Conservative Party Vision for the Voluntary Sector

The Conservative Party have published a policy green paper, outlining their vision for the community and voluntary sectors.

“A Stronger Society: Voluntary Action in the 21st Century” sets out the party’s vision for promoting the sector as a force for social progress.

The key priorities of the document are:

• To increase volunteering and encourage more charitable giving.
• To reform and reinvigorate grant funding of charitable organisations.
• To allow the voluntary sector to compete on an equal footing with the private sector.
• To adapt the state to working with and supporting voluntary organisations.
• To make government contracting of the voluntary sector less burdensome.
• To encourage social enterprise.
• To promote co-operatives and mutualisation.
  

The green paper commits a future Conservative government to supporting efforts to establish regular volunteering as a social norm. They would make it simpler and easier to volunteer by tackling regulatory obstacles which deter new volunteers. They would also act to dispel the confusion surrounding the benefits system so that no one is wrongly deterred from engaging in community work. They would overhaul the way in which Government invests in volunteering, directing support to grassroots volunteering organisations. They would consult on a proposal to match-fund the development and operation of a sector-led and sector-owned system for training and recognising committed volunteers.

A priority of a Conservative strategy for the voluntary sector would be to encourage more charitable giving by creating a more supportive environment for philanthropy and volunteering.

They would reduce the bureaucracy that is involved in claiming tax relief through Gift Aid and work with charities to promote a national debate over establishing a ‘social norm’ for charitable giving.

A Conservative government would act to sustain grant funding by respecting the difference between grants and contracts and only using contracts where there is a clear justification.

They propose to reform the National Lottery, setting up a new Voluntary Action Lottery Fund, to replace the Big Lottery Fund. The new fund will be independent of government and will distribute to charities and voluntary bodies. Overall they would prefer longer-term grants, and would minimise the paperwork involved in applying for grants by drawing up model agreements and establishing a funding passport scheme to cut out repetitive due diligence procedures. They would set up a one-stop funding portal for statutory grants, requiring significant grant schemes to be registered on a single, simple website

The Party pledges to allow the voluntary sector to compete on an equal footing with the private sector, allowing voluntary organisations delivering public services to earn a competitive return on investment by sharing substantially in the rewards that come from success. State contracts would be based on at least three years (unless the circumstances demand a shorter contract) and they would publish model contracts so that charities do not have to face the bureaucracy of multiple contracts which are all written in a different way. There would be a greater focus on outcomes than process in when contracts are awarded.

The priority from a central perspective would be to adapt the state to working with and supporting voluntary organisations. A revised Compact between the public sector and the voluntary sector would be set up, which had the ‘teeth’ it is currently judged to lack. They would create a powerful Office of Civil Society to fight for the interests of charities, social enterprises, cooperatives and community groups within Whitehall and a Civil Society Select Committee to provide democratic scrutiny in Westminster.

Social Enterprise would be encouraged through the creation of a network of Social Enterprise Zones. Investments made in social enterprises in these zones would benefit from tax relief. Additionally a new Social Enterprise Bank would manage and promote the tax relief scheme and help social enterprises to find other sources of finance Co-operatives and mutualisation would be encouraged as a way of transferring public assets and revenue streams to the voluntary sector. A Co-operative Action Plan would be implemented to enable co-ops to play a much bigger role in running and owning community assets and services, and parents would be allowed to form co-operatives to start-up new government funded schools in their local communities

The Conservatives’ Green Paper, “A Stronger Society: Voluntary Action in the 21st Century”, can be accessed at:
www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=news.story.page&obj_id=145106