On Thursday I was in Birmingham to take part in a meeting of the NCVO Members Assembly. The theme of the day was ‘responsible capitalism’ and we opened with a fascinating presentation from Michael Green, an economist who was formerly Head of Communications at the Department for International Development. Michael laid out the options for dealing with the “great vampire squid” of capitalism, urging the charity sector (particularly the charitable foundations) to become “activist investors”. Christine Berry from FairPensions – a charity which works to promote responsible investment by pension funds and other institutional investors – similarly talked about “leveraging the influence of shareholders to improve corporate behaviour”. The third speaker was Charlotte Gardiner, Policy Manager at NCVO, who talked about her role as a Board member of Enabling Enterprise – a Community Interest Company that helps young people develop their employability skills. In the interesting and wide-ranging discussion that followed there was much talk about the commercial sector wanting the voluntary sector to be more business-like. Ray Kipling thought we should be asking the commercial sector to be more voluntary sector-like. Ray, who used to work for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, asked how many commercial business could motivate a lot of people to go out late at night and face death? It was great to see a new North East region representative on the NCVO Members Assembly – Lisa Gardiner who some of you with very long memories will remember was the first Voluntary Arts England Information Officer. Lisa now works for North Tyneside VODA: it was lovely to see her again.
Robin Simpson.
On Wednesday I was at Mary Ward House in London to take part in the NCVO Impact of Infrastructure 2012 conference. The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) is approaching the end of its 3-year Value of Infrastructure Programme (VIP), funded by the Big Lottery Fund. Opening the conference, NCVO Deputy Chief Executive, Ben Kernighan, said there had been a big investment in voluntary sector infrastructure over the past decade – which he called a “golden age for funding for the voluntary sector”. The current Government focus is towards the ‘front line’ rather than infrastructure organisations. But Ben emphasised that “infrastructure is a really important part of the sector and has emerged from the sector … its role in providing a voice and advocacy for the sector is crucial”. He also spoke about a shift from supply-led to demand-driven support. Leesa Herbert from NCVO explained how the Value of Infrastructure Programme provided a robust and relevant framework, categorising the three key common roles of infrastructure organisations as: connecting; developing; and influencing. Sara Burns from Triangle Consulting explained how they had worked with NCVO to develop the VIP impact measurement tools. I spoke, in the afternoon plenary session, about how Voluntary Arts has started to use these impact measurement tools and the way in which we introduced staff and Board members to the system through a series of exercises at our 2011 Awayday. The Impact of Infrastructure conference was an extremely interesting and well-attended event. There were around 150 delegates – mainly from local voluntary sector infrastructure organisations (Councils for Voluntary Service and similar) but with a reasonable representation of national specialist infrastructure bodies like Voluntary Arts. Given how often it seems like we are a unique and complicated organisation, it was very reassuring to meet so many people doing similar work in different locations and sectors.
Robin Simpson.
I was at NCVO in London on Wednesday where Jenny Phillimore from the Third Sector Research Centre at the University of Birmingham and I presented a research seminar on amateur arts and civil society. We discussed the results of our AHRC Connected Communities research project into The Impact of Grassroots Arts Activities on Communities with a group of representatives of third sector and arts organisations. Jenny described the three levels and seven areas of impact identified by our study and said how struck she had been, in particular, by the emphasis that had emerged on the importance of beauty, fun and laughter. It was an interesting discussion which reinforced the need for further research in this area.
Robin Simpson.
Filed under: meetings | Tags: Europe, ncvo, OTS, politics, UK, volarts, volunteering
On Friday afternoon I attended an Office for Civil Society Strategic Partners event, ‘European Years: What do they mean for us?’ at Europe House in London. Connecting the European Year of Volunteering 2011 with the European Year of Active Aging 2012 and the European Year of Citizenship 2013; this event involved the European Commission and key government departments coming together in dialogue with a range of civil society organisations. As the European Year of Active Aging 2012 begins, we shared learning from previous European Years as part of the last gathering of our European Year of Volunteering 2011 steering group. The general consensus seemed to be that the European Year of Volunteering had been very successful across Europe but only partly successful in England. The challenge was exemplified by one participant in a European Year of Volunteering event in Manchester who had memorably said “what on earth has Europe got to do with Oldham?!” There was some very sensible discussion about the need for a greater handover period between European Years – maybe three months at the end of each year in which the connections between the two themes are explored in more detail.
Robin Simpson.
Filed under: meetings | Tags: England, funding, ncvo, politics, vcs, volarts
On Thursday I was at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations for a meeting of the NCVO Members’ Assembly. The prospect of a full day meeting focussing almost entirely on the review of charity law didn’t seem like the most enticing prospect but it was a surprisingly interesting and enjoyable event. UK charity legislation is to be reviewed from the end of this year. Earlier this week, NCVO President Lord Hodgson was invited to lead the Government review. To feed into this process NCVO is launching an enquiry and member consultation on rethinking charity law and regulation. On Thursday we heard from Jane Hobson, Head of Policy at the Charity Commission, and from Lord Hodgson, and spent most of the day discussing what the sector would hope to get from the Government review. There was a lot of discussion about very small charities that fall below the threshold requiring them to register with the Charity Commission, whether the threshold should be changed or whether there should be other ways of recognising such small charities. Jane Hobson emphasised that the Charity Commission regulates all charities, not just registered charities. Other topics I found particularly interesting were the question of whether charities should be allowed to pay Trustees, the role of the Charity Commission in providing guidance and/or advice to charities and the question of defining public benefit.
The NCVO AGM was held after lunch. NCVO Chair, Martyn Lewis, paid tribute to his predecessor, Sir Graham Melmoth. Martyn reflected on the year 2010-11 which had seen a small drop in NCVO’s income but an increase in its membership (from 7,719 to 8,375 member organisations). Major cuts in funding did not come into effect until the 2011-12 financial year but their impact was felt at the end of March when one third of NCVO staff were made redundant. Nevertheless NCVO is pursuing a bold and positive strategy, having secured planning permission and a bank loan to build a fourth floor on its headquarters which will become a charity hub and a home to more voluntary organisations. NCVO Chief Executive, Sir Stuart Etherington, said that there is a real anxiety about what is happening in world markets and we are now expecting four or five years of low growth levels. He said the voluntary sector is starting to shrink, with staffing levels across the sector showing a net loss for the first time – and this might just be the beginning. Although the sector did see the financial crisis coming and planned for it, the speed and impact of the financial hurricane proved impossible for deal with. Stuart did, however, find reasons to be optimistic, including the fact that Government remains supportive of the sector. It’s a tough time and it’s a time when Boards become much more important. Stuart also said he feels that NCVO is needed much more now than it was five years ago.
Robin Simpson.
On Thursday I was at the Institution of Civil Engineers, just off Parliament Square in London, for the annual NCVO Hinton Lecture. The hall was packed this year to hear Baroness Williams of Crosby, The Rt Hon Shirley Williams, speak about ‘Beyond the State and the Market – what kind of society in the 21st Century?’. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to see her and she did not disappoint. Shirley Williams is now 81 years old and her list of achievements is incredible. She was the Secretary of State for Education who replaced grammar schools with comprehensives. She was one of the ‘Gang of Four’ rebels who left the Labour Party to found the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1981. More recently she co-drafted the constitutions of Russia, Ukraine and South Africa. And, as the NCVO Chair – the former BBC newsreader Martyn Lewis told us – she has appeared more times than any other guest on the BBC’s ‘Question Time’ programme. Shirley Williams is tiny (particularly next to the very tall Martyn Lewis). Entering the hall almost unnoticed while the audience were still deep in conversation, she suddenly broke away from the official welcoming party and strode quickly and purposefully onto the stage, keen to start her lecture with the minimum of fuss. She spoke eloquently and articulately with only minimal glances at her notes – until the poor lighting made it difficult for her to see some of the statistics she wanted to quote and she came a little unstuck. This only served to prove, however, how little of her speech had been read. Her sharp mind, vast experience, clear thinking and articulacy was particularly demonstrated in her answers to questions from the audience at the end of her lecture. Her speech ranged across a mass of topics, from the fall of communism and the peace dividend to the Arab Spring, the banking crisis, the expenses scandal, Occupy Wall Street, mobile technology, the rise of social networking, the loss of trust in politicians, poverty reduction in Lula’s Brazil and George Clooney’s new film ‘The Ides of March’ (“brilliantly made … and as cynical as anything I’ve seen”). Baroness Williams said that “our deliberative politics is going to be hard to maintain”. Politicians are already being bypassed in some ways and these changes could create huge opportunities for the voluntary sector. She warned, however, that a number of charities seem to play power games against each other and get caught up in selfish forms of politics. She urged the voluntary sector to “be a bit humble and realise that a lot of you can learn from those you serve”. Kevin Curley, the Chief Executive of NAVCA, asked Baroness Williams whether that flagship policy of the Government she supports, the Big Society, will deliver social justice? “No” she replied – how refreshing to hear a straightforward answer from a politician!
Robin Simpson.
Filed under: meetings | Tags: DCMS, funding, heritage, ncvo, OTS, politics, vcs, volarts
On Friday I was in London for my regular voluntary cultural sector alliance meeting with the Heritage Alliance and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations. We discussed a range of current policy issues including localism, Big Society and philanthropy, as well as the proposed changes to Gift Aid and the future of cheques. Kate Pugh told us that the Heritage Alliance is to take on responsibility, as part of a consortium of organisations, for running the annual Heritage Open Days from next year. James Allen from NCVO urged us to encourage voluntary arts and heritage organisations to use the Voluntary Sector Cuts website, see: http://voluntarysectorcuts.org.uk/.
Robin Simpson.
I was back in London Thursday for a meeting of the NCVO Members Assembly. This was the first Members Assembly meeting to be chaired by the new NCVO Chair, the former BBC newsreader Martyn Lewis. The first part of the meeting took the form of a version of ‘Question Time’, chaired by Martyn. Representatives of three local authorities and voluntary organisations operating in those local authority areas formed a panel to discuss ‘localism’. The format worked well with prepared questions from the floor provoking a thoughtful and interesting debate. I was particularly interested in a discussion about how national voluntary organisations are going to engage in localism which included the observation that specialist expertise from national organisations should be used in conjunction with practical delivery by local voluntary organisations.
Robin Simpson.
Filed under: meetings | Tags: arts, CLG, England, ncvo, politics, vcs, volarts, volunteering
On Tuesday I was in London to speak at the NCVO Annual Conference in a session on ‘Participation, the arts and social change’. The session was chaired by Tim Joss from the Rayne Foundation. I spoke about the massive scale of the voluntary arts sector but the need to appreciate that most participants are primarily motivated by the relevant artform rather than by the desire to effect social change. Tom Andrews from People United spoke about the ‘We All Do Good Things’ project in Herne Bay which involved 5,000 local people in a range of arts activities to celebrate and share positive stories about their community. Jocelyn Cunningham from the RSA talked about the Citizen Power project in Peterborough which is encouraging positive social change by enhancing the ability of people to solve problems in their own lives, saying “the arts is the necessary glue for keeping it all together”. The audience for our session included quite a few arts organisations as well as other voluntary organisations and funders. We had a lively discussion about the tensions within the arts between the intrinsic and instrumental approaches and between excellence and participation. It was wonderful to have a session within the NCVO Annual Conference focussing on the arts for the first time I can remember, Many thanks to everyone who took part.
Sir Stuart Etherington
The NCVO Annual Conference was an impressive and enjoyable day. Around 600 delegates from all sorts of voluntary sector organisation were present to hear NCVO Chief Executive, Sir Stuart Etherington, warn, in his ‘state of the sector’ speech, that “at a time when communities need us more than ever … there is a very real danger that some of our organisations won’t be there”. I was struck by the number of people I spoke to during the day who don’t yet know what public funding their organisation is to receive (if any) for the financial year starting on 1 April 2011. Stuart pointed out that one third of charities have no financial reserves and asked “how can you manage effectively an organisation if you don’t know your funding in 30 days’ time?” He called for the Government’s Transition Fund for voluntary sector organisations to be doubled and asked for clear guidelines for local government on working with the voluntary sector. In the afternoon we heard from the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles. The Minister recognised the “immensely important role of voluntary and community groups” and he used the NCVO Conference to announce that “if councils are being high-handed I will consider giving our reasonable expectations a statutory force”. At the time I’m not sure many of us in the hall noticed the significance of this statement, which the NCVO website later clarified by saying: “The Secretary of State defined disproportionate cuts [to voluntary sector organisations] in his speech as bigger reductions to budgets than they [local authorities] take on themselves. He also gave a commitment to consider giving statutory force to these expectations should local authorities fail to meet them.”
Eric Pickles
Robin Simpson.
