ChangeUp is a national Home Office initiative to strengthen the voluntary sector. The aim is to improve performance in all areas, so that voluntary organisations will deliver high quality services to the public.

The CRCC acts as the lead partner for the CIP in its dealings with Capacity Builders, the national agency set up to oversee the Government's ten year plan to improve conditions within the voluntary sector. It is also responsible for administering the finances of the Community Empowerment outcome in the Local Area Agreement. Finally, with its partners, it is involved in delivering many of the strands of work contained within the CIP's Business Plan to make sure that we achieve a real change in the quality of our collective services to the rest of the local voluntary sector. This work includes assistance with the Cornwall Diversity Toolkit project, the deliver of community planning, Pro-help and ICT support, and activities around specialist capacity building, for example for social enterprises and hard to reach groups.

The members of the consortium are:

• Cornwall Centre for Volunteers
• Cornwall Community Foundation
• Disability Cornwall
• Council for Racial Equality in Cornwall
• Cornwall Rural Community Council
• East Cornwall Council of Voluntary Service
• Penwith Community Development Trust
• Cornwall Neighbourhoods for Change

Our first plan has been accepted, and work has started on a series of projects under the headings of

• Interlinks – extending the successful arrangements for drawing together smaller voluntary groups in west Cornwall to the rest of Cornwall (£59,000)
• Diversity - strengthening the support arrangements for all six diversity strands with additional support for BME (black and minority ethnic), disability, LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) and travellers’ groups. (£72,000)
• Governance – raising the level of expertise in Cornwall for those who give advice on how to manage and run charities and community groups (£23,000)
• Performance improvement – raising the quality of the services we deliver (£11,000)
• IT support unit – reviewing and where required improving the ICT performance of the members of the consortium (£25,000)
• Workforce development– improving the level of skills and knowledge of staff across the voluntary sector (£15,000)
• Pro-Help – offering professional support to the voluntary sector (£15,000)
• Mentoring scheme – extending the principle of mentoring across voluntary organisations in Cornwall (£30,000)
• Funding access – helping to bring together smaller charitable trusts to allow their funds to be distributed more effectively (£15,000)

The figures in brackets denote the amount of money being invested in each area, to the nearest thousand pounds.

As well as our own consortium in Cornwall there are a large number of regional and national ChangeUp partnerships, or initiatives. More details on these can be found on

For more general information on ChangeUp and other related programmes, visit: www.homeoffice.gov.uk

For more information on the Cornwall ChangeUp programme please contact changeup@cornwallrcc.co.uk