George speaks

All attention in ACEVO Towers is on George's statement. We prepare a note to all our members on the key aspects that affect our sector.

I'd had a heads up on one important piece of the announcements; VAT on shared services. A somewhat esoteric subject I admit but the operation of the VAT regime in doubling charging on shared services make cooperative ventures between charities very problematic. Its an issue ACEVO has been on about to the Treasury for years.

As always details need to be sorted HMRC have a habit of making these things to complicated! However I have to credit George with doing a number of small but really useful changes that have benefited the sector, such as on the gift aid regime and giving.

One interesting example of how a cooperative approach can work is provided by one of my ACEVO board members Virginia Beardshaw. She runs the impressive national charity I CAN.

The Department for Education has recently announced that I CAN is leading a strong consortium of third sector organisations to deliver an Early language development programme in Children’s Centres. Partner organisations are Action for Children, the Children’s Society, the Pre School Learning Alliance, Elklan CIC, and the Office of Public Management. .
This £1.3 million funded programme will support the foundations of good communication development in young children who are most at risk of language delay. It will give early years practitioners and parents the skills and knowledge they need to support speech, language and communication development in young children. The programme will particularly target 0-2 year olds and their families in England’s most disadvantaged areas.

Third sector organisations have campaigned long and hard for early intervention in speech and language and so it is gratifying that the Department is backing a consortium of ACEVO members to take early language development work forward.