How to focus NCIA’s work in the next six months – and make the most of alliances – was up for discussion at the planning group meeting on 17 January at TUC Congress House.
Present: Chris Walsh, Jonathan Hyams, Steve Lancashire, Bernard Davies, Andy Benson (chair), Ruth Cohen (notes), Maxine Moar, Penny Waterhouse, Frances Sullivan, Colin Rochester, Matt Dykes, Nick Beddoes, Nazreen Subhan, Adrian Barritt, Rachael McGill, Brian Cohen, Melaina Barnes
Apologies: Randi Baden, Bob Colenutt, Joe Taylor, Sarah Sherriff, Laura Wirtz, Kevin Blowe, Dorothy Newton, Laird Ryan
Update on NCIA funding
Present funding will last until August and directors will be looking at options for NCIA after that. We have raised some additional funds (£16.5k) from Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust with a small grant from the Wainwright Trust. We are committed to using this mainly for work on anti-privatisation. the directors will be meeting on January 30th to discuss options for getting this work done, including the possibility of offering some short term freelance work.
Main item: The next eight months until August: mapping what we want to do (facilitated by Rachael and Melaina)
Rachael and Melaina provided a summary of our previous conclusions about those organisations/constituencies we want to work with and/or influence to inform the discussion: see notes of last meeting (http://archive.independentaction.net/2011/12/20/planning-group21nov2011/)
We discussed each of our three main areas of work, looking at a list of what NCIA has done so far and who we’ve worked with, in order to arrive at conclusions for future work.
Privatisation and public services
Work so far
• Privatisation policy paper and short briefings produced, disseminated, publicised
• Spoke or distributed fliers at events/conferences including Pensioners’ Parliament, NatCan, In Defence of Youth Work, Resilience,Locality, Voluntary Sector Studies Network
• Chapter for LSE publication: critique of “Big Society”
• Commented on TUC policy positions
• Resourcing voluntary action paper /NatCan discussion
• Adur research on commissioning
Agreed that this has had an impact: NCIA has contributed to a real change in the conversation within the sector, noticed for example at Third Sector Research Centre conference. Some of what we are saying is now mainstream.
Who we’ve worked with
LSE, TUC, Unite, London Voluntary Service Council, Greater Manchester Council for Voluntary Organisations, Federation for Community Development Learning, In Defence of Youth Work, NatCan, NAVCA, Directory for Social Change
We should extend our work with NAVCA, especially around use of the law to challenge privatisation and work with lawyers involved in this area (eg Public Law Project).
What next?
• Keep making the points on a sector by sector basis – pointing up ideological opposition to privatisation as well as practical points.
• Express what we want to see instead; create an alternative vision. Provide a non-competitive model for resource allocation.
• Critique ‘social enterprise’, Work Programme and other specific initiatives. In April/May there will be media interest in Work Prog, we should be ready with alternatives and emphasise that this is going to unravel – do organisations want to be part of that?
• Do more policy papers/publications and media activity, gathering and publicising evidence of the consequences of privatisation for the sector, and for end users.
• Repackage NCIA arguments for people working in the sector who are not our natural allies so far: through case examples and telling stories with lots of concrete detail. Also produce a ‘myth-busting’ publication.
• Research to expose issues in specific fields eg youth work, community development (working with CDX/ FCDL/Campaign for CD), homelessness, employment, second tiers. Greater emphasis on evidence – case examples as above. Planning group should be able to provide these? Tell stories about how people have used the law: contact Law Centres Federation/Public Law Project re case studies
• Run workshops around privatisation material and use case study material at these and other events
• Think about what people can actually do if they agree with us. The voluntary sector should boycott current government approaches and demand something different (but will that make any difference?)
Managing for independence
Work so far
• Policy paper
• Independence audit produced and on website, pilot audits undertaken
• Community audit devised
• Training session at Aston Mansfield conference
• Youth work case studies on website
• Link with Barings Independence Panel
Who we’ve worked with
• NSUN, SASS, Aston Mansfield, 42nd Street, AVA (audits)
• Nottingham University, Laura Wirtz,
• Also organisations which expressed interest but not yet followed up include HCVS, SAFH, Lewisham CVS, LVSC, Chilipep, FCDL
What next?
• Is this now completed/a distraction? Or (the consensus) should we be taking it inside organisations, help people challenging from within. Power shift away from grass roots workers and decreasing democracy are affecting people’s work lives. This could be a way to hook people in, we could work with trade unions.
• Make more specific links between this and our other areas of work; integrate it into the work we do next on privatisation and supporting activism.
• TUC is working on impact of privatisation on the voluntary sector – we need to talk to Matt about this.
• Produce case studies of people who have resisted/are doing it differently.
• Planning group and people on our mailing list need to use NCIA website, social media and email much more: sharing stories and information
• We should tackle the fear workers now have of speaking out, and help people to whistleblow. We should also name and shame goodies and baddies (organisations not individuals)
Supporting activists
What we’ve done so far
Much of this is integrated into other work, difficult to quantify.
• Projects with Gloucester and Leicester advice agencies (conclusion is that such work has to be locally based)
• Action-research in Hackney
• Campaign statement
• Community organisers conversation (Andy, Jane, Ellie)
• Talking with CSC
• General/ongoing communications work including Newsletter: creating solidarity, being a network for people
Who we’ve worked with
• Activists and groups in Hackney
• NatCan
What next?
• Need to think about what constitutes an activist
• Have joint meetings with trade unions about supporting activism
• Need to produce help/guidance for activists.
• Collecting stories: joint meetings with Community Sector Coalition about telling stories. Socratic method suggested for getting the detail. Get stories of good CD workers still in CVSs (via CDX?).
• Support dispossessed activists (NaTCan)
• Link with more online networks
• More links with universities and colleges
Next meeting
19 March, 2-4 pm. Venue to be decided.