Local voluntary sector organisations that are interested in Narrowing the Gap – the council’s commissioning framework for Voluntary and Community Sector services – are invited to a series of update events and workshops.

Many organisations attended one of the briefing sessions at the end of September which was a great opportunity to share the council’s thinking, hear their thoughts and update them on current plans.

The council would now like to invite interested organisations to an update session on Zoom on Thursday 25 November 2021 from 2pm to 3pm.

This will be an opportunity to hear the latest news as we move towards the launch of the bidding process in mid-December 2021. As we confirmed in September, the intention of the new commissioning framework will be to adopt an outcomes-based approach and invite proposals which will support the council in delivering these outcomes. We hope this will allow you to develop your ideas for addressing areas of disadvantage within Reading.

Three outcomes have been identified. These are:

• To support people to get out and stay out of poverty
• To build resilience, independence and wellbeing, connect people to support and focus on individual and community strengths
• To invest in VCS infrastructure support.

You can download the the Needs Assessment Report which has informed our thinking.

We would also like to invite you to two workshops at the end of November. These will be an opportunity to meet with staff from across the council to discuss the overall outcomes and priorities in greater depth. These meetings will also be held on Zoom on:

• Monday, 29 November 2021 from 6pm to 7pm
• Tuesday 30 November 2021 from 2pm to 3pm.

We really hope you can join us.

To register your interest, if you have any questions or concerns or to receive further information, please contact lisa.barrett@reading.gov.uk.