Undervaluing and undercutting the Third Sector

Earlier in the week I chaired the AGM of the Downshall Pre-School Playgroup, as Chair of Trustees. 09/10 has been another very successful year for the Pre-School Playgroup where, as part of delivering our core business of enhancing the development and education of children under statutory school age by encouraging their parents to understand and provide for the needs of their children, we have organised a visit from the Road Safety Roadshow, held International Lunches for parents and children, hosted a Redbridge Institute of Adult Education 'Play and Learn' course for parents, held weekly cookery sessions for children, regularly visited the Mobile Library, and held our annual picnic in Seven Kings Park and Christmas Party with visits from Mr Zippy and Father Christmas.

However changes to funding and to funding structures are making the delivery of successful and high quality community-based and charitably run childcare settings like Downshall Pre-School Playgroup increasingly difficult to sustain. The problem is essentially that the Government and local authorities increasingly wish to treat such settings in the same way as schools by operating the same funding structures. As a result, the funding process for childcare settings has become increasingly complex and bureaucratic imposing an additional administration burden on these settings at the same time that funds overall are becoming tighter.

This, in itself, is part of a wider problem with the way in central and local government tend to engage with the Third Sector generally. Good intentions about tapping the skills of volunteers and the contacts of community groups are undercut by the reluctance of local authorities and government departments to bear the cost of monitoring and managing lots of small contracts with lots of small organisations. Instead, the tendency is to tender with larger organisations or consortia which while they may be Third Sector organisations do not possess the grassroots confidence, contacts and volunteers which community groups possess and ministers wish to tap.

Sometimes, as with childcare currently, everyone gets swept up into a process designed for large organisations while on other occasions the large organisation gets the contract with the bulk of the funding and then sub-contracts the work to smaller groups at considerably less viable rates. These approaches improve the efficiency of the department running the contracts but removes or reduces the ability of genuinely community-based organisations to deliver. The current funding structures for childcare are running this risk at a time when demand for childcare remains high and in many areas is rising.

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Stevie Wonder - Isn't She Lovely. 

PM's Christmas message to the Third Sector

Click here for a Christmas message for all in the Third Sector sent by Gordon Brown via FaithAction.

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The Polyphonic Spree - Hold Me Now.

Everyday heroes

FaithAction are looking with interest at the ‘Everyday Hero’ awards that the OTS in the Cabinet Office are funding and are keen to directly nominate people to them. They are seeking suggestions from all of their members as to who should win the ‘Everyday Hero’ awards.

You can nominate someone from your own project or from a project you have seen making an impact in your own community. Everyday Heroes are community activists, volunteers and campaigners, givers and carers, public service workers or good neighbours. The eligibility is very open, they are just keen that their short list is not those who would usually appear on such awards lists and do not receive such acclaim that they readily deserve.

For more information on how to nominate your everyday hero through FaithAction, please visit http://www.faithaction.net/news.php?id=709.

FaithAction are also keen to get your input on some of the wider issues that they are currently tackling. They want to ensure they are carrying an accurate voice for the sector and so shall be launching a number of online forums to follow the threads of discussion that began at the Money Well Spent conference.

They are asking for help by giving your opinions to help them carry the genuine message from each of the regions across the country. The first forum they have launched is simply asking the question: ‘What are the barriers faced by faith-based organisations when engaging in the commissioning process?’

They are keen to hear your experiences and suggestions and hope that participants will shape the discussions themselves. Your voice can be heard by contributing at: http://www.faithaction.net/forum.php.

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Eric Bibb - Shingle By Shingle.