Cultural Playing Field


Meeting Matthew Scott at the Community Sector Coalition
November 6, 2009, 12:03 pm
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On Monday afternoon I met Matthew Scott, Director of the Community Sector Coalition to discuss a number of policy themes that might form part of the Coalition’s new strategic plan. We talked about the likely impact of a Conservative Government on the community sector: Shadow Third Sector Minister, Nick Hurd, is to address the next meeting of the Community Sector Coalition in December. We agreed on the importance of small grant schemes as seed-bed development for community groups. Matthew described the community sector as an ‘iceberg’: only a fraction of the sector is clearly visible – there are massive numbers of informal, un-constituted community groups which it is nearly impossible to map. We also discussed the Voluntary Sector Compact and its relevance to small community groups. Finally, we looked at the issues of climate change and sustainability and the extent to which the arts might be used to explore the climate change message.

Robin Simpson.



Conservative plans for the National Lottery
November 6, 2009, 12:02 pm
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On Monday I was in London for a meeting with Heritage Link and the Central Council for Physical Recreation to discuss the Conservative Party’s proposals to change the distribution of National Lottery funds. A Conservative Government would increase the proportion of Lottery money distributed by Arts Council England, the Heritage Lottery Fund and Sport England by reducing the proportion currently channelled through the Big Lottery Fund. The intention is that this redistribution would cut grants to statutory bodies by the Big Lottery Fund without reducing funding to the voluntary and community sector, though it may be difficult to achieve this so neatly in practice. We were keen to stress that a significant number of voluntary and community sector organisations currently secure Lottery funding through the arts, heritage and sport distributors – and could therefore potentially benefit from the proposed changes. (Indeed the vast majority of arts, heritage and sport Lottery funding goes to third sector organisations.) We also discussed the implications of last week’s announcement by the Shadow Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, that a Conservative Government would seek to merge English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Robin Simpson.



Learning Revolution Expo
October 8, 2009, 2:28 pm
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On Tuesday I was at the Learning Revolution Expo event at Old Spitalfields Market in London. Paul and I were running ‘Zone 2 – taking action’ which focused on issues relating to self-organising groups of learners. It was a fascinating day and a very innovative format which encouraged some high quality networking. We made lots of useful contacts and came away quite inspired. It was encouraging to see the Further Education Minister Kevin Brennan there to formally launch the Learning Revolution Festival and to have a video message from Lord Mandelson emphasising the importance the Government attaches to informal adult learning. And it was great to see two of our new freelance facilitators, Matthew Burge and Wendy Smithers.

Robin Simpson.



DCMS Opportunity & Excellence Programme Board
October 8, 2009, 2:24 pm
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On Monday I was in London to attend a meeting of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport Opportunity & Excellence Programme Board. This Board brings together Arts Council England, Sport England, English Heritage, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, the National Museum Directors’ Council, the Voluntary Arts Network and the Local Government Association with DCMS Directors to oversee progress against two of the Department’s four Departmental Strategic Objectives (DSOs). DSO1 relates to the levels of public engagement in the DCMS sectors – including arts attendance, arts participation, sports participation, visitors to museums etc. We had an interesting discussion on Monday about the effects of the recession on engagement. The DSO1 target focuses on raising the proportion of the population that engages with the various sectors rather than the total number of people participating (which would include foreign tourists and repeat visitors). We also did some further work on an initial basket of indicators to track progress against DSO2 which seeks to increase ‘excellence’ across the DCMS sectors.

Robin Simpson.



England Volunteering Development Council meeting
October 2, 2009, 8:01 am
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EVDC is always a great networking opportunity, bringing together a wide range of volunteering infrastructure and volunteer-involving organisations. At the last two meetings we have been discussing the future role of EVDC – its functions, membership and administration. While there is a danger of doing too much navel-gazing, it has been helpful to revisit the purpose of these meetings. We also heard this week about the progress of the Association of Volunteer Managers, which has just had its second AGM, and about the Volunteering England/British Red Cross fringe events at the main political party conferences.

Robin Simpson.



Voluntary cultural sector meeting
September 4, 2009, 3:05 pm
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Today I have been in London for my regular meeting with our voluntary cultural sector partners, the Central Council for Physical Recreation and Heritage Link. It was interesting to hear the latest about the Physical Activity Alliance, plans for the Olympic Torch Relay, the Equality Bill and the Mayor of London’s Cultural Strategy Group. We also talked in detail about the relationship between our sectors and the Department for Communities and Local Government and how this might be developed.

Robin Simpson.



England Volunteering Development Council meeting
July 17, 2009, 9:40 am
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On Thursday I was back in London to attend a meeting of the England Volunteering Development Council. We heard a presentation on the progress of the Modernising Volunteering National Support Service which is looking at employer-supported volunteering, new forms of volunteering, volunteering in faith-based organisations and increasing diversity. Justin Davis-Smith from Volunteering England talked about the work VE has been doing with the TUC to update the guidelines on relations between paid staff and volunteers which date back to 1979: comments are sought by the end of July on the draft new guidelines which are on the Volunteering England website. We had an update on the ‘refresh’ of the Voluntary Sector Compact: the revised Compact will be available from next Monday 20 July for a three month consultation. There was some concern about the implementation of the Department for Work and Pensions volunteering brokerage scheme which aims to place 34,000 long-term unemployed people in volunteering opportunities over the next two years. Saskia Daggett from Volunteering England presented a comprehensive review of the work of the six action groups which were established to follow-up the recommendations of the Commission on the Future of Volunteering. These action groups have now finished their work and the list of their achievements is very impressive. Finally we heard more details of the YouthNet/Volunteering England 2012 Volunteering Legacy project which aims to build a sustainable electronic volunteering infrastructure.

Robin Simpson.



NCVO breakfast seminar
July 17, 2009, 9:34 am
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I was in London on Wednesday for a series of five meetings, starting with a breakfast seminar organised by NCVO at the headquarters of The Guardian at Kings Place. Like most of the attendees, I was looking forward to hearing the new Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, John Denham, and very disappointed when he pulled out of the event at the last minute. In his place we heard from Stuart Hoggan, Director for Local Democracy & Participation at the Department for Communities and Local Government. Stuart talked about the strengths of civil society but how social capital is being critically impacted by the recession. He spoke in detail about the DCLG empowerment agenda and stressed that John Denham has strongly endorsed the programme of work he inherited. Stuart also addressed the role of the Third Sector and explained that DCLG was reviving its Third Sector Partnership Board. He said the interface between central and local government would be a key debate in the forthcoming general election. The discussion following Stuart’s presentation demonstrated a contradiction between the Third Sector telling central government to get out of the way of local government and then saying that local government is not doing what it should and asking central government to make it do so. It was an interesting session but I didn’t feel we learned anything new and it was a shame not to have been able to hear the Secretary of State himself on these matters.

Robin Simpson.



Philip Blond and progressive conservatism
June 18, 2009, 9:11 am
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On Wednesday I was in London again to attend a meeting of the Community Sector Coalition. Our guest speaker was Philip Blond, Director of the Progressive Conservatism Project at DEMOS. Philip is charged with “rethinking what modern conservatism means”. The proverbial ‘Red Tory’ is an impressive performer – intelligent, articulate and extremely fast-talking: it was often quite a struggle to keep up with him. Among many other things, he argued that most people feel society is broken: associative relationships have weakened. The key question for the community sector is “what builds associative non-state civic behaviour?” The resources for community renewal lie in the community itself: the state and the market now need to play a different role. Whereas traditional Tories want to reduce demand on the state by passing over responsibilities to the voluntary and community sector, “progressives see the voluntary and community sector as more effective in delivery than the state”. Philip Blond spoke a great deal about ‘subsidiarity’ – “power should be exercised at the most appropriate level” and ‘the right to parish’ – giving a group of local people the opportunity to manage the public money that is spent on their community. He felt that third sector organisations could share more back-office costs and should have the right to use unused public offices and other assets. At least I think that’s what he said! My impression was that his focus was mostly on VCS organisations providing public services rather than wider issues about civil society. But much of what he said was encouraging for the community sector and he gave us some clear advice on how best to make our case to a potential Conservative government.

Robin Simpson.



Progress on the 2012 Volunteering Legacy
June 18, 2009, 9:10 am
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I was back in London on Tuesday for my regular meeting with Sophie Chapman at the Office of the Third Sector. It’s all change at the Cabinet Office with Tessa Jowell taking over from Liam Byrne and Angela Smith becoming the new Minister of State for the Third Sector. We discussed progress on the 2012 Volunteering Legacy: three new posts are being created at Volunteering England, a project manager will be based at YouthNet to oversee development of the new online Participation Portal and the Office of the Third Sector is working with the Government Olympic Executive on the development of a national marketing campaign about volunteering and participation.

Robin Simpson.