State of the Voluntary Services Sector – here Bob Baker, Director of the Simon Community, writes in a personal capacity…..
“The so called voluntary sector is in a pretty parlous state particularly when it comes to any notion of resistance. I think that changes over the past 30 years have had really corrosive effects. One … Continue reading
In hard hitting evidence to the Baring’s Panel on Independence, commentator Les Huckfield accused lambasted the “London-centric” ‘leaders’ of the voluntary sector. “Rather than protecting voluntary and community organisations from the effects of Government policies and supporting their independence from Government,” he said, “national Third Sector Organisations have assisted and supported Government initiatives to fashion … Continue reading
We have now produced a full briefing for the work we are undertaking on our Inquiry into the Future of Voluntary Services. You can download this paper here. If you want to know more about the inquiry or let us have evidence please get in touch with Andy Benson – andy@independentaction.net… Continue reading
Can voluntary services survive? And survive as what? Launch of NCIA Inquiry, Friday May 10th, 2013, 11-3pm at Institute for Family Therapy, 24-32 Stephenson Way London NW1 2HX
Come and join our inquiries….
The pressures on local voluntary groups providing services are immense and getting worse. Cuts in their funding… Increasing need from desperate communities….. … 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 Some Labour, Lib Dem and Green MPs have tabled a motion demanding the NHS privatisation plan be immediately withdrawn.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
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
October 15th marked a decisive moment for anti-privatisation campaigners when the Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust announced that the county’s 8 community hospitals and health services (including 3000 nurses and other health workers would remain in the NHS. This reversed an earlier decision to outsource services by creating a ‘social enterprise’, in what would have … Continue reading
NCIA along with the TUC, Unite, Unison, NAVCA and others are organising a major conference in London on the 5th October. Entitled ‘Outsourcing and Austerity: Civil Society and the Coalition Government’, the conference will aim to examine the impact of cuts in public spending, Coalition Government attempts to abolish rights, entitlements and services, … Continue reading
An astonishing expose by Social Investigations has revealed the role played last year by Stephen Bubb, chief executive of ACEVO, in pushing the interests of private healthcare providers. Bubb had chaired the Government’s ‘Choice and Competition’ sub group – as part of the so-called ‘listening exercise, set up after vociferous opposition to the plans for … Continue reading