Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbott, president of NCVO and chair of the Red Tape Task Force, has called on umbrella bodies, such as NCVO, Acevo and Navca, to set up and manage charity consortia which can bid for public sector contracts.
Lord Hodgson made the call yesterday at an All Party Parliamentary Group meeting on the Red Tape Task Force report Unschackling Good Neighbours.
The meeting, organised by NCVO, saw Lord Hodgson discuss with attendees the progress made since the release of the report, which aims to make it easier for charities to operate and grow.
A representative from Exeter CVS complained that public sector contracts were too often out of the league of small charities. He added that forming consortia was difficult as there was not enough time to develop successful partnerships when tendering time-scales were very short.
Lord Hodgson agreed that the problem of consortia hadn’t been cracked yet, and said common issues were a lack of personality and chemistry between organisations, and the issue of VAT.
He also said umbrella bodies could take more responsibility in this area:
“NCVO won’t like this,” he said, “but I do believe that the NCVOs, Acevos, and Navcas should act as godfathers and use their managerial skills to produce consortia. And also give guidelines on producing consortia.”
Talking about the progress made by the Red Tape Task Force, Lord Hodgson said traction had been made on insurance for volunteer drivers, with the Task Force successfully encouraging motor insurers to not charge premiums; and also on commissioning, with the end of pre-qualification questionnaires for all government contracts under £100,000.
But, he added, more was to be done, and said the Group would ask the voluntary sector next spring whether sufficient progress had been made.
At the meeting, a representative for the Institute for Fundraising (IoF) urged Lord Hodgson to work together with the IoF to promote its codes of practice, in response to complaints from Lord Hodgson that licensing laws and lottery laws were confusing for the public and charities.
“We’ve been trying to promote our codes, which cover raffles and licensing for years, but we can’t get them out,” said Sarah Tirrell, practice manager of policy and codes at the Institute. “ We’d like help in getting out the IoF message to local authorities and creating a standard."
