Viewpoint

Here is where people give us their views about independent action, how it figures in their world and how they see it. The Coalition wants to provide a place where people are able to express their point of view. In particular, to challenge the current dominance of one size fits all. The Viewpoints are not necessarily shared by all those involved in the Coalition. Whether their situation is different or similar to our own, whether we agreed or disagree, we hope that their Viewpoint gives us all food for thought, ideas we might take into our own situation and a fresh perspective.

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The Compact – a failed initiative

You can't fix what is structurally broke, explains Penny Waterhouse - a member of the Coalition Planning Group. There is plenty of evidence from around the country that for many statutory agencies the Compact is not worth the paper it is written on - 40% of respondents to a NAVCA survey said the Compact was not a useful tool in managing relationships with local public bodies. And research from consultants nfpSynergy, shows that the majority of councillors and local authority staff were either unaware of the Compact or thought it did not make much difference.

Penny argues that the difficulty with the Compact reflects wider problems that the sector faces in its relationship with the State. The State has a plan and an intention for the sector, is determined to shape the sector to these intentions, and will do nothing voluntarily to limit the power that it, and their agents at local level, holds over that process. The task facing the sector is to rediscover its own perspectives, consider whether State intentions are compatible with these, recognise that structural differences between statutory and non-statutory are key to our understanding of our respectives roles and, above all, organise to redress power imbalances to give us some chance of getting what users and communities want. If we do these things, then a Compact can be a useful weapon in our armoury. But without these things, it will remain a useless piece of paper. Read more….

Legal Aid, Legal Services Commission and a tale of our time

Looks like, in the future, we’ll be depending on profit-making companies, ex-coppers and the prejudice of judges to help us enforce our rights. According to Andy Benson, Hackney Advice Forum, that’s what will happen if we continue to sleep walk while big changes are sweeping through the legal advice sector. Gone will be the many hundreds of independent advice services that play a crucial role in enforcing people’s rights and holding authority to account.

For the last 10 years the LSC has been behaving as if any two or more people gathered together to offer advice and legal services, should be told what to do by the Commission. Sorry to say, the advice sector has by-and-large rolled over on this one. And despite vain attempts by activists in private civil legal aid (note: not the not-for-profit bunch – shame on you) to persuade their colleagues not to sign this new contract, virtually all did so. Now they are reaping the whirlwind and many advice providers are finding that they are actually in debt to the LSC.

Meanwhile, try not to look too clever in front of a judge. Judge Parsons, a Brighton magistrate recently refused legal aid to seven students up in front of his bench on the grounds that "they are intelligent enough to represent themselves". And what do you reckon the bodies that represent independent advice services are doing to protect us when we’re up against the power of the State and other interests? Read on to find out…

Power is never given - the legacy of the Community Empowerment Networks

One of the ironies of community empowerment networks (CEN’s) was that they couldn’t empower themselves, or more accurately save themselves from the crude dynamics of how power works at both a central and local level. Matthew Scott, director of the Community Sector Coalition, tells the sorry tale of the gap between government rhetoric on "empowerment" and the reality. CEN’s took a first term New Labour government at its word and in their bolder moments, challenged the vested interests and oppressive practices, we know so well, that give the lie to partnership working. For that reason they were closed down. And for that reason they will need to be reinvented and return. Read on....

Voluntary Action and Privatisation

Steve Radford explains that if we want progressive, accountable and co-ordinated public services serving an integrated society then a large element of direct provision by elected local authorities and other state agencies is both desirable and necessary. He argues that independent voluntary organisations certainly have a role and should be encouraged – but not under a system which effectively turns them into mere fragmented, competing sub-contractors and unaccountable agents of the state. Read more.....

The Privatisation of Justice - Crime, Disorder and the Third Sector

John Hedge, just retired from the Probation Service, writes about New Labour’s central preoccupations with crime, disorder and community safety. In ‘inventing’ the notion of anti-social behaviour and creating a new industry to tackle it, government has created a wide policy recepticle into which public fears and panics have been funnelled and has through its punitive ideology turned a blind eye to prevention. John warns of the dangers to voluntary action in conspiring with privatised justice. Today the Probation Service, tomorrow......? Go to Crime, Disorder and the Third Sector

Learning from the Bad Guys

Mark Wehrly, a Coalition supporter, explains the lessons he has learnt from his experience in the US voluntary sector and what we, in the UK, need to take from them. One of the strongest lessons learnt in the States was the success of the conservative social movement. The progressive forces, always disorganized and under-resourced in the best of times, were slow to adapt, and the result was ineffectiveness in domestic policy, not to mention foreign interventions such as Iraq. Mark now suffers from deja vu, seeing very recognizable developments from the US being repeated here. He sees policies that rely upon “public choice” economics, privatisation of public services, faith-based approaches, charitable entrepreneurialism, public-private partnerships, and so on. At the same time, he has some envy and admiration for the greater cohesiveness of the UK social sector, which is far more “joined-up”, attracts public acceptance of an ethic of social service, and has achieved better success in aligning the work of public and voluntary sectors. If we want to keep Mark's envy we will need to heed his lessons. Go to Learning from the Bad Guys......

Dissent Protects Democracy – Should we really be partners with the State?

Matthew Scott, a member of the Coalition Planning Group, exposes the current rhetoric of partnership and empowerment, and the defeatist positions taken by many voluntary groups. He explains why he thinks a healthy civil society relies on dissent and why it is in jeopardy. Go to Dissent Protects Democracy