Supporting Faith Groups
Faith groups are a vital, vibrant and essential part of Wolverhampton’s voluntary and community sector and WVSC is keen to build relationships with, provide support to the 260+ faith organisations in the city, raise the profile of the work they do and support them to play an increasingly joined-up role in the support they offer to local people.
This work builds on a close working relationship with InterFaith Wolverhampton and collaboration with strategic partnerships in the city. To achieve the above aims, we have successfully championed the need for a specific resource to link with faith groups in the city, and WVSC now employs a faith engagement worker (currently funded by Wolverhampton Safeguarding Boards Partnership) to:
- identify and map faith groups in the city
- establish contact details for each group
- make contact with all faith groups
- build relationships with as many as possible
- raise awareness of safeguarding responsibilities and the support available to help meet them including: information, direct support and networking opportunities
- connect faith groups to a range of other strategic developments and activity that faith groups might like to support, contribute to and / or benefit from
- promote the city’s Faith Covenant
This work is endorsed by a range of partnership of organisations including: Wolverhampton City Council, West Midlands Police, Interfaith Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton Safeguarding Boards, Public Health, Wolverhampton Health & Wellbeing Together, and Safer Wolverhampton Partnership.
Support available to faith-based organisations
Faith groups can receive FREE of charge support, guidance and opportunities:
- All / any of WVSC’s core support offer to voluntary and community organisations in the city including:
- enhancing governance arrangements;
- seeking and securing funding;
- safeguarding;
- developing policies and procedures;
- finance management;
- marketing and promotion;
- starting up / registering new projects,
- companies, CICs or charities;
- outcomes and business planning;
- commissioning and procurement;
- collaborating with others to apply for, and deliver collaborative services;
- regular fortnightly information updates; and the opportunity to represent the voluntary and community sector on strategic partnerships.
- Training
- For more information, please contact Sharan Nanan-Sen on snanan-sen@wolverhamptonvsc.org.uk.
PLUS !!!!
Safeguarding Policy Checklist
DBS Guidance
NCVO membership gives access to a range of benefits including low cost admin fees for DBS checks, and is available free to organisations with an income of under £30,000 and then on a rising scale dependent on annual income.
NCVO have an arrangement with Disclosure Services which gives a 40% reduction on their admin fees for NCVO members.
The cost of a DBS check is made up of two parts:
- The admin fee – charged by the Umbrella Body that an organisation gets DBS check through.
- A fee set by the DBS for the various levels of DBS check
- VOLUNTEERS – No fee from DBS for Standard, or Enhanced checks
- PAID STAFF – Different charges for standard (£23), Enhanced (£40)
- There is no additional charge for Barred List checks for either volunteers or paid staff
- Basic DBS checks cost £23 for both volunteers and paid staff
This means that the current admin fees with Disclosure Services are only:
- £7.20 for volunteers
- £8.60 for pad staff
For information about membership of NCVO and the full range of benefits see:
https://www.ncvo.org.uk/about-us/join-ncvo
For details of DBS checks through NCVO’s trusted partner Disclosure Services see:
https://www.ncvo.org.uk/practical-support/trusted-suppliers/supplier-list/2301-disclosure-services-dbs-criminal-record-check-services-supplier
Other DBS Umbrella bodies can be found at https://www.gov.uk/find-dbs-umbrella-body
For more information, please contact faithsupport@wolverhamptonvsc.org.uk.
