Job Vacancies: Early Year Practitioners

Three vacancies for Early Year Practitioners: West Berkshire (Newbury), Reading and Wokingham.

Dingley Family and Specialist Early Years Centres provide a place where children, from birth to five years, with additional needs and disabilities, come to develop skills through play.
We are looking for an enthusiastic self-motivated practitioner with a recognised level 3 childcare qualification although not essential but must be willing to work towards a child care qualification. Some experience of working with children with additional needs/disabilities and their families is preferred.

The successful applicant will be an appointed key person to a small group of children and knowledge of the EYFS framework is also a requirement.
Hours: 27.5 working hours: 9.00-3:00 term time only
Salary: £7.56 – £9.10 (dependant on qualifications/experience)
Closing date: Friday 10th July
Interviews to be held:   TBC
This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (1974) and does require a criminal records check. Applicants must be prepared to disclose any convictions they may have and any orders which have been made against them.
Please contact Jane Amin jane.smain@dingley.org.uk  for an application pack which includes a full job description, person specification and application form:

West Berkshire Community Planning Update

Streatley Parish Plan Feedback events

On 29^th May, Streatley Parish planning group held their second and final Parish Plan public feedback event.  The event took place at the Streatley Parish Council Assembly.    People were asked to look at the most popular project ideas that have emerged from the various consultations and to choose a project that they would wish to spend the Parish Plan grant from West Berkshire Council on. The one with the most stickers wins!

Other stalls at the event, were run by ; SAS –Streatley Allotment Society, Friends of Streatley Rec. Friends of Streatley Meadow, Heart of Streatley and Goring and Streatley Sustainability Group, and more.  The Draft parish plan now needs to be written up and sent to West Berkshire Council for approval.

Basildon all set to start a refresh of their plan.  After a successful public event to find out if residents are in support of a refresh of Basildons parish plan, members of the new steering group met with Tessa Hall from CCB on the 29^th May to discuss how to carry out the refresh.  At the moment there are 9 people who will lead the process.  They will be exploring new project options and consulting further with the community soon.   Popular topics include;  more use of the village hall,  a pop- up Lower Basildon summer café, more use of St Barts church, Road changes to improve safety,  a new footpath, kids clubs and facilities, affordable housing, a village shop, heritage walks, broadband and mobile coverage and more.

Project Management for Community Projects: Free training

Free training on Tuesday 30th June  with Bob Lyon from Frilsham’s Future.

The session runs from 7.30 pm until 9 .30 pm, registration at 7 pm (and refreshments) at the Council Chambers, Council Offices, Brownsfield Road, Thatcham, RG18 3HF

Bob Lyon has been running successful projects in his community in Frilsham West Berks for several years and was a project manager in his day job before that. 

Come and learn about the various aspects of managing community projects that commonly result in the success or failure of a project. You will gain some useful tips on how to approach different projects and how to keep projects flowing smoothly with the aid of volunteers. Many aspects of project management will be covered. 

You may be just starting to work on one or two of the projects from your refreshed (or first) Parish Plan action plan, or you may have a one off community project that you wish to tackle with other like minded people. Either way you will find some inspiring and helpful tips from an experienced project manager. 

To book for this training session, please click on the link below and fill out the form:

https://ccberks.wufoo.com/forms/so4931w1pl0kf0/

This training session is free as it is supported by West Berkshire Council Adult Community Learning Team.

Most Committed Volunteer to Learning

Congratulations to Les Billing from Ashampstead who, having been nominated by CCB, won the Most Committed Volunteer to Learning category in West Berkshire Council's Adult and Community Learning Awards for 2015. Les is chair of Ashampstead Recreational Trust which is responsible for the running of Ashampstead village hall and has attended many training sessions for community building volunteers which CCB has provided. Les has also overseen a project to raise funds to improve the hall for the benefit of the local community.

CCB Building Maintenance Workshop: Securing the Future of Community Buildings

A workshop on Building Maintenance was held at Tidmarsh village hall on Friday 12th June. 

Alastair Dick -Cleland from the Landmark Trust spoke about the need for building maintenance and the importance of being able to carry out repairs rather than replacement work. A walk around the outside of the building meant external features and the car park could be looked at, and indoor maintenance was discussed inside. Delegates were responsible for halls ranging in age from 50 -700 years old so there was a wide range of discussion on what was required.

How to be a Better Trustee.

Training for community building volunteers will take place at Tidmarsh Village Hall (near Pangbourne) on Monday 13th July from 7.30pm -9.30pm. Free for CCB Community Buildings Advice Service members to attend - £15 for non members. Places must be booked in advance tel 0118 9612000 or email wendy.dacey@ccberks.org.uk.

Topics to be covered will include the importance and relevance of governing documents, licensing for halls (alcohol, music etc) fire risk assessments, returns to Charity Commission (if required) and the role of trustees in carrying these out.

This training is supported by West Berkshire Council Adult Community Learning Team.

Village Halls say VAT is a Tax on Voluntary Effort

The National Village Halls Forum says volunteers should not have to fundraise to pay VAT bills on improvement work to charity run community facilities.  

The Forum, which campaigns on behalf of 10,000 community buildings in rural England, is urging the Government to introduce tax breaks and support for volunteer trustees in the forthcoming budget. 

The Forum has identified that small amounts of carefully directed Government funding will help volunteer trustees provide facilities that are more financially viable, support new social enterprises and help improve the economy and social fabric of rural areas.  The Forum is asking for the refund of VAT paid on improvement projects, secondly for finance for the national network of Village Hall Advisers provided by the charitable ACRE Network and thirdly reducing bureaucracy around the granting of rate relief and VAT reductions on energy costs.  

The Forum says that a grant aid scheme towards the 20% VAT levied on building works, will enhance the ability of Village Hall Trustees to implement improvement works which will provide jobs in the building industry and help them provide facilities such as Pre-schools, lunch clubs, exercise classes, libraries and activities to improve health and wellbeing,  which support more jobs.  They say VAT places a burden on local fundraising and grant funders such as local authorities, Landfill operators and charitable trusts as well as volunteers and hope funders will support their campaign.   

Forum Vice Chairman, Alan West, who is Chairman of Ringmer Village Hall in East Sussex said: 
“Ringmer Village Hall is so well used that we need to extend it to better serve the village.  It has taken years to raise the funds for a small extension and over £40,000 will be wasted on VAT that could be spent on better facilities.  However, we could not have got this far with our plans without the help and experience from the ACRE Network Village Halls Adviser provided by Action in rural Sussex. Trustees of Village Halls tell the Forum they see the ACRE Network Village Hall services as essential in supporting the good management of their halls, keeping them up to date with legislative changes, networking them with other volunteers, providing inspiration, information and help applying for funding to improve Hall facilities.  

Cutbacks in funding for Defra and local authorities have led to a drastic loss of experienced Advisors across the country: Some counties no longer have any, others only a few hours a week to help volunteers running hundreds of facilities worth millions of pounds. The governance requirements and responsibilities volunteers take on are complex. Trustees deserve locally delivered training, answers to problems and the excellent ACRE Network publications and information service being kept up to date.” 

Alan West said: “Little notice has been taken of the threat to the wellbeing of the people living in rural communities from the closure of shops, pubs and post offices, while the threat from fracking and damaging development makes headlines.  Travel costs are higher in rural areas and with scarce public transport a car is needed by people who cannot afford it. Isolation can become the norm for people, especially in an aging population. Often the last remaining “community” facilities are the Village Hall and Church. Good facilities and active groups help maintain a vibrant, inclusive rural community.

Sport in Mind Charity Canal Walk on Saturday 27th June

Boxford Open Gardens: 27th & 28th June 2015