcomes, rather than just show that we've been busy. For the uninitiated (and I still count myself as being in that category for the most part), the difference between "inputs", "outputs" and "outcomes" has been explained to me thus:

input: you arrange a meeting, say, to discuss a dispute over responsibility for keeping clean a communal alleyway that runs between two different faith community centres;

output: people from the interested parties attended the meeting;

outcome: an agreement was made between the two community groups, resolving the dispute.

It's better for us to concentrate on a few central matters, than to provide a list of what we've done and when. We need to show the benefit of our involvement in these activities for the people of Leicester - not their benefit for the Council of Faiths.

Leicester Partnership Host Organisations briefing

Attending a briefing for Leicester Partnership's Host organisations, which is regularly held two weeks or so ahead of the full meeting of the Partnership itself. This meeting, at Voluntary Action Leicester, is being done twice today, 1200-1300 and 1800-1900. I come to the latter, but I'm the only one! Philip Parkinson (Chair of Leicester Partnership) is gracious enough to give me the full briefing on the agenda etc with support from James Schadla-Hall (Project Support Officer, Performance Management and Democratic Services). We manage to fit this into half an hour, since there aren't so many questions as there would have been at the lunchtime briefing, which many of my colleagues and coworkers from the other Host Organisations attended.

host organisations meeting

At The Race Equality Centre (TREC) this afternoon, for a meeting of the Host Organisations for Leicester Partnership. These are the groups which liaise between the strategic partnership and the so-called "communities of interest", which identify around the protected characteristics: age (Age Concern for older people, Young People First for younger people), disability (Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living), gender (LeicestHER Day Trust), race (The Race Equality Centre), religion or belief (Leicester Council of Faiths) and sexual orientation (Leicester Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Centre). We also have with us a representative from Voluntary Action Leicester, which is responsible for training and support of the Host Organisations, so that we can help train and support the reps.

We consider representation for the communities of interest on Leicester Partnership at different levels (its Board, its various thematic groups). We're interested in identifying potential reps for the future, refining their roles and on contributing to a handbook which would describe best practice for representing the interests of the Voluntary and Community Sector (no one I know is using that new term, "Civil Society Organisations" - yet).

community cohesion charter

A one-hour briefing session at Voluntary Action Leicester (12 noon, then repeated later today, starting 1800), for those bodies appointed Host Organisations for communities of interest in the city and for those individuals appointed representatives for those communities. Within this structure, Leicester Council of Faiths is the Host Organisation for issues of religion and belief. Our two representatives are unwell today, so I'm holding the fort. Other Host Organisations and their representatives are here for the other communities of interest: age (different organisations for young people and old people), disability, gender (i.e. women),  race, sexual orientation.

This briefing is in preparation for a meeting of Leicester Partnership on 23 June. Today we get sight of paperwork for that meeting and have the opportunity to comment on it if need be. One such document is the "Community Cohesion Charter for Leicester and Leicestershire", the text of which is set out in full below. This version will be signed by representatives of the city and county and of the Strategic Partnerships covering them both; a shorter version is to be signed by city and country organisations involved in those partnerships.

COMMUNITY COHESION CHARTER FOR LEICESTER & LEICESTERSHIRE

"We, the people who live and work in Leicester and Leicestershire are proud of our city and our county, our history and traditions, and value the diversity of our people and communities.

"We are committed to the development of Leicester and Leicestershire as a thriving and cohesive society of many faiths and cultures and we will work together for its continued success for ourselves, our children and for future generations. We all have an equal stake in our future.

"We believe in the importance of peaceful, harmonious and creative relations between our diverse communities. WE are committed to creating a positive and productive environment where difference is valued and celebrated and we ill take every opportunity to work to improve those relations and encourage greater understanding and contact between people and communities.

"We cherish and will uphold our long tradition of welcoming and respecting visitors and newcomers to Leicester and Leicestershire and those who seek refuge in our community.

"We recognise the need to remain vigilant to any threats or challenges to good community relations and will guard against complacency. We have a moral responsibility to speak out, to show visible leadership, and to respond to challenges to the peace and harmony of Leicester and Leicestershire.

"We, therefore, make the following commitments:

"We reaffirm what we have in common and what unites us, a wish to live in peace and security together, to be free from poverty, to have a decent standard of living and a fair share of resources, to have equal chances in life and enjoy good health.

"We celebrate all that is good about Leicester and Leicestershire, our wonderful heritage, our many cultures and beliefs our unique neighbourhoods and the energy, character and diversity of our people.

"We recognise and support the equal rights of everyone in Leicester and Leicestershire.

"We reject any form of discrimination, prejudice, harassment or violence.

"We will work to build bridges of understanding, friendship, cooperation and mutual respect between all the people and communities who belong to Leicester and Leicestershire."

It should be said that this is not necessarily the final form of words. Nor has it been agreed that there should be two different versions for signature by different organisations. There may yet be some debate over just what this should say in the end.

come to The Dark Side (we have cookies)

An invitation to attend the monthly Leicester Pagan Moot this evening at The Dark Side, in Cank Street. The Dark Side is a new cafe in the city centre, which describes itself as Leicester’s first alternative cafe and information centre. It prides itself on having a welcoming, warm and relaxed atmosphere, with friendly, if "rather strange looking" (in their own words) staff. Music is a big part of the alternative identity at The Dark Side, varying from rock to emo, goth to metal. I can personally recommend the coffee and walnut cake. That's Lucie Belikova, who runs the place, outside the cafe in the photo above, cutting the red ribbon for the cafe's official opening.

At Leicester Pagan Moot, all pagan paths are welcomed and treated with fairness and equality. it's an occasion when people can meet and exchange ideas with others who look deep inside for the answers to those awkward questions everyone is dying to ask. The theme for this evening is "Candle Magic". We hear, ask and talk about colour, size, fragrance, their use and significance for different spiritual purposes. The evening ends with a "pathworking" exercise, with Angela Langrick leading a guided meditation using a candle flame.

The Leicester Pagan Alliance is not itself a member of our Council of Faiths. However, our contract as Host Organisation with Leicester Partnership requires us to develop positive working relations with the different communities of religion, faith or belief in the city - not just those who make up our membership. Working with the Pagans doesn't feel like an obligation, I'm glad to say. I've become good friends with a few of them and I won't forget how supportive they were of me in the earliest days I was in this post.

Visit the facebook page for The Dark Side:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Leicester-United-Kingdom/The-Dark-Side-Cafe/320417872612

Visit the facebook page for Leicester Pagan Moot:

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Leicester-United-Kingdom/Leicester-Pagan-Moot/298422108418

working with the Local Strategic Partnership

Meeting in the Welcome Centre this evening with Dr Rachel Chapman, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Northumbria (in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne). Rachel is involved in a research project commissioned by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, looking at how Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) have been promoting equalities and how they have been engaging with locally-based equalities groups. She's considering case studies, identifying good practice and seeing how much of that good practice could be shared. She's interested in asking us what we've learned from our experience of working with our LSP and how much of what we've learned could be transferred elsewhere.

The main experience that Leicester Council of Faiths has of working with our Local Strategic Partnership is, of course, in our capacity as the Host Organisation for Communities of Interest in relation to religion and belief.

There are seven of us gathered round the table: Julie-Anne Heath, Alan Race, Resham Singh Sandhu and his wife Surinder (who, while not a member of the Council of Faiths, can speak for the Sikh Welfare and Cultural Society), Manjula Sood (our Chair, who arrives after an hour or so) and Gursharan Thandi. Gursharan is the focus for most of Rachel's questions, as she is one of the two representatives on Leicester Partnership for Communities of Interest in relation to religion and belief. The meeting lasts just over two hours (Julie-Ann and Gursharan have brought food and drink). I think we respond in interesting and varied ways to Rachel's questions. She's treating us as a focus group, recording our conversation on a small digital device. She's going to write up a report, anonymising our comments. She may be back in the future to do some follow-up work with us.

To read the published report ("The role of Local Strategic Partnerships and Local Area Agreements in promoting equalities") click on the link below:

http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/uploaded_files/research/63_role_of_lsps_laas_in_promoting_equality.pdf

box 15

To Walkers Stadium this afternoon, for a meeting called by the Leicester Strategic Partnership for those doing the work in their Host Organisations. This meeting follows on from an all-day event, the latest in the "Making It Real" series of events - this one on the theme of "Stronger Neighbourhoods". We only received a week's notice of this and the other Host Organisations may not be able to send someone in support, but I thought it a good idea to go, so I've confirmed that I'll be there. This despite the fact that I'm labouring with a heavy cold and it's raining.

The woman on reception has this event on her schedule as the "Post 3:30 Meeting" and she directs me to Box 15, on the third floor. I sit in Box 15 (which has a very nice view of the pitch, as you can see, above) for about 20 minutes, wondering when anyone else is going to show. Sitting in this empty room, gazing out on the deserted stadium, pitch partly covered, goalposts taken down ... it begins to feel like a meditation on nothing much at all. After a while, I start to wonder if I'm in the right place. I make my way back down to the Grand Hall, where the "Making It Real" event would have been held. Perhaps it's overrun. I'll probably meet some people making their way up to the third floor for my meeting. These corriders are longer and quieter than I would have first thought - and because the lights switch on automatically by sensor as you pass under them, it's all a bit darker too. When I do find the Grand Hall, it's empty, with only a few staffers in the early stages of cleaning up. I ask one young woman picking up empty cups and saucers if she knows whether anyone was making their way up for the "Post 3:30 Meeting"; but she tells me she heard them making the decision to cancel that meeting earlier in the day.

On the way home through the rain, I phone Dee at LCIL. She reminds me that we'd made a decision that since we couldn't all go, then none of us would go. I remember discussing this at our meeting on Tuesday, but don't remember actually deciding anything about it. But it makes sense, and it's our mutually supportive way. But if that's so, how come the woman doing the cleaning up heard them decide to cancel the meeting this morning? And why was it still on the schedule at reception? My head is too full of cold and I've had way too much Lemsip to figure this one out - obviously.

Find out more about the Walkers Stadium:
http://www.thewalkersstadium.co.uk/

AFRICAN HERITAGE CHURCHES NETWORK IN LEICESTER

This afternoon, meeting with Taiwo (Tony) Rotimi at Leicester African Caribbean Business Association (LACBA) in the Melbourne Centre, Melbourne Road, Highfields. I'm returning two manuscripts I've been copy-editing and proofreading for him over the past few months (in what I laughingly call my "spare time"). Working titles for the two scripts are "365 Tools for a Fulfilled Life" and "The Quotable Bible".

Tony (under his business identity as "Platinum Consolidated") has been commissioned by the African Caribbean Citizens Forum (ACCF) to help create a network of African heritage churches in Leicester. This is an area that the Council of Faiths has long had difficulty tapping into; hopefully, such a network would help us work alongside this important strand in the religious life of our city.

Tony introduces me to Wolde Selassie, Chair of Leicester African Caribbean Arts Forum (LACAF), who is also helping create this new network. I explain to both of them our duties as one of Leicester Partnership's Host Organisation, that we're obliged to work with faith groups that are not actual members of the Council of Faiths. I also explain to them how such a network might find representation on SACRE. I also invite them to attend the open-air prayer meeting for Haiti that the Council of Faiths is organising in Town Hall Square this Wednesday (3 February) at 1230.

VCS assembly steering group (1)

At Voluntary Action Leicester (VAL) in Newarke Street this morning, for a meeting of what's being called (for want of a better name) the LeicesterShire Voluntary Sector Assembly Steering Group. Can't see that one featuring on a best-selling t-shirt - and it wouldn't exactly be my choice - but it has to be called something, right? This meeting is following up on a Development Day held at VAL at the end of October last year, when 65 delegates representing the diverse range of voluntary and community sector organisations in the city and county. That was an occasion for disemmination of information, for discussion, for networking and for workshops - all in aid of assisting in the development of a LeicesterShire Voluntary Sector Assembly. The aim of that day was to:

• begin the process of creating a single strong voice for the Voluntary and Community Sector in the city and county;
• enable the Voluntary and Community Sector to feed into the development and future of the Assembly;
• Identify clear priority areas of work for the Voluntary and Community Sector in 2010-11.

At the end of that Development Day, I put my name forward as being interested in sitting on this steering group which would consider practical ways to move this project forward. I'm here on behalf of the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership as much as I'm here for the Council of Faiths. Half a dozen of us from VCS organisations and three VAL staffers spend 90 minutes this morning looking at some basic issues that arose from the Development Day and that lead into possible future work.

There are no formal conclusions at this meeing: it's not that kind of group and it's still early days anyway. However, there are several general areas of agreement - most importantly that the establishment of such an Assembly would be sa good thing. We recognise a number of other important points too. While the VCS is uniquely flexible and responsive, it's become used to surviving on crumbs that fall from the table of the private and public sectors. An Assembly would have to help change that situation and advance the interests and elevate the status of the VCS. The work of any such Assembly should help sustain a thriving VCS; complement Leicester Partnership's system of "Host Organisations" and "communities of interest", rather than attempting to duplicte or rival that structure and service (which is still in its infancy); encourage, enable and support VCS's independence and robustness; facilitate and improve communication and cooperation among VCS organisations and groups.

Next time we meet, we'll have the chance to compare what we might be able to do in Leicester and Leicestershire with what's been done in other parts of the country which are comparable in some ways.

Not only ... but also

I spend most of today compiling the monitoring report for the second and third quarters of 2009-10. This report covers not only our "Core Service" (which the Council of Faiths has been delivering for Leicester City Council for a number of years) but also our new duties to Leicester Partnership as one of its "Host Organisations" representing one of the city's "communities of interest" - for issues related to religion, faith and belief. To most people that will sound stupefyingly dull. Well, maybe it's a quirk of my nature, but I can find fascination just about anywhere in my line of work. Seems like a good time to do this monitoring report, so soon after writing my top ten countdown for 2009. The monitoring report allows us to gauge just what we've done and how we've done it over the year as well as what remains to be done. Striving for the sake of striving isn't very effective; if you don't get the chance to reflect then you can end up feeling like you're flailing about in deep water and losing your sense of direction. My conclusion, reflecting on our progress in these past two quarters: Leicester Council of Faiths has been punching above its weight!

Nice view of a wintery Town Hall Square there and the Town Hall, seat of Leicester City Council. The Welcome Centre, where the Council of Faiths is based, would be just left of this scene. But in this recent weather it's been too cold to work in there. Lovely view, that's for sure, but sitting at my desk, heavy leather jacket on, scarf tied up tight, I've never felt so cold indoors. In fact, I felt like I may as well have been sitting in the square with my laptop. The heating has given up the ghost: so have I. No choice but to retire gracefully (if you disregard the shivering) to work from home. *Brrr!*