building a stronger civil society

© Urban Forum 2010 

Nick Hurd, Minister for Civil Society, has published ‘Building a Stronger Civil Society: A strategy for voluntary and community groups, charities and social enterprises', the government's strategy for supporting the civil society sector. This comes alongside the government's consultation, ‘Supporting a Stronger Civil Society' (see Urban Forum briefing) which asks what support groups will need from the government in order to be effective.

The three stated objectives of the strategy are:

1. Outlining the opportunities being created for civil society organisations through the Government's agenda, including empowering communities, opening up public services and promoting social action.

2. Explaining the practical measures Government is taking to support the sector.

3. The consultation document (Supporting a Stronger Civil Society) which was also published, asks how civil society believes that infrastructure can be improved to better support organisations.

Background 

According to the strategy, the reforms set out by the Spending Review (which was published after the Building a Stronger Civil Society strategy) will present numerous opportunities for the voluntary and community sector which are along the lines of the Big Society priorities of: empowering communities; opening up public services; and promoting social action.

The message from the strategy is that while the government recognises the challenges that the VCS will face as result of spending cuts, they recognise the importance of the sector and aim to find the best ways of working together to continue to be effective, announcing that the Partnership Improvement Programme is being developed to support good working relationships, and the Compact is being reviewed with new transparency and accountability measures added.

Summary

The strategy focuses on two areas. First, it outlines the Big Society agenda and new opportunities for voluntary and community groups and social enterprises within this. Second, it looks at the support it proposes providing to these groups to realise these opportunities.

1. Big Society reform - new opportunities
The Government's Big Society agenda aims to provide and promote new opportunities for the VCS. New powers to communities are key to this. The Government is instituting new rights to aid local groups to be more influential in planning processes, the right to buy community assets and the right to challenge who provides public services. These rights are outlined in the Localism Bill, and specific support mechanisms are expected to be introduced to help communities to take advantage of them.

Public service reform is another key aspect of the Government's Big Society agenda. The strategy outlines how they hope reforms in health and social care, the criminal justice system and welfare schemes will ensure third sector providers have a competitive chance in the tendering process. The strategy also promotes employee-owned co-operatives, including a Cooperative Mentoring Programme.

‘Building a Stronger Civil Society' also reaffirms the Government's commitment to open data and transparency by requiring local authorities to publish information on spending over £500 and increasing the amount of information that is made available to the public.

2. Support to the voluntary and community sector to realise these opportunities
The strategy outlines how the Office for Civil Society will support and strengthen the VCS, working to meet three strategic objectives: making it easier to run a community organisation; increasing resources to the sector; and facilitating business with the state.

The strategy states that the Government has agreed to prioritise the freeing up of local funding. Ringfencing will be removed from more than £1 billion of grants to local government in 2010-2011 as part of this commitment, the idea being that local community groups will be able to better influence spending to reflect local needs and priorities.

The strategy stresses that removing red tape (including health and safety burdens) is a top priority, which the Government believes will help the sector to be more effective. The strategy also states that the Government will work with partners to support a ‘community fund' to allow groups to access funding via donations in local shops and retailers.

Highlighted also is the Big Society focus on promoting social action and volunteering. 'Building a Stronger Civil Society' refers to the establishment of the Big Society Bank which will be introduced to provide funding to the VCS, as well as the training of 5,000 community organisers to help meet community needs, and the establishment of a Community First Fund to support social action in disadvantaged areas (See Urban Forum briefings on the Big Society Bank and community organisers). A National Citizen Service will also be introduced to train 16 year olds in citizenship activities.

Finally, the strategy explains that the Government is working to re-structure and look for new ways to develop the voluntary sector's skills and opportunities.

3. Consultation document published alongside this document
The government is consulting on the measures which voluntary and community groups would like to see realised to provide practical support and advice to the sector. Read more here.