Today we launch the next two reports from our Inquiry into the Future of Voluntary Services.
The first “Outsourcing and the Voluntary Sector” by Laird Ryan explores the motivations, progress and impact of the Coalition government’s drive to privatise public services and how this has impacted on the voluntary sector in England. In surveying the … Continue reading
In what is going to be a pretty massive release, we have today uploaded the first two of sixteen reports from our Inquiry into the Future of Voluntary Services. The general background to our Inquiry is provided by Dexter Whitfield’s ‘The Ideological Context’, which sketches out how neo-liberal ideas have damaged public services and … Continue reading
The results of research can be important in shaping and re-shaping our understandings and assumptions about our work and its effectiveness. But often academic research uses obscure language and is presented in ways that make practitioners lose the will to live. So we’ve been playing around with ways to make research more accessible and have … Continue reading
Get the gossip, be outraged by the scandals and thrill to the triumphs… our latest news letter is now out and you can enjoy it here… Continue reading
Our latest newsletter is now out – what do we now do about the Gagging Act? plus news of the heroes and quite a lot of dirty dealing as usual. Settle down with a cup of tea and enjoy the read here… Continue reading
NCIA has urged charities and other voluntary groups to consider breaking the law by defying the requirements of the Lobbying Act. The new legislation, nicknamed the Gagging Act, will restrict charities’ expenditure on campaigning and limit their ability to speak up for the people they exist to serve. The new law is framed in such … Continue reading
The government’s largely discredited ‘Big Society’ mantra promised to strengthen the capacity of civil society. More evidence of the empty rhetoric that surrounds the idea now comes from LSE’s Armine Ishkanian. In an article published in Critical Social Policy, Armine examines how “…. The Big Society agenda, coming alongside public spending cuts, is affecting the … Continue reading
Our latest newsletter is now up, read all about it…. here… Continue reading
Here’s the latest in our series of essays as part of our Inquiry into Voluntary Services. This comes from Simon Duffy of the Centre for Welfare Reform, and Campaign for a Fair Society, who argues that our defence of the Welfare State needs to be rooted in the idea of equal citizenship.
“The purpose of … Continue reading
Over here at NCIA we often rail on about the apparent shortage of radical voluntary organisations. But maybe we wouldn’t be so surprised if we took the trouble to find out who is running these groups. This is what Mike Barker does in an incisive article called the ‘The Austerity of Charity’. Mike charts the … Continue reading