The Office for Civil Society’s 2016 agenda has a familiar ring to it, says Ian Allsop.

It is certainly recommended best practice that any analytical piece of writing at the minute either has a David Bowie reference shoehorned in or, if charity-specific, talks about how gloomy 2015 was. Apparently, this year is a crucial one for the sector, particularly in terms of fundraising.

Now I have covered at least half of my statutory responsibility, I can crack on. But it is a crucial year. Like pretty much all of the other ones have been.

Time and time again we see calls for action not words, usually expressed in words. Such as these. Yet words are useful, if used correctly, and the sector grandees will continue to hold a key role in challenging any potential nonsense that may come from official quarters. As if to prove my point, first out of the blocks this year was one of the charity world’s most quotable spokesbods.

Extending the Freedom of Information Act to the voluntary sector is a “blunderbuss approach” that could have serious ramifications for some charities, raged Sir Stephen of Bubbshire. For those who are unsure, a blunderbuss is a short large-bored gun firing slugs and balls – a sort of drone for the American War of Independence generation.

What led Bubb to fire off a volley of verbal slugs, if not balls, was a story in the Daily Telegraph saying the government is considering extending the Act to ensure there is more transparency over how charities spend public money. While transparency is to be encouraged, it is a bit rich of the government to take the moral high ground given its own approach to FOI when questioned on anything that is a bit awkward for them.

If anyone is well-positioned to comment on freedom of information, it is surely the man who has never revealed too many details in his blog when far too many would do. By his own high standards, 2015 was a quiet year for Bubb. However, he did end 2015 by describing the Office of Civil Society (OCS) as hollowed out and gutted, and only interested in social impact bonds and the National Citizen Service.

At the time, the minister Rob Wilson – speaking from the charred remains of the OCS’ threadbare cave, dug out of a Whitehall mudbank – defended his department stoutly against the allegations. Aside from boasting that the government had managed to protect the Big Lottery Fund – which, given the threat came from the government itself, is like a big game poacher claiming to be a leading conservationist by selling his blunderbuss – Wilson said that people are going to “look very silly in a few weeks’ time when we announce our forthcoming plans”.

Plans in the pipeline

He’s a bit of a tease is this Wilson fellow. In an interview with Civil Society Media, he again hints at a big announcement coming up for charities hoping to deliver more public services. I can feel the excitement drip off the page, although it had better be something good or those people who said people will look a bit silly, will look a bit silly.

He conceded that the OCS has had to tighten its belt like everybody else in government, but has got some “really important areas of expansion, from the National Citizen Service to social impact bonds”. Now, where have I heard those two priorities highlighted before?

Wilson loves social impact bonds. He wants to marry them. By the end of this Parliament he envisages a market worth at least £1bn. But while it is refreshing to see some long-term thinking being applied to solving society’s ills, Wilson admits it’s not a quick fix. And there are plenty of those required as well.

Other talking points

Other things discussed that will crop up to a lesser or greater degree over the coming months are the fundraising regulator, Charity Commission powers and the inclusion of housing association stock in right-to-buy schemes (along with wedges, very thin-ended). And then there is the matter of who should pay for the Charity Commission. I won’t get into this now although a windfall tax on opinions expressed on this subject might be a start.

These could all be big ch-ch-ch-changes, but those who float in the oddities of the charity space will carry on regardless, doing what they do. You can be heroes. For more than one day.

Ian Allsop is a freelance editor and journalist, and regular contributor to Charity Finance.