Towards Another Policy Culture in FlandersAn English Perspective on Participation24th September 2010

Oli Henman

UK & International Campaigns Manager

oliver.henman@ncvo-vol.org.uk

A ‘Map’ of Civil Society

Within Civil Society we can track the ‘core’: general charities

Economic value of Civil Society • Over 164,000 general charities• £31 billion income for charities• 611,000 paid employees

• 865,000 civil society organisations• £109 billion income for all civil society groups• Estimated 0.5 - 1million voluntary and community groups

• 29% of people volunteer at least once a month • Contribute 2% of UK GDP

Participation & Government relations

Sector and Government: Key InfrastructureFollowing recommendations of Nicholas Deakin

Report of 1996, significant changes to architecture of voluntary sector:

• Compact Codes of Conduct (1998)• Updated Charities Act (06) & Charity

Commission• Improved tax regime, Gift Aid (updated 2000)• Office of the Third Sector (06)

Participatory democracy- National

• Common law allows for flexible development of ways of working with government

• Increased practice of consultation at national level

• Consultation: No 10 Petition, Citizens Summits• Expert engagement: DWP stakeholder group on

ESF, OCS roundtables on Big Society

Participatory democracy- Local

• Local engagement & joint decision-making- eg. participatory budgeting

• Regular basis of partnership on services at local level- eg. health Primary Care Trusts, youth centres

• Shared decisions are REAL at local level, eg. Your decision on the street cleaning!

Key Parliamentary targets

• Cross-party to reach all parts of debate

• Select Committees as the point of in-depth analysis in Parliament

• Office for Civil Society & ‘Big Society’ champions

The Compact: a brief history

• Compact agreed in 1998, sets out relationship between government and the voluntary sector in England- roles and responsibilities of each

• broad consultation across the sector• cross-party support, includes opposition parties so policy

is embedded • mechanism for measuring effectiveness• established right for organisations to campaign even if in

receipt of government funding• All local areas covered by Compact across England

(around 300)

Compact “wins”

In its first decade the Compact has given the voluntary sector:

• improved funding processes (3 year funding standard, payment in advance, full cost recovery),

• clear consultation standards (12 week standard),

• enforceable rights (Compact advocacy, legal action)

• better relations with government at local and national level, leading to mutual gain (efficiency, cost savings)

Case study – Local Compact Suffolk County Council • The Problem: A local housing charity had its funding cut by the local council

but was very poorly informed of this information.

• The Breach: Local Compact - 9.2 Funders should be consistent and transparent and Principle of discussion and dialogue

• The Action: CAP wrote to Suffolk Council, raised the concerns, outlined the change the group and local infrastructure body wanted to see.

• The Outcome: – Council apologised for the breach, accepted poor handling of the process.– Committed to being Compact compliant in future. – Agreed to pay £5,000 compensation for mismanagement of the process.– CAP and the group attended a meeting with the council to embed the

learning and explore other possible funding for this project.

Refreshing the Compact in 2009

• Updating after 10 years to ensure continuing relevance

• Wide consultation in government and voluntary sector

• Compact Voice leads on voluntary sector feedback

• Slimmer document principles + implementation guidelines

Changing political climate for NCVO and sector• New government proposals for voluntary sector

– Voluntary Action Green Paper before election• Big Society policy engagement• Minister for Civil Society Nick Hurd & Cabinet

Office policy lead Oliver Letwin, regular speakers at NCVO events

• Dialogue with all major parties on their priorities in preparation for General Election

Big Society

• Local Empowerment including democratic engagement

• Building skills of the sector

• Long-term innovative funding, by social enterprise and co-production

• Enabling voluntary action & reducing bureaucracy

NCVO Campaigns & Communications

Oli Henman

UK & International Campaigns Manager

oliver.henman@ncvo-vol.org.uk