Voluntary action and public services
Whilst Annie Kelly’s excellent article in the Guardian (19.3.08) captures my rage about what is happening to the VCS, it doesn’t quite capture the perspective in one important respect – voluntary agencies delivering public services. Locally-based voluntary agencies have been delivering services to people for ever and these organisations form the backbone of the sector. It would be daft to say that they shouldn’t do this. Some of these services – advice and advocacy work being a classic example – have to be independent of the State to do their job properly. The problem with this part of the discussion is that various things have been conflated. Read more
