The 8th Commonwealth Sports Minister Meeting was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 4th August 2016. Delegations from 32 member countries attended the meeting. The meeting was opened by Commonwealth Secretary-General, the Rt Hon Patricia Scotland QC, and chaired by the Hon Sussan Ley, Minister for Health, Aged Care and Sport, Government of Australia (picture left).

The meeting took place in the context of the recent adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The meeting focused on the contribution that sport can make to the new global development agenda, with an emphasis on promoting healthy lives and well-being for all. The meeting also considered the negative impact of sport integrity issues on sustainable development, and options for effective Governmental responses.

The Ministers ‘welcomed and endorsed’ the policy guidance which was recently written by St Chad’s Fellow, Dr Iain Lindsey of the School of Applied Social Sciences, Sarah Metcalf of the School of Applied Social Sciences and St Chad’s Professor Tony Chapman.

Ministers expressed strong concern about the seriousness of threats to the integrity of sport which were addressed in the Durham University report. They forcefully reiterated that governments and non-governmental sporting organisations have a shared responsibility for protecting the integrity of sport. They also committed to working collectively to address these issues.

Read more on the story here

The Programme Advisory Group assembled at St Chad’s College, Durham University on 28th July 2016 for its second meeting this year. The group includes representatives from IPPR\North, Community Foundation for Tyne & Wear and Northumberland, TSRC, VONNE, Greater Manchester Centre for Voluntary Organisation, Social Enterprise Coalition and Durham and Sheffield Universities.

Professor Tony Chapman, of St Chad’s College, who is a member of the advisory group, spoke about the forthcoming Third Sector Trends study which will contribute research intelligence to the discussions which will be taking place over the next three years in this major programme of IPPR work, funded by Garfield Weston.  The Third Sector Trends Study is funded in the North East of England by Community Foundation for Tyne & Wear and Northumberland, In Yorkshire and the Humber by Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and in the North West by IPPR\North and Garfield Weston.

A panel debate will take place on the afternoon of 16th June at St Chad’s College Durham, organised by the Colleges post-graduates.  Middle Common Room President, Frederik Seidelin will chair the debate led by four panel speakers:

• Professor Kevin Dowd (Durham Business School)
• Baroness Joyce Quin (former Labour Minister for Europe and MEP)
• Professor Thom Brooks (Durham Law School)
• Professor Tony Chapman (Policy & Practice, St Chads)

Following the presentations, Robin Linten (St Chads) and Tom Harwood (Chair of ‘Students for Britain’) will join the panel and take questions from the audience.

If co-production is the way forward in an age of austerity – how can public sector, businesses and third sector organisations be asked to marshal their resources to their best effect?

A seminar organised by the Institute for Local Governance, Teesside University Darlington, Vicarage Road, Darlington, Friday 15 July 2016, 9.30 – 1.00

Co-production means different things to different people – but in essence it encompasses notions of shared responsibility and shared benefit for the outcomes of action. This seminar is about the way that organisations from different sectors can engage in co-production including: local authorities, government, the private sector, the voluntary and community sector and universities.

The seminar builds upon all the other seminars which have taken place in this series on topics including: approaches to asset transfer, the implications of demographic ageing, young people’s life transitions, the impact of inward business investment; deprivation and welfare in rural areas, supporting carers, volunteering and civic action, and preventative interventions. All of these seminars have included discussion of partnership working towards shared objectives – but do they work as well as they should?

Partnership is a ‘warm’ word, evoking notions of shared values, common goals and equal voices. But the realities of partnerships can be different – and especially so when values are only partly shared, goals are contested and there are inherent imbalances of power amongst partners. So this seminar provides an opportunity to debate the value of partnership, when it works well, and to get a better understanding of what can make partnerships go wrong.

While formal partnership is one way forward and can work well, we will also discuss the scope for less formal complementary relationships amongst organisations. But it will also be necessary to recognise that some organisations will continue to work on their own (but not necessarily around the edges of all the others) so ways need to be considered to help them to be ‘good neighbours’.

To make the event work well, we particularly encourage people to attend who have already been to previous seminars so that we can collectively debate issues on some common ground – and then, following the seminar, a brief ‘think piece’ will be published to round off the seminar season and provide a basis for future debates about policy and practice.

The seminar will chaired by Professor John Mawson, Director, Institute for Local Governance and speakers at the seminar will include:

• Professor Tony Chapman, St Chad’s College, Durham University: on the underlying meanings of partnership, complementarity and autonomous working.
• Seth Pearson, Director, One Darlington Partnership: on the configurations of partnership working in Local Strategic Partnerships in changing policy regimes.
• Rowena Sommerville, Director, Tees Valley Arts: on the building of shared objectives for a City of Culture bid in a complex multi-sector and multi-local authority context.
• Dr Dave Vanderhoven, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Sheffield University: on the role of universities in supporting the development of partnership and co-production initiatives in complex urban areas.

The seminar is free to attend, but places are limited and they tend to book up quickly, so please register your attendance via: Janet Atkinson, Institute for Local Governance, Durham University janet.atkinson@durham.ac.uk

The Institute for Local Governance is a North East Research and Knowledge Exchange Partnership established in 2009 comprising the North East region’s Universities, Local Authorities, Police and Fire and Rescue Services. Further information about the content of the event can be obtained by contacting:- tony.chapman@durham.ac.uk or john.mawson@durham.ac.uk.

Powerpoint slides from the seminar can be found here:  ILG Seminar 15th July 2016 Darlington.

Tackling the challenges facing carers in Northern England in an environment of deepening austerity.

This week is national carers week.  Recently we’ve been holding discussions about the challenges facing carers with regional stakeholders to try to help tackle the problem that carers often come second place, economically, politically and emotionally to those in need of care.   We’ve been focusing, through seminars and discussions on the situation of a range of individual carers who give support to those in need, including neighbours and friends; young carers; older people providing care to spouses; people providing informal dementia care, amongst others. It must be recognised that such carers often achieve what they do with help from the many charities and community organisations which deliver support to carers.

Often such groups and organisations are funded by non-governmental sources, such as community foundations or big national foundations which have stepped in to give financial support where government does not. Other private sector or Third Sector organisations deliver professional care services on behalf of local authorities or health organisations – but we’re asking how well do these arrangements work for paid carers where the marginal costs of caring are continuously being eroded?

Arising from our work in this area, Professor Tony Chapman published a leader article in the Northern Echo on the topic this week which can be accessed here.