Wednesday, 17 October 2007

Rather pleasingly on my first morning back in the office, I talked with three of our member groups on charity registration, staff appraisal and training. But otherwise it took all morning just to read through correspondence and return urgent telephone calls. And there was some very interesting correspondence too.

First, the emerging Hertfordshire Training Consortium has received from the Learning and Skills Council some funding for a worker to help establish itself. Originally, it was made very clear by LSC that they were providing funding to establish a voluntary organisation to deliver LSC-funded training to members of the public. Although this is A Good Thing it is not something in which Watford CVS has any direct interest. Our interest is on delivering training to meet the needs of voluntary organisations so we stepped back a little from the Training Consortium. It now appears that things might have changed a little: I will need to investigate.

Secondly, there are more queries from the Big Lottery Fund about our Business Plan. I think most of the queries are already addressed in our Plan, but I will check tomorrow.

Thirdly, back on 5 October I had been very encouraging meeting on the future of Watford’s Community Centres. It now seems my enthusiasm and optimism may have been misplaced: somewhere along the line games are being played and I don’t have the time or the energy for them. Or perhaps this is just my impatience again?

Finally, Helen (our Volunteer Centre co-ordinator) has received an invitation from our MP Claire Ward to join a delegation to meet Phil Hope, the new Minister for the Third Sector. This is a great opportunity for Watford’s groups.

At lunchtime, I attended a meeting of the Disability Forum to talk briefly on the PCT consultation process and the need for a county-wide solution to PCT transport problems. The meeting was very supportive and contributions confirmed my fears that the PCTs’ current practices are pretty chaotic.

I left the Disability Forum meeting early to head off to the Disability Law Service in London for their AGM and for a trustees meeting. This all went very smoothly. It’s a great organisation and the staff and other trustees are all very committed and very kind. While there I took the opportunity to talk to Joss, their head of legal services, about the transport issues that arose at Watford's Disability Forum. She was very good, giving clear advice and guidance that I will feed back to the Disability Forum as soon as the opportunity arises. I also spoke with Linda, DLS’s CEO, about Big Lottery funding. I was frustrated to hear that DLS's Business Plan had been fully approved within two days. Our plan has so far taken ten weeks, despite us receiving feedback that it was “excellent”.

After my first day back in the office I arrived home a little after 10:00 pm. It’s nice to be back in the swing of things.