Sam Royston - Director of Policy and Research, and Isabelle Rothstein at The Children's Society
Please contact Isabelle for questions about the CCS programme and to find out how your charity could get involved: Isabelle.Rothsteine@childrenssociety.org.uk
The Coordinated Community Support programme is working with four areas (Oldham, Swansea, Tower Hamlets and Norfolk) to improve the coordination and delivery of emergency financial support. As part of the work of the programme, we have been looking to improve awareness of and access to small grant provision for people facing emergency need. This presentation will give a short introduction to this work – including the development of a new small grant application portal - and explore ways in which we could work together in the future.”
Sam Royston is Director of Policy and Research at The Children’s Society. He previously led on the charity’s policy work on child poverty. Previously Sam has also been a researcher in the Social Policy department at the University of York, and a Welfare Rights adviser at a Citizens Advice Bureau. Sam has written extensively on child poverty issues from both an academic and policy perspective, including leading The Children’s Society’s influential policy work on free school meals, and the impact of problem debt on children.
Sam currently chairs the “Coordinated Community Support” programme – a partnership programme, working with four local areas to develop new approaches to delivering emergency financial support. He is also former chair of the End Child Poverty coalition of more than 70 organisations from UK civic society including children’s charities, child welfare organisations, social justice groups, faith groups and trade unions.
His recent book “Broken Benefits” explores the impact of the welfare reform agenda over the course of the 2010s.
Paul McAfee and Helen Bradley - Family Fund Business Services (FFBS)
As all attendees will have been and still be experiencing, the level of change we have seen during the Covid-19 crisis is unprecedented in our sector. Family Fund Business Services has been using its grant administration experience to help guide new and existing customers through the process of providing an increased amount of much-needed support to their beneficiaries.
Since the start of the Coronavirus outbreak there has been a phenomenal spend increase across the essential services provided by FFBS, which goes some way to reflect the way in which they are helping their customers support even more people during the ongoing pandemic.
During this session, Paul will talk about what FFBS has been working on over the last 6 months and how they have been supporting customers to deliver essential support to those in need. Helen will take a look at what the future holds for FFBS in light of what we have learned during this period and how we can use this experience to shape our processes and offering.
Paul has worked with the Public Sector for over 15 years and joined Family Fund Business Services in 2017. As an Account Manager, Paul works closely with a range of public sector and charity customers on all elements of their account from setup and regular reporting to keeping clients up-to-date on FFBS news and developments. Paul’s focus is putting customer’s beneficiaries at the heart of everything he does. The support Paul has given to clients during the Coronavirus pandemic to help them quickly and efficiently set up new Covid-19 schemes to support those in need is testament to this ethos.
Prior to his current role, Paul was a Partnership Manager for Children in Need and also helped to deliver IT systems to front-line workers within the Health, Police, Local and Central Government and Education sectors.
Helen Bradley is Head of Business Development at Family Fund Business Services (FFBS). Her primary focus is building new partnerships with organisations and helping them extend the reach of their funds to support even people in need. Prior to her current role, Helen worked within the Operations Team at FFBS as an Account Manager, ensuring existing partnerships were well supported. Before joining FFBS, Helen completed her PhD in Philosophy at The University of York and worked in International Sales.
Family Fund Business Services is the UK’s leading business-to-business fulfilment service, with over 45 years of grant administration expertise through its parent charity, Family Fund. They provide a unique model that offers unrivalled value while supporting charities, local authorities, housing providers and other commercial organisations.