Communities Secretary Eric Pickles plans to scrap current guidance on how councils should engage with the voluntary sector, and instead have a one-page statutory guide that sets out clear expectations for councils considering cutting funding to local voluntary groups.
The new draft guide, Best Value, is currently out for consultation. It says local authorities should give a charity at least three months notice if it intends to reduce or end funding which could threaten the viability of an organisation or service, and actively engage with a charity on the future of a service.
Also, local authorities should consider overall value, including environmental and social value, when reviewing service provision and consult with a wide range of local persons, including charities and businesses at all stages of commissioning cycles.
The new guide will replace the current 56-page statutory guidance on local priorities, which spells out how councils should engage with the people in their area and how they should feed back information.
Pickles says Best Value will also be followed by central government: “The government is reducing the burden of bureaucracy and removing red tape from councils, local firms and the voluntary sector,” he said.
“I’m offering a social responsibility deal for town halls: I’m tearing up the unreasonable Whitehall red tape that costs them money and wastes their time. In return, local councils should treat local community groups with the full respect they deserve.
“I’m not asking councils to do anything that I wouldn’t do myself, so all central government are also signing up to these fair new standards.”
The consultation on Best Value will last nine weeks, ending 13 June 2011. This is less than the standard 12-week duration due to the need to balance swift action in light of near-term budgetary decisions.
Pickles first mooted statutory guidance for local councils at the NCVO conference this year, where he challenged town halls to resist any temptation to "pull up the drawbridge" and pass on disproportionate reductions in funding to the voluntary and community sector.
