July 2007

The final outcomes of the Third Sector Review hold little in the way of surprises. It largely represents a formalisation of programmes and initiatives announced in or since the interim report. In particular it makes commitments to funding Capacitybuilders and Futurebuilders (albeit to reduced levels) and existing strategic funding streams, as well as the previously announced £80m small grants programme and £30m Community Assets Fund.

The good

• Emphasis on the importance of campaigning
• Strong focus on research and building an evidence base

 The bad

• Little focus on the cross-cutting role of the Office of the Third Sector
• Further consolidation of input into a third sector advisory panel when government should be widening, not narrowing the range of organisations it engages with
• Imbalance between the focus on public service delivery and support for the majority of the sector

 The ugly?

• The review is punctuated with irrelevant, erroneous and confusing evidence
• A lack of clarification around what constitutes social enterprise
• No reference to the utilisation of existing support networks, and no mention at all of CVSs

In summary

Overall the review provides a good, if lengthy and largely rhetorical, presentation of current government policy and initiatives towards the sector but despite billing itself as the 10 year vision, there is not much description of how this vision will be made a reality beyond 2008.

Ben Wittenberg, DSC Director of Policy & Research says:

‘The sector needs these proposals to be backed up financially in terms of real, quantifiable support that it can access, not funding which is expended setting up panels, institutes, and ever larger umbrella groupings of all types.  Whilst initiatives such as the small grants fund, the community assets fund, and the endowment funding for community foundations are quite welcome, the amounts attached to each are insufficient to make a dramatic difference in the long term.

£50m for endowments is good, but why not £100m? Even better, why not give £10m to each foundation for them to use for the next 10 years?  That would be bold policymaking.  But we simply don’t know if there is more to come or if these are just short-term experiments, because the detail isn’t there.’