The charity sector “cannot take for granted” its relationship with the current government and ability to speak out, NCVO chief executive Kate Lee has said.
Speaking at the sector body’s annual general meeting yesterday, Lee also said there was “a lot to be learned” by the UK charity sector from the Trump administration’s effects on its US counterpart.
Comparing the UK sector’s relationship with the current government compared to its predecessor, Lee said: “The reality is that under the last government, the sector did not have a particularly strong voice.
“There's lots of evidence to suggest that the sector's voice was not particularly welcomed by the previous Conservative government.
“[The government] has been increasingly redressing that balance.”
Lee said the sector is “beginning to be listened to again” and that this should “up the ante in terms of our conversation, policy and advocacy work”.
She said: “There is a space for it. However, we should not take that for granted.”
Lee also warned that the Charity Commission’s independence from government isn’t “protected in law”,
“It could be that a future government decides that the Charity Commission will work to a minister and that that political appointment will make the decisions about what the future is of the sector, as has happened in some aspects of charity law in the United States,” she said.
“Right from that grassroots level, right up to that macro level, we cannot take for granted that the sector will retain a place of being able to speak truth to power without having consequences,” Lee added.
