Memorandum from the NCVO (DAR 09-09)
The work of CLG is vital to the voluntary and
community sector—most voluntary and community organisations
work at a local level and therefore policies on communities and
local government have a direct impact on them. Our sector plays
a key role in meeting CLG policy objectives in partnership with
councils and with other local public sector bodies. It is therefore
important that CLG maintains an effective relationship with representative
organisations such as NCVO so that it understands the impact of
its work and adapts its programmes and policies accordingly. NCVO
ensures that CLG is kept up to date with our research and with
the views and experience of our members and the wider sector.
I think it would be fair to say that NCVO has
had a mixed experience of CLG but that performance is certainly
improving.
In the past we have been concerned by the way
in which CLG has tended to silo civil society as being the responsibility
of its third sector staff rather than recognising our policy contribution
in for example bringing insight into how to revitalise local democracy.
NCVO has also suffered in its relationship because it has wrongly
been seen as representative of only voluntary sector organisations
as opposed to community groups.
There were also problems in the establishment
of a strategic third sector partnership board but these were resolved
after we had robust discussions with officials and with ministers.
The recently established Third Sector Partnership Board is now
up and running and is working well. It has real potential to bring
the views and experience of civil society organisations into the
mainstream of CLG's thinking and policy development.
Better relationships with officials have now
been developed, enabling NCVO to input its thoughts and those
of its members more effectively.
October 2009
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