A summary of all the speakers from this week's COP meeting, with external links and contact details included
Yesterday we all headed over to Kings Church in Birkenhead, who were able to afford us a plentiful amount of space and seating to house a 50+ strong cohort for this month's meeting.
Kings Church
Gareth Duffield welcomed us to Kings Church which is a Christian church in Birkenhead. Gareth is the Trussel Trust area manager who is also a member of Kings Church. All of Kings Churches activities are listed on their website, but to highlight a few, they run a community Café on Tuesdays from 10am - 1:30pm during term time and a Mums and tots session that runs Tuesday and Wednesday mornings 10am - 11:30am during term time. Â
Gareth also introduced Sarah Watts who is the operations manager at the building and spoke of the ability to hire out their building and to get in touch about coming to use the facilitiesÂ
Colin Orr, the Pastor of Kings Church, also briefly shared about his great appreciation of the work that is being done across Wirral and was thrilled to see so many like-minded community members in the building.
Wirral CVS
Gareth Prytherch, CEO of Wirral CVS, delivered an initial brief on the outcome of the Government’s budget release on the 30th of October. This information is prefaced with knowledge that not all the points raised have been explored in depth and so some information may change over time. Here are the main points that where raised:
As campaigned for by local organisations, the Household Support Fund has been extended to march 2026.
As campaigned for by the VS6, The Levelling Up fund has been extended to March 2026, but at a reduced rate of £900m (from £1.5bn this year). More detail will be required to understand what this really means.
There will be an increase in local authority funding with specific funding for social care.
Sector organisations that employ staff should be aware that:
There will be an increase in National Living Wage from April to £12.21 for over 21s. Employers national insurance contributions will increase, and there will be a decrease in the threshold of NI employment allowance from £10,500 to £5000. In real terms, for a staff member on £21k a year this will be a £700 increase per year per employee.
There is an increase in the Employment Allowance which will be extended to all employers and it will be increased from £4,500 to £10,000.
HMRC will receive additional funding to stop the abuse of the tax system by the charity sector. Awareness should be taken by organisations close to the VAT threshold.
NCVO and ACEVO are doing work to outline the experience of the sector and any opportunity by local organisations to contribute to this should be taken. As well as contributing to local sector surveys, as it allows Wirral CVS to better represent the sectors positions moving forward.
More information surrounding the effects of the budget will be posted on our website with regular updates as new information is presented.
Zel Rogers highlighted some of the activities coming up. There are various Meet the Funder events including Heritage Lottery and MRWA.
WCVS are running a Trustee Toolkit to support Trustees of organisations with their roles and responsibilities. This course is 7 sessions and focuses on understanding Trustee responsibilities and how to approach them while also providing a number of tools to support in these areas.
There are still a number of Representation opportunities on the website. These roles allow the sector to be represented at a variety of levels across the public sector and gives us the opportunity to contribute our views and experience at these levels. If you are interested or would like to know more about these positions get in touch.Â
Â
The Step-up fund has been allocated and successful applicants are listed on the website. Anyone who hasn’t received feedback from their applications but would like some is more than welcome to get in touch.Â
Zel also politely reminded people that if they book on to a session but can no longer attend, please let us know. Positions for some events are limited and people miss out on opportunities if people book on and don’t turn up. It is also difficult to plan to accommodate people if people regularly don’t attend things they have booked on to.
Healthier Neighbourhoods PCN
Louise from the Paxton Medical Group came to talk about the Healthier Neighbourhoods PCN (Primary Care Network), a new group that is set up to represent patients from the communities of Birkenhead, Beechwood, Noctorum, Prenton and Woodchurch. They have been set up to tackle the specific needs of their patients in their areas and have the following objectives:
Obesity
Physical and Mental Fitness
Access and take up of screening opportunities
They have a new community health team with a social prescriber and a care coordinator. They're hoping to create better relationships with the local VCF sector and are keen to speak to anyone working in the areas they cover, especially around the objectives stated.
Salvation Army – Employment Plus
Peter from the Salvation Army Employment Plus program came to talk about the employment support offer that they currently have in the Birkenhead Salvation Army church. Their employment program has no set time limit on it and works with the customers to set their own goals around what kind of employment or training they would like to achieve. It looks to support those who are out of work into employment, training and volunteer programs to suit their personal needs. They also stay with people through the initial employment to support with the transition back into working life.
Salvation Army have another program supporting people who are economically inactive (those that cannot work or are no required to work) to support them with any needs they may have. They are reaching out to make relationships and develop partnerships in this area.
Local Offer – Tuesdays and Thursdays
Vincent Street
Birkenhead
CH41 2RH
United Kingdom
Public Health Healthy Start Scheme
Stephanie Pink came to discuss the Healthy Start scheme and to hand out information and flyers to encourage the uptake of the scheme. It is to support families who have children from 10 weeks pregnant to 4 years old.
She highlighted that 60,000 children on Wirral are considered to be in poverty and, because of that, there are less opportunities to eat healthy. The Healthy Start scheme provides a prepaid debit card for the parent which provides £4.50 per week per child in additional funds to support with healthy food purchasing.
She highlighted that the take up on the Wirral varied greatly with areas on the west side of Wirral seeing only 35% of people who qualify taking up the scheme, while 60% of people on the east side were taking up the scheme. That means a large number of children were not benefiting from the opportunity to eat healthily.
Read more on our blog post below:
This program is open to people who do not have access to public recourse or funding. She also highlighted her Healthy Teeth scheme where they are trying to support families by providing free toothbrushes to local children every 3 months. They provide Toothbrushes that are also suitable for SEND children.
0300 330 7010
Branch Wirral
Nikki Barker from Koala Northwest came to update about the Branch project and online mental health and wellbeing hubs for young people. The website provides and opportunity to see what mental health and wellbeing support is available on the Wirral. It includes a questionnaire that will automatically suggest what the best support option and can be used by young people, families and professionals to refer young people into services applicable to their needs. This will reduce the burden on CAHMS.
Branch is launching on Wednesday 13th November 2024.
Merseyside Police – Cyber Crime
Judy Zhu came to outline the support that the Police's Cyber Crime Unit can offer to local sector organisations. The Prepare scheme can help charities, businesses and services with free support to prevent hacking and cyber crime.
She also outlined a scheme in which they offer one-to-one interviews with young people with deep technological knowledge to support them into pathways to use this knowledge for public benefit and to advise on career pathways.
They offer training on digital domestic abuse, scammer awareness and computer misuse. They have 10 digital detectives who investigate cyber crime including hackers, dark web and social media takeover issues.
She highlighted some tools to support with seeing if your email has been involved in data breaches and to see how strong your passwords are. These are listed below;
Pennysmart CIC
Jane from Pennysmart CIC, who are based in Chester, came to discuss their financial wellbeing service. This service is a telephone or digital service that requires no public or grant funding but works alongside local organisations to support people who are struggling financially.
They provide money advice around budgeting, benefit entitlement and regulated debt. They work with trusted intermediaries on a referral basis only.
New Brighteners
Dave Peddie came to talk a load of rubbish... No really, Dave was highlighting the 5000 strong volunteer base that currently exists across Wirral that actively supports Wirral with litter picking and environmental support, particularly in places like beaches and parks. He asked for support educating and supporting people to take their litter home and to be more environmentally conscious.
The Reader
Abi Blackburn discussed the work of The Reader, based in south Liverpool who work within the Liverpool City Region, who create shared reading groups to support people to talk about issues. They work with a variety of groups to provide volunteers who use literature and shared reading groups to help people open up around the issues they face. They are keen to work with local groups to create more opportunities for their work.
Involve Northwest - Clear Minds & Brighter Times
Marta from Involve Northwest discussed two of their mental health projects, Clear Minds and Brighter Times. These are mental health sign-posting services.
Brighter Times is a community based mental health project that works alongside the CWP Crisis Lines by supporting people with their overall wellbeing. They place focus on helping people to identify and address any practical or social barriers that are influencing their mental health negatively by linking them into the most appropriate avenue of support. 
Clear Minds is a community based mental health project that focuses on helping and enabling individuals to empower themselves to make positive changes and take control of how they feel. They work alongside Everyturn Talking Therapies to support people with their practical issues in addition to their therapy.
Marta also discussed some upcoming trauma workshops she will be hosting at the Carrbridge Centre.
Dock Branch Park Panel
Graham Marshall, the chair of the Dock Branch Park Panel, came to discuss some of the work they are doing around getting the community surrounding dock branch park more involved in the development work in the area, focusing on what residents and community members need rather than what they want. He is looking to have more conversations with them to develop a social network of interested parties to outline the needs of the community to produce a clear picture for any future developers or business who wish to work in the area.
He is hoping to return and discuss his work as it goes on.
Hitched Communities
Hitched Communities are a local project who develop co-design projects pilots to track their effectiveness. Gary Wootten came to tell us more about their various projects.
The Mountain Pass is a walking programme made up of weekly local walks that include mindfulness techniques to enable participants to be more resilient and improve their health and wellbeing. Over 100 people have benefitted from the programme since 2023. In Wirral it is hosted by Nightingale Café CIC, Birkenhead. We are accepting referrals and seeking to establish more walking groups in the region.
Made On My Patch is a garden allotment programme inviting people with similar lived-experience to learn how to plan, produce and enjoy food grown in their own homes or shared space. Partnering with garden centres and food banks. There are monthly workshops/socials covering key stages of the season, from designing and preparing a patch, to nurturing growth and finally eating and sharing produce. A whatsapp group is also created for participants to offer updates and encourage each other.
Street Angels is a new project supported by the Step Up fund. It is a volunteer-led initiative supported by local churches, working to ensure safety in Birkenhead town centre during the evening and night-time. Teams of volunteers help prevent crime, reduce risks, and assist those in need, collaborating with the police, NHS, and other services to create a safer community.
If you want any more information or would like to contact any of the attendees, you can e-mail zel.rodgers@wcvs.org.uk or alex.fisher@wcvs.org.uk
If you want to speak at the next COP meeting, please let Mark know via mark@wcvs.org.uk
To attend the next COP Meeting on 12th December at 10am, please RSVP on the event below:
Comments