The Adventure Capital Fund is set to take over the management of the second phase of the Futurebuilders fund, which was set up to help organisations in the voluntary and charity sector to deliver public services. The announcement from the Cabinet Office means ACF will be responsible for investing an additional 65 million pounds of government funds and for managing existing investments of 150 million.

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A toolkit has been launched to help local authorities improve their marketing and communications and tackle the problem of people valuing their local council less as a whole than the individual services it delivers. The Improvement and Development Agency for local government has developed the ‘connecting with communities toolkit’ in partnership with Grant Riches Communication Consultants.

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Local charters or contracts have the potential to give local people a much greater say in the running of local services. Pilots have shown that local people are often best placed to spot problems and come up with ideas to solve them, whether the issue is anti-social behaviour, litter, better services for young people or improvements to the local park.

Read more on HOW TO DEVELOP A LOCAL CHARTER…