Conservative Party Green paper – A stronger Society: Voluntary Action in the 21st Century

Volunteering can be the solution to a lot of problems, but in many other countries in Europe rates of volunteering are higher than in the UK. This report say that the Government needs to change to support it. The paper says that funding is made too hard to get because of all the forms that need to be filled in – and a lot of other government processes just aren’t suited to the way that voluntary sector organisations work. It also suggests that by targeting funding towards issues that the government wants to solve, we are stopping charities from doing the things that they are good at.

They suggest making society more flexible, so that people can fit in voluntary action, and to make volunteering, and donating money to charities, simpler and easier. They also suggest changing the ways that charities can get money, for instance by making the National Lottery independent of Government so that it can give money more objectively. These changes would be linked to a newly created Office of Civil Society, which would represent voluntary organisations; and supported by a change to funding so that it can support projects that last for three years at a time.

This isn’t going to become law – it is an idea put forward by the Conservative party – so it doesn’t spell out exactly how they would make these changes, but it does give a lot of thought to ways that the Government could encourage people to be more generous with their time and money, on a regular basis. For instance, they say they’d like to ‘ support efforts to establish regular volunteering as a social norm – leading by example through a volunteer hours scheme for central Government employees.’

The Green Paper ends with twenty promises that the Conservatives pledge to work on if they get into power. These sum up the main points of the idea, and they are:

Part I:

1. Simplify the Gift Aid system to reduce the burden on charities

2. Work with charities to start a debate on whether it is possible to establish a new

social norm which says it is normal to give money to charity.

3. Direct support for volunteering through grassroots volunteering organisations

4. Develop more charities in areas where there aren’t any at the moment.

5. Support efforts to establish regular volunteering as a social norm.

6. Make it easier to volunteer by making it quicker to get checked out and approved to work with people, and make it clearler that volunteering wont stop you from getting benefits.

Part II:

7. Replace the Big Lottery Fund with a Voluntary Action Lottery Fund dedicated to giving money to voluntary and community organisationa

8. Respect the difference between grants and contracts – using contracts, rather than

grants, only where there is a clear justification

9. Operate a genuine one-stop funding portal for significant government grants

10. Set up a funding passport scheme so that voluntary organisations can enter their details less often to save time and effort

11. Draw up model grant and contract agreements to make it easier to apply for money

12. Create a network of Social Enterprise Zones to provide incentives for social

investment in deprived communities

13. Set up a Social Investment Bank as a wholesaler of ‘patient capital’ to a wide range of social investment institutions

Part III:

14. Allow voluntary organisations delivering public services to get part of any profit from investing.

15.  Offer multi-year funding terms on contracts and grant agreements

16. Make Government grants dependent on what is achieved, not how it happens

17. Agree and implement a Co-operative Action Plan – allowing co-ops to play a much bigger role in running and owning community assets and services

18. Create a powerful Office for Civil Society at the heart of government to fight for the

interests of charities, social enterprises, co-operatives and community groups

19. Ensure that government policy towards the voluntary sector is debated, by a new civil society select committee

20. Enforce an improved version of the Compact on relations between government and

the voluntary sector.