Come along to the Aston-Mansfield conference on Tuesday 27 September if you want to hear NCIA folks and others get to grips with the urgent need for independent action.
Times are undoubtedly tough. Voluntary groups and community organisations are facing the most severe threat to the long-term sustainability of independent voluntary action in recent memory. … Continue reading
Adur Voluntary Action has opted out of bids for the transforming local infrastructure fund. Adrian Barritt explains the practical and philosophical concerns that led to the decision
To me, infrastructure used to mean something military, or the foundations of a building – until I studied social science. Then I learned that … Continue reading
Sarah Lamb, trustee of Adur Voluntary Action and a lifelong volunteer, explains why the Transforming Local Infrastructure scheme won’t work
The beauty of the voluntary sector has been, and still is in many instances, precisely the fact that the solutions it finds, the ways it relates to the people it serves and the people it … Continue reading
John Seddon reflects on how a systems thinking method has improved public services but is now under threat from cuts, commissioning and ‘big society’ as the government fails to move beyond central control and large-scale initiatives.
David Cameron described the ‘big society’ as a ‘culture change’, where people are free and powerful enough to help … Continue reading
Andy Benson spots fake sincerity and voluntary sector window dressing in the Open Public Services White Paper
Having just read the government’s White Paper ‘Open Public Services’ I am reminded of two maxims. The first – ‘above all else people value sincerity; if you can fake that you’ve got it made’. This document is full … Continue reading
Colleagues at Adur Voluntary Action set out what’s wrong with the Transforming Local Infrastructure scheme and ask key questions to help us find an alternative.
The UK Office for Civil Society’s Transforming Local Infrastructure scheme offers £50m to fund local support organisations to merge, collaborate and share services such as IT. The funding is short … Continue reading
Two new youth work case studies show that we need to defend independent voluntary action if young people and youth workers are to be included in democratic decisions about youth services.
From partner to butler: Defending young people’s participation from local authority take-over (2011) shows how a council’s narrow vision of voluntary action limited young … Continue reading
Sarah Lamb is a trustee of Adur Voluntary Action. She was one of the people who contributed to qualitative research in 2009 on The local state and voluntary action in West Sussex which showed the damage commissioning does. NCIA caught up with her to find out how things have been going over the last 18 … Continue reading
Our new paper has evidence about the dangers of commissioning, localism and ‘big society’, all part of the government’s privatisation agenda.
• Public service cuts are a political choice, not an inevitability.
• Creating competitive markets in the voluntary sector through commissioning damages services, users and staff and threatens independence.
• ‘Localism’ and ‘big society’ … Continue reading
Read our new guide and manifesto for managing for independence (4 pages PDF) for ideas about how to get talking, make power visible, organise and act, and get help when you need it. The guide is designed to help us remember that effective voluntary action can’t be reduced to targets and the latest management jargon … Continue reading