The National Council for Voluntary Organisations has commissioned a report to find ways to encourage the national media to give the voluntary sector more positive coverage, the umbrella body's chair, Martyn Lewis, has advised.

Lewis was speaking at yesterday’s NCVO Evolve conference in London, and made the announcement following an interview with winners of the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, who said that media coverage of their activities has either been non-existent or the press had been fishing for negative stories.

The former ITN newsreader revealed that he has asked his colleagues at NCVO to do some research into what can be done to make the coverage of these stories easier and more attractive for journalists: “To help the national media understand the genuine newsworthy value of the work that you do.”

Lewis said: “I’ve been concerned that the national media in general tend to highlight problems, not solutions. We in our sector provide many of those solutions, and our work with the people we support provides inspiring problems almost every day: how problems can be overcome by the right kind of help.

“At grassroots level we provide an important early warning radar system for the politicians for issues emerging that are a key part of our country’s social fabric, and I challenge national editors to consider including more about the work of [voluntary] organisations when they write about problems that we face in the country.”

He described the project as “a work in progress”, and advised the audience to “watch this space” for the results.

Sir Stuart: we will publish lobbying details

Elsewhere in the conference, NCVO's chief executive Sir Stuart Etherington pledged to publish details of the body's spending on campaigning and lobbying.

Last month Etherington spoke out in support of the Public Administration Select Committee's proposal that charities publish details of the resources they devote to such activities. 

And yesterday he said that NCVO would actively set an example by disclosing this information itself.

"I don’t wish charities to be subject to burdensome regulation," he insisted, "but I do believe we should be leading the way on transparency. In fact, I think we should be the gold standard.

"We will set the example by publishing just such information, along with details of the ministers we meet."

The umbrella body CEO also said that he would reveal the meetings NCVO holds with ministers.