An independent commission to examine the future of local infrastructure in England has been launched by Navca, the membership organisation for local infrastructure organisations.
The inquiry will be chaired by Sara Llewellin (pictured), chief executive of grantmaker the Barrow Cadbury Trust and will meet for the first time on Monday.
Its remit will be to produce “practical ways to secure high-quality support for local voluntary and community action throughout England”.
Neil Cleeveley, director of policy and communications at Navca, said the inquiry would be “completely independent” but he expected it would consider the current scale of local infrastructure, the kind of support local community bodies were receiving at the moment, and the funding and commissioning environment for local support bodies.
The commission will gather evidence from infrastructure bodies, charities, other community bodies, public and private sector bodies which work with the voluntary sector, and with academics.
Its members include charity chief executives, public sector leaders, journalists and academics. It will hold evidence sessions across England and publish a report in November.
Llewellin said there had been “quite a squeeze” on local infrastructure in recent years, and the commission would examine how the sector had coped.
“There’s also a range of different needs emerging for local organisations,” she said. “Some parts of the sector may need to prepare for public service delivery, for investment readiness. Others may need to look at the fast-changing communications environment.
“We need to look at whether local infrastructure support should be universal and free at the point of use. Or should it be more marketised?
“We’ll be taking a very broad range of evidence. We don’t want to go into this with too many preconceptions."
Support for charitable consortia
A programme to support local charities to form consortia has been launched by Navca and chief executives’ body Acevo.
The programme will provide workshops, and a booklet and website where charities can access template business planning documentation.
Charities will also be able to access a package of support, including face-to-face setup advice, legal advice, and advice on raising finance.
The programme was developed with a £25,000 grant from the Office for Civil Society, and will charge charities for services depending on their needs.
