Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- PART I What are charities, and why do we argue about them?
- PART II Changing the world
- PART III Improving lives and communities
- PART IV A junior partner in the welfare state?
- PART V Preserving the past, preparing for the future
- PART VI The way ahead
- Postscript
- Notes
- Index
22 - The pursuit of independence
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2021
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- PART I What are charities, and why do we argue about them?
- PART II Changing the world
- PART III Improving lives and communities
- PART IV A junior partner in the welfare state?
- PART V Preserving the past, preparing for the future
- PART VI The way ahead
- Postscript
- Notes
- Index
Summary
Concern about voluntary organisations’ independence from government in the age of the welfare state was flagged up by Lord Beveridge in 1948. ‘The independence of Voluntary Action does not mean lack of co-operation between it and public action,’ he wrote. ‘Co-operation between public and voluntary agencies … is one of the special features of British public life. But the term Voluntary Action does imply that the agency undertaking it has a will and a life of its own.’
As examined earlier in this book, restrictions on charity campaigning and the growth of public service delivery by the voluntary sector over more than half a century since Beveridge's remarks have contributed to a growing, if sometimes fluctuating, threat to that ‘will and a life of its own’. In 2011 the Baring Foundation, a charitable grant-maker set up by Barings Bank years before it collapsed in the 1990s, funded a panel to monitor the independence of the sector, and its four annual reports made uncomfortable reading. The final report, in 2015, concluded that things had got worse year by year.
The voluntary sector's independent voice, freedom of purpose and action are being undermined by a negative climate. This includes the lobbying act, ‘gagging clauses’ in public service contracts, new restrictions on the ability of voluntary organisations to use the courts to overturn poor government decisions, truncated government consultations, commissioning and procurement for public services that does not support independence and diversity in the voluntary sector; and weakened safeguards to protect the sector's independence. Some of these problems could be quite easily reversed but underlying attitudes also need to change – a more challenging task. It is becoming more common for government ministers and MPs to attack campaigning by the sector. Reports of self-censorship by voluntary organisations may be understandable but are no less worrying … At the root of these threats to independence, we believe, is an implicit and growing view that the voluntary sector should be at the service of the state, rather than of its own independent mission.
In 2007, research by the Charity Commission had also concluded that the independence of charities involved in public services was compromised. Its report Stand and Deliver found that only 26% of charities that delivered public services agreed that they were free to make decisions without pressure to conform to the wishes of funders.
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- What Have Charities Ever Done for Us?The Stories behind the Headlines, pp. 315 - 324Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2021