Charity and Voluntary Sector

BIG: A play project to help children through the daunting experience of visiting a parent in jail is among those to benefit from awards announced by the Big Lottery Fund. The Fund’s Playful Ideas programme, that funds innovative approaches to play, has awarded £243,437 to Prison Advice and Care Trust (PACT) for a play project working with three prisons in the South West.

 Meanwhile in Lancashire, the RADPAC Play and Freetime Opportunities for All project, based in the special needs units of two new schools, will continue to remove barriers that exclude children from play and social interaction through developing awareness of issues surrounding children with disabilities and additional needs.
Press release ~ BLF’s Playful Ideas programme ~ BLF - Children's Play ~ Prison Advice and Care Trust (PACT)
 
Cabinet Office: The Cabinet Office has published draft guidance for consultation (closes on 31 May 2008) to help professional fundraisers and retailers who raise money for charity through sales to comply with new laws. From 1 April 2008, fundraisers who are paid to raise money will be required to say up front to potential donors how much of each donation will go to charity and what proportion goes towards their own wages.  
 
This will affect street, telephone and door-to-door collectors.  Similarly, shops who donate a portion of the sale price on particular items to charity will be required to state explicitly the extent to which a charity will benefit. To help professional fundraisers and commercial participators provide the information required by the law the guidance offers suggested template statements.
Press release ~ Draft Guidance ~ Office of the Third Sector ~ Charities Act 2006 ~ Fund Raising Standards Board (FSRB) ~ Public Fundraising Regulatory Association
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