Charity Commission chief warns that third sector will struggle to fill gaps left by cuts

The chair of the Charity Commission has questioned the ability of the voluntary and charity sector to fill all the gaps left by cuts to public services.

Speaking at a conference in London called Leading charities through a time of change, Dame Suzi Leather said: “Many of us feel instinctively that the sector is living through a period of unprecedented reform, upheaval and opportunity.”

But she warned that the “bigger picture does include some unsettling scenes. It is certainly a time marked by apparent contradictions.”

The sector is already beginning to feel the pinch from cuts and the way of life for charities will have to change “along with everyone else’s”, the Charity Commission chief said.

Research by the NCVO, unveiled in April, showed that 33,000 charities rely on local government funding for more than half their income.

“Many of the charities that depend on public grants are also seeing greater than ever demands on their services,” Dame Suzi said. To add to this, charities that rely on investment income are seeing yields decline.

However, she added that the Commission’s own as yet unpublished research continued to show that public trust in charities is high.

Dame Suzi said that to meet forthcoming challenges, charities need to collaborate more (possibly, but not necessarily through formal mergers), think first of the users of their services and make more effective use of technology and social networking.

Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude told the conference that there needed to be a radical shift in the relationship between citizens in the state as part of a ‘Big Society’ approach.

He promised that local communities would have greater ownership of local problems, but also more power to change them. Public services would be answerable to those who use them.

The minister insisted that integrated local services would unlock the potential of communities and frontline workers to design and deliver a genuinely joined up approach.

Maude told delegates: “Government needs to make it easier, not harder for your organisations if we are to share ownership of our greatest challenges, and harness everyone’s energies in meeting them.”

The government had set itself three priorities in relation to the third sector, he added, which were to:

• Make it easier for the sector to work with the state. “We will work energetically to open up services to enable organisations of all sizes to compete on a level playing field with the statutory and private sectors,” he promised.
• Make it easier to set up and run a charity, social enterprise or voluntary organisation. The minister said: “We will start work straight away identifying unnecessary red tape, making the state less intrusive wherever we can, and work to reduce the burdens which get in the way of volunteering or giving.”
• Get more resources into the sector. “This is not about more and more government spending….it is about ensuring that the sector can access a better share of public spending on acceptable terms, but also about ensuring a diverse range of income streams to support its independence from government,” Maude added.

The government would progress the creation of a “Big Society” bank, using money from dormant accounts to invest in social goals, and campaign to make volunteering and philanthropic giving the norm.

The minister said: “We are not looking to hand over our social problems to you and walk away, but to play our part in a broad partnership for change.”