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Serving the public

Finance | 1 May 2005

By the time you read this, we will probably be very close to preparing for a third term of Labour government, albeit one with a reduced majority. The main sector bodies have been voicing their wishes for the next parliament and, unsurprisingly, top of the list has been to seek a commitment that the Charities Bill, which ran out of legislative time last month, will be reintroduced at the earliest opportunity.

Encouragingly, the Labour manifesto managed to find room in its modest 112 pages to squeeze in a pledge that the Bill would be brought back, but history teaches us that manifesto promises aren't always worth the fairy dust they are written with. More importantly, the Bill is not going to be top of the list of priorities for any new government, whatever its shade. So for now we can just keep our fingers crossed that important reform, which came so close to being realised, is not left too long, or indeed lost for ever.

Elsewhere, acevo has continued to bang the drum welcoming Labour's manifesto pledge to consider the sector as an equal partner in delivering public services. It is certainly true that the enhanced role of charities in public service delivery has been a major change for the sector in the last decade as the government has realised that charities can help deliver effectively and efficiently. However, while over one third of charities' overall income is now reported to come from contracts with government, clearly the majority does not. In light of this, it was refreshing to hear NCVO, itself a leading voice in the past on this issue, remind people that there is much more to the sector than being solely a means of providing and improving service delivery. It wants the next government to have a much broader agenda for the sector, which embraces voluntary action as a means of providing support for the most marginalised individuals and communities. And while there has been funding made available to increase the numbers of volunteers, it remains to be seen whether the laudable intentions and recommendations of the Russell Commission's report, become reality by the time we are once again preparing for a new government, probably in 2009.

Sort IT out

It was encouraging to attend both NCVO's and CFDG's respective annual IT conferences, where for the first time there was a very real sense of charities collectively taking on board the message that IT is vital from a strategic point of view. The other striking message that emerged from both these conferences, and the findings of our own Voluntary Sector IT Survey published with this issue, is centred on what must be one of the most repeated words in the voluntary sector at the moment - collaboration.

The survey indicates that charities feel they have nowhere to turn to get advice on IT, and while there are some good examples of best practice in the use of technology, there is clearly a need for increased collaboration, both between organisations, and umbrella bodies, in spreading the word.

It is hoped that the much discussed ICT hub will become one of the main vehicles for achieving this. It is therefore high time to move on from the rights and wrongs of the dispute among the parties interested in running the hub. It is now essential that all organisations work together in the common interest so that the Home Office funding is used effectively to further enhance the untapped potential of what charities can get out of IT.

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