New Challenges, New Chances and £4 million!

England: The Skills Funding Agency has launched the Community Learning Innovation Fund (CLIF). Managed by NIACE, the fund will provide grants between £10,000 and £65,000, up to a combined total of £4 million, to groups and organisations from across England for new and imaginative community learning opportunities to encourage adults to take up, succeed and progress in learning.

The Community Learning Innovation Fund will support projects - which will run from September 2012 to July 2013 - to develop and offer creative learning opportunities that support the objectives set out in the recent policy reform document from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), New Challenges, New Chances.

Funding will be awarded to projects which best illustrate the development of creative community learning provision that will:

widen participation in learning and transform people's destinies
promote social renewal and develop stronger communities
maximise the impact of community learning on individuals, families and communities
effectively sustain the impact of the learning
align the project with the work of emerging Community Learning Trusts, a distinct but complementary initiative recently announced by BIS.

Full details on how to apply for grants - including a prospectus, a list of frequently asked questions and an online application form - are available here

Important deadlines

The deadline for completed application forms is 12 noon, Thursday June 28 for applications for £50,000 or more

and 12 noon, Thursday July 5 for applications for less than £50,000.

NIACE will respond to any individual email requests sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

http://skillsfundingagency.bis.gov.uk/

http://www.niace.org.uk/

West Norfolk School for Parents - UK

West Norfolk School for Parents Little Discoverers is a network for children with cerebral palsy, motor learning difficulties, delayed development and their carers. Our website aims to give further information on who we are and what we can do to help.

Families needed for research into individual budgets. Can you help?

Ambitious about Autism is conducting research in England about families' views on individual budgets, in light of the Government's special educational needs reforms proposal to introduce personal budgets.

The research is being undertaken by Emma Greene at Ambitious about Autism. She is being supervised by the Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE) at the Institute of Education.

If you would like to help with the research we are looking for parents or carers of young people between the age of four and 16 who have been diagnosed with autism and have (a) received an individual budget, (b) been offered but refused an individual budget or (c) are simply aware of the individual budget scheme.

Emma Greene says:

I would like to gain an understanding of how local authorities are currently delivering individual budgets to families of children with autism and, most importantly, what the families' experiences are thus far and what their hopes and fears are for the future.

If you would like more information, have any questions or wish to take part in a short interview, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

BUSHkids in Queensland

BUSHkids_Logo BUSHkids operates from six centres situated in Bundaberg, Dalby, Emerald, Inglewood, Mount Isa and Warwick. The BUSHkids centres aim to promote and enhance the health and well-being of children and families in regional Queensland and do so by providing FREE holistic, individualised, family centred interventions.

Our clients are rural children aged up to 13 years who are experiencing some health, behavioural, emotional, social and/or developmental difficulties. We provide short term intensive therapy through individual therapy sessions and group/program work. Prevention or early intervention is an essential feature of any programs we would offer. In addition to individual, short-term therapy BUSHkids offers an array of parent education programs aimed at empowering parents to assist in their child's development and success.

BUSHkids is a non-profit organisation, we have been providing care and assistance to children and families in rural and regional areas of Queensland for over 75 years. Our multi-disciplinary teams comprise of Family Health Support Workers, Occupational Therapists, Psychologists and Speech-Language Pathologists, delivering a wide range of programs and services.

For further details visit our website at www.bushkids.org.au

Chelsea O'Brien, Occupational Therapist/Clinical Services Manager