Published
By Dave Owen
CPC's Giving Back charity initiative is proud to be placing a whole new focus on supporting SEND causes.
Our Giving Back initiative has been a great success since it started in 2019, with over £1.5million being designated for reinvestment into the sector. £1 million of this has been spent on several initiatives with £748k going towards grants funded to institutions in support of a variety of projects and events aimed at...
· Enhancing teaching and learning.
· Improving a learner’s experience of education.
· Supporting the learning of economically disadvantaged learners and minority groups.
With CPC growing, and potentially more funds being made available for investment, the Trustees, with the support of all CPC’s employees, have agreed that our focus as a charity should be more clearly defined. This involves both our day-to-day operational activities and the monies reinvested through Giving Back.
The focus of future grants and the daily operational activities of the charity will now be on supporting our members in their quest to adequately help and support the following.
· Learners with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).
· The physical and mental wellbeing of learners (with or without SEND).
· Absenteeism - if a learner is not attending college or school, they cannot progress.
This is summarised in our new corresponding Giving Back logo, which shows the direct link that SEND has on both a learner’s wellbeing and absenteeism.
CPC acknowledges the challenges our members face in these three areas in particular and want to focus our efforts on helping. We encourage stakeholders across the sector to join us in our efforts to facilitate fairer, superior SEND and wellbeing support.
Leading from the front, CPC Managing Director Darren Lowe was happy to confirm the changes to Giving Back, and the resultant shift to SEND funding support, in July’s quarterly staff meeting.
“We took the proposed new approach to Giving Back through all our different decision-making stages and, at every one, we've been pushing against an open door. Everyone that's heard about this cause has been on board with it, so, let’s leave a legacy. Let's pin our colours to this mast”.
Meanwhile, non-SEND institutions can rest assured they will remain able to benefit from the pool of Giving Back funding, thanks to CPC's establishment of a triangle of focus that will help augment its outlined SEND objectives.
With this in mind, our forthcoming Giving Back window will be open to applications that target one or more of these areas, thus opening up potential funding opportunities for wellbeing and absenteeism-addressing projects and purchases, spanning a wide array of primary, secondary, further and higher education institutions.
As a community of more than 10,000 members, CPC is proud that its efforts can make a tangible difference across the UK education sector and five years of promoting Giving Back have enabled the organisation to solidify its wider community goals and self-determined responsibilities.
As an organisation, CPC now looks forward to the dawn of this new era of Giving Back, with its focuses on SEND, absenteeism and wellbeing helping direct us forward. Together, we will endeavour to make even more positive differences through our work, while supporting those in particular need of a little extra help.