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| Kevin Curley, Chief Executive of NAVCA calls for umbrella organisations to work together to address the challenge of remaining true to their values while facing a sharp decline in funding. |
The new Coalition Government has made it crystal clear that we face dramatic public spending cuts. I fear many voluntary organisations and community groups will be hit hard as income falls and demand for their services increases. The challenge is how do we respond? Especially as there is uncertainty about what the Government wants and how they view the voluntary and community sector.
It is vital that we hold to the values that drive us; pragmatism has its place, but it must not trump principle. If we disagree with something we should oppose it, even if this discomforts politicians. Not only is the right way to behave but politicians and decision makers will respect and place more value on our views if they know we are principled and consistent in what we say.
This creates particular tensions for umbrella organisations. We support a broad and diverse sector and can legitimately claim an interest in most areas of public life.
Many public spending cuts will affect organisations we support. This could see us constantly campaigning against cuts. That’s fine, but if we want to reverse decisions we need to pick our fights carefully and concentrate our efforts on the most significant decisions that do the greatest harm to the communities we champion and support. We need to demonstrate sympathy for the problems facing our local statutory partners. Like any mature, respectful partners, we have to work together in bad times as well as good.
Umbrella organisations also need to think about how we work together. I think it is fair to say that we could build more effective partnerships, something the relatively benign funding environment may have discouraged.
The spirit of the time requires us to consider how we can collaborate, perhaps even form coalitions to support the things we believe in – but be aware that this will mean compromise.
Although we are entering a period of uncertainty, the Government’s plans for a Big Society offer an opportunity. At the moment we are still trying to work out exactly what it is. I’m not sure the Government is entirely clear itself at the moment. But this offers us an opportunity to try and shape it in a way that will support and promote the voluntary and community action that we believe will help communities through these tough times.
One thing we do know is the Government wants voluntary organisations to have an even greater role in service delivery. With other sources of funding declining it is more important than ever that we get involved in delivering services for the right reasons; certainly, we must not take on services because it is the only way to get funding. We must be clear that we can deliver better services that improve life for the people we exist to help.
Crucially, we must be clear that the early intervention and preventative services that are at the heart of voluntary and community action are the cost effective value for money option.
We know times are tough. We need to work together. Most importantly we need to remain true to our values.