This chapter considers the recent climate of recession affecting the English voluntary sector (VS), together with the political ideologies and policies underpinning related changes in state–VS relationships. Recent policies have simultaneously applauded the work of small voluntary and community organisations as components of civil society or Big Society and privileged corporate service providers through increasingly large contracts. The chapter draws on case studies of three voluntary sector organisations (VSOs) to explore questions of risk and resilience among survivors and casualties, considering the extent to which compliance and conformity are requisites for survival in this new organisational order.

For more than two decades, the UK government has increasingly relied on VS providers to deliver varied welfare services, generating unprecedented VS growth (Kendall, 2010). Service providers, infrastructure organisations charged with building capacity and small organisations engaged in regeneration and community engagement projects have all participated in, and gained from, this growth. However, as earlier chapters have discussed, this has raised concerns about the extent to which VSOs have become servants of government, overly dependent on public funding and with fortunes reliant on unpredictable government strategies. Yet, as historical accounts in Chapter Two illustrated, VSOs have shown considerable adaptive capacities.

Voluntary sector growth has now reversed, as has the sector's privileged position as a preferred service provider in New Labour's Third Way ideology. Voluntary sector resources have diminished rapidly, with some local government areas admitting reduced funding to VSOs of some 60 to 80%; and local VS infrastructure agencies struggling to survive (NCIA, 2012). Loss of income, a predicted £3 billion of nearly £13 billion VS income in 2008-09, now presents a high risk, especially for small VSOs (Slocock, 2012). In parallel, service contracts have grown massively in size, with financial and business acumen supplanting service knowledge or reputation in criteria for outsourcing decisions. The new political discourse emphasises the need for VS entrepreneurialism (OCS, 2010), which is implied as a remedy for survival, displacing earlier rhetoric valuing community expertise.

This chapter first explores ideas of risk and resilience, providing a lens through which to consider how organisations can navigate recent changes. Resilience is often understood as a process of positive adaptation within a context of significant adversity (Luthar et al, 2000; Ungar, 2004) and has gained renewed interest in exploring the differential outcomes of socially excluded individuals and groups (Mohaupt, 2009).