A Labour MEP has said that charities have a “crucial” role to play as Britain redefines its relationship with the rest of the world post-Brexit.
Seb Dance, a Labour member of the European Parliament, was speaking at a Charities Aid Foundation event at the Labour Party Conference last night.
He said: “The charity sector has to be fully engaged in the process,” adding that charities’ “expertise” and “networks” meant that they had a lot to offer policymakers.
Dance warned that a ‘hard Brexit’ - where the UK leaves the EU quickly and exits the single market without replacing existing funding arrangements, could mean that “we end up with a lost generation of young people”.
“The third sector cannot be overlooked in this,” he said; it has a “crucial role to play” in things like highlighting the plight of the disadvantaged.
‘More core funding’
Susan Elan Jones, Labour MP for Clwyd South and co-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on the Voluntary Sector, was also speaking at the event and called for increased core funding for charities.
She said there should be “more core funding going into charities” to encourage more innovation.
“I’m not saying there shouldn’t be contracting or commissioning,” she said, “but there should also be support for the relationship [between government and charities] through funding core costs - it is unrealistic not to do so.”
Elan Jones also said it was a problem that charities constantly had to come up with new ideas to get funding.
She said: “Anybody who has ever worked in fundraising knows that you have to package it as being new or a lot of funders won’t be interested - that is nonsense.”
She also said the the campaigning and advocacy role of charities should be valued by politicians.
‘We have just made an important statement’
Tony Newman, leader of Croydon Council and Labour’s Local Government Association, said that in Croydon they have just agreed a £6m funding agreement for the voluntary sector.
He said “it was an important statement to make at this point in time” to show support for the sector at a time of uncertainty.
“To make a statement about partnership is easy,” he said, “but we wanted to put a real commitment along with that.”
