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Policy briefing 8 May 2010

(24th April - 8 May)

  • The voluntary sector
  • Policy & consultations
  • Skills & workforce
  • Think tank & research activities

Whilst the media has been totally immersed in covering the ebbs and flows flows of the election campaign over the past two weeks, the world of policy has been relatively quiet aside from a couple of Select Committee reports (including an especially scathing one on the Skills Funding Agency).

As no single political party has gained enough votes to form a government outright, both voluntary organisations and skills bodies will be contemplating what the implications of a hung parliament might be over the coming weeks.

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The Voluntary Sector

The Labour Minister for the Third Sector, Angela Smith has lost the vote in the Basildon and Thurrock constituency which swung to the Conservatives by 9.7%. Elsewhere, the Conservative Shadow Minister for the Third Sector, Nick Hurd won the Ruislip constituency with a 2.8% swing and Jenny Willott of the Liberal Democrats won the vote in Cardiff Central despite losing 8.4% of the vote. However, Nick Hurd has said that he is uncertain whether he would be the third sector minister in a Conservative-led government.

Various umbrella bodies have spoken out on the subject of a hung parliament. ACEVO have drawn attention to the challenges it will create for chief executives, pushing their lobbying skills to the limit. NAVCA, meanwhile, have warned that a hung parliament would not entail the need to convince a new government of the merit of the voluntary sector as all the parties already share a broad consensus about the value of voluntary work. The Charities Aid Foundation have said that the increased number of stakeholders would make it easier to influence legislation in the third sector’s favour.

The annual NCVO Almanac has declared its findings for the year. The Almanac found that Civil Society had an income of £157 billion last year, with 1.6 million employees (668,000 of which worked for voluntary organisations) and 900,000 organisations (171,000 of which were active voluntary organisations). It defined “Civil Society” as not just charities and voluntary organisations but also employee-owned businesses, companies limited by guarantee, co-operatives and universities. Other findings included that 20.4 million adults formally volunteer every year (41% of the population) and that 36% of Civil Society’s income comes from statutory sources.

Charitable giving and volunteering has declined in England over the past five years according to the annual citizenship survey (pdf file) published by CLG. The survey shows that levels of “civic engagement” remained at 47% and that only 26% of people took part in formal volunteering on a monthly basis, compared with 29% in 2005. Charitable giving also declined, with 74% of people in 2008/09 saying they had given money to charity in the four weeks before the survey compared to 78% in 2005.

ACEVO has written to the three main parties demanding assurances that they will continue the £1 billion Future Jobs Fund, which has offered 70,000 job placements in charities so far. Labour and the Liberal Democrats have promised to keep the Future Jobs Fund. The Conservatives, meanwhile, have promised to review the scheme in 2011.

Citizens UK, a national network of civil society organisations has published its manifesto. They call for the next government to recognise “civil society” as an equal partner with government and markets; the public sector to adopt the Living Wage; the creation of an interest cap on loans and access to affordable credit for communities; the end of detention of children in immigration centres; affordable housing to be offered through Community Land Trusts; and a conditional “earned regularisation” for long-term irregular immigrants.

A research paper by New Philanthropy Capital suggests that measurement of charity effectiveness is hindered by a lack of understanding of Social Return on Investment (SROI). In order for SROI to achieve its full potential, investment needs to be made to help charities collect evidence of their impact. The expression of outcomes in terms of financial values is recommended in order to gain a deeper understanding of the value of each element of a charity’s work.

Compact Voice has created a website to highlight the views of all the Prospective Parliamentary Candidates to the voluntary and community sector. It asked each candidate four questions, including how important the sector is to their constituency and whether they would champion the Compact in their constituency. The answers are available online.

Over 500 third sector organisations have signed a letter to the leaders of the three main parties calling for reforms to high-street banking. The open letter from the Better Banking Coalition calls on the next government to require banks to introduce greater transparency about their loans and for a Community Reinvestment Act which would require banks to provide more services in deprived areas or fund specialist third sector organisations such as community development finance institutions and credit unions.

Policy & Consultations

The Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee has published a report on the post-LSC education landscape. The committee remain unconvinced that recent changes have been an improvement, creating significantly more organisations involved in the delivery of further education and presenting insufficient evidence of long-term cost savings. The committee welcome the publication of national and regional skills strategies but argue that they are overly focused on public sector organisations and need to take greater account of the views and needs of business.

The Children, Schools and Families Select Committee has published a report which persuades the Government to reform the benefits system for young people based on the model of the Netherlands. In the Dutch system, more generous levels of benefits are offered to young people in exchange for greater compulsion to take up education, training or work. The report also calls for increased co-location of welfare and other services in line with the Total Place approach.

Skills & Workforce

The Local Government Workforce Strategy 2010 published by the Improvement and Development Agency has a clear focus on the need for partnerships and effective multi-agency working throughout the areas of organisational transformation, leadership, skills development, recruitment and retention in the local government workforce.

Improvement and Efficiency West Midlands, with the IDeA and the National Apprenticeship Service has produced an online guide to support councils to engage with Apprenticeships. The guide explains how Apprenticeships are used to improve the local government workforce age profile, address skills shortages and reduce the number of young people not in education, employment or training.

The Learning and Skills Improvement Service has published its corporate plan for the next three years. The plan promises continued support for STEM priorities (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), further support for employers to meet their skill needs in priority areas, and for curriculum developments that encourage the wider participation of disadvantaged learners and young NEETs.

Think Tank & Research Activities

The think tank Demos have presented their analysis of the main parties’ education policies. Conservative proposals to drive up standards through opening up provision are regarded as “highly debatable”. Labour’s education policy is seen to be “a solid and sensible, if unexciting, set of proposals”. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats’ are seen to lack detail, especially on the proposed Pupil Premium. On balance, Demos conclude that Labour would be the best placed to respond to learning inequalities.

According to research by the Guardian, in the top 100 marginal seats, over 25% of Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidates have worked in the third sector, 13% of Tories (excluding trustees and volunteering), and about 10% of the Lib Dem candidates have had paid work in the charitable sector.

A New Economic Foundation report, “Public Services Inside Out” (pdf file) examines how new relationships may be fostered between professionals, service users, families and neighbours. The key themes suggested by the report include recognising people as assets; building on existing capabilities; establishing mutual responsibilities; the importance of peer networks; blurred distinctions between professionals and recipients; and the facilitation rather than delivery of services.

The Improvement and Development Agency have published a report on how an asset-based approach to wealth might tackle health inequalities in an era of public service cuts. An asset-based approach would focus on building social capital, promoting face-to-face community networks, and encouraging civic participation in order to improve health outcomes, well-being, and resilience.

The Economic and Social Research Council has produced a briefing paper on the prospects for the third sector following the General Election. The issues and opportunities facing the sector include increased delivery of public services, the reworking of funding models such as sub-contracting and social investment, the potential for civic engagement offered through the localism agenda, and increased pressure for value for money in terms of both outcomes and outputs.

The Work Foundation has produced a report (pdf file) on the workforce implications of a low-carbon economy. The report argues that the cross-sectoral nature of many “green jobs” results in a poor match with standard occupational classifications. Meanwhile, the development of an appropriately skilled workforce remains uncertain due to a lack of investment in infrastructure and technical skills, and the absence of reliable demand for low-carbon services.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers has published a report on the future of social care. The report warns of impending challenges such as the move towards personalised services, payment-by-results and micro-commissioning. These challenges entail greater engagement with individuals to plan for future care needs and support for smaller organisations operating in a more competitive care market.

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