In the year since Keep Volunteering Voluntary launched, over 550 charities and voluntary groups have pledged to turn their backs on workfare. Together we are highlighting the value of volunteering and building a strong consensus that responsible voluntary organisations will not take part in workfare schemes and put people at risk of devastating welfare sanctions. … Continue reading
Sussex is one area of the country lucky enough to have a feisty local Defend our NHS campaign. Lately the group has been taking a look at the role of voluntary agencies in the struggle to stop the break-up of the Health Service. The result is an impressive paper. Whilst voluntary groups can both oppose … Continue reading
The Barings Panel on the Independence of the Voluntary Sector finished its work with the publication of its fourth report. Faithfully repeating the evidence it received – the state of the sector is bad and getting worse – the report broadly supports what NCIA has been saying for years. But sadly lacking is any kind … Continue reading
NCVO is accused today of harming voluntary groups and the communities they serve. In a forensic examination of NCVO activities over the last decade or so, Les Huckfield shows how NCVO has made voluntary agencies subservient to Government policies and begging for crumbs from private corporations. As damaging to the reputation of NCVO is the … Continue reading
We are not alone. The UK scene of privatisation, corporate take-over and a fearful, if not, colluding voluntary sector is far advanced in Australia. NCIA’s Penny Waterhouse has been talking to Colin Penter from her home town in Perth, Western Australia about how it looks to them at each end of the globe.
Letter to … Continue reading
Responding to Mike Aiken’s report on campaigning and voluntary services, and with the General Election looming, Gavin Barker explores what we might actually do to counter our “hollowed out democracy hijacked by a corporate elite”. Linking the muzzling of dissent to the general weakening of democracy, Gavin argues that the election provides the opportunity to … Continue reading
What happens when charities and voluntary groups are asked by Government to punish unemployed people and take away legal entitlements? In April 2014, the “Help to Work” programme was launched by Government. It consists of no help and no work. Instead, it continued previous policies that withhold unemployment benefits, unless those entitled to such benefits … Continue reading
Conditions for private renters – now a bigger group than those renting ‘socially’ from the council or a housing association – have become so bad that a new wave of housing activist groups has begun to form. Since the deregulation of private renting in 1989, when rent control and long-term tenancies were done away with, … Continue reading
Ever wondered where our money goes? The National Audit Office has. So has Adur Voluntary Action, who are “mega pissed off” by the grim story painted by Radio 4’s analysis last night of the chaos that is the Big Society Network. “The receipt, and use, of funds by the Big Society Network’s associated projects…is … Continue reading
You know those gagging laws and clauses we’re faced with in UK? Well, don’t take it personally. It’s a global thing. In Australia, new conditions , which come into force on July 1st 2014, specifically state that organisations cannot use Commonwealth money for any activity directed towards law reform or advocacy. The federal government is … Continue reading