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Public service role for charities
The prime minister has sought to rebut criticism that he is not doing enough to help charities work with the public sector.
Tony Blair was on Thursday among a string of senior ministers addressing a major conference on the issue, with all of them pledging greater co-operation between the state and the voluntary sector.
The prime minister announced a comprehensive review of community equipment, including wheelchairs, handrails and walking aids.
There will be extra cash to fund a project which will allow the voluntary sector to play a bigger role in a market worth around £220m.
Stakeholder Response: Disabilities Trust
Matt Townsend, public affairs officer at the Disabilities Trust, said: "The Disabilities Trust welcomes the prime minister’s comments on the role of the voluntary sector and his pledge of greater cooperation between government and the voluntary sector.
"The announcement of a comprehensive review of community equipment is also very welcome and might go some way to helping ensure people get the right equipment for their needs.
"The voluntary sector is today a major provider of public services in health, social care and education in particular.
"The Trust itself supports nearly a thousand people a year with profound and complex disabilities (such as acquired brain injury and autism) providing housing, rehabilitation, personal care and education services.
"Some of those services are not cheap and require sustained long-term investment to guarantee the right support is available to service users.
"So while the prime minster’s renewed commitment to the sector is great news, what will ultimately matter is whether this will be translated into action to tackle the key issues that continue to distort the sector’s relationship with government, local authorities and the NHS.
"From the Trust’s point of view these include disputes over fee levels, lack of long-term contracts, pressures on Supporting People funding, regulation and irrecoverable VAT."
Stakeholder Response: Help the Hospices
A spokesperson for Help the Hospices told ePolitix.com: "Help the Hospices warmly welcomes Tony Blair’s commitment to breaking down barriers to the voluntary sector provision of public services.
"There are already nearly 200 local charitable hospices providing innovative services tailored for individuals’ needs at the end of life.
"These services are provided across a range of settings, including within people’s homes and day care units.
"However, adult hospices in England run by local charities receive only a third of their running costs from the government and our recent analysis of these hospices’ accounts showed that 25 per cent of hospices recorded deficits last year.
"The challenge will be for the government’s commitment to the voluntary sector to be translated into practice by local commissioners."
Stakeholder Response: AMICUS
Rachael Maskell, national officer for the Not for Profit Sector of Amicus, said: "Amicus research into funding in the non-profit sector 'Short term funding, short term thinking' showed that short term thinking, even of three year funding cycles, which is being proposed by the prime minister, is still inadequate to provide sustainable services for the most vulnerable in our society, let alone those who are employed in the sector who only have three-year job security, before they are thrown into the unnecessary certainty about their own future.
"What has been announced today is in effect the extension of competition for the provision of public services.
"In the non-profit sector, Amicus is already seeing this causing organisations to pitch against each other for contracts breaking the traditional collaborative working of the sector and therefore bidding to undercut its competitors in order to win contracts.
"The only way that this can be achieved is to erode pay, terms and conditions of people working in the sector, who are already some of the worst paid across the economy, have the poorest opportunities for learning and development, and due to the instability of funding, have little hope of making adequate pension provision for the future.
"Amicus members in the non profit sector recognise the dangers that this move will create as they become more restricted to jump to the government's agenda rather than delivering the specialised services to those that need them most.
"This could even cause conflicts of interest within an organisation.
"Our members claim that this is not their rationale for working in the sector, and therefore retention will also become an issue, as it is already proving to be.
Stakeholder Response: NCVO
Campbell Robb, director of public policy at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, said: "Government talks about placing public services in the hands of the voluntary sector, and appreciating the value that it brings to those services.
"But while some transfers of public services have certainly taken place, it is happening in such an inefficient and ineffective way that little progress has been made to truly transform public services."
"If government really wants voluntary and community organisations to help transform the public services that people receive, then it needs to involve organisations in both the design and commissioning of services, not simply offer contracts that transfer them from one sector to another.
"Government needs to turn its rhetoric into reality and show a greater understanding of what the sector can bring and how it operates.
"If this does not happen, the real failure will not be that voluntary and community organisations cannot take on a greater role in public service delivery, but that citizens and communities will fail to get the services they need and deserve."
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