Charities ‘offer public sector expertise’
Government can benefit significantly from a closer working relationship with the voluntary sector, experts urged last night.
However, charities were cautioned against taking too much of a role in delivering public services for the state because of its impact on their credibility as campaigners.
Ministers are increasingly turning to voluntary and charitable organisations (VCO) when contracting out public services such as health and education schemes.
And at a fringe meeting at the Liberal Democrat conference in Blackpool, experts in the so-called ‘third sector’ pressed the case for greater cooperation between the two groups.
Nick Aldridge of the Association of Chief Executives in Voluntary Organisations (Acevo) noted that VCOs have the specialised knowledge of users and the access to difficult-to-reach groups to deliver public services better than government.
Despite ministers acknowledging this, he said the relationship between the two groups “remains in its infancy” and he urged government to drop the red tape and bureaucratic barriers to greater cooperation.
He cited a report from the National Audit Office (NAO) earlier this year, which highlighted a lack of trust between government and the third sector, as well as the refusal by many officials to accept the professional abilities of the voluntary organisations.
Liberal Democrat MP Martin Horwood, a member of the party’s home affairs team, welcomed the willingness of VCOs to work with government, citing their contact with their users, their ‘mission-driven’ mentality and their independence as benefits.
In addition, they had an element of innovation that was rarely found in “clunky” public services, he said, while VCOs were often more stable than government initiatives that changed every three or four years.
But he warned that many charities were not any more accountable than the public sector they would be taking over from, and more importantly noted that the delivery of public services could compromise charities’ ability to campaign for their cause.
John Low of the Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID) reiterated this, saying there would always be a difference between those organisations best served through delivering services – like his – and other groups such as environmental campaigners.
“But those who decide to contract public services should not give up the right to campaign – if they do then something is going wrong,” he added.
Since persuading the Department of Health to let RNID organise the delivery of high-tech, digital hearing aids, take-up has soared to more than 500,000 people, he said, while costs had also been cut.
For a list of Opinion Former fringe events click here.
