Comments for Independent Action

Comment on Do or die – how to survive cuts and recession by adrian

adrian — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 12:03:10 +0000

Looks good advice to me, AdurVA’s take on this is at: http://tinyurl.com/24qlx67

Be good to get a national discussion going which has a bit more substance than political jockeying

Comment on Do or die – how to survive cuts and recession by penny

penny — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 10:04:27 +0000

had a look at the link and what struck me was the basis from which we respond to cuts and recession. there’s lots of competative jockying for position going on by large, and some small, voluntary groups – to try to get crumbs from the table. enterprise and opportunity won’t work if it’s done from the basis of competition,private sector ideologies and self interest. now’s the time for solidarity with communities affected by cuts and the dismantling of public services; and cooperation between us to resist such policies and provide alternative answers.

Comment on Do or die – how to survive cuts and recession by Joanne

Joanne — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 09:20:38 +0000

Good recommendations, especially the third: it’s too easy to succumb to victim thinking when dealing with difficult circumstances and miss out on opportunities. Have you seen this blog: http://www.connectassist.co.uk/knowledge-hub/four-typical-organisational-responses-recession

Comment on The Duty to Involve – another confidence trick? by isitjustme

isitjustme — Wed, 19 May 2010 16:15:20 +0000

I couldn’t agree with you more it will be business as usual. As someone who recently left a LA after working for them for many years. I can tell you that when word of the duty to involved first emerged the key question asked was how can we show/evidence we’re meeting the duty? Which is LA speak for how can we write/record it so it looks like we’re doing it or what bits of what we already do will look like we’re doing it and satisfy the audit commission/get a good CPA/CAA. Whereas my questions included why don’t we see what, if anything, people want to be involved in? and Why don’t we see how they want to be involved? As well as pointing out that the kind of people who get involved tend to get involved with whats important to them not what’s important to local and national gov so there’s already some massive clues out there. I also agree with other commentators that vol/community sector have traditionally delivered those things that they felt were needed which weren’t being delivered by the statutory sector. It stands to reason that if the vol/community sector start delivering traditional statutory sector services then the gaps that were being filled by the vol/community sector will re-emerge

Comment on Newsletter No: 15 March 2010 by Socialreporter | Voluntary sector ‘ultras’ gear up for post election campaigning

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:59:10 +0000

[...] similarity of concern? Here’s NCIA, who acknowledge they are sometimes known as the “hypercritical ultras of the voluntary sector“: The Coalition is an alliance of organisations and individuals who have come together out of [...]

Comment on What’s 2010 bringing & what’s NCIA doing ’bout it? by Clive Durdle

Clive Durdle — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:34:52 +0000

” massive transfer of public assets to the private banking sector”

A new crime of theft from the commonwealth?

Comment on What’s 2010 bringing & what’s NCIA doing ’bout it? by Clive Durdle

Clive Durdle — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:30:38 +0000

Agree with these.

Is it legal for charitable money to be used for public statutory duty matters?

New forms of citizen audit?

Comment on Are you happy with what’s being said on your behalf? by adrian

adrian — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 23:48:41 +0000

This is a very interesting correspondence. Really, one’s position seems to depend upon how far the NCIA’s interpretation of the current situation for voluntary action is accepted. One response clearly doesn’t accept this at all, hence comes out with insultingly obvious generalities. Another doesn’t understand the problem, hence responds by parroting what they have heard somewhere. The other two know very well what is at stake but don’t wish to address this publicly. Perhaps their time will come?

Thinking this through, I am left concerned that the refreshed compact actually adds to the problems by pretending to address some of them. I mean,read it. It’s pretty anodyne stuff, is it not? A set of principles reading like the Head Teacher’s fist day of term address (and who ever bothered to listen to those, let alone disagree?); and a string of repetitive “commitments”, mainly ranging from the flagrantly obvious to the meaningless. Let’s have some responses from the academic world on this – would it make the grade as an undergraduate essay? As one correspondent hinted – “Re-sit”.

So, my marks out of five to correspondents: two half-cheers , one slow hand clap, one silence and one “ungraded” Meanwhile, of course, across the country we do our best locally at establishing real relationships, and good luck, One and All.

Adrian Barritt
Adur Voluntary Action

Comment on Say No to Commissioning by penny

penny — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:31:41 +0000

hi voltaire – good to hear from you. why not come to our event on feb 27th in nottingham and join in how we resist all this. the more the better

Comment on Say No to Commissioning by Voltairespriest

Voltairespriest — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 14:25:59 +0000

I completely agree. Further, the “Voluntary Sector” as generally understood has in most cases simply become a conglomeration of QUANGOs with enormous bureaucratic burdens and managerialist cultures, providing identikit services in order to adhere to “one-size-fits-all” funding frameworks.

There is really very little to call between for instance a Supporting People outcomes matrix and that which is used for Key Performance Indicators by a sales firm. The problem of course is that one is being used to measure sales of toasters, the other to “measure” improvements in the lives of living beings.