The government published a report examining the use of 'social clauses' as a means of incorporating social requirements into contracts for the delivery of public services. Legal uncertainties on the status of social clauses and European Union procurement rules, as well as lack of information and understanding, were barriers to their use. Additionally, responses from stakeholders frequently identified a difficulty in formulating the social clause as a core contractual requirement, and a difficulty in measurement at evaluation stage.
Source: Social Clauses Project: Report of the Social Clauses Project 2008, Cabinet Office (020 7261 8527)
Links: Report | Cabinet Office press release
Date: 2008-Dec
The government published a progress report two years after the launch of an action plan designed to reduce the barriers to third sector organizations being involved in delivering public services.
Source: Partnership in Public Services: The Public Services Action Plan – Two Years On, Cabinet Office (020 7261 8527)
Links: Report | Cabinet Office press release
Date: 2008-Dec
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on the role of the third sector in providing public services. It said that it was committed to supporting the growing number of third sector organizations that wanted to play an active role in shaping and delivering public services.
Source: Public Services and the Third Sector: Rhetoric and Reality – Government Response to the Committee's Eleventh Report, Thirteenth Special Report (Session 2007-08), HC 1209, House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Response | CO press release | MPs report
Date: 2008-Dec
A report said that there was a need to establish robust mechanisms for implementing, monitoring, and evaluating the Compact between government and the voluntary/community sector.
Source: Problems, Issues, Solutions: The Future of the Compact, Compact Voice (020 7713 6161)
Links: Report | Compact Voice press release
Date: 2008-Nov
A report examined trends that could shape the future of the voluntary and community sector, and the place of individual organizations within it. It looked at five key aspects of the external environment: changing participation, demographic challenges, distribution and consumption, the economy, and national politics.
Source: Megan Griffith Gray, Veronique Jochum and Natalie Williams, Voluntary Sector Strategic Analysis 2008/09, National Council for Voluntary Organisations (0800 279 8798)
Links: Summary
Date: 2008-Nov
A report examined the views of voluntary and community sector employees in relation to the Compact and the impact it had on their independence. Conflicts around independence centred on issues of funding and commissioning of services, interference with organizations' freedom to determine and manage their affairs, and real and perceived fears about criticizing government funders.
Source: Stefan Simanowitz, Dancing To Our Own Tune: The Compact – strengthening voluntary sector independence, Compact Voice (020 7713 6161)
Links: Report | Compact Voice press release
Date: 2008-Nov
A think-tank report examined the role of the third sector. It highlighted the importance of the sector in a time of economic crisis, but called on wealthy individuals and businesses to do more to contribute to society. It also said that everyone between the ages of 16 and 25 should do at least six months of 'intensive' voluntary work.
Source: David Blunkett MP, Mutual Action, Common Purpose: Empowering the third sector, Fabian Society (020 7227 4900)
Links: Report | NCVO press release | NAVCA press release | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Nov
A report said that a lack of trust and communication between charities and public sector bodies was hampering the development of local compacts.
Source: Institute for Voluntary Action Research, What Makes a Successful Local Compact, Commission for the Compact (0121 237 5905)
Links: Report | Commission press release
Date: 2008-Oct
An article examined the implications of a proposed model which integrated the multi-dimensional factors influencing strategic positioning in charities that provided public services. The existing commercial marketing/strategy interpretations of strategic positioning, such as positioning motives, strategic positioning process, and the marketing role in positioning, had limitations when applied to non-profit organizations such as charities.
Source: Celine Chew and Stephen Osborne, 'Strategic positioning in UK charities that provide public services: implications of a new integrating model', Public Money and Management, Volume 28 Issue 5
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Oct
A report set out principles for the government's work with the third sector to reduce re-offending and protect the public. It contained specific commitments and actions to support these principles and to reduce barriers to third sector involvement. This included targeted activity to support the role of community, black and minority-ethnic, faith-based, and women's organizations.
Source: Working with the Third Sector to Reduce Re-offending: Securing effective partnerships 2008-2011, Ministry of Justice (020 7210 8500)
Links: Report | Ekklesia press release
Date: 2008-Oct
A report examined how well guidelines on the relationship between the state and the third sector had been implemented within central government departments. Major inconsistencies were found in the way different government departments dealt with the voluntary sector. The third sector and its advocates saw independence from government as one of its key values, and feared that this would be put at risk if the sector became over-dependent on government funding.
Source: Rocket Science UK Ltd, The State of Independence: A research study into independence and the Compact, Commission for the Compact (0121 237 5905)
Links: Report | Literature review | Commission press release | Community Care report
Date: 2008-Sep
A paper examined the impact of the contract culture from the perspective of the voluntary/community sector, through the experiences of eight charities working in the field of 'homelessness'; and in particular the responses of their chief executives to the changing political and economic environment. Although contracting had undoubtedly blurred the boundaries between sectors, and played a part in the professionalization and formalization of charities, there was little evidence for the more negative processes of 'devoluntarization' or loss of independence.
Source: David Chater, Coming in from the Cold? The impact of the contract culture on voluntary sector homelessness agencies in England, Voluntary Sector Working Paper 10, Centre for Civil Society/London School of Economics (020 7955 7205)
Links: Paper
Date: 2008-Sep
Researchers examined the role of the voluntary and community sector in supporting parents and families. Half of all the services in the mapping were in the broad category of 'social interventions' (for example, generic and targeted parenting support, family relationships, early years services, and support for families in which there had been sexual or domestic abuse or the death of a child). Health-related services accounted for a further 29 per cent, education 17 per cent, and housing 1.5 per cent. The 'Every Child Matters' agenda was not being consistently addressed by many relevant services: smaller services in the voluntary sector were not aware that even if they worked indirectly with children – by means of work with their parents – the outcomes still applied to what they did.
Source: Judy Corlyon and Daniel Clay, Voluntary and Community Sector Services – Their Role in Supporting Parents and Families, Research Report RR045, Department for Children, Schools and Families (0845 602 2260)
Date: 2008-Aug
A report by a committee of MPs said that a number of improvements were needed in commissioning processes for public services, in order to help voluntary/community sector organizations compete for work. Nonetheless, further steps along this path should be accompanied by the collection of much firmer evidence on the impact that third sector delivery was having.
Source: Public Services and the Third Sector: Rhetoric and reality, Eleventh Report (Session 2007-08), HC 112, House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | NAVCA press release | FT report (1) | FT report (2)
Date: 2008-Jul
A study found that the children and young people's voluntary and community sector employed 1 in 3 of the total voluntary and community sector workforce, and generated income in excess of £1.5 billion per year.
Source: Gary Craig, Helen Gibson, Neil Perkins, Mick Wilkinson and Jane Wray, Every Organisation Matters: Mapping the children and young people's voluntary and community sector, National Council of Voluntary Child Care Organisations (020 7833 3319) and National Council for Voluntary Youth Services
Links: Report | Summary | NCVYS press release
Date: 2008-Jul
The opposition Conservative Party highlighted the importance of the voluntary sector, and set out ways to encourage it as a force for social progress. Charities would be allowed to earn 'substantial' fees from delivering public services.
Source: A Stronger Society: Voluntary Action in the 21st Century, Conservative Party (020 7222 9000)
Links: Report | Conservative Party press release | Acevo press release | CFDG press release | NCVO press release | Turning Point press release | Telegraph report | BBC report | FT report | Guardian report | Community Care report
Date: 2008-Jun
The government began consultation on proposals to improve support for volunteers in the National Health Service and in social care.
Source: Towards a Strategy to Support Volunteering in Health and Social Care: Consultation, Department of Health (08701 555455)
Links: Consultation document | DH press release
Date: 2008-Jun
An article examined the potential impact of the third sector on regional development, through the promotion of social capital. There was considerable debate around the definition of the third sector that limited understanding of its impact.
Source: Kean Birch and Geoff Whittam, 'The third sector and the regional development of social capital', Regional Studies, Volume 42 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Apr
An article examined how voluntary and community organizations delivering public services were being drawn into the sphere of government control via mechanisms of procurement and performance, and deprived of their ethical or moral content and purpose.
Source: Emma Carmel and Jenny Harlock, 'Instituting the "third sector" as a governable terrain: partnership, procurement and performance in the UK', Policy & Politics, Volume 36 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Apr
A report highlighted the role of charities in providing specialist support to victims of violence against women. Domestic violence alone cost society £20 billion a year: but the most prominent charities helping to tackle domestic violence had a combined income of just £17 million – less than that of the Donkey Sanctuary.
Source: Justine Jarvinen, Angela Kail and Iona Miller, Hard Knock Life: Violence against women – A guide for donors and funders, New Philanthropy Capital (0207 401 8080)
Links: Report | Summary | NPC press release | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Apr
An article reported a quantitative study of 400 third-sector organizations, which cast doubt on the willingness, capability, and capacity of third-sector organizations to engage with the government's contracting agenda for public services.
Source: Tony Chapman, Judith Brown and Robert Crow, 'Entering a brave new world? An assessment of third sector readiness to tender for the delivery of public services in the United Kingdom', Policy Studies, Volume 29 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Mar
A study found that there was an openness among service commissioners in the public sector to work with the third sector, and a recognition that the third sector could add value to commissioning. Yet this had not yet flowed through to consistent, meaningful engagement with the sector in each of the stages of commissioning. There seemed to be a willingness to involve the third sector in principle: but in practice, significant barriers to involvement remained.
Source: Sarah Wood, Evaluation of the National Programme for Third Sector Commissioning: Baseline report, Improvement and Development Agency (020 7296 6693)
Links: Report | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Mar
A think-tank report said that civil society organizations, and their assets, could sometimes became 'frozen' around previous human needs rather than existing ones. It highlighted the need for more systematic and overt processes to identify changing needs, particularly less visible ones. It looked at how the new public benefit test could provide a helpful spur for charities which sometimes faced relatively few pressures to ensure that they addressed important needs.
Source: Julie Caulier-Grice, Geoff Mulgan and Dan Vale, Discovery, Argument and Action: How civil society responds to changing needs, Young Foundation (020 8980 6263)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Mar
A report examined the strategies adopted by voluntary and community service organizations working with 'hard to reach' families.
Source: Helen Barrett, 'Hard to Reach' Families: Engagement in the voluntary and community sector, Family and Parenting Institute (020 7424 3460)
Links: Summary
Date: 2008-Feb
An overview was published of civil society organizations and their work. There were 2.6 charities per thousand of the population in high-income areas, compared to 1.6 charities per thousand in those that were 'constrained by circumstances'. 88 per cent of people thought that there was a social divide in the United Kingdom: but only 23 per cent would be prepared to get involved in their community in order to help bridge it.
Source: The UK Civil Society Almanac 2008, National Council for Voluntary Organisations (0800 279 8798)
Links: Summary | NCVO press release | FT report
Date: 2008-Feb
A paper examined whether key actors from the voluntary and statutory sectors perceived that the 'compact' on relations between the government and the voluntary and community sector in England would be an effective guardian of voluntary organizations' independence. There was little evidence of adverse impacts from government funding. There was some hope among voluntary sector respondents that local compacts would provide a general framework and philosophy to protect voluntary organizations' independence – but considerable scepticism about practical effect and appropriate implementation. Compacts were perceived by statutory officers to have little role in moderating the 'ecological and institutional environment' of the welfare market.
Source: Jonathan Roberts, Partners or Instruments: Can the Compact guard the independence and autonomy of voluntary organisations?, Voluntary Sector Working Paper 8, Centre for Civil Society/London School of Economics (020 7955 7205)
Links: Paper
Date: 2008-Jan