Election 2009 & the Voluntary Sector
Councillors give views on the voluntary community sector in Bristol
In advance of the elections on 4 June 2009, we asked the lead councillors of the 4 political parties on Bristol City Council to write a page Thrive!, the Voscur Magazine. We asked for their views on the role of voluntary and community sector (VCS) in Bristol and what, if elected; councilors from their party would do to ensure the local VCS thrives? With a limit of 400 words for each councillor in Thrive! we offered them to write further on our website.
Here are the full articles from each councillor
Councillor Richard Eddy - Conservative Party
Councillor Charlie Bolton - Green Party
Councillor Helen Holland - Labour Party
Councillor Barbara Janke - Liberal Democrat Party
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Conservative Party
Councillor Richard Eddy
Leader, Conservative Group
Bristol City Council
The role of the voluntary & community sector (VCS)
Philosophically, the Conservative Party has always placed great value on the ability of individuals to help themselves rather than always rely, passively, on the intervention of the State to solve social ills. Historically, we have acknowledged the indispensable part played by the voluntary and community sector in helping to build a better, more prosperous society.
We recognise that the centralised State - particularly in Britain today - is unable to both identify or deliver the kind of social reforms so desperately needed. In our so-called “broken society”, family dislocation and crime has become rife and traditional values and
loyalties no longer seem to apply.
Nationally, Conservatives have conducted an extensive review into how we can best address these failings and promote greater voluntarism, altruism and community action. The consultative policy green paper “A Stronger Society: Voluntary Action in the 21st Century” forms part of our responsibility agenda and places at its heart the vision of an expanded role for voluntary and community work.
For Conservatives, a good and strong society can only be built organically from the bottom-up; relying first upon the individual, then through their private relationships with family and friends. This myriad of associations eventually become intermingled with more formal or organised structures or public expressions of civic life - the realm of the voluntary and community sector. This is the where we must look for answers that neither the State nor the market can provide.
The next Conservative Government is committed to expanding what some have called this ' third sector', to enable the delivery of better, more effective and responsive public services via charities, social enterprises and voluntary organisations.
This sea-change envisages a future where there are more direct contractual arrangements forged, increased use of grant funding and a greater emphasis placed on charitable giving and volunteering.
Our approach is not to seek to change the voluntary sector but alter the way that Government interacts with it. In the future, funding will be channelled through grassroots organisations not merely dispensed by unelected bureaucrats or unaccountable Whitehall appointed quangos.
Successive post-war Administrations have come to realise that the State can never be a substitute for the community. At best, it can seek to work in partnership with the voluntary sector but must never try to replace or supplant it.
Even William Beveridge, the great architect of the modern welfare state, conceded the importance of voluntary action over that which was directed by the State. “By contrast” he wrote “vigour and abundance of voluntary action outside one's home, individually and in association with other citizens, for bettering one's own life and that of one's fellows, are the distinguishing marks of a free society.”
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Green Party
Councillor Charlie Bolton
Green Councillor
Bristol City Council
The Green Party should be the natural party of the voluntary sector. Green movements everywhere were born out of civil society, and the Green Party is a voluntary organisation in all but name.
This means we share the sector’s all too familiar experience of having to compete against vastly better-resourced competitors on an unequal playing field. Despite this, like the VCS, we continue to grow and be the awkward voice others would sometimes wish away.
We do not see the sector as a pawn in the battle to roll back the frontiers of the state. We do not see it as a way of delivering public services on the cheap. We also do not see it as a substitute for the kind of social and economic reform governments are too timid to introduce themselves.
What has finally been recognised in the new local government performance framework National Indicator 7 is something the Green Party has always understood instinctively – that the voluntary sector, like everything else, needs the right kind of environment to thrive.
The Green Party in Bristol therefore welcomes the inclusion of NI7 in the current Local Area Agreement. This is an important marker of commitment to the VCS in the city.
Nonetheless, under administrations of all stripes, target-setting has too often been an inadequate substitute for the kind of investment levels needed to actually effect real change – especially in a heavily centralised political system such as ours, where there are limits to what any local authority can do to help its VCS.
Nationally, a Green government would introduce a radical series of measures going back to the very essence of the sector – volunteering. Our manifesto unsurprisingly calls for the ‘proper sustainable funding’ of VCOs. But it also goes much further than that, seeking to lay the basis for a cultural shift in relation to the very concept of volunteering, and traditional economics’ blithe discounting of the value of ‘community voluntary work’.
Measures to rectify this would include a ‘charter for volunteers and carers’ outlining the statutory right to ‘time off for education, public service and voluntary work’. The basis for this is our Citizen’s Income – a costed, affordable minimum income level beneath which no-one could fall, but upon which the vast majority of people could live. The Citizen’s Income would provide the financial underpinning needed to increase actual volunteering levels.
In the end, what makes the sector unique is its ability to mobilise volunteers, and the resulting independence from the political agenda of the day this gives it. A voluntary sector that tries to expand without expanding its volunteer base is ultimately unsustainable.
There are already signs that the drive towards greater service delivery of the last decade has left the sector with some serious problems. As Colin Rochester of the Centre for the Study of Voluntary and Community Activity noted recently, the policies of the last decade have been divisive, ‘creating a chasm between a few large charities that are seen to be "more professional", and the majority of smaller organisations who are "being excluded from any role in meeting social need"’, while the sector ‘has sacrificed its distinctiveness by adopting "the values and practices common to the bureaucratic entities in the other sectors", in order to compete for contracts’.
This is the VCS in Bristol’s dilemma in a nutshell. What matters is not warm words around partnership and yet more rhetoric about the sector’s importance. What matters is the bottom line: stable funding cycles, effective capacity building, full cost recovery. And once that is in place, an emphasis on proper consultation and properly utilising the sector’s expertise in shaping services.
This is hardly revolutionary – largely it’s just sticking to Compact. But this is an area where even an individual councillor can play an important role: that of keeping up the pressure on statutory authorities to abide by Compact guidelines. This means drawing attention to those that do this well, just as much as pointing out those who do not.
With the prospect of Compact getting real teeth in the future, there is still time to complete the cultural change needed before the recession really begins to bite – but the window of opportunity is short. With the drawing to a close of significant European and national funding schemes, the question is more likely to be the extent to which Bristol VCOs survive, let alone thrive.
The VCS in this city is well-organised and well-represented, and will weather the storm better than most. But tough times are coming, and – as the example of Studio Upstairs has recently shown – the culture that would ensure the sector thrives even in bad times is not yet fully in place. This is what the Green Party will be working to achieve in the coming months and years.
Notes
1. See the Green Party’s Manifesto for a Sustainable Society (MfSS), section SW900
2. See MfSS, section EC400
3. See MfSS, section WR201
4. See MfSS, section EC730-733
5. All quotes taken from Alison Benjamin, ‘The Times They Are Not Really Changing’, Society Guardian, 25 February 2009.
6. Studio Upstairs is a Bristol-based therapeutic arts community group for people who have suffered from mental health problems or are in drug and alcohol recovery. Owing to unexpected cuts to its core funding, it has already been forced to shut its doors one day a week, and now faces being closed down altogether.
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Labour Party
Councillor Helen Holland
Leader, Labour Group
Bristol City Council
Together We Can Make a Difference in our City
Many Labour councillors, candidates and Party members work with voluntary and community organisations locally, and have learned much of our role from you. Thank you! Many councillors sit on management committees of local organisations, and work closely with you.
The role of councils and councillors, is changing, and local members are becoming ‘community champions’. Labour expects our members to get to know organisations in their wards, and work alongside them. This is a real priority for newly-elected Labour members, so that they can reflect an in-depth understanding at every level from street to ward, from Neighbourhood Partnership to Bristol-wide.
Labour councillors know the value of your work with some of the most vulnerable people in the city. We know that times are changing for the sector and for many organisations; with more call for your services during the global recession, and concerns about sustainability of groups. We pledge to work with you understanding that without your work, the call on statutory services would be even greater.
You support communities, you innovate - with services grown from local people addressing local concerns. You bring additional capacity to communities, you give local people pathways to volunteer, and personal development through that volunteering, and we celebrate that with you.
However, we need more than warm words to back the sector. We need policies and action to make this happen.
Labour councillors will ensure that:
· the Voluntary Community Sector is involved in designing specifications for commissioned services
· that the Council agrees ‘full cost recovery’ as essential for maintaining groups’ financial viability
· that monitoring, evaluating and reporting are transparent, and agreed with the sector.
This is why Labour champions the Bristol Compact, the agreement between public agencies and the voluntary sector, which defines the relationship we should have.
Unfortunately, there are parts of the Council where the working principles of the Compact have not been taken on board, and Labour councillors will make embedding this, across all departments, a priority.
We will also commit to making best use of Government policy to transfer assets to community organisations, as we have done at St Werburgh’s Community Centre.
We will meet our LAA (Local Area Agreement) commitment to ensuring a ‘thriving environment for the third sector’, not just within the Council, but also with the Bristol Partnership, strengthening the role of the sector, so that together we can build better neighbourhoods, and make a difference in our city.
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Liberal Democrat Party
Councillor Barbara Janke
Leader. Liberal Democrat Group and Leader of Council
Bristol City Council
A thriving voluntary community sector
As the leader of Bristol City Council, I understand that the city council cannot tackle all of the issues that face our society alone and that we need to work closely with other organisations and communities to find the most effective ways of delivering services. In Bristol, the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector is critical to Bristol’s economy, has an important part to play in understanding local need and is often best placed to deliver activities, services and support that best meets the needs of often some of the most vulnerable groups in our city. There are some excellent examples of successful social enterprises and we are keen to build on these strengths. Bristol City Council’s procurement strategy is changing to make it easier for these organisations to compete for work by breaking down larger contracts into smaller packages and taking into account factors such as social and environmental benefits. I will also be reviewing this over time and welcome ideas from social enterprises and businesses on how we can make our purchasing even fairer.
Working together during the recession
Much of Bristol’s voluntary sector is working hard to help people who have suffered as a result of the recession. The Liberal Democrats recognise the importance of this work and have backed plans to offer additional support to help deliver this work. This includes additional support for Bristol Credit Union to help those struggling with debt, support for apprentices, and measures to make it easier for people to get advice and support through a variety of networks.
Volunteering has an important part to play in a recession. For those that find themselves out of work in this difficult time, volunteering can offer new pathways to work and the opportunity to acquire new skills or gain experience in a new line of work. Voluntary work can also bring people together and build confidence and pride in a community. The Liberal Democrats are keen to strengthen the relationship between the council and the Voluntary Community Sector so that the two sectors together can make a difference and help us withstand the impacts of the recession and plan for more flexible, creative, and sustainable solutions for the future.
Strengthening local communities
The Liberal Democrats want to bring decision-making closer to the people and the communities they affect. We want local people to have the chance to make real local choices and influence what happens in their neighbourhood. We will build on the neighbourhood partnerships now in place by establishing local budgets. They will have the opportunity to identify key problems they want to see improved and local people and their ward councillors will work together with service deliverers from the council, police, health authority and other services to develop and deliver an action plan to address them. We would do this by delegating matters, currently centrally determined, for decision at local level.
Community Asset Transfer
We know that some of the council’s buildings would provide good bases for community led third sector organisations, but these are often in need of refurbishment. We are working to find ways to transfer these assets to the third sector on a viable basis where possible, and to build on successful projects that have already taken place.
A good working relationship between the council and the Voluntary and Community Sector is vital to the success of our communities. We are committed to the Bristol Compact as a way of working to strengthen positive working relationships between the public and voluntary, community and social enterprise sectors. The Liberal Democrats are keen to listen, to support and value social enterprise and to ensure the best outcomes for Bristol people.
