A traineeship is a skills development programme that includes a work placement. The full programme can last from 6 weeks up to 1 year, though most traineeships last for less than 6 months.

Sood. Marketing is a full 360° digital marketing agency, specialising in website design, Social media management and branding. With a workforce of 7, they work closely with their local Chamber of Commerce, who deliver a range of skills development services.

Sood has seen great success with a previous trainee they had worked with on the traineeship program. Working on a number of internal projects initially, the trainee was able to demonstrate their natural skills and talents, with work steadily progressing in level of responsibility and technical skill. Keen to retain this talent, Paalan Sood, Sood’s managing director progressed the trainee to a Level 3 Digital marketing apprenticeship – their third apprentice in the business.

Despite the challenges of COVID-19, Sood. are continuing to identify opportunities for growth and have a new trainee. This time, the business is eligible to make use of the government incentive for hiring an apprentice, and will use the funding to contribute towards IT procurement and additional digital licenses. The ability to cover some of the recruitment and set up costs has made the decision to commit to employing a new apprentice much easier.

Paalan Sood, Managing Director at Sood. Marketing said:

At Sood, we have found the traineeship model is a great opportunity to identify the strengths and best organisational fit of individuals. Staff have joined the business with a focus on website design, and through being moved to a variety of projects, identified that their skills really spark in areas such as SEO or content production.

Having gone down the traditional university route myself, I have seen first-hand how much benefit is drawn from experiential learning gained from working, with our trainee and now managing his own clients – with remarkable progression in his skills and confidence. Setting up my business and meeting the needs of my customers has been the biggest but most rewarding learning curve and apprentices go through a similar journey.

Thanks Gus, and it’s a pleasure to be at the launch of the Law Family Commission.

Can I also pay tribute to Andrew Law and the Law Family Charitable Foundation, whose generous support has made this Commission possible.

I was interested to read the report and Gus O’Donnell’s article in the FT – and I was particularly struck by what Andrew Law wrote in his foreword, about how we can best coordinate the “millions of individual acts of benevolence that take place every day in our nation”.

That’s exactly what we are looking to do in government with our approach to civil society.

And I think this report is a timely and useful intervention. This launch comes at the end of one of the most challenging years in recent history – and I’d like to talk a little bit about that context, and what it has taught us about civil society, before getting into the government’s approach in the coming years.

I know how hard hit civil society has been by the crisis – unable to fundraise face to face, unable to open charity shops, cafes and other retail outlets – especially at a time when the public has looked to the sector for frontline support more than ever.

The Commission’s report identifies one key challenge, first and foremost – and that is what it calls our collective failure to properly value what civil society delivers.

But I want to be clear up front: that is not this government’s attitude.

That’s why we made a £750 million investment into the sector when the COVID crisis hit, to help ensure it could keep delivering essential support to those who needed it the most.

That was the first sector-specific financial intervention my department sought, and one of the first the Treasury granted across the entire economy. It was by far the biggest package of its kind in Europe, and a signal of our clear commitment to the sector.

Because in the unique challenges it has posed, and the enormous response required, I think COVID demonstrated beyond doubt that we can’t afford not to value civil society.

At the same time, the wider context for civil society has shifted. When this pandemic hit, we witnessed a surge of goodwill in our communities.

The Commission’s own research has found that 18 million people in England helped friends or neighbours during the first lockdown, by doing their shopping or walking the dog.

There’s a strong appetite for community, and for helping good causes. And as we look back on this extraordinary year, I think it’s a good moment to stop, to reflect, and to try and answer two important questions:

How do we capitalise on that surge of goodwill, on the army of volunteers who put their hands up during COVID – and make sure the epidemic of kindness we’ve witnessed in the last 12 months lasts far beyond this pandemic?

What lessons can we take from the past year, from the way civil society has had to radically adapt – and does COVID offer us and civil society a new way forward?

So let me offer some reflections on the key points from the report you have published today, and give you a taste of what the government is looking to do to unleash the potential of civil society.

And I use the term “unleash” deliberately there. Because I strongly believe, as your report rightly highlights, that there is huge power in civil society, and that it should be the government’s job to unlock it – not try to replace it, or end up stymying it.

Not running things from the top-down – but stewarding the sector, unlocking resources and empowering volunteers.

So my first priority is for the government’s work to focus on where it can add most value in this space.

The way the sector uses digital and data is a good example of this.

The Commission’s report talks about the “digital deficit” – how more than one-in-three charities say they don’t have the resources to invest in technology.

But I’ve been struck by the way charities have innovated and adapted during the pandemic – particularly through their use of digital technology: 92 percent of organisations have moved their services online as a result of COVID.

And the government has played an important role here, with a significant amount of the £200 million we have made available to small and medium sized charities via the Coronavirus Community Support Fund being spent on helping them to digitise their offer.

I know that charities can’t deliver everything online, and that some of their most important work is done face-to-face.

But one of COVID’s positive legacies could be the way it has helped digitise the sector for the long-term. And of course, going digital means more data, and that means making it easier to both evaluate and boost an organisation’s impact.

In my wider role as Secretary of State, I spend a lot of time thinking about how we can make better use of data in the wider economy. In fact, it’s one of the areas where I think we can make a really significant impact now that we have left the EU.

But just as data isn’t always well used in the public sector, your report highlights the ‘data deficit’ in civil society. 87% of charities say a focus on impact measurement is important to delivering their objectives, but fewer than half describe their knowledge and use of such approaches as “good” or “very good”.

In truth, I think the government has the same data deficit.

The early stages of the Covid crisis showed that Whitehall didn’t know as much about civil society as we thought we did. Where the volunteers were, which charities were best placed to step in and support public services, and what the real picture of its financial health was.

That matters: because without that understanding, we in government can’t be as effective in supporting the sector or making the most of what it has to offer.

So I have made it a priority for my department to build up that knowledge – bringing in new skills and tools in order to do so. This was an important part of our settlement for the Office for Civil Society in the recent Spending Review, and I hope to see it bear fruit in the coming months as we take a different approach.

Secondly – and this is another issue that the Commission’s report highlights – we want to look at how we can help bring more resources into the sector.

But not all of it needs to come from the same old sources. We need to look at bold new ways to raise funds.

So, for example, the Commission’s report highlights what it calls the “philanthropic deficit” in this country. While the UK is undoubtedly a generous nation – and we saw that in abundance throughout the pandemic – we lag behind countries like the U.S., to the equivalent of an estimated £45 billion a year. That’s very nearly the entire income of our charity sector income.

I want to know how we can use philanthropy more in this country in the future. Why is it that we don’t get philanthropy on the same scale as you see in the U.S.? What role can the government play in stimulating it?

And as part of this, my excellent colleague Baroness Barran, the Minister for Civil Society, is doing some very important work on leveraging finance.

She has led two hugely successful fund-matching partnerships during the pandemic – firstly, the BBC’s Big Night In, which saw government funds match public generosity and secondly the £85 million Community Match Challenge, which doubled government investment by unlocking support from philanthropists, foundations and grant making organisations.

It’s also become increasingly clear that a growing number of people are looking to invest their money in companies that align with their values. So we’re looking at how we can drive impact investment. So in the same way people can now invest directly in funds focused on green investment, we want to look at how this could be applied to the work being done by civil society, to sit alongside the investment government is making.

We’re also looking to expand the UK’s Dormant Assets Scheme. This is money that is sitting in unused accounts, begging to be used to tackle some of society’s most pressing challenges.

Since 2011, over £745m has been released from that scheme to support work on things like youth unemployment and problem debt. And we made another £150m available in May to help people who have been left particularly vulnerable as a result of COVID. Very shortly, we’ll be publishing our response to a consultation on the expansion of that scheme.

And when we talk about making sure that investment has the greatest possible impact, I think we also need to ask some important questions about the National Lottery.

It was established in 1996 – and it has undergone only one real change since then, when a Labour government changed the way funding was distributed.

I’m keen, particularly as we move to a comprehensive spending review, to review where that balance lies.

During this pandemic we’ve seen how valuable organisations like grassroots sports clubs are in their communities. I want to see how we can best use those kinds of existing organisations to help communities, so that we make the most of our strongest assets on the ground.

And our third priority, something the report again highlights, is how we can unlock another important resource – which is time.

The Report warns that the country’s early-pandemic enthusiasm for volunteering and sense of community is beginning to wane.

And yet we hear from so many people, and particularly the young, that they really want to get into volunteering. The will is there – but there are just too many obstacles in the way.

One person might volunteer to help in a care home, for instance, and have to go through a whole process of checks to do so. And then when they try to volunteer in another nearby care home in the same area, they find that they have to go through the exact same process again.

How can the government help simplify this process, and make sure the pandemic spirit of volunteering lives on long beyond this crisis?

Danny Kruger has spoken about a volunteer passport to coordinate the supply and demand of volunteers, which is something we’re looking at closely.

We’ve already strengthened our links with voluntary organisations through the Voluntary and Community Sector Emergencies Partnership, which was given a £4.8 million grant during the coronavirus crisis. That has set us up to work much better together in the future.

These efforts are all part of one of this government’s central goals, which is leveling up the country. Leveling up extends to civil society.

One thing we’ve learnt from COVID is that those areas that already had a strong volunteering infrastructure were able to respond to the crisis much more effectively and much quicker than those without.

So how can we level up the country so that, when the next crisis hits, everyone has access to rapid support?

An important part of this is the Government’s new £4 billion Leveling Up Fund.

Danny Kruger’s report recommended it, and it’s a central piece of the spending review.

But now that we have the funding, we have to make sure the money gets to where it is most needed.

And as we do that, I want to ensure the decisions aren’t just made by people sitting in offices in London. It should be driven and directed by the communities on the ground.

As I’ve touched on throughout my speech, a lot of this comes down to data and analytics, and getting a clear picture of how things stand.

One of the most important things we can do is to try and understand not just the health of the sector, but its value. As Andy Haldane highlighted in a lecture last year, the collective contribution of civil society to our economy and society is hugely underestimated by current economic measures.

And that is why this Commission is so important, and why we’ll be wanting to work closely with you throughout this project.

Gus knows better than anyone that my job is to quantify to the Treasury, in terms they understand, what all of us speaking today know: that civil society is not just special but incredibly important.

I look forward to working with all of you in making that case.

Mr Speaker, I beg to move that these Regulations now be approved.

And I want to begin by telling the House that I was hugely encouraged by a visit I paid only yesterday to a vaccine plant in North Wales

where I saw for myself the vials of one of seven vaccines backed by the UK Government

that could turn the tide of our struggle against Covid,

not just in this country but around the world.

It is the protection of those vaccines that could get our economies moving again,

and allow us to reclaim our lives.

And that one plant in Wrexham

could produce 300 million doses a year

and yesterday was the momentous day when it began to manufacture the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine.

And it was a very moving moment Mr Speaker when I talked to one of the brilliant young scientists there,

And she described the extraordinary moment for her in her life,

to be part of an enterprise that was she thought truly going to offer humanity a route out of this suffering.

But Mr Speaker, we have to be realistic,

And we have to accept that this vaccine is not here yet, no vaccine is here yet

and while all the signs are promising

and almost every scientist I’ve talked to agrees that the breakthrough will surely come

we do not yet have one that has gained regulatory approval.

We can’t be completely sure when the moment will arrive

and until then we cannot afford to relax,

especially during the cold months of winter.

The national measures which are now shortly ending in England

have eased the burden on the NHS and begun to reverse the advance of the virus.

Today, the R is back below 1

and the ONS survey is showing that signs of the infection rate are levelling off

and Imperial College London has found that the number of people with Covid has fallen by a third in England since 2nd November.

But while the virus has been contained, it has not been eradicated.

The latest ONS figures suggest that out of every 85 people in England, one has Coronavirus; far more than in the Summer

between 24th November and yesterday, 3,222 people across the UK lost their lives;

and despite the immense progress of the last four weeks,

our NHS remains under pressure, with hospitals in three regions – the South West, the North East and Yorkshire – all treating more Covid patients now than at the peak of the first wave.

So we can’t simply allow the current restrictions to expire for the reason he gives with no replacement whatever.

With the spread of the epidemic varying across the country, there remains a compelling case for regional tiers in England and indeed Mr Speaker a compelling necessity for regional tiers.

But I hope the House is clear what I am not asking for today.

This is not another lockdown,

nor is this the renewal of the existing measures in England.

The tiers that I am proposing would mean that from tomorrow

everyone in England

– including those in tier 3 –

will be free to leave their homes for any reason.

And when they do, they will find the shops open for Christmas,

the hairdressers open,

the nail bars open,

gyms and leisure centres, swimming pools open,

churches, synagogues, mosques and temples will be open for communal worship.

Organised outdoor sport will resume,

and in every tier you will be able to meet others in parks and in public gardens subject to the Rule of Six.

And every one of those things has been by necessity restricted until today.

Every one of them would be allowed again tomorrow.

Of course I accept that this is not a return to normality. I wish it were so.

But it is a bit closer to normality than the present restrictions.

And what we cannot do is lift all of the restrictions at once, or move too quickly, in such a way that the virus would begin to spread rapidly again.

That would be the surest way of endangering our NHS and forcing us into a new year lockdown, with all the costs that that would impose.

We all accept that the burden on the hospitality sector has been very great.

We feel this deeply, because our pubs, our hotels, restaurants they are in many ways the heart of the communities

And part of the fabric of our identity as a country

And everybody can see that the hospitality industry has borne a disproportionate share of the burden in this crisis. There’s no question about it. And that is obviously because we want to keep schools open Mr Speaker and we have to take such measures as we can.

I would just remind the House however, that we are not alone in this.

In France bars, restaurants and gyms will not reopen until 20th January at the earliest.

In Germany, the hospitality sector will remain closed in its entirety over Christmas.

But we will do everything in our power to support our hospitality sector throughout this crisis.

We have already extended the furlough scheme for all businesses until the end of March,

We’ve provided monthly grants of up to £3,000 for premises forced to close,

and £2,100 for those that remain open but have suffered because of reduced demand.

We have allocated £1.1 billion for local authorities to support businesses at particular risk.

And today Mr Speaker we are going further with a one-off payment of £1,000 in December to wet pubs – that is Mr Speaker pubs that do not serve food as the House knows

recognising how hard they have been hit by this virus in what is typically their busiest month.

We will also work with the hospitality sector in supporting their bounce back next year.

Mr Speaker I want to stress, that the situation is profoundly different now because there is an end in sight.

And I am not this afternoon seeking open-ended measures.

On the contrary, these regulations come with a sunset clause at the end of February, sorry at the end of the 2 February I should say Mr Speaker.

At that point we will have sufficient data to assess our position after Christmas,

and though I believe these types of restrictions will be needed until the Spring,

they can only be extended beyond 2 February if this House votes for them Mr Speaker.

These are points that have been made with great power as I say by Hon Members on all sides of the House.

We will review the allocation of tiers every fourteen days, starting on 16th December. I just want to make an important point to my Rt Hon friend and to all members who are rightly concerned about the position of their constituencies, our constituencies, in these tiers.

Hon Members have it in their powers, in our power to help move our areas down the tiers,

by throwing their full weight Mr Speaker, our full weight as leaders in our communities behind community testing,

and seizing the opportunity, seizing the opportunity to encourage as many people as possible to take part.

Of the kind we’ve seen in Liverpool Mr Speaker

where since the 6th November over 284,000 tests have been conducted,

and together with the effect of national restrictions,

the number of cases fell by more than two thirds. This is the model that I would recommend.

We are now proposing that from tomorrow Liverpool City Region and Warrington should be in tier 2, where as previously obviously they were in tier 3.

And we want other regions and other towns, cities, communities to follow this path,

And that is why – with the help of our fantastic armed forces –

we will be offering community testing to tier 3 areas as quickly as possible.

Mr Speaker let me just say, I find it extraordinary that the Official Opposition –represented by the gentleman opposite –

Currently have no view on the way ahead and are not proposing to vote tonight.

I do think it is extraordinary that in spite of the barrage of criticism that we have no credible plan from the party opposite. Indeed, we have no view on the way ahead. It’s a quite extraordinary thing Mr Speaker that tonight to the best of my knowledge

The RHG Opposite who has always said he will ‘act in the national interest’ has told his party to sit on its hands and to abstain in the vote tonight Mr Speaker.

And I think the government has made its decision, we’ve taken some tough decisions Mr Speaker and the Labour opposition has decided tonight heroically to abstain Mr Speaker

And I think when the history of this pandemic comes to be written, I think the people of this country will observe that instead of having politicians of all parties coming together in the national interest they had one party taking the decisions and another party heroically deciding to abstain

Mr Speaker, in the story of 2020, I think there are two great feats in which we can take a great deal of comfort.

First, our country has come together in an extraordinary effort that has so far succeeded in protecting our NHS and in saving many lives.

And while our scientists have been zeroing in on the weaknesses of Covid,

telescoping ten years of work into ten months,

and now their endeavours are about to deliver the means as I say to rout the virus. That is clear.

The Government is backing not one potential vaccine, but seven.

We have ordered 100 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, that is now seeking regulatory approval.

We have ordered 7 million doses of the Moderna vaccine, which has almost 95 per cent effectiveness in trials.

And Mr Speaker, we have ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which

if approved by the regulator –

could start being administered before Christmas.

In total, Mr Speaker our Vaccines Task Force has secured more than 350 million doses,

more than enough for everyone in the UK, the Crown Dependencies and our Overseas Territories.

All we need to do now Mr Speaker is to hold our nerve until these vaccines are indeed in our grasp,

and indeed being injected into our arms.

So I say to the House again let us follow the guidance, let us roll out mass testing, let’s work to deliver mass testing to the people of our country, let’s work together to control the virus and it is in that spirit that I commend these regulations Mr Speaker I commend these regulations to the House.

A Child Trust Fund (CTF) is a long-term, tax-free savings account for children.  The money belongs to the young person and they can only take it out when they turn 18.

If a young person lacks mental capacity and as a result cannot handle their finances, a parent or guardian must apply to the Court of Protection to allow them to manage these funds.  This vital safeguard exists to protect vulnerable people from fraud or abuse.

Parents and guardians who apply to the court before their child’s 18th birthday already do not pay fees, unless the child has other substantial assets. The Ministry of Justice and HM Treasury are working closely with trust fund providers to ensure that parents are aware of this and can take necessary steps.

Today’s announcement means that families who need to access the money in this fund to help support the young person’s future can now ask for fees to be waived.  Those who have already paid can request a refund under the plans. A new working group will also consider what more can be done to streamline the process and make it more accessible for parents.

This follows concerns from parents and campaigners that the system can be stressful and costly for families. 

Justice Minister, Alex Chalk said:  

We want to reduce the obstacles families face in supporting young people who lack mental capacity. 

This fee remission will ensure that families who need to go to the Court of Protection to access these funds will not suffer financially as a result. 

Our working group will look at improving this process even further, making it more streamlined and accessible.

Professor Baroness Finlay of Llandaff Chair of the National Mental Capacity Forum, said:

The Mental Capacity Act offers important protections for vulnerable people who cannot make decisions for themselves.

We need to balance the needs of families with children with a learning disability with ensuring appropriate safeguards are in place. Improving guidance and removing the need to pay fees are welcome steps to providing that balance.

Dan Scorer, Head of Policy and Public Affairs at the learning disability charity Mencap, said:

High costs and the complexity of the legal system are stopping families from accessing Child Trust Fund money for young people with a learning disability who can’t manage the funds themselves.

We welcome the government’s commitment that no one will have to pay fees to solely access a Child Trust Fund via the Court of Protection.

We hope that the establishment of an advisory working group will help streamline the legal process to help families access a Child Trust Fund.

Any changes made must both make it easier for family members and protect the best interests of people with a learning disability.

Eligibility for fee remission is based upon the capital and income of the person who is lacking capacity – in this case the child. The vast majority of those applying to the Court of Protection will not have to pay a fee if they: 

• apply prior to the child’s 18th birthday
• ask for a fee waiver through the Help with Fees scheme

or

• ask for a fee waiver due to exceptional circumstances, which includes the CTF being the only asset of the child (regardless of the amount), and where their monthly income is below £1,085

Updated guidance has been provided to the Court of Protection to address these circumstances and when a fee remission is applicable.  This will ensure that parents, guardians, and young people do not suffer the consequences of not being informed they need to apply prior to the young person’s 18th birthday. 

Notes to editors

• The Lord Chancellor has the power in certain cases to grant a fee remission. This power can be used to grant a fee remission for those applications to the Court of Protection made after the account holder’s 18th birthday. Families can apply for this remission immediately.
• However, we strongly encourage families to make an application before the dependant’s 18th birthday. If a property and affairs application is made to the Court of Protection before the dependent’s 18th birthday, the balance in the Child Trust Fund does not count as capital. This means they can apply for a remission under the Help with Fees scheme and do not have to pay fees unless they have any other asset worth over £3,000 or income, not including certain benefits, over £1,085 a month.
• If the application is made after the 18th birthday, but the circumstances are as above, they are also be eligible for a fee remission.
• In cases where the application is made after the 18th birthday, and the amount is more than £3,000, then normally they would have to pay the fee. However, we are now encouraging families to apply for their fee to be reconsidered, which could then allow the Lord Chancellor, on a case-by-case basis, to determine that they will be eligible to not pay the fee. The government’s intention is that no one who needs to apply to the Court of Protection solely to access a Child Trust Fund will pay fees.
• The Working Group, comprised of officials within the Ministry of Justice working with HM Treasury, will look into other options to make the process easier for those needing to go to the Court of Protection to access the Child trust Fund. They will report back in due course.
• A CTF is a long-term, tax-free savings account for young people. The government launched the CTF scheme in 2005 to provide each eligible child born between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011 with a financial asset upon reaching adulthood. Parents and guardians received a voucher from the government to deposit in a CTF account, and anyone can pay into the accounts. The money belongs to the young person and they can only take it out when they turn 18.