Minister for civil society, Nick Hurd, has said there is a skills shortage among commissioners which causes problems for small charities.
Speaking yesterday at a roundtable event organised by the Foundation for Social Improvement, Hurd responded to questions from small charity representatives on how they can make themselves more attractive to commissioners and therefore get and keep local government contracts.
He said: “We shouldn’t underestimate the skills gap on that side of the table. A lot of people calling themselves commissioners now have never done it before and don’t know what it means.”
Hurd added that the Commissioning Academy, which opened last year, aimed to help solve this problem by allowing commissioners, including senior figures at local authorities, to test each other on the process in order to make them more effective in their role.
One small-charity representative said this issue was particular relevant in health and social care charities, where councils and other public sector organisations often do not use their services as they are “not the NHS”, even though the skills and expertise they offer can go above and beyond those provided by the NHS.
She said her charity was often told by junior commissioners that public bodies could not deal with her charity, even if such charities could provide a higher quality of patient care.
In response, Hurd said: “Fundamentally what we’re talking about is culture change, and you know as well as I do that you just can’t change culture overnight in something like the NHS which is very set in its ways.
“But we’ve got a window of opportunity now because the NHS is under more pressure than it has ever been, which will mean new opportunities around public health.”
Volunteer shortages
The problem of recruiting volunteers was also discussed at the event, with reports that people looking for jobs are still being told that they cannot volunteer while on Job Seekers Allowance, even if this is untrue.
Hurd said: “Well you can write all the guidance in the world but you cannot silence individual Job Centres and the messages received. If this is something still going on then it is something I will have to take to them and say, this is still happening. You ought to be able to reconcile the two.”
He added: “Running a small volunteering organisation is one of the toughest things you can do.”
He emphasised the importance of volunteering and learning from charities, saying: “One thing we have done is encourage our civil servants to do more in the community, we’re not doing that to make us feel better, it’s because we think we’ll get better civil servants as a result.”
