Government starts talks with sector on community groups target 1

Finance | Tania Mason | 29 Jun 2010

The government has opened informal talks with Navca, Community Development Foundation and others about how to deliver the Big Society vision of enabling every citizen to join a neighbourhood group.

Neil Cleeveley, Navca’s director of policy and communications, said the Office for Civil Society had not launched a formal consultation but “they are asking questions in an informal way”.

“We are making it clear that there are plenty of organisations already out there that could host an army of community development workers and provide support to neighbourhood groups, without them having to reinvent the wheel,” he said.

The government has promised to launch a fund to support the creation of new neighbourhood groups, which is to be funded using money from repaid Futurebuilders loans. The Cabinet Office has said it hopes to have the Communities First Fund open for business by December 2010.

But it has also committed to pay for the training of a new generation of 5,000 community organisers, who will then be expected to find funding to pay for their role. Cleeveley said Navca was arguing that the organisers should be located within organisations that are capable of supporting fundraising, otherwise the risk is that people who are meant to be supporting their communities will spend most of time generating income for themselves.

He also said it might be more useful in some areas for the government to spend the Communities First money supporting existing neighbourhoods groups rather than establishing new ones, though seedcorn money in the most deprived areas would be very welcome.

He added that the sector did not expect to get any real detail about the plan until the Spending Review is published in October.

Alison Seabrooke, chief executive of the Community Development Foundation, said the practicalities around how to train the organisers and set up small groups was an “exciting challenge for the sector”, and that CDF is also talking to the government about it.

Directory: National Association of Voluntary and Community Action

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Flick Harris
Chair
Manchester Disabled People's Access Group
30 Jun 2010

It will be crucial for the government to understand that neighbourhood groups are not just about locality but also about equality and diversity issues, eg local disabled people's access groups, groups in BME communities, young people etc. I also hope that they will not exclude disabled people by not ensuring that open meetings have interpreters, information in alternative formats, accessible venues and funding to support transport, PAs etc!

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