Training

Community Foundation provides expert training courses to suit your budget. We offer a range of training courses from basic to advance levels. Starting a Social Enterprise By starting your own social enterprise you can be your own boss, address a need in your community, gain skills and experience or address a social concern. This workshop will give you an introduction on where to begin, how to do it, and what to do next. Legal Structures This workshop will help you navigate the wide range of legal structures and governance arrangements that enable you to make the right decisions as you take your enterprise forward. Business Planning This workshop is designed to provide practical support on how to develop a business plan and prepare for the future. Introduction to Impact Measurement This course will provide participants with a clear understanding of what impact measurement is, what is involved and what tools can be used to implement this. To break down some of the jargon surrounding impact measurement and to help organisations get started by considering what they already do and to reflect on what else they need to do Planning Outcomes Identifying the outcomes of what you do is an important step on the way to demonstrating the impact your work is having. An outcomes approach helps to focus your work and can provide evidence of the value of your service. This course will: Clarify the meaning of ‘outcomes’ Introduce and embed the outcomes triangle as a tool for identifying outcomes Help participants understand the links between aims, objectives, outputs and outcomes and the use of the outcomes approach for planning Provide you with methods to measure outcomes – indicators and data collection Use practical examples and exercises to embed understanding Employment Law is one of the fastest changing areas of law and it is important that the Third Sector keeps abreast of these changes. Mistakes and gaps in knowledge can lead to an employment tribunal claim. Last year, the average Unfair Dismissal claim cost almost £9,000 in compensation, and £22,000 in costs, which are generally not recoverable. Apart from the financial cost, the cost in terms of management time and stress can also be substantial. Bluntly, an unsuccessful tribunal case can result in severe damage to an organisation, and even in it having to close its doors. Community Foundation's latest series of practical employment law training is designed to cover both the new areas of employment law, and the subjects which most often lead to disputes and legal claims. Termination of Employment Includes knowing how to dismiss lawfully, and the correct procedure for carrying out redundancies. Volunteers and the Law Includes how to manage your volunteers lawfully and whether volunteers have any employment rights, including discrimination rights. Contracts, Policies and Procedures Are your Employment Contracts and Policies legally compliant and up to date? Are they as effective as they can be in protecting your organisation? Sickness Absence, Sick pay and Disability Discrimination Law This session will demonstrate how to manage staff on sick leave effectively, including making dismissals where appropriate. It will also cover your duties under disability discrimination law. Equality Act 2010 and Review of Discrimination Law Includes additional duties this places on employers, and the extended circumstances in which employees may bring a discrimination claim. Maternity and paternity rights This is a fast moving area of employment law. Are you up to date? This session will cover key maternity, paternity and adoption rights such as leave, pay and holidays; and also additional rights such as parental leave, time off to care for dependents, and any rights to change working hours on return from maternity leave. Flexible working Do you know what your obligations are to offer flexible working? Do you have particular duties to your part-time workers or staff returning from maternity leave for example? Managing an employment tribunal claim How to manage a tribunal claim effectively, from assessing the risks and potential cost to completing the paperwork and deciding whether and how to negotiate and settle a claim out of tribunal. Downsizing and cutting employment costs How to downsize and cut employment costs safely within the law and without ending up in an Employment Tribunal. Using Social Media First steps in social media An intensive, two hour session aimed at busy trustees, chief executives and senior management staff, considering investing time and money in social media for their organisation or business. Practical skills in social media A practical session aimed at organisations wanting to know how to set up Face book, YouTube, Twitter and writing to engage others. Social media: one day intensive - Strategy and Practice A full day strategic and practical training session covering the A to Z of social media, starting with a strategic overview and making the correct choices of social media for your organisation. Practical tips and hints, including what to write to engage your audience. Volunteer Management Essentials With the emergence of current legislation such as the Localism Bill volunteering is becoming the heart of the voluntary sector, and effective management of this is increasingly ever more important at a time when resources are over - stretched and over worked. It is a time for organisations to work more inventively and more effectively with less and volunteering is the way forward. This training is for those who are new to volunteer management and would benefit from receiving a formalised introduction to the field. It will take you through the requirements of recruiting volunteers, and present effective management tools to maximise the experience of volunteering for both the volunteer and your organisation. Minimum standards of Volunteer Management Covering the basic principles of good practice in volunteer management, this workshop sets out the minimum standards that organisations and groups should have in place when involving volunteers. Managing Disabled Volunteers Essential for organisations wishing to increase the diversity of their pool of volunteers, this session provides participants with good practice guidelines on how to engage and manage disabled volunteers. Monitoring and Evaluating your Volunteer Scheme This session will cover how to measure and evaluate volunteer satisfaction, in particular looking at ways to monitor soft outcomes such as confidence. It will also explore ways of how you can work with volunteers to improve your volunteer scheme. Volunteers and the Law Essential for all volunteer managers, this workshop will address the main areas of concern - expenses, benefits, CRB's, Health and Safety, Data Protection and how to avoid creating employment contracts with your volunteers. CHAIRING, MINUTE-TAKING & “EFFECTIVE” MEETINGS SKILLS Good meetings don’t magically happen. They require careful planning and organisation. Good meetings are also the result of members understanding their roles and practising good time management. Course content includes: Why meetings fail The importance of a good chairperson Personal skills required of a chairperson Role of the chairperson prior to, at the start of, during and after a meeting Why minutes are so important How to write “effective” minutes Having a realistic agenda & choosing the right format for agenda items The best place for A.O.B. Creating the correct culture for meetings Being assertive in meetings Managing conflict& difficult personalities in meetings Other tips for creating “effective” meetings Leadership Development Programme This unique programme aims to develop leadership capacity. The key learning outcomes sought are as follows: • To develop and enhance participants’ core leadership capacity. • To provide an environment for participants to explore their assumptions, ideas and deepen their values and ethical framework. • To develop leadership skills to enable communities to participate in wider society. • To deepen participants’ self-awareness, self development, reflective practice and emotional intelligence. • To increase participants’ political intelligence – their abilities to understand others, their operational environments and to work effectively with complex systems. • To develop participants’ understanding of the diversity and dynamics of the community. • To increase participants’ interpersonal, political and strategic skills.