Each month I will share useful resources from organisations. Please email [email protected] if you would to publicise anything in future Community Notices.
Breakfast Club Grants
Kellogg’s Breakfast Club grants programme for schools has reopened this week! They are offering £1000 to school breakfast clubs in Mid Dorset and North Poole to help them make sure they can provide breakfast for the children who need it most. A limited number of grants are available, so priority will be given to those schools that have 35% and above of children in receipt of Pupil Premium funding. The grant can be used by schools to invest in any aspect of their breakfast clubs, from equipment and food, to volunteer pay and learning materials. Schools can apply for a grant, here: https://tinyurl.com/3ndetm52.
Age UK help for Cost of Living Advice
I wanted to share some useful resources Age UK have produced to help people save money on their bills, while still keeping warm. I understand that energy costs are a great source of concern to my constituents across Mid Dorset and North Poole at the moment, including my older constituents, so I know it is important to be aware of what help is available to you. You can access the new Age UK cost of living hub, here.
British Gas Customer Support
As part of their commitment to contribute 10% of energy supply profits to support those in need, British Gas have launched a new £10 million prepayment customer support fund to help vulnerable customers, as well as implementing new policies to ensure help gets to those who need it most. British Gas are proactively identifying those who are eligible for support, meaning you do not need to contact British Gas to apply. Support available includes non-repayable prepayment meter credit of up to £250, extra vulnerability checks to provide targeted support where self-disconnections are identified, a commitment to not remotely switch customers to prepayment meters through the winter, unless the customer requests it, and ensuring those who are struggling with energy costs are provided with smart prepayment meters. Read more, here: https://tinyurl.com/3ztp37w7.
Flooding Advice
In extreme weather conditions, you won't be able to stop flood water, and you should always put personal safety above attempts to protect property and possessions. Despite this, there are steps that you can take to keep water out, to buy yourself time to preserve property and possessions, and to limit the damage that flood water does. Therefore, GoCompare have compiled a useful guide for preparing for a flood and how to best protect your property, which can be found, here.
Cost of Living Grants
I wanted to highlight a campaign created by the brilliant Royal British Legion, in response to increases in the cost of living, which is also affecting members of the Armed Forces community. They have launched ‘Everyday Needs Grants’, providing up to £2,400 over 12 months for those eligible. You can read more and apply here.
Summer School Applications Open
Applications for the Sutton Trust’s UK Summer Schools and Apprenticeship Summer School are now open! Sutton Trust UK Summer Schools, for Year 12 students, consist of a week-long residential with one of thirteen leading UK universities. This is a fantastic opportunity to attend academic taster sessions and meet like-minded individuals from across the UK to experience what university life is really like. Further, the Apprenticeship Summer School is a three-day residential designed to equip students with the skills to navigate the apprenticeship landscape. All costs associated are covered by the Sutton Trust and their partners, so they are free for students to attend. Participants who complete the programme leave with increased confidence, skills and the experience needed to navigate the university and apprenticeship application process. Interestingly, Summer School participants are four times more likely to receive an offer from a top university than their peers. You can visit the Sutton Trust website at https://www.suttontrust.com/our-programmes/, for more information on these exciting opportunities. Make sure you don’t miss out!
National Lottery Grant Funding News
The National Lottery Community Fund have been in touch to highlight the funding of a project at Upton and Lytchett Minster Allotment Association. The funding will be used to install an equipment cabin on the allotment site. The project aims to improve security and provide a facility to house coffee mornings to encourage a better sense of community. This is fantastic news locally and I am sure the project will make a real difference in helping to further improve community cohesion.
Swapping out Stamps
Royal Mail would like to remind its customers to ‘swap out’ their non-barcoded definitive stamps. Following the introduction of a six-month grace period, customers now have until 31st July 2023 to use up their old, non-barcoded definitive stamps. Following this period, the use of such stamps will be liable to a surcharge. After the six-month grace period, customers will still be able to swap their old style stamps for barcoded stamps using Royal Mail’s simple and free ‘Stamp Swap Out’ Scheme, which opened on the 31st March 2022. It currently has no end date. Do check your purses, wallets and drawers to use or swap non-barcoded definitive stamps before the July deadline!
Help for Small Businesses
The Office of the Small Business Commissioner has been in touch to signpost their helpful services for small businesses having payment problems with their larger customers. They are an independent public body, at arm’s length of the Government, established under the Enterprise Act 2016 to tackle late payments and unfavourable payment practices across the UK private sector. They consider complaints from small businesses (with fewer than 50 staff) about payment problems they have with their larger customers (with 50 or more employees) and can make (non-binding) recommendations on how the parties should resolve their disputes. They’ve helped secure more than £8 million in overdue payments since December 2017. Their website also offers a range of self-help tools, to assist small businesses negotiate fair payment terms for instance. Their interest calculator, where users can calculate late payment interest and compensation on overdue invoices, is the only free government calculator which provides an annual breakdown of interest owed. You can find their website here, https://tinyurl.com/38kczzbs and their interest calculator, here, https://tinyurl.com/4hunurfv.
National Waste Crime Survey 2023
The Environment Agency’s National biennial Waste Crime Survey launched this week. First run in 2019, the survey aims to collect insight from those affected by waste crime to build a robust baseline of data that will increase understanding of the impacts of waste crime; quantify the scale of each waste crime type across England and assess which interventions used by the Environment Agency and its partners are the most effective. The Environment Agency would like to hear from you and invites responses from the legitimate waste industry, landowners and farmers, environmental consultants, insurance companies, local authorities, community groups and members of parliament.
The survey is open for responses until 27 February 2023: https://SystraLtd.welcomesyourfeedback.net/WasteCrime_EAComms
