<div>Hi Matt</div>
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<div>Thanks for this. </div>
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<div>I've forwarded your questions and comments to Francis and will try and make sure they get raised on the night, although I am now being toldby my school that I may need to be around in the eve for a parents night. But anyway, I think also they'll be useful in planning the civil society event we've recently spoke of, in 2010. If you and/or CSC & NCIA were to put forward a critique (of the overall emasculation of the voluntary and community sectors by the state) alonhg these lines, presumably we could use that as a springboard for the second part of the programme, which means talking about and hopefully getting delegates to commit to some new solutions. Essentially policy ideas to put independent civil society up where it belongs, on a par with state and market via, for example the local provision of publics services (including governance); the real third way. </div>
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<div>And ideally some of these ideas will be agreed before the event, so we can go forward from that day into a union. </div>
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<div>Does that make sense to people? </div>
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<div>Mark<br><br></div>
<div class="gmail_quote">2009/10/13 Matthew Scott <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:Matt@communitysectorcoalition.org.uk">Matt@communitysectorcoalition.org.uk</a>></span><br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: navy; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">To Mark and group</span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: navy; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">I can’t attend the Thursday meeting – it’s all booked up so missed my chance</span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: navy; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">However I know lots of NCIA people will be there (National Coalition for Independent Action) – another grouping I am involved with along with CSC (Community Sector Coalition and CDNL (Community Development Network London)</span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: navy; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">RE the meeting on Thursday I wanted to share the following thoughts:</span></font></p>
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<li style="COLOR: navy" class="MsoNormal"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Keep a close eye out for ‘policy piracy’ – there are two clichés that everyone agrees about in the third sector, one is that small community groups are really important, and two is that the sector’s independence is vital. Is this really true? If everyone claims to agree with everyone else on this issue then have they been talking the talk or walking the walk?<br>
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<li style="COLOR: navy" class="MsoNormal"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">To what extent have they actively encouraged money and power to devolve to local groups, or even their own members?<br>
<br>To what extent have they uncritically connived with and promoted the government’s modernization agenda of turning the sector into a few subcontractors? – who in the sector has been selling the idea of capacity building and governance in order for groups to be ‘contract ready and fit for purpose’? Is the only game in town for groups to aspire to technical and managerial standards as distinct from campaigning, advocacy, direct action and social justice?<br>
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<li style="COLOR: navy" class="MsoNormal"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Under the watch of the most senior in the sector and government, the third sector has grown in size (by about 25% over the last 10 years) but at the same time small and medium charities got smaller, let alone the more numerous civil society orgs like unregistered community groups – how could this happen? How could inequalities between groups in the third sector increase when there was more money than ever coming into the sector? We can’t just blame government about this, the great and the good in the sector are implicated – with regard to this assertion that the rich in the sector got richer at the expense of the smaller more local groups, this is not just a wild accusation – government itself recognizes it: -see quote below<br>
<br></span></font><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: 10pt" lang="EN-GB"></span></font></li>
<li style="COLOR: navy" class="MsoNormal"><font color="red" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: red; FONT-SIZE: 10pt" lang="EN-GB">‘Not every organisation has grown. NCVO 2007 UK Voluntary Sector Almanac highlights the rapid growth of many large charities and the decline in income of many small or medium sized charities’</span></font><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: 10pt" lang="EN-GB"> - Future Role of 3rd Sector in Economic and Social Regeneration (Treasury & Cabinet Office) 2007 – paragraph 1.1<br>
<br></span></font><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></span></font></li>
<li style="COLOR: navy" class="MsoNormal"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Where have the panel stood on issues around Community Cohesion, Single Group Funding, the Prevention of Violent Extremism Fund – which is really about the Big State and surveillance through communities – you will find some of those on the platform have taken a very establishment line about civil unrest, which seems at odds with the sector being independent<br>
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<li style="COLOR: navy" class="MsoNormal"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">What is the panel’s view on the recent consultation on the Voluntary Sector Compact? The view across most of the third sector is that it is, at best, an irrelevance, because it has no teeth and no resources. There is nothing binding and it has a large focus on contractual compliance (note the issue of independence of the sector arises again whereby the key local document can only see the sector in terms of a means to an end – service delivery). Given most groups in the sector do not get contracts or any kind of state funding the compact immediately excludes them. If the senior people in the third sector don’t actually come out and say clearly what is wrong with the compact but hedge their bets then what are the chances for a genuinely independent third sector? I attach my response to the compact on behalf of the Community Sector Coalition where we come out and say unequivocally that we do not support the compact and that it should be withdrawn – the Black & Minority Ethnic umbrella group Voice for Change England have similar concerns</span></font></li>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: navy; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">For those of you outside the third sector politics all this may seem a bit hard to fathom, so apologies if it is not clear but had I been able to attend I would have hoped to raise some of this and would have loved to hear the discussion </span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: navy; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Matt</span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><font color="#333333" size="2" face="Verdana"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; COLOR: #333333; FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Meetup Description</span></font></b><font color="#333333" size="1" face="Verdana"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; COLOR: #333333; FONT-SIZE: 9pt"> </span></font></p>
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<p><font color="#333333" size="1" face="Verdana"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; COLOR: #333333; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">In this meeting we want to discuss the importance and role of the voluntary sector in the 21st century. Globally, voluntary and campaigning groups have expanded so that they now probably represent the greatest social movement the world has ever known. At the same time Governments are drawing in the larger voluntary groups into the contract culture and through commissioning getting them to deliver services. This causes a tension in the voluntary sector and raises questions over what civil society is and what its nature should be. This will be the focus of this meeting.</span></font></p>
<p><font color="#333333" size="1" face="Verdana"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; COLOR: #333333; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">This meeting will take place at the House of Commons and will be hosted by</span></font></p>
<p><font color="#333333" size="1" face="Verdana"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; COLOR: #333333; FONT-SIZE: 9pt"><a href="http://www.tmdnet.net/picts/alun%20michael.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.tmdnet.net/picts/alun%20michael.jpg</a> The Rt Hon Alun Michael MP who has held many posts in the last 10 years including Minister of State, Home Office and was also in charge of local government and community affairs. After the 2005 general election, he was moved to a ministerial post in the Department of Trade and Industry as Minister of State for Industry and the Regions. So he has had considerable experience of working with the voluntary sector. It has been said of Alun that he is "quietly persuasive: 'has an extraordinarily lucid style of debate; he shouts at nobody'" (Andrew Roth, The Guardian)</span></font></p>
<p><font color="#333333" size="1" face="Verdana"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; COLOR: #333333; FONT-SIZE: 9pt"><a href="http://www.tmdnet.net/picts/steve-johnson.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.tmdnet.net/picts/steve-johnson.jpg</a> Steve Johnson is Chief Executive of AdviceUK - the UK's largest support network for free, independent advice centres. AdviceUK was formed in 1979 as the Federation of Independent Advice Centres (FIAC). They firmly believe that although the social welfare landscape has radically altered in the past 25 years their commitment to the provision of free, independent advice has not changed and is a vital component of the voluntary and third sector. Maintaining their independence in the contact culture has been a vital but necessary struggle for them.</span></font></p>
<p><font color="#333333" size="1" face="Verdana"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; COLOR: #333333; FONT-SIZE: 9pt"><a href="http://www.tmdnet.net/picts/StuartEtherington.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.tmdnet.net/picts/StuartEtherington.jpg</a> Stuart Etherington was appointed Chief Executive of NCVO in 1994. Throughout his career he has been involved in the leadership of voluntary organisations and policies surrounding them. As such he has become a leading commentator, both through his writing and his media profile.Stuart is Pro-Chancellor of Greenwich University, Chair of Guidestar UK, and a Council Member of the Institute of Employment Studies. He has been a trustee of Business in the Community, the Chair of the BBC Appeals Advisory Committee, and a member of the Community and Social Affairs Committee of Barclays Bank.</span></font></p>
<p><font color="#333333" size="1" face="Verdana"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; COLOR: #333333; FONT-SIZE: 9pt"><a href="http://www.tmdnet.net/picts/karen.jpeg" target="_blank">http://www.tmdnet.net/picts/karen.jpeg</a> Karen Chouhan. Karen is the founder and Director of Equanomics-UK, a new initiative to build a UK community led alliance that re-shapes race related policy through an economic lens and analysis. Karen is the Editor of the Equanomics Index, and directs the organisation’s research and public policy. She is also a founder member of the 1990 Trust, where she was the Chief Executive Officer 2000 -2005 and is now a board director.</span></font></p>
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