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Your country, your voice, our support

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Lorna Gough

If you want a job done, ask a busy person! The story of the NEC Charity Hub

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If you want a job done ask a busy person, or so the phrase goes.

In this case the person asking was Sarah Crick, the CEO of Red Hen, and the person she asked was me. Would CCVS (soon to be Support Cambridgeshire) be interested in taking on the management of some soon to be empty offices for a period until they were redeveloped? Doing so would give us the opportunity to rent them to Cambridge based charities who were looking for an affordable home. The answer from me was ‘no it won’t work, and we are too busy’ but we agreed to meet The Crown Estates anyway so we could definitively say it would never work. 

Four months later CCVS were the lead tenants for the Northeast Cambridge Charity Hub based at Byron House on the Cambridge Business Park. Red Hen moved in as our first tenant and more have followed.  

 

Maps Murmurations Project: Where Generations Meet

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Since last autumn, CCVS Volunteering for All has been working in partnership with Cambridge City Council and a range of community organisations to deliver a creative, intergenerational project that celebrates connection, place, and wellbeing. Partners have included InCommon, Find Your Wild, Active Life Team at CCC, Museum of Cambridge, Cambridge Room, Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination, and others interested in the project.

The project was developed in response to growing awareness that people of all ages—older adults, young people, and everyone in between—can face barriers to getting outside and engaging with their community. Frailty, social anxiety, lack of confidence, or simply the absence of nearby friends or family can prevent full participation in everyday life. This initiative shifts the focus from vulnerabilities to strengths, experience, and local knowledge, creating opportunities for connection, activity, and shared learning.

Creating Connections Across Generations

The project brings together people from different generations to explore what Cambridge means to them. Through collaborative activities, participants share stories, experiences, and perspectives—building new memories and enhancing both physical and psychological wellbeing.

Young people from local schools volunteered and participated alongside older residents from council-supported housing schemes. Activities included creative sessions, group discussions, and supported local walks across various city wards. The outcomes—artworks, stories, and reflections—contribute to community-created maps showcasing Cambridge through the eyes of its residents, young and old.

 

Cybersecurity for community groups: Simple steps to stay safe

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Charities are facing growing threats as cybercrime continues to rise. 

Our on-demand training: Cybersecurity for Small Charities covers the basics of staying safe online, but the digital landscape is evolving fast. That’s why our Development Team has pulled together a few extra, practical tips to help you protect your data, your people, and your mission. With limited resources and a reliance on volunteers, a little awareness can go a long way. 

Why are charities more vulnerable? 

  • High staff turnover: Many charities rely on part-time or volunteer staff, often with limited training. 
  • Personal devices: Many charities use personal phones or laptops, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), which may lack proper security. 
  • Smarter scams: Technological advances, especially with AI mean that phishing emails are harder to spot—making training essential. 

Phishing: one click can cost you 

Phishing emails can look incredibly real. Clicking a single link could lead to: 

  • Data breaches 
  • Financial loss 
  • Reputational damage 

In March 2025, the Charity Commission published a blog alerting charities to correspondence, including phishing emails being sent out claiming to be from the Charity Commission. The emails request action to be taken, such as removing a trustee or chief executive from their position, releasing funds as part of a grant or supplying documents such as a passport or utility bill. The emails may be signed as coming from ‘the Commission,’ Chief Executive Officer and/or its Directors. The blog post continues to provide practical top tips on how to tell if emails or correspondence is from The Charity Commission and also acknowledges, “that it’s not always easy to tell if correspondence is real or fake….” 

What you can do 

  • Train your team, including volunteers. Include phishing awareness in all your onboarding. Monthly reminders help too. 
  • Email filters: Don’t move junk mail to your inbox—leave it in the junk mail folder. 
  • Report suspicious emails: Encourage staff and volunteers to flag anything odd to IT or colleagues. This could be with clear procedures in place for who to report and how, and what action and follow up action should be taken, and again by whom on these reports. 
  • Cyber insurance: Often requires that you do have basic protections are in place—so check any policy before your purchase. 

Stay safe online 

  • Avoid public Wi-Fi: Free hotspots aren’t secure, they won’t have business grade protection and security in place. Use 4G/5G or a business-grade VPN. (Virtual Private Network. A service that creates a secure, encrypted connection over the internet.) 
  • Encrypt your connection: VPNs protect your data when working remotely. 

Passwords & tools 

 

Final Top Tip: Cybersecurity doesn’t have to be complicated. A few simple habits can make a big difference.

Do check out our on-demand training – Cybersecurity for Small Charities for a comprehensive introductory guide to ensure that you are protecting your charities or community groups’ online safety.

Any questions, do get in touch; we are here to help: info@supportcambridgeshire.org.uk 

Celebrate your people’s achievements with Digital Badges!

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Support Cambridgeshire are excited to introduce digital badges for local community groups and charities to recognise the awesome skills and achievements of their learners, beneficiaries and volunteers.

Whether it’s through training, development programmes, or other milestones, individuals will be able to earn badges that showcase what they’ve learned. These badges aren’t just for show—they can be added to LinkedIn, shared on social media, or highlighted to employers to boost the earner’s professional profile.

Incoming changes to employment rights

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This article is published with the permission of Lyndsay Salmon HR consultant and Support Cambridgeshire Trustee:

Exciting news for the HR enthusiasts out there – on 1 July the Government published its Implementation Roadmap for the Employment Rights Bill, this sets out how (and when) they plan to introduce the upcoming employment law changes. 

I’ve highlighted the ones in bold which I think are most likely to have an impact on your organisation, and as soon as I have more information, I’ll be sharing that so you can ensure policies, procedures and processes are all updated and aligned with the changes.  

 Immediate (awaiting Royal Assent):

  • Repeal of the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 and major parts of the Trade Union Act 2016
  • New protections preventing dismissal for participating in industrial action

April 2026:

  • Protective award for collective redundancies – doubling maximum period
  • ‘Day 1’ paternity and unpaid parental leave – no longer 26 weeks employment needed, this will be from day 1 of employment. You may need to update your policy and be aware
  • Enhanced whistle-blower protections
  • Establishment of a Fair Work Agency
  • Statutory Sick Pay improvements (removal of lower earnings limit and waiting period) – this will be a bigger deal. Sick pay from day 1. You will need to update policies and ensure you are managing sickness carefully to help employees improve their attendance if needed  
  • Simplified trade union recognition and digital/workplace balloting systems

October 2026:

  • Ban on fire-and-rehire
  • Launch of a Fair Pay Agreement Negotiating Body for adult social care
  • Stronger tipping laws
  • Employer duty to take ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment – already need to take reasonable steps – will now need to take ALL reasonable steps, further advice to follow as soon as we know what that might entail over and above current arrangements.
  • Expanded trade union rights
  • Time limits to bring an employment tribunal amended. (Maybe 6 months, not 3)

2027:

  • Mandatory gender pay gap and menopause action plans (voluntary from April 2026)
  • Rights for pregnant workers – Pay and leave being reviewed… watch this space
  • Bereavement leave
  • Protections against zero hour contract abuse – This looks likely to be banning exploitative contracts 
  • Umbrella company regulation
  • ‘Day 1’ unfair dismissal rights.  Consultations will begin this summer and continue into early 2026 – no longer will I say – ‘do they have 2 years’ service?’…. From day 1 employees will be able to bring a claim for unfair dismissal. Ensuing probation processes are fair and followed is likely to be important – but it’s been pushed well into 2027 which is much later than expected

Consultations will begin this summer and continue into early 2026.

 

Lyndsay will continue to monitor the Employment Rights Bill implementation and we will share any future insights.

Please sign up to our newsletter to stay up to date.

 

Why we’ve left X (formerly Twitter)

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After careful consideration, we’ve made the decision to leave X.

For our communications team, it was an easy choice. 

What began as a supportive, inclusive, and vibrant platform for connection and networking has sadly become the opposite. X no longer reflects our values. It has become a space dominated by hate speech, discrimination, and divisive, harmful, and sensationalised content. 

We want to engage with our members and supporters in meaningful ways. But that became increasingly difficult as our feed filled with hostility, and we rarely saw updates from the inspiring individuals and organisations we follow. 

Twitter once offered a safe and supportive community for charities. That community has all but disappeared. In fact, X has become a dangerous space—particularly for the charities and causes we champion. 

We’re not alone in this. Many other charities have already stepped away. 

Charity Digital Report 2025:

51% of charities have either left or cut back on their use of X (a dramatic increase from the 18% moving away from X last year). This rises to 60% of large charities and 65% of LGBTQIA+ charities.

Media Trust: 

Since Elon Musk took over Twitter in 2022, there have been questions over the platform’s stability. A slow chipping away of functionality and safety features, changes to the algorithm making engagement drop through the floor and a general culture of unpleasantness meant that being on X became hard work, particularly for charities.

 

Thankfully, we have a strong presence on other platforms and are committed to finding safe, welcoming online spaces where we can continue to: 

  • Share our training and events
  • Champion our member organisations
  • Keep you updated with the latest charity news
  • Promote volunteering
  • Celebrate awareness days and campaigns
  • Connect and engage in meaningful conversations
  • Celebrate our wonderful Cambridgeshire community

Social media still has the power to do good—and we’re here for it.

GET group – what does the future look like?

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CCVS, and now Support Cambridgeshire, took over the GET group when the original charity closed. We want to see the network continue but also want to ensure it is meeting the needs of the sector and our partners. As such we are doing a bit of work on how things could work moving forward. This article sets out some of our initial thoughts and we will be asking all those signed up to the GET group for their views.

Where we are now

We continue to run the network but have moved meetings to quarterly online, this replaces the in person meetings of the past. Part of the rational for this is that the meetings were Cambridge centric and the GET Group is a county wide network. Online allows people from everywhere to attend, it saves people time but it does not support the same level of networking and updating from groups.

We have closed both the GET website and the Facebook page as both were unused, there is a GET holding page on the CCVS website.

We have set up a google form that allows groups to share what they are doing. This has been used by a small core of organisations and we have seen a drop off in people adding to it.

We have started an email newsletter that goes out after each meeting and we can also send alerts about time limited issues like funding and consultations.

We ran an online conference that shared a number of events over a week that were skills/employment related.

We have not continued with the adult learner celebration event.

Moving forward

We want your views on what will work for you around the learning and skills agenda.

We want to continue the networking meetings, but should these still be quarterly and should they be online or in person? We also want to know if the content works for you and how you think the networking could be improved without everyone wanting to share at every meeting.

We’re considering how a resource section on the new Support Cambridgeshire website could give us somewhere to store important documents and things that may be of use to you.

We want to run some sort of annual event, this could be an in-person conference or a celebration event. It could also be a more hybrid series of events and could be linked to ‘learning at work week’ or ‘lifelong learning week’.

We want to do more to demonstrate the impact the VCS has around skills, employment and guidance. This could include a celebration event but could also include sharing learner stories and impact reports. This could resemble the volunteer stories we share on the Volunteer Cambs website.

We want to look at how we develop formal partnerships or consortia that would allow the sector to bid for bigger pieces of work that would not be possible for individual organisations to deliver. A fantastic local example of what can be achieved is Fullscope.

There is more we can do around a number of other areas.

  • Digital badges and how we can promote these to learners and to employers
  • Apprenticeships in the voluntary sector
  • Internships in the voluntary sector
  • Work experience in the voluntary sector

Conclusions

The VCS is a bit of a sleeping giant when it comes to guidance, employment and training. Many organisations are working to equip individuals to build the skills and confidence they need to find work or take part in learning. We know the importance that volunteering can play in this process. We have the trusted relationships with individuals and communities that others lack.

There are opportunities available now and there will be more in the future that we need to be in a position to grasp.

The question is how can Support Cambridgeshire and the GET Group facilitate this – over to you to help us.

What’s in a name?

My final question is does GET group mean anything to people?

Should we become something more like the ‘Cambs employment and skills network’  – again over to you.

Please complete the survey below – just a few quick questions so that we can ensure that we, as the GET Group and Support Cambridgeshire, are providing the support that you need and want.

Thank you.

If you have any queries or comments, please email: enquiries@cambridgecvs.org.uk

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