Cultural Playing Field

Our main focus this time was the impact of the recession on the third sector. The consensus was that the main effect to date has been on matched funding. In the short term it seems as if the recession has encouraged a significant growth in levels of volunteering. The real impact on public sector funding is likely to be in 2 – 3 years time. In this context it’s going to be important for us to look at how the third sector can best support DCMS negotiations with The Treasury ahead of the next Comprehensive Spending Review. The other subject on this week’s Third Sector Forum agenda was to discuss the implementation of the new DCMS Third Sector Strategy. It will be a key function of the Forum to monitor the progress of the strategy over the coming year.

Robin Simpson.