Book your place at the Big Society Conference!

The conference will be a follow-up to the first Big Society Community Conference held at the ACE Centre, Nelson, in September.

This event gave community-based organisations from Pendle and the wider Pennine Lancashire district, the opportunity to learn more about the big changes coming with the impact of the Comprehensive Spending Review.

The second conference - again being held at the ACE Centre - will now explore the impact of the Comprehensive Spending Review in more depth, following Chancellor George Osborne's announcement on October 20th.

All three Pendle Partnership conferences are being organised by Pendle Community Network in partnership with Pendle Council.

Councillor Mike Blomeley, Leader of Pendle Council and Chairman of Pendle Partnership, said: "A cut of around 30% in local authority funding presents a massive challenge to us as a council and is bound to have a knock-on effect on our partners. 

"Events like this will help all the partners understand the situation and manage it to the very best of their ability."

Paul Hussey, Pendle Council's Chief Executive Policy Manager, said: "The Comprehensive Spending Review proved to us all that sadly no one is going to go untouched by the cuts in government funding.

"The Big Society Conferences are a chance for us to work out how we can best support each other and move forward together through these uncertain times."

Angela Ansell, Principal Policy Officer at Pendle Council, added: "Now that the Comprehensive Spending Review has been announced, we know much more about the spending challenges we face.

"This second conference will follow on from the Big Society Conference, but will look in closer detail at the impact and opportunities for Pendle.

"We would encourage partners from the statutory, voluntary, community and faith sector organisations to come along to see how they can play their part in reducing harm to service delivery and support communities across Pendle."

The third conference will explore "Future Partnerships" and is set to take place on January, 29th 2011.

This conference will look at 'best practice' projects and case studies based on Working Neighbourhood, Community Cohesion and Prevent Funded Projects being delivered in this financial year.

The full programme, including speakers and booking details, will be available in due course. Details will be published through partners and their networks.

Stephen Smith, Manager of Pendle Community Network, added: "This is a real opportunity for the sector to look at how it can place itself to influence future delivery against the Big Society outcomes and bring the rhetoric into reality.

"The voluntary, community and faith sector has a role to play in ensuring that the needs of communities are met and that community champions are able to support community action with little recourse to the public purse."

To book a place at the next Big Society Conference, visit http://www.pendlecommunitynetwork.org.uk/home.asp and click on Community Involvement.

You can also book by calling Nausheen Khan at Pendle Community Network, on (01282) 619913.

To access the full report from the first Big Society Conference, visit Pendle Community Network's website.