November 2008 Quick Survey Analysis: DSC says

by Jay Kennedy, Policy Officer, Directory of Social Change

In our November quick survey we asked: Is the recession increasing demand for your services? 

Let’s dispense with the euphemisms – it’s not a ‘credit crunch’ or a ‘downturn’ anymore, it’s a bloody recession.  The country is experiencing a severe economic contraction which has been going on for some time – at least since last summer.
 
Even if the boffins who get to define economic cycles haven’t yet officially branded it as such, we in the voluntary sector can see it happening.  We are on the front lines.  We are seeing the devastating effects of people losing their jobs and homes, and are doing our absolute best to help meet their needs in extremely difficult circumstances.

But pre-recession conditions have hardly helped us to prepare – inflation, ‘efficiency savings’ in local authority spending, and the onslaught of competitive tendering have left many organisations reeling.  Now we are faced with surging demand for many of the key services that we deliver and a donor base that is having to pinch pennies.

The advice sector in particular is absolutely crucial during times like this – but is it being adequately supported?  Shouldn’t it be obvious that the effects of any government proposals to address the economic problems for individual people will only be as good as the advice available to help citizens understand and take advantage of them?

I’ll give you an example.  On the day of the Queen’s speech, Gordon Brown announced some relief for mortgage holders who are in arrears – a government-backed scheme to work with the banks to facilitate the deferral of interest on mortgage payments for a period of time. (The announcement was much to the surprise of the banks, apparently!)  Basically it sounds like a way to borrow money against your mortgage – because you’ll have to pay it back at some point – with a government guarantee acting as collateral for the bank.

This was one of the main topics of discussion on all the news programmes that night – with politicians from opposition parties pretty much in the dark about the details. (Were there any?) It sounds like it could be a good scheme, but equally it could just be another extension of the credit culture that has got us into this mess.  ‘The devil is in the details’ seemed to be the consensus.

The scheme has been announced, headlines are splashed across the media, but there is very little information available.  What is the voluntary sector meant to do?  No doubt in the coming weeks people in mortgage arrears will be showing up in CABx asking about it. 

The advice organisations will need to get their heads around the proposals, but first they need clear information – so they can advise people properly.  And will there be any extra support to help them do this?

It seems true that the voluntary sector will become more ‘important’ during a recession.  But that’s a bit like saying that guns are important in a war or that doctors are important when there is an epidemic of disease.  You don’t want war or disease – or any of the myriad of other social ills that the sector deals with. 

We can only solve these problems if we have the resources – volunteers, staff, funding, access to information, etc. – to do our work effectively.

The decade of government cash seems to be over, and we’re going to have to be realistic.  The treasury piggy bank will not to be cracked open.  There’s nothing left inside anyway, except maybe some monopoly money. 

But there are other things the government could do to help us help the people who need help – that don’t cost money. 

Such as:

• Stop fixing what isn’t broken!
• Stop reinventing wheels – we don’t have the money for new wheels!
• Stop giving us advice you’re not qualified to give – telling us to merge, develop back office solutions, be more efficient, blah, blah, blah! We’ll bloody well do it if we have to, and if it makes sense and the government is about the last place we should be getting advice about efficiency from anyway!
• Stop consulting us if you have absolutely no intention of using the feedback to improve your policy.  It’s a waste of everybody’s time and resources.
• Stop forgetting good work, good research, and good policy that has already been done, but didn’t get actioned, just because the department got carved up, or the ministers played musical chairs, or the civil servants simply weren’t up to the job.
• Start sorting out the whole mess of commissioning services for human beings as if they were contracts to dig ditches or fix holes in the road!  It’s killing us!
• Start supporting existing organisations and networks that are responding effectively to what’s happening on the ground rather than setting up new ones to deliver your objectives.
• Start carrying out robust impact assessments for policy that affects the sector – so we don’t have to constantly scramble around trying to figure what the hell is going on, and then spend even more energy fighting the inevitable unforeseen consequences.
• Start taking some real action on issues like irrecoverable VAT and Gift Aid.  A 2.5% reduction in VAT means next to nothing when we can’t recover the other 15%!

Page Last Modified: 10/12/2008