Read the notes of our planning group meeting on 21 November 2011 for some tactical thinking about how to respond to the Localism Act and a reflection on who we’re working with and where we want to make stronger links.

NCIA planning group, 21 November 2011 at Trades Union Council (TUC), Congres House, London

Present: Bernard Davies, Bob Colenutt, Melaina Barnes (facilitation), Maxine Moar, Joe Taylor, Nasreen Subhan, Rachael McGill (notes), Penny Waterhouse, Laura Wirtz, Ruth Cohen, Steve Lancashire, Andy Benson, Laird Ryan, Frances Sullivan (chair), Adrian Barritt.

Apologies: Nick Beddows, Colin Rochester, Chris Walsh, Matt Dykes (TUC), Jay Kennedy

Info sharing and updates from last meeting

Bernard: In Defence of Youth Work (IDYW) case studies have been published, funded by Unite and Unison. Also a 4 page summary. http://www.indefenceofyouthwork.org.uk/wordpress/?page_id=837

Penny: Supporting activists interviews have been finished and written up and an event was held for those involved, but not many turned up. Question of what to do with the material now?

Melaina and Rachael: met with Matthew Smerdon, Baring Foundation, and Caroline Slocock, Secretariat of Barings independence panel (suggested by Adrian after meeting with Barings panel and National Association of Voluntary and Community Action (NAVCA) which felt positive). But not much common ground between NCIA positions and Caroline’s.

Andy: spoke at the Locality conference, which was very corporate: stalls about private health care, focus on social enterprise. Parts of the audience were mostly hostile to Andy’s contribution about ‘speaking truth to power’. Development Trusts Association (DTA) values have obviously been dominant in the DTA/BASSAC (British Association of Settlements and Social Action Centres) merger that created Locality.

Joe: National Community Activists Network http://nationalcan.ning.com/ is running some webinars on community development, first one on December 1st, further ones on January 24th and February 14th 2012. Also three conferences with speakers, to decide on campaign actions: the first is in Preston on Feb 23rd, 2012.

Discussion about Enterprise Zones/National Planning Policy Framework/Localism Bill

Locality has the contract to support organisations around planning and setting up local forums. Their independent voice has been diluted because they are now so closely involved in delivering government agendas. They are acting as a ‘supervisor’ and ‘expert’ – providing technocratic advice, telling people what they can and can’t do, not exposing the politics of it.

Discussion of the non-democratic working of ‘enterprise zones’ – approval of un-sustainable developments with no community consultation. The word ‘sustainable’ appears in the government’s documents but remains undefined. In London, the mayor has almost absolute power. National Planning Policy Framework legislation will prevent real local developments and undermine local activism (the ‘big society’). Ordinary people are excluded from the process: their remaining options are occupying or burning stuff down. Possibilities of whistleblowing to Private Eye, getting in with local authority forums to develop local plans and influencing from within, linking up with the Tory heartland which doesn’t like these developments either (only developers do). Lots of overlap with housing issues.

Planners Network UK http://www.pnuk.org.uk/ analyses these ideas on its blog, but this isn’t reaching voluntary and community sector people who might want to be involved in local planning. Organisations need community development support to make political connections. We should keep an eye on this area as once people are rejected by their neighbourhood forums (or are involved but feeling resentful of them), they might be looking elsewhere. Planning could be a theme at a future assembly?

Group discussions about NCIA alliances

Who have we worked with? This was a quick brainstorm – it’s not an exhaustive list…

National organisations and networks
NCVO
NatCAN
CDX (community development exchange)
Federation for community development and learning (FCDL)
Community Sector Coalition
Directory of Social Change
Locality
AdviceUK

Regional groups and organisations
North West Tenants and Residents’ Association
LVSC (London voluntary service council)

Local groups
Chilipep
Social Action for Health
Hackney Advice Forum

Campaigns
Just Wage
In Defence of Youth Work

Second tiers
South west foundation (a small community development foundation)
Community development south east
Community Development London
Aston Mansfield (where NCIA office is based)
Adur Voluntary Action

Funders
Tudor trust

Universities
Nottingham university
London School of Economics
Roehampton University

Prompted the questions:

• What do we mean by worked with?
• Is giving a speech at an event working with someone?

And the mention of Locality prompted the question:

• Are we thinking of allies or enemies!

We asked the question: What alliances will help us make a louder noise about independent action?

We worked in three groups to think of who we want to continue working with, who we want to start working with, who we want to influence and who we want to expose.

Continue working with

Aston Mansfield
NatCAN (signpost in NCIA newsletter)
DSC
TUC
Unions (policy level and branch level – shop stewards)
In Defence of Youth Work
Academics who are angry
Individaul voluntary orgs / professional sector groupings

Start working with
Direct action bunch – occupy movement, bank of ideas
Anti-cuts campaigns
Transition movement
CDS cooperatives (housing)
Citizens UK
Equality Trust
Local voluntary sector (who speak our language)

Influence
Some members of Locality
Individual journalists
NAVCA
Nef
Local authorities, local councillors
Young people, students – next generation of voluntary sector workers and activists
Agencies involved in commissioning
Shop Stewards
Green MP
Professional Trade Associations e.g. chartered institutes
Linked in

Expose
Local voluntary sector and national voluntary sector (who don’t speak about independence)
Locality – the organisation
The government on specific bills affecting the voluntary sector and its industry of consultants etc. lining their own pockets
Local authorities
ACEVO
NAVCA
NCVO

We talked about the results.

• General feeling that it’s better to concentrate on people we want to work with and to get on with things rather than use our scarce resources to do the labour-intensive work of influencing people who aren’t really interested in independent action
• Do the times demand that we give up the middle ground?
• But people are scared to speak out and be marginalised – they want to carry on doing what they can and don’t want to lose their jobs
• Do we need some sort of whistle-blowing service / wikileaks where people can expose threats to independent voluntary action anonymously?

Next steps
•    Circulate the list of who we want to work with to the planning group and ask people if they have links that they could use to promote ideas about independent action
•    Do something with the Occupy movement