NCVO seeks clarification on changes to Tory green paper

Finance | Tania Mason | 15 Jun 2009

NCVO chief executive Stuart Etherington has written to shadow charities minister Nick Hurd to ask him to clarify some things he said about the Conservatives’ plans for the sector at an event recently.

Speaking at nfpSynergy’s summer client debrief earlier this month, Hurd (pictured) intimated that the Conservative Party was rethinking some of the proposals contained in its manifesto for the sector, Voluntary Action in the 21^st Century, which was published last summer.

In particular, he said the party was less persuaded about replacing the Office of the Third Sector with an Office for Civil Society, explaining that the pressure on the next government to reduce the public debt would force whichever party came to power to distinguish between the “must-haves” and the “nice-to-haves”. Rearranging central government structures would not be the highest priority, he said.

Wider civil society sector

The NCVO has long advocated that the voluntary and community sector should become part of a wider civil society sector, encompassing all the types of organisations that don’t currently fit into government or the private sector. It wants this broader sector to be represented in government by a Department for Civil Society, with its own Cabinet minister.

In their green paper, the Conservatives seemed to support the concept, pledging to create an Office of Civil Society if they were elected. But now that they appear to be backtracking on this, Etherington has requested a meeting with Hurd to find out why and what other pledges may have changed since the green paper was published.

Hurd has agreed to a meeting but no date has yet been set.

Directory: nfpSynergy | National Council of Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) | Office of the Third Sector
Who's Who: Tania Mason | Nick Hurd | Sir Stuart Etherington

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