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Cardiff Met Summer School - from 8 to 19 July 2013

The 2013 Summer School is a great opportunity to try something new, for fun or to improve your career potential.
There are two weeks of free taster courses and activities, including a Widening Access information day on Friday 19th July on the Llandaff, Cyncoed and Howard Gardens.

You can download a brochure to get full details on the Cardiff Metropolitan University website.

Towards children's well-being in Europe: Explainer on child poverty in the EU

Children in Wales, as part of a Task Force through a Eurochild and European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) partnership, has contributed to the development of an Explainer on Child Poverty in the EU.

Launched at an event in Dublin on 10-11 April 2013, the Explainer aims to raise public awareness of child poverty in Europe and on the devastating effects it has on lives of children and families, as well as on society as a whole.

The Explainer challenges the myths around child poverty, provides arguments and concrete solutions at EU, national, local and individual levels to help stakeholders mobilize around the implementation of the European Commission Recommendation on Child Poverty.  It highlights effective solutions that can help to fight child poverty and promote the well-being of all children and families, particularly in times of austerity and public spending cuts. 

Children in Wales believes the Explainer will act as a valuable resource for stakeholders here in Wales and help communicate that, despite the challenging economic environment, more can and should be done to tackle child poverty and enhance children's well-being.

You can view the Explainer here.

Inquiry into participation levels in sport in Wales

The National Assembly for Wales’ Communities, Equality and Local Government Committee is to undertake an inquiry into participation levels in sport in Wales. To assist with its inquiry, the Committee would welcome your views on this subject.

Terms of Reference
The Committee intends to focus specifically on sport, but within the wider context of the Welsh Government’s commitment to increase levels of physical activity more generally.
The following areas will be examined in more detail:

• The extent to which the Welsh Government and Sport Wales are achieving the goals set out in the Programme for Government, the Creating an Active Wales action plan and the Vision for Sport in Wales with regard to participation levels in sport;
• The availability of datasets and statistics to measure participation levels in sport, particularly those disaggregated by equality strand and socio-economic groups;
• The opportunities and barriers to sports participation that exist for different groups of people, including by equality strand and socio-economic groups;
• What are the links between programmes to develop sport in Wales and other Welsh Government initiatives to increase physical activity; and
• The impact of the Olympic and Paralympic legacy, the Ryder Cup and other high profile Welsh sporting events and achievements on participation levels in Wales.

Invitation to contribute to the inquiry
The Committee welcomes responses in English or Welsh from both individuals and organisations and will hold oral evidence sessions in due course.
Submissions should be no longer than five sides of A4, with numbered paragraphs, and should focus on the terms of reference as set out above.
If you wish to submit evidence, please send an electronic copy (preferably not in PDF) of your submission to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Alternatively, you can write to:
Committee Clerk
Communities, Equality and Local Government Committee
National Assembly for Wales
Cardiff Bay, CF99 1NA.
Submissions should arrive by Friday 31 May. It may not be possible to take into account responses received after this date.

Disclosure of information

It is normal practice for the National Assembly to publish evidence provided to a Committee. Consequently your response may appear in a report or in supplementary evidence to a report. The National Assembly will not publish information which it considers to be personal data.
In the event of a request for information submitted under UK legislation, it may be necessary to disclose the information that you provide. This may include information which has previously been removed by the National Assembly for publication purposes.
If you are providing any information, other than personal data, which you feel is not suitable for public disclosure, it is up to you to stipulate which parts should not be published and to provide a reasoned argument to support this. The National Assembly will take this into account when publishing information or responding to requests for information.

The above is taken from a letter from Christine Chapman AM.

Centre for Social Action Innovation Fund launched

The Centre for Social Action Innovation Fund is a £14 million fund run by the innovation charity National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts (NESTA), working in partnership with the Cabinet Office.

The first round runs from April until October 2013, and will support innovative ventures and programmes that use social action to achieve impact in the following areas:

• Ageing well: Helping people to age well, particularly by supporting people over 50 years to have a purpose, a sense of well-being and to be connected to others.
• Long-term health: Enabling people with long-term health conditions to have a better quality of life, particularly through the use of peer to peer networks and groups.
• Young people: Supporting and encouraging young people to succeed and find employment, for example through mentoring, coaching, and peer-to-peer networks.
• Impact volunteering: Using new approaches to 'impact volunteering' to mobilise volunteers to increase and enhance the outcomes achieved by public services.

Charities, social enterprises, public services and for-profit businesses can apply for grants of between £50,000 and £500,000 to support projects that deliver public benefit. In most cases match funding will be required.

Applications can be made at any time via an Expression of Interest form.

The programme will run for the next two years, and will open to applications as NESTA identifies different priorities.

Find out more on the Nesta website.