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| Minister for Civil Society Nick Hurd writes a regular column for DSC e-news on issues affecting charities. Nick Hurd was impressed with your responses from last month on how to reduce bureaucracy and red tape, and so were we! |
Last month I asked for ideas on what we could do to make it easier to run a small voluntary organisation. Your response was fantastic. I have read through all the replies personally and they will be fed into the Red tape task force that I have asked Lord Hodgson to chair. So thank you.
This month I want to address the painful issue of cuts. I genuinely believe that we are working towards a future which is full of opportunity for the voluntary and community sector. The Big Society agenda is challenging people to think differently about their own obligations and the role of Government. We are encouraging people to think bigger about what they can do to help others and improve things, whether it be in their neighbourhood or in the public services they receive or work in.
There is a real determination to free people up to work together and find better ways of doing things. Civil Society has a hugely important role to play given its ability to support and mobilise people as well as find new solutions to old problems. Yes there will be more opportunities for the sector to deliver public services but to my mind the bigger long prize is a step change in our national attitude to the giving of time and money. If we can achieve that then we can underpin the long term independence and resilience of the sector: a key pillar of the stronger society we seek.
However this is not going to happen overnight. And in the short term we have to manage the painful process of reducing our massive national overdraft . That is the difficult hand we have been dealt and we want to do it sensibly. It cannot just be about cuts; it has to be about finding better ways of doing things. The challenge is even more acute at the local level where the voluntary sector is arguably most vulnerable. So my appeal to the DSC audience this month is twofold.
Many of you are in the front line and will have ideas on where intelligent savings can be made which do not impact the vulnerable.
Share them with us through http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/newsroom/news_releases/2010/100729-voluntary.aspx. Secondly, please let me know what your local experience of cuts is . I particularly want to identify examples of where this difficult process is being managed very well or very badly. The email address sectorchallenge@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk.
PS: if any of you are Twitter fans you can follow me on http://twitter.com/minforcivsoc.
Nick’s views are his own and are not necessarily shared by DSC.