Back in 2013 Ursula Murray produced an important paper which examined the influences of neo-liberal thinking on developments in the voluntary sector, which we published on this website. Ursula has just sent us a revised version of this paper dated February 2014 which she says is “…still in a late 2013/ very early 2014 mindset … Continue reading
We hear a lot from service providers about how they have no alternative but bend to government and state policies or risk going out of business. But another way is possible. Those of us who went to the recent NCIA meeting in Sheffield were lucky enough to hear Gina Clayton talk about the work of … Continue reading
Sussex is one area of the country lucky enough to have a feisty local Defend our NHS campaign. Lately the group has been taking a look at the role of voluntary agencies in the struggle to stop the break-up of the Health Service. The result is an impressive paper. Whilst voluntary groups can both oppose … Continue reading
NCIA director Adrian Barritt, of Adur Voluntary Action, driven in from a chilly Bodmin Moor, took the opportunity to ponder four reports recently published that examine the state of the voluntary sector and its possible futures. The result is an elegant analysis of the issues and of the forces and factors that explain the responses … Continue reading
The Barings Panel on the Independence of the Voluntary Sector finished its work with the publication of its fourth report. Faithfully repeating the evidence it received – the state of the sector is bad and getting worse – the report broadly supports what NCIA has been saying for years. But sadly lacking is any kind … 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
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
Another excellent contribution to our debate about the future of voluntary services comes from Linda Milbourne and Mike Cushman. ‘Complying, transforming or resisting in the new austerity?’ powerfully unpacks “… changes that appear to be modifying and restricting the voluntary sector’s previous role in social welfare, limiting its influence and its ability to act simultaneously … Continue reading
In an important new paper, Ursula Murray, from Birkbeck University of London, addresses many of the key issues of our ‘Inquiry into the Future of Voluntary Services’. Entitled ‘To what extent is the voluntary sector colonised by neo-liberal thinking?’, the paper examines the involvement of the voluntary sector in the dismantling of the welfare state, … Continue reading