On Tuesday I listened to people from the often-unheard community sector discuss the big society. There was no government speaker and hardly any suits or ties in the room. A rather hirsute man wearing jeans and a Jimi Hendrix t-shirt, and with a strong West Midlands accent, chaired the event. Very nearly half the 35… Read more »
Posts By: John Plummer
It’s hard to see through the fog surrounding the future of the National Lottery
One of the most vexing issues on the voluntary sector landscape right now is the future of the National Lottery. The government wants to reduce the amount of good causes money awarded by the Big Lottery Fund from 50 per cent to 40 per cent. Considering that the BLF has given £3.6bn to mainly charitable… Read more »
The government talks local but acts national. How do charities make sense of this?
Two stories I have worked on this year have generated considerable feeling. One is the merger of Age Concern and Help the Aged into Age UK and its subsequent attempts to persuade local Age Concerns to become ‘brand partners’. The other is the decision by the Alzheimer’s Society to merge local branches into a new regional structure…. Read more »
David Cameron may support local action but what about local government?
I woke this morning to hear charities leading the news. It did not turn out to be quite as interesting as it first seemed. Previews of David Cameron’s comments about the big society contained mainly re-heated announcements, such as setting up a big society bank. But there was some interesting new information, such as the… Read more »
Large charities win contracts, but how does that square with big society rhetoric?
Are small charities better than big ones? Few questions provoke more ire. Stephen Bubb, chief executive of Acevo, says it is a “senseless and divisive argument”. But the new government seems to be following the path trodden by Iain Duncan Smith five years ago when he contrasted “bureaucratic and risk-averse” big charities with “the instinctive… Read more »
What happened to the big splash on the Compact?
2010 was supposed to be the year of the big push for the Compact. “Next year is an important time to make a big splash,” said Richard Corden, chief executive of the Commission for the Compact, when the cross-sector fair play agreement was refreshed in December. At the time, the Compact was still reeling from… Read more »
The Charity Commission’s guidance on political campaigning is proving a weak deterrent
The pre-election warning to charities by the Charity Commission chief executive Andrew Hind, telling them “not to engage in any party political activity or leave the charity open to the perception that they might be”, looks like one of those police clampdowns on cyclists riding on pavements: more request than threat. It was always going… Read more »
Six-hour Tory love-in at the Acevo summit
How many ways can you say I love you? That was the dilemma facing members of the shadow Cabinet when they turned out in force yesterday to cosy up to a hundred or so charity delegates at the Conservative Party third sector summit. Chief executives body Acevo is staging summits with the three main political… Read more »
Senior politicians were competing to impress charities last night
Loans are all the rage. Last night I joined around 200 people who went to all-hail them at a House of Commons reception organised by the Social Investment Business. Proceedings were delayed by a parliamentary lobby of hundreds of kindly-looking middle-aged people wearing ‘Homeopathy Worked for Me’ t-shirts, which caused 30-minute delays getting through security…. Read more »
What’s going on at The Alzheimer’s Society?
Few articles in recent months have generated as many heated calls and emails to Third Sector as the restructuring at the Alzheimer’s Society. The society, like many charities, wants to win more public sector contracts and the Department of Health’s publication last year of the first-ever National Dementia Strategy for England makes now a good… Read more »