Some Navca members have voiced concern over the umbrella body's direction since chief executive Joe Irvin joined in 2012, with one leaving in protest at its relationship with Acevo.
Navca, a membership body for the CVS sector, announced a closer working partnership with Acevo last September. Shortly after, Navca chief executive Joe Irvin, joined the board of Acevo.
But discomfort with the emerging relationship was discussed last Friday at an event organised by the National Coalition for Independent Action (NCIA), a group which supports independent voluntary and community action.
Andy Benson of NCIA said that he previously thought Navca was an infrastructure body with which it could forge an alliance, until the arrival of Irvin.
“It has started to move in the wrong direction of travel,” he said. “For example, Irvin is chairing a Capita conference on third sector commissioning masterclasses with Acevo and NCVO. I’m beside myself with rage about it.”
A CVS at the conference, whose leaders wished it not to be named, said it had stopped its Navca membership in protest at its links with Acevo and its support of public service reform.
And Adrian Barritt, chief executive of Adur Voluntary Action which is still a Navca member, said he was very unhappy about the new direction: “Navca seem to be ignoring the underlying political issues and making liaisons that we don’t agree with.”
Navca declined to respond.
NCIA looks to wind up
The event also saw the launch of NCIA’s inquiry into voluntary services.
The inquiry, which will last six to nine months, will look at a range of issues, including the rise of neo-liberalism and how this effects the voluntary sector; the independence of the voluntary sector, and defining the difference between the community and voluntary sector; how to provide infrastructure for under-the-radar activist groups; and the relationship between the voluntary and public sector.
At the event, NCIA also said it was keen to establish what it was in favour of, not just what it stood against.
Benson from NCIA also announced that it was looking to wind up in the next three years: “We’ve been at it for ten years,” he said. “If we’ve made no breakthrough in the next three years it’ll be like we are banging our heads against a brick wall.”
Benson said after three years it will likely shut down, or try to hand over through alliance-building to organisations rooted in its perspectives. For the past couple of years NCIA has received funding from the Tudor Trust.
For more information on NCIA’s inquiry click here.
