VCS Development

With the Race Online 2012 campaign comes to an end, the UK digital champion Martha Lane Fox has launches Go On UK, which aims to bring the benefits of the internet to organisations and commit to improving the digital capability of charities through the sharing of expertise and resources.

Employment levels in the VCS experienced a slight recovery during the final quarter of 2011 according to the latest analysis of the Labour Force Survey, with an additional 36,000 employees entered VCS paid workforce between October and December 2011. This represents an increase of around 5% on the previous quarter and increases the sector's workforce to 759,000 individuals, 2.6% of total UK employment, and follows six consecutive quarters during which employment in the sector either fallen or remained static. Over the past 12 months, the sector's workforce fell by 33,000, a 4% decline.

Volunteering England has published the results of its survey of 169 volunteer centres in England, which included that although 89 per cent of respondents received funding from local authorities in 2010/11, this had fallen by 12%, from an average of £32,000 in 2009/10 to £28,308 in 2010/11.

Other results from the annual survey, which Volunteer England jointly conducted with the Institute for Volunteer Research, are:

Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has opened a consultation on the proposed gift aid small donations scheme, which will allow charities to claim gift aid on £5,000 worth of small donations each year without needing to submit a gift aid declaration signed by the donor.

The measure was announced in last year's Budget, when the Chancellor stated that it would apply to donations of up to £10. This year's Budget confirmed that the move was still in the pipeline and doubled the limit for each individual donation to £20. The change is intended to take effect from 6 April 2013.