With the party conference season just around the corner, voluntary sector leaders are preparing to inform and influence key decision-makers against a background of complex challenges.
The last 12 months have been defined by public sector spending cuts and increased demands on charity services. Many organisations have experienced unprecedented reductions in council funding this year, forcing them to squeeze or shut services. Citizens Advice, for example, has just reported funding cuts as high as 60% in some of its bureaux, which translated into 780,000 fewer people receiving advice on issues such as debt and employment between April and July 2011.
The "big society" conundrum continues to spark debate: how can the voluntary sector fulfil the coalition government's hope of it supporting locally designed and led services without being given adequate resources to do so? The white paper on open public services published in July offers opportunities for the sector to become more involved in service delivery. But some fear that payment-by-results contracts will exclude smaller charities, while others say the commissioning process needs an overhaul to create a level playing field for the sector.
The Conservative's pre-election vision of big society focused on devolving power to neighbourhoods and giving charities greater access to running public services. Labour's Social Action Forum, set up at the end of last year and chaired by former cabinet minister Hazel Blears, has been touring the country for examples of best practice in community engagement and local decision making. The Liberal Democrats published their Community Futures policy paper on the voluntary sector early this year, with plans to modernise sector infrastructure and deregulate charities.
Preserving the unique role of the voluntary sector in this shifting public policy landscape is the subject of a fringe event that umbrella groups the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) and the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (Acevo) are co-hosting at all three party conferences. Entitled Going quiet? Are charities being co-opted by the state?, the events will bring speakers from Action for Children, Reform, Relate and Scope together with MPs Charlie Elphicke (at the Conservative conference) and Lisa Nandy (at the Labour conference).
Chloe Stables, NCVO's parliamentary and media manager says the coalition government's emphasis on localism and public service reform means the sector's different roles look set to grow. "Charities rightly form part of the UK's public policy landscape: we influence decisions, we provide services and, often, we speak out on behalf of the people we represent," she says. "There is a need to explore the tensions between these three roles in the context of the sector's most prized asset – its independence."
NCVO is hosting a roundtable event at each conference with the voluntary sector spokesperson from that party. Attendees will include successful applicants to its party conference bursary scheme. Under this scheme, NCVO takes five member organisations to each conference and helps them to connect with policymakers. This year's winners include Preston-based Red Rose Sports club, which helps increase participation in sport and recreation by people from disadvantaged backgrounds and Mothertongue, a professional counselling service in Reading for new arrivals in the UK.
The spontaneous cleanup operation by armies of broom-bearing volunteers after the August riots was a welcome demonstration of civic spirit. How to recreate such enthusiasm will be the focus of fringe debates at all three party conferences organised by public policy think tank, Respublica. Its Civic Limits draft report published in July 2011 called for a doubling of the nation's civic core – the 30% of adults who do 90% of volunteer hours – in order to achieve the societal change needed to deliver big society.
The report, which will reflect sector feedback when the final version is published during conference season, highlighted the need to address barriers to participation, such as poor access to information and limited techniques for government consultations.
Volunteering England's chief executive Justin Davis Smith, who will be speaking at the Civic Limits event at the Conservative conference, says: "We need to analyse how we involve our own volunteers – young and old – and ask ourselves whether we do the most to encourage their decision making and leadership in our organisations."
Davis Smith says the riot response – with volunteers' use of Twitter and Facebook – could offer useful pointers: "We do also need to see how it depended on technologies and to see where it built upon people's experience of organising in their communities."
Finding solutions to the penal system's poor record on preventing reoffending is the aim of the Transition to Adulthood (T2A) alliance's party conference events. The coalition of 12 youth and criminal justice charities convened by the Barrow Cadbury Trust includes Nacro, Revolving Doors Agency and Young Minds. It will be highlighting findings from some of its pilot projects to improve chances for offenders aged 18-24, who account for a third of the prison population and have the highest reoffending rates.
Max Rutherford of the trust's criminal justice programme says: "The conferences offer an opportunity to shape some of the discussions around reoffending and highlight replicable solutions."
Translating the landmark Dilnot Commission report published in July into lasting reform of social care funding and legislation is the current focus for many health and social care charities. Age UK will be hosting fringe events with the Care & Support Alliance at each conference to discuss how to move forward the report's recommendations. Report author Andrew Dilnot, chair of the funding commission and Stephen Dorrell, chair of the health select committee, will take part in the Conservative conference event.
Angela Kitching from Age UK's public affairs team says the events are designed to reflect the concerns of the sector as the government shapes its white paper before the spring. "Our major focus will be making use of the parties so that social care is properly represented," she says. "We don't think it's a done deal, even at this stage."
Age UK is also hoping to influence public service commissioners with a series of events with mental health charity Rethink and the local government association. Kitching says these recognise the "shift in power" in how public health is being organised. "It's a chance for local authorities to talk to the voluntary sector. We want to get them thinking about working more closely together and involving people in designing services."
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