The following is a list of abbreviations, words, and phrases which are often used in connection with the role and work of the Wokingham Borough Strategic Partnership.  The list is not exhaustive and is intended as a helpful guide to those less familiar with the "jargon" often associated with the Partnership.

 

Adult Learning Initiative

 

Action with Communities in Rural England

 

Active Communities Unit (Home Office

 

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

 

Berkshire Association of Clubs for Young People

 

Berkshire Association of Local Councils

 

Berks, Bucks and Oxon

 

Berkshire Community Foundation

 

Berkshire Food Group

 

Bracknell Forest Voluntary Action

 

Business in the Community

 

Black Minority Ethnic

 

British Trust for Conservation Volunteers

 

Berkshire Womens Aid

 

Countryside Agency

 

Citizens Advice Bureau

 

Charities Aid Foundation

 

Community Action West Berkshire

 

To seek advice or information before decisions are made and having been presented with it, to take account of the new information.  Consultation should take place for the early stages of a process onwards, not at the end of the exercise.  Consultation accepts the possibility of changes to proposals already presented.  Simple information exchange is not consultation.

 

Children and Young People

 

Commission for Rural Communities

 

Community Council for Berkshire

 

Community Development Foundation

 

Community Learning and Information Vehicle

 

Community Development is primarily concerned with powerlessness and disadvantage. It is about the active involvement of people in issues which affect their lives.  It can take place in geographic communities such as local neighbourhoods, or within communities of shared common experience or identity, known as communities of interest. As a process, aiming to facilitate change, it is about developing the skills, knowledge and experience of people, both as individuals and in groups. It thereby empowers them to collectively undertake their own initiatives which address social, economic, political or environmental issues. In summary, it encourages and enables broader participation in the democratic process.

 

Community Development Worker

 

Campaign to Protect Rural England

 

Commission for Racial Equality

 

Corporate Social Responsibility

 

Council for Voluntary Service

 

DEPARTMENT FOR COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT (DCLG).  This central government Department is working towards a vision of “confident, vibrant, sustainable communities where everyone has a say in shaping their environment”.  They aim to deliver this by: “working to offer more choice and better quality in public services ; addressing the issues of climate change; building cohesion; tackling anti-social behaviour and extremism”.  There are 7 major policy areas of work:  cities and regions; Communities and Neighbourhoods;  Fire and Resilience; Housing; Planning, Building and the Environment; Local Government; Thames Gateway and the Olympics; and Equalities – Machinery of government changes.

 

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

 

Diversity simply means variety.  In this context, diversity is about acknowledging and representing the varieties and difference in the local community and within voluntary and community groups.

 

European Social Fund

 

English for Speakers of Other Languages

 

This is about using the systematic collection of information about activities, characteristics and outcomes of a piece of work, an organisation or service to make judgements about it, to improve effectiveness and/or inform decisions about future work.  Its main purpose is to help an organisation reflect on what it is trying to do, assessing how far it is succeeding and identifying any required change.

It answers question like:

 

 

Government Office for the South East

 

Housing Association

 

Information Advice and Guidance

 

The voluntary and community sector is not owned by, nor can be considered as the arm of the statutory authorities.  The governance and direction of the organisations that make up the voluntary and community sector are controlled by unpaid committee members.  They may choose to provide specific services for their client groups and may indeed receive public money to do so.  This does not, and should not, diminish their right to challenge and campaign in pursuit of their objects.  The independence of the sector has allowed for growth of much innovative, cost-effective service delivery.

 

Joint Area Review

 

Local Action Plan

 

Local Development Agency

 

Local Ecumenical Partnership Anglican and URC churches

 

This a three-year agreement with priorities agreed between all the main public sector agencies working in the area and with central government.  It is important that everyone works together to have the right evidence to know what these priorities are.  Partners are brought together under the umbrella of the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP), which agrees a sustainable community strategy for its area.  LAAs are about improving local services and increasing economic prosperity for local people.  The LAA is based on the objectives in the Sustainable Community Strategy and the LAA translates these into targets to secure the improvements local people want to see.

 

The role of local government has changed significantly over the last 20 years, and continues to change.  The modern local authority:

 

Learning and Skills Council

 

The LSP is a multi-agency partnership representing all sectors of the community which oversees the  “Community Strategy” or vision for the local area.  The LSP is committed to identifying opportunities for local collaboration, including funding, to maximise available resources for the benefit of the local community.  The LSP for Wokingham Borough is called "Wokingham Borough Strategic Partnership" (WBSP).

 

Member of European Parliament

 

Monitoring is about accounting for work and evaluation is about judging its value.  Monitoring is the routine collection and recording of information about a piece of work or an organisation, to keep track of day-to-day activities and operations.  Its purpose is to provide regular feedback on how things are going and help the organisation make decisions.  Monitoring answers questions like:

 

 

National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux

 

National Association of Councils for Voluntary Service

 

Neighbourhood Action Groups, or NAGs, are set up to deal with key issues identified by a community’s first public consultation. This may happen in the form of a public meeting, through surveys done face-to-face or by mail, or a combination of methods.  NAGs are volunteer working groups made up of representatives from the community.  They will include residents, the police, local authority and other organisations, such as local businesses and schools. They are key to the success of neighbourhood policing as it is this group who will plan on behalf of the community and organise for tasks to be completed. In effect, they are the ‘doers’ accountable locally for responding to problems a community wants to tackle.

 

National Association of Local Councils

 

National Council for Voluntary Organisations

 

National Institute of Adult Continuing Education

 

New Opportunities Fund

 

Parents and Children Together

 

Partnership working between agencies presupposes a common and explicit set of objectives and a clear understanding of the role of each organisation in pursuing them.  In order for it to work well there must be continual sharing of information and decision-making.  There must also be mutual respect for each partner’s contribution.  This is particularly important where the size and available resources of partner organisations are very different in scale.

 

Participation is a process whereby individuals or organisations can take part in a decision-making process that is led by (and is the function of) another agency and those responding to the consultation.  It suggests a more pro-active and ongoing role for those who contribute than consultation and involves sharing information in a regular dialogue between the participants.  It is recognised that those who participate can influence the outcomes.

 

PCT (PRIMARY CARE TRUST)

Primary Care Trusts are NHS bodies with responsibility for assessing the health needs of their local population; improving the health of the population; and working with partners to commission and provide services designed to meet local needs. 

 

Parish Plans

 

Princess Royal Carers Trust

 

Regional Action and Involvement South East

 

Rural Action Group

 

Rural Community Council

 

Reading Council for Racial Equality

 

Rural Development Agency

 

Race Equality Council

 

Regional Economic Strategy

 

Rural Housing Enabler

 

Rural Stress Information Network

 

Rural Transport Partnership

 

Reading Voluntary Action

 

Southern Association of Voluntary Action Groups for Europe

 

Slough Council for Voluntary Service

 

Social Enterprise Berkshire

 

South East England Development Agency

 

South East England Regional Assembly

 

South East Rural Affairs Forum

 

South East Rural Community Councils

 

South East Rural Towns Partnership

 

Service Level Agreement

 

Small and medium sized Enterprise

 

 

Single Regeneration Budget

 

The SCS is a long term strategy for the local area based on consultation with local people about the sort of place they want the area to be. 

 

The “Third Sector” is a term which includes the voluntary and community sector, but also includes other non-statutory organisations and charities, such as churches and faith groups, cooperatives and mutuals, social enterprises, communities of interest companies and development groups, trusts, friendly societies, and other not-for-profit organisations etc.

 

Thames Valley Economic Partnership

 

VOLUNTARY AND COMMUNITY SECTOR

The “Voluntary Sector” is a term that has traditionally been used to encompass the vast range of not for profit organisations whose governing committees are made up of people who are not paid to be there.  With the huge growth of the sector and the onset of contract funding many people have more recently felt the need to distinguish the community sector as a separate entity with different needs.  Whilst precise definitions are very difficult, we may take it that the Community Sector refers to small groups with regular core funding which are often neighbourhood-based. If they have any staff, they are likely to be part time.  Tenants and residents associations and mother and toddler groups are typical examples.  Clearly, District-wide voluntary groups with several staff and annual income in tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds do not fit into this classification.  What is important is to recognise their different role and different needs.  The convention now is to use the term “Voluntary and Community Sector” if you wish to make it clear that you are referring to all voluntary organisations whether they are national, district wide or small neighbourhood or interest groups.  The term can also include churches and faith groups where they choose to define themselves in that way.

 

Voluntary Action Wokingham Borough - the umbrella body for the voluntary and community sector in Wokingham Borough

 

Voluntary and Community Organisations

 

 

Village Hall

 

Village Halls Adviser

 

An activity entered into of a person’s free choice, which involves spending time unpaid, doing something which aims to benefit someone (individual or group) other than close relatives, or to benefit the environment.

 

Village of the Year

 

Village Retail Services Association

 

Wokingham Borough Voluntary Sector Forum

 

Wokingham Borough Council

 

The Local Strategic Partnership for Wokingham Borough

 

Wokingham Economic and Learning Partnership

 

Windsor and Maidenhead Voluntary Action