Our latest newsletter is now out. Read about our Inquiry in the Future of Voluntary Services – can they still be called ‘radical’? Plus tales of heroism … and the madness that continues. Read it here – http://ymlp.com/zAthfM… Continue reading
As we brace ourselves for the benefits cuts on the 1st April, read our latest news on who is fighting what …… and who isn’t – newsletter No 32… Continue reading
Here We Stand, the NCIA Inquiry into local activism and dissent has now reported its findings. The Inquiry, carried out with Manchester Metropolitan University, documents how local activists exert an active democratic and egalitarian influence. We found growing resistance to cuts and austerity, with local people organising around what matters to them: safeguarding public … Continue reading
Message from 38 Degrees… please act now! It’s being called backdoor NHS privatisation. And if we want to stop it, what happens in Parliament this week is crucial. Some Labour, Lib Dem and Green MPs have tabled a motion demanding the NHS privatisation plan be immediately withdrawn. [1] As of last Monday, only 72 MPs … Continue reading
An inspiring video – ‘A Polite Revolution’ – from activists in Barnet shows how an alliance between occupy, trades unions and local people can make an impact that goes beyond the sum of the parts. Faced with the closure of Friern Barnet library, the building was occupied and kept open by local people. This forced … Continue reading
Just before Christmas the government laid before Parliament the regulations governing the new ‘Healthwatch’ bodies, that will, in April, take over from LINK the role of patients’ watchdog within the NHS. Hidden in these regulations is Provision 36, which effectively disbars ‘Healthwatch’ from any involvement in matters of Law or policy relating “.. to any … Continue reading
Our latest newsletter is out – you can drool over it here – http://ymlp.com/zlZEoM… Continue reading
Bucking the trend towards mergers, acquisitions and single contracts to corporate predators, positive news is coming in from West Sussex, where fresh agreements between the local authorities and the County’s seven CVSs explicitly recognise the importance of locally accountable provision.
Several years ago, the County was a focus of an NCIA study into the effects … Continue reading
Back in October, 150 lively people participated in our conference on ‘Outsourcing and Austerity: Civil Society and the Coalition Government’. The conference, organised by NCIA and the TUC with Unison, Unite and NAVCA, provided an opportunity to examine the damaging effects of government policy and ways in which activists, trades unionists, and voluntary sector groups … Continue reading
One of the strongest features of 2012 was the obvious drift of the voluntary services sector towards a government-inspired vision of contracted and sub-contracted welfare providers, modelled on private business styles and practices, or shoehorned into ‘social enterprise’. And with this has come a deafening silence in speaking out against the privation and injustice being … Continue reading