The National Coalition for Independent Action has urged Navca to persuade its member CVSs to oppose delivery of public services by civil society organisations and take a tougher line against government cuts.
In a hard-hitting statement released on the eve of Navca’s AGM and publication of its annual report, NCIA said: “It is the job of charities to fight poverty and inequality. It is not their job to be compliant or silent.”
It called on Navca to oppose the privatisation of public services, reject contracts with voluntary agencies for mainstream public services, and oppose contracts which make voluntary groups subcontractors to private companies. And it said it should urge its members to do so too.
NCIA recently carried out an inquiry into local activism and dissent and concluded that “local voluntary agencies are largely absent from local struggles”. It quoted one respondent to the research as saying: “The mainstream voluntary organisations have sold out and don’t campaign.”
NCIA director Penny Waterhouse said that local activists are being “let down by local organisations fearful for their own survival. These organisations are forgetting their mission or being silenced by funding regimes and political pressure.
“On the positive side, activism is flourishing across cities and rural areas in innovative, non-bureaucratic initiatives like Stroud Against the Cuts, People’s Republic of Southwark, and West Sussex Don’t Cut Us Out.”
Navca responds
Barney Mynott, Navca’s public affairs officer, said that Navca agreed with NCIA that voluntary organisations should not be co-opted by the state and must always retain their independence, but disagreed that contracting with local and national government caused them to lose that independence – or their campaigning bite.
In Navca’s annual report and accounts for the year to 31 March 2013, its chair Caroline Schwaller wrote: “Where we think the voluntary and community sector is being treated unfairly, we will speak out; but it is above all important for us to work with our partners in local government to find solutions to the problems confronting local communities.”
Among the successes listed in its report, the umbrella body said it convinced the minister for civil society, Nick Hurd, to support its view that Lord Hodgson’s proposal to make it easier for charities to pay their trustees would undermine public trust, and persuaded the government to amend legislation to ensure that local Healthwatch coalitions were community-led.
It also said it secured agreement that the update service within the new Disclosure and Barring Service would be free for volunteers, and claimed that its lobbying led to the £30m Transforming Local Infrastructure fund.
It said the work of its Local Commissioning and Procurement team has helped Navca become "a leading authority on commissioning issues affecting local charities and community groups", and that it achieved a 100 per cent success rate for members that used its tender support service.
It also became the first national umbrella body to be a living wage employer.
Unresticted funding down by 32 per cent
In financial terms, the organisation’s income was boosted by 42 per cent to £2.6m thanks largely to a £1m grant from the Department of Health for the Better Health Partnerships project – but excluding this, unrestricted income shrank by a third over the year.
Navca spent nearly £26,000 on the aborted merger with Community Matters, though £10,000 of this was covered by a grant.
Just over £31,000 was allocated to redundancy costs during the period.
