During 2013 and 2014, NCIA undertook a major project to describe and review the landscape occupied by those voluntary and community organisations that deliver services in local communities, especially those that accept state money for these activities. These are the groups that have been particularly affected by successive New Labour and Coalition Government policies regarding the relationship between the voluntary and statutory sectors, and attitudes and intentions towards the future of public services.

The NCIA Inquiry into the Future of Voluntary Services has been an attempt to document the changes that have occurred in the landscape of voluntary services. Our contributors have examined the impact of successive government policies on these services, those who manage them and work in them, and the consequences for service users. The Inquiry has also placed these changes in the wider context of the political and ideological trends that have been dominant over this period, the massive cuts in public finance and service and the privatisation of public services that is are now taking place. Though the picture painted by this work is, in most part, bleak and dispiriting, we hope that it will be seen as a positive contribution to the debates that are urgently needed within the sector if the robust traditions of independent voluntary action with a commitment to social justice are to be rescued.

The Inquiry allowed the publication of 17 separate reports dealing with the main issues that bear on the role and activities of VSGs. We are deeply grateful to all those who freely gave their time to produce this wealth of material and to the wider reference group that helped to shape the project.

The Inquiry Reports are now available to download here – http://archive.independentaction.net/ncia-leaflets-and-research/