NVSC - Newham Voluntary Sector Consortium

Council tries to take over voluntary sector!

June 13, 2008

Newham Council have decided that the way to deal with the voluntary sector is to take it over!

What began as consultation proposals in January of this year, on how the Council should fund organisations which support the Third Sector (i.e. Voluntary, Community and Faith Sectors) have now become a naked attempt to exert Town Hall control over what the sector says and does.

Of course, that isn't how it should be. During the consultation period, NVSC organised two key meetings:

1. ChangeUp Partnership joint meeting with the LAA Steering Group.
2. A sector-wide meeting to which all of our members were invited.

At the meetings organised by NVSC there was lively debate and very clear messages were conveyed to the council about our view of a thriving third sector. Since these meeting took place, there have been no formal feedback to the sectors and no timescales for moving the specification forward.

Independence

At our AGM in April we learnt that a paper was to be presented to the Newham Partnership Board on the future arrangements for elected representation on the Newham Partnership Board - the sectors have had no elected representation since July 2007. This report was not made available before the meeting, which is a clear breach of the Newham Compact.

The report plumbed new depths in an already strained relationship between the Council and the Third Sector. The overriding message that comes across in the report is that the Third Sector is not actually a partner on the Newham Partnership Board

A Local Strategic Partnership is required to include the Third Sector and had done in Newham until the review last year. The very fact that the Council think that they should be organising and chairing a Voluntary Sector Forum, seems to sum up how far away Newham Council are from the Governments Agenda. Not only will this duplicate the forums and networks already established over the past six years, but sends a very clear message that threatens the independence of third sector representation.

There are some positives in the report - the sectors have always argued for greater dialogue, more partnership working and a greater understanding of the services that are delivered, but one thing needs to be understood: the Third Sector in Newham is independent - and that means that it is for the sectors to decide where, when and how they will be involved in working with the Council. The sector will guard it's independence with the same energy and creativity which has ensured that we bring added value and new opportunities to the people of Newham whom we serve.

The report implies that NVSC is no longer providing support to the Third Sector - NVSC will continue to provide the services that it has done so for the past 6 years, not only through Change Up but also through facilitating sector meetings, maintaining services that have been shaped by the sectors and in response to what they think is important.

Vital Services

NVSC will continue to put the case that there should be elected representatives on the NPB and will continue to facilitate sector involvement and, at times, be the voice of the sector at both a local and strategic level.

It has taken 11 months for the Newham Partnership Board to realise that there are no elected reps from the Sectors on that Board - it is now going to take them a further 6 months for the Council to commission another review as to how the Council will decide on who the sector elects to represent them. But even though they know that there aren't any elected reps, they have arranged for an officer from the Council to support the reps to enable them to have meaningful input into meetings!

Partnership

Council officers continue to expect the Third Sector to respond to a myriad of demands - and in most cases we do so, but to even suggest that the Council should provide support to the Third Sector or for that matter to dictate who should represent us is fundamentally wrong.

To read the full Council report click here.

Posted by webmaster at 01:24 PM