Project summary
Central government policy has stepped up roles for the voluntary and community sector in public service design and delivery. Opposition political parties also see a central role for the sector in tackling poverty. The sector is now a partner in strategic bodies, and delivery bodies for public services. While there is already a lot of activity, the aim of policy is to increase and improve these relationships and roles.
However, there are still some key barriers to moving forward, including:
- sector-unfriendly procurement systems in local government
- reluctance within the voluntary and community sector to taking on new roles in delivery
- ongoing issues about clashes of cultures and ways of working in partnerships
There is a lack of capacity on both sides. IPEG as part of CfLG will survey the voluntary and community sector in the North West region to assess capacity gaps and ways to move forward. We will ask the sector what roles it would like to play in order to shape local government policy for the future. This work is based on a similar very informative exercise by University of Teesside in the North East sponsored by One NorthEast and Voluntary Organisations Network North East (VONNE). For information about that project please follow this link.
Project investigators
- Liz Richardson
- James Rees
- Aubrey Scully