Civil society plans ‘a timid, tick-box exercise’, says shadow charities minister

Steve Reed accuses the government of attempting to cover up its neglect of the sector

The government’s plan to develop a civil society strategy is a timid tick-box exercise, according to the shadow minister for civil society.

In a statement released this morning, Steve Reed accused the government of neglecting the sector and said it was attempting to cover this up.

Tracey Crouch, the Minister for Civil Society, today announced plans to develop a strategy through a listening exercise that will begin next year.

But Reed said charities would have little faith in the “timid” strategy, particularly after the government rejected the recommendations of Lord Hodgson’s review of the lobbying act.

“This civil society strategy is little more than a tick-box exercise to cover up the government’s total neglect of the sector,” said Reed.

“It doesn’t take a year-long review to find out that demoting the civil society brief from a powerful, cross-department position in the Cabinet Office was always going to leave the sector isolated.”

Gemma Walpole, chief executive of the small charity the Norfolk Family Mediation Service, welcomed the announcement that the strategy would explore how charities could collaborate.

“It’s really good news,” she said. “But small charities are already doing lots of collaborative work on how to be more effective together, so I hope that the strategy listens to small charities and takes into account work that has already been done, rather than duplicating it.”

Andrew O’Brien, director of policy and engagement at the Charity Finance Group, said it was important that the strategy was backed up by funding and a “beefed-up” Office of Civil Society to implement it.

“Without this, any strategy has the risk of becoming merely words on paper and having no impact on the operating environment for charities,” he said.

“Given the tough times ahead, we cannot afford to waste the potential of the sector.”

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations, the charity leaders body Acevo and the Association of Charitable Foundations all welcomed Crouch’s announcement.

Karl Wilding, director of public policy and volunteering at the NCVO, said: “Making sure voluntary organisations are valued and supported by the government will mean they can do even more across society.”

He said the consultative approach set out by the minister was right to get the best results.

Vicky Browning, chief executive of Acevo, said: “It’s good to see Tracey Crouch’s commitment to producing a civil society strategy that will protect the sustainability of the vital work our sector does.”

She said she hoped the strategy would “provide a platform to support and develop our sector and its impact in the years ahead”.

The strategy proposal has also been welcomed by those representing small civil society organisations.

Mandy Johnson, chief executive of the Small Charities Coalition, said: “I’m genuinely excited about it. Tracey Crouch has a track record, having developed a similar strategy in her role as sports minister, which seems to be going well.

“My only concern is that she is talking to the right people, not just those with the money, and recognises that 97 per cent of the charity sector is the little guys.”

Tony Armstrong, chief executive of the community charity Locality, said the strategy needed to focus on how government could harness the power of community by providing more support for community organisations.

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Government has shown ‘complete and utter disregard’ for charities, says shadow minister

Labour’s Steve Reed says the government’s failure to produce a report on the impact of Brexit for the sector shows it is not interested in charities

Steve Reed, the shadow minister for civil society, has accused the government of showing a “complete and utter disregard for the UK’s charity sector” because it failed to consult charities about the impact of Brexit.

A letter published yesterday by the Department for Exiting the European Union included the government’s formal response to a House of Lords EU External Affairs Sub-Committee report called Brexit: Trade in Goods.

The annex to the government’s response includes a list of 58 sectors for which reports have been compiled, but not published, about the impact of leaving the European Union in those areas.

The sectors for which an impact report has been produced account for 88 per cent of the UK economy, the government’s response says, but does not include any impact report about the likely effect of Brexit on the charity sector.

The Britain Stronger in Europe campaign estimated before the EU referendum last year that charities would lose more than £200m a year in EU Commission funding if the UK were to leave the European Union.

Reed, who has tabled an urgent parliamentary question about the issue, said: “The government has published a list of 58 different sectors it has consulted about the impact of Brexit. But charities were excluded. 

“Although the government has consulted the gambling sector and the crafts industries, they didn’t bother asking the voluntary sector. Civil society organisations employ more than two million people, contribute £12bn to the economy and stand to lose millions in EU funding after Brexit.”

He claimed that the lack of an impact report for the charity sector showed the government was not interested in charities.

“The government’s complete and utter disregard for the UK’s charity sector is breathtaking,” Reed said. “When they started cutting public services, they told charities to pick up the pieces. Now, with charity funding drying up, the government doesn’t even pretend to be interested in what charities think any more. It’s a disgrace.”

The DEXEU was unable to provide a comment before publication of this story, but it is understood that an impact report covering the voluntary sector was not produced because the reports focused on sectors that trade within the European Union, not those that receive funding from it.

An opposition day debate on the 58 sectoral impact assessments is due to be held in the House of Commons today.

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IoF urges minister to set up ‘GDPR hotline’

The Institute of Fundraising has written to digital minister Matthew Hancock asking him to give as much support on the issue to charities as to businesses and other organisations

The Institute of Fundraising has called on the government to provide a “GDPR hotline” to help charities prepare for its implementation next year.

The membership body has written to Matthew Hancock, the digital minister, calling on him to ensure that charities receive the same level of support as businesses and other organisations to prepare for the General Data Protection Regulation, more stringent data-protection rules that come into force in May.

The IoF said it also wanted Hancock to provide a GDPR hotline for charities from six months before the legislation comes into force and a targeted scheme to help charities upgrade their database systems.

It called on the government to raise awareness of the changes among smaller charities and to work with sector bodies to offer more data-protection training.

The IoF penned the letter after a survey, carried out by the IoF and published today, found that nearly half of charities felt they lacked the internal expertise needed to prepare for the introduction of the GDPR.

Of the 332 charities that responded to the survey, 72 per cent said they felt there was a lack of clear guidance available on the GDPR, and 48 per cent said they did not feel they had the level of internal skills and expertise they needed to prepare properly.

The IoF survey found that the problem was particularly acute for small and medium-sized charities, with 49.5 per cent of small charities and 58 per cent of medium-sized organisations saying they lacked expertise, compared with 29 per cent of large charities.

And 33 per cent of small charities said they had not done anything to review data protection or prepare for the GDPR, compared with 3 per cent of medium-sized charities.

All of the larger charities polled said they had begun preparing, but almost no charities of any size said they believed they were ready for the introduction of the GDPR.

Peter Lewis, chief executive of the IoF, said: “A large majority of charities are working to prepare for data protection changes, but there is a clear need for much more support, especially for smaller organisations.

“It is really important that sector bodies, regulators and the government all step up to help raise awareness of the changes and to ensure there is support in place to help charities through this transition.”

He said the IoF would be developing support materials and webinars in the months to come, but a wider approach was needed across the sector.

Mandy Johnson, chief executive of the Small Charities Coalition, said the results did not surprise her.

“The GDPR is a complex regulation and there has not been enough support to help hard-working volunteers and charity workers to understand exactly what they need to do,” she said. “The SCC is working to change that.”

Vicky Browning, chief executive of the charity leaders body Acevo, said the findings reflected concerns Acevo was hearing from its members about a lack of resources and in-house skills to tackle the GDPR.

“Members from larger charities tell us they’re having to divert significant funds to deal with the challenge, but this isn’t an option for smaller organisations,” she said. “The sector is crying out for clearer guidance.”

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport was unable to respond in time for Third Sector’s deadline on Friday morning.

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Social investment should not replace public funding, says shadow Treasury minister

Anneliese Dodds, MP for Oxford East, tells the Labour Party conference it should not replace statutory services that should be carried out by the public sector

Social investment should supplement, not replace, public sector funding for youth services and there is a “clash of cultures” between social investment and the charities it funds, a shadow Treasury minister has told delegates at the Labour Party conference in Brighton.

Speaking at a fringe event about social investment in the youth and community sector, Anneliese Dodds, the MP for Oxford East, said social investment was part of a “mixed economy” but should not be used to replace statutory services that should be carried out by the public sector.

“Where I am concerned is that sometimes some of the rhetoric seems to suggest this could actually shift into some statutory services, and for me the whole point is that it should be operating in areas where there is such a high level of risk that local authorities and public funding can’t cover it,” she said.

“I don’t think it should be moving into areas where ultimately we should have proper public provision and where we really need to have that stability of service quality, especially around statutory responsibilities.”

Dodds also highlighted a “clash of cultures” between the predominately business-oriented language used by the social investment sector and the actual role youth charities play in society.

“Even the language we use is really interesting,” she said. “We use the language of social entrepreneurs, but we are not talking about profit seekers but about people who are efficient in their use of constrained resources to get really good outcomes. Why do we attach the label ‘entrepreneurs’ to that?”

Other speakers at the event highlighted problems with the perceived complexity of social investment and about people’s understanding of how it worked.

Anna Smee, chief executive of UK Youth, said that acceptance of social investment was growing, but in the main because of charities’ problems in getting grant funding.

“Three or four years ago, people didn’t know what social finance was,” said Smee. “It was a really big and scary thing and seemed like this crazy David Cameron idea that would never happen.

“Now we are seeing much more acceptance of it, mainly because people have no choice – they’ve been driven down such a challenging funding route they were willing to consider everything.

“But most of the youth organisations we’ve spoken to still don’t know where to go. They’ve never heard of the key fund, they’ve never heard of Big Issue Invest, never heard of Nesta and all the infrastructure that has grown up over the past five years. They didn’t see it as something for them.”

Smee said that youth charities had typically struggled to collect good data and this needed to be improved. Best practice should be shared, she said, to help attract social investment.

Leigh Middleton, managing director of the National Youth Agency, said that many organisations were put off by the “significant complexity” of social investment agreements, and funders were still reliant on data and key performance indicators being met rather than more qualitative evidence about youth charities’ work.

Barry Williams, director of the youth charity membership body Ambition, said cynicism about social investment “is still out there” and he was concerned that some charities were hanging on for the return of grant funding rather than exploring alternative finance models.

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More than 100 charities call on minister to reform the lobbying act

A joint letter, addressed to the charities minister Tracey Crouch, calls for revisions to make the legislation less ‘confusing and burdensome’

A letter signed by 122 charity sector bodies, including the National Council for Voluntary Organisations and the Charity Finance Group, has called for reforms to the lobbying act amid concerns that the legislation limits charities’ participation in the democratic process.

The letter, which was organised by the international development network Bond and is addressed to Tracey Crouch, the Minister for Sport and Civil Society, calls for the implementation of the Conservative peer Lord Hodgson’s proposed revisions to the lobbying act to make the legislation less “confusing and burdensome”.

The lobbying act sets spending limits and makes it a legal necessity for all organisations that spend more that £20,000 in England or £10,000 in Wales on regulated campaigning in the year prior to an election to register with the Electoral Commission.

Hodgson’s review of the lobbying act, which was commissioned by the government and published its recommendations last year, called for a number of reforms, including reducing the regulated campaign period to four months before an election and changes to the rules on joint campaigning.

But the government has yet to implement Hodgson’s recommendations. The letter says that Crouch should work with the Cabinet Office to ensure parliamentary time is set aside to discuss Hodgson’s proposals, and that the act needs to be made less “vague and confusing”.

The letter says: “Charities and non-partisan campaign groups have spent significant time attempting to understand the legislation and how to comply. However, many of the rules are vague and confusing, especially for smaller organisations.

“While some organisations have sought legal advice to help them interpret the legislation, this can be expensive and is simply not an option for many. The rules on joint campaigning are also a concern for smaller charities and have made organisations more hesitant to collaborate.”

The letter says that the law might be excluding some charities from public debate.

“While we recognise that regulation is necessary to ensure that no one individual or organisation can exert undue influence at an election, the lobbying act has had a disproportionate impact on civil society campaigning,” the letter says.

“We are concerned that it caused many organisations not to engage in the run-up to the recent general election, and resulted in some important voices being lost from public debate.”

The chief executives of the charity chief executives body Acevo and the infrastructure body Navca have signed the letter, as well as major charities and campaigning organisations including Action for Children, the Charities Aid Foundation, WWF, Save the Children, Leonard Cheshire Disability, Greenpeace and the RSPB. 

Today’s letter comes after a similar missive in June organised by Friends of the Earth and and signed by more than 50 charities, which called for the lobbying act to be repealed.

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Tracey Crouch named new charities minister

Already sports minister, Crouch is the MP for Chatham and Aylesford and has some connections with the charity sector

The sports minister Tracey Crouch has also been given the charities brief.

The Conservative MP for Chatham and Aylesford, who has been at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport as sports minister since 2015, has taken on responsibility for the Office for Civil Society in addition to her sports duties as part of the reshuffle after last week’s general election.

Crouch, who has been an MP since 2010, has updated her Twitter profile to state that she is now “sports and civil society minister”.

The DCMS initially confirmed yesterday morning that John Glen, MP for Salisbury, had been made Minister for Civil Society, but Glen said on his Twitter feed last night that he had been made minister for the arts, heritage and tourism, the latter two areas previously falling under Crouch’s remit.

Crouch has already been in communication with senior figures in the sector, it is understood.

Her official website says she holds 11 patronages, including president of RSPCA Medway West, patron of the Medway branch of the National Osteoporosis Society, vice president of the Kent branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England and an honorary member of the Friends of Mental Health, West Kent and Medway.

She also volunteers as a manager and FA-qualified coach at Meridian Girls’ Football Club in Kent, according to her declaration of interests, and is a keen sports enthusiast.

In her maiden speech to the House of Commons, delivered on 10 June 2010 during a debate about tackling poverty in the UK, she spoke of the difficulty charities faced in helping to deal with social problems.

“There is no easy answer,” she said. “It is not just one thing that needs to change. Low income, family breakdown, addiction, mental health problems and criminal behaviour contribute to a lack of expectation that, in turn, leads to inactivity.

“Charities find themselves too small to help, agencies find it too difficult and authorities find it too expensive. Complex problems may require multiple solutions, but unless we invest our time, energy and support, deprivation in parts of one of the most advanced countries in the world will continue to blight our nation.”

The 41-year-old was born and grew up in Kent, and was educated at Folkestone School for Girls before studying law at the University of Hull.

Her official website says: “After graduation, she accidentally found herself working as a researcher to a Conservative MP rather than training to become a solicitor.”

She is a vice-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on dementia, alcohol misuse and athletics and is a former member of the House of Commons select committees for Culture, Media and Sport and Political and Constitutional Reform.

Crouch succeeds Rob Wilson, who lost his Reading East seat at the general election last week after almost three years as charities minister.

She is the first female Conservative to hold ministerial responsibility for charities. The last female charities minister was Labour’s Angela Smith, who lost her seat at the 2010 election.

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Mixed views emerge on Rob Wilson’s time as Minister for Civil Society

Wilson yesterday lost his Reading East seat to Labour on a surprising night for UK politics

Voluntary sector leaders have given mixed verdicts on Rob Wilson’s time as the Minister for Civil Society, after he lost his seat in yesterday’s general election.

Some praised Wilson’s handling of a difficult few years for the charity sector during his time in post, but another said his tenure had proved “a little bit disappointing”.

Wilson lost his Reading East seat to Labour last night in a dramatic election result that saw the Conservatives lose their overall majority in parliament.

Wilson, who became Minister for Civil Society in 2014 after the resignation of Brooks Newmark, had been the MP for Reading East seat since 2005 and had a majority of 6,250 going into the election.

But a 16-percentage-point swing to Labour meant he was defeated, with Matt Rodda becoming the new MP for the constituency.

Neil Cleeveley, chief executive of the local infrastructure body Navca, said that although Wilson’s tenure did have some positives, his time as charities minister would be regarded as a “little bit disappointing” overall.

Cleeveley said: “The focus he has had on small and medium-sized charities has been very welcome.”

But he added that this focus did not translate into useful measures to help local charities provide services to their communities, particularly when cuts to local authority budgets were taken into account.

“There has been a bit of an over-focus on the contractual relationship between charities and public services,” Cleeveley said.

More creative thought and the use of collaboration and grants would have been welcome in terms of helping smaller charities become involved in the provision of public services, he added.

On Twitter, Joe Saxton, co-founder of the consultancy nfpSynergy, welcomed Wilson’s departure.

Another person on Twitter reminded Wilson of his comment after the 2015 election, when he told somebody who asked him about homelessness not to be a “bad loser”.

But others paid tribute to Wilson’s work over the past three years, with many noting his role in leading the government’s response to the media backlash against charity fundraising practices in 2015.

Sir Stuart Etherington, chief executive of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, said Wilson would be remembered as a minister who had led reforms to fundraising, such as the introduction of the Fundraising Regulator.

“He was instrumental in helping to achieve a sensible solution to the problems in fundraising that came to the fore in 2015,” said Etherington, who led the review of fundraising self-regulation and whose proposals Wilson accepted. “Through this, I believe his legacy will include helping to strengthen trust in charities.”

Etherington also praised Wilson’s interest in small charities and hoped his successor would continue to work on the relationship between charities and public services.

Vicky Browning, chief executive of the charity chief executives body Acevo, thanked Wilson for his work during a “difficult period for charities”.

She said: “Once a new government is established, it should look to fill this brief as soon as possible. Charities and social enterprises are the backbone of our society and ought not to be left long without representation at the highest level of government. We look forward to working with the new Minister for Civil Society once appointed.”

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John Low, chief executive of the Charities Aid Foundation, thanked Wilson for his hard work as Minister for Civil Society, and praised his role in setting up the National Citizen Service and his support for the #givingtuesday campaign.

“We wish him and his family all the best for the future and look forward to continuing our positive working relationship with his successor,” Low said.

A statement from the Small Charities Coalition thanked Wilson for his “engagement on issues facing small charities” and expressed hope that work on making public sector commissioning work for small charities would “form the foundation for improving public sector contracting”.

Other charity sector figures paid tribute on Twitter to Wilson’s time in office:

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