NCVO

After arriving at 8.30 to a warm and sunny London (yes really) I made my first meeting a visit to the headquarters of the National Council of Voluntary Organisations (NCVO).  I met with Karl Wilding the Director of Policy and given that his research interests are the relationship between government and the sector and the place of the sector in the society, and that my questions were about exactly that (about working with conservative governments at times of economic downturn, about the policies that the philosophy of "Big Society" has given rise to and about his thoughts on the role of our proposed Centre for Excellence.)

It certainly seems like the convergence of Big Society and the austerity measures have taken their toll on the sector's funding and upon its relationship with government.  One particularly worrying development is the recently passed "Lobbying Act" which seeks to govern how much effort goes into influencing in the period prior to an election.  Although it sets out to limit "campaigning" it is untested as to what is captured.  Would reports such as State of the Family or the Rental Snapshot be safe?  Questionable apparently.  Of course what this sort of legislation can do is act as one very big gag clause.

One idea I really liked is the NCVO's Day in a Life programme where people from government and the sector spend a day in each other's workplace.  People are matched for content area and level of authority and the feedback from last year's participants was very positive and indicated a much higher appreciation of each other's situations.  Given that very few people in leadership positions in Australia have worked in both sectors; given that Commissioner Robert Fitzgerald described the partnership in Australia as a dance with one partner doing a tango and other a waltz, it would seem an idea worth exporting!

NCVO also produce an almanac of facts and stats about the sector.  As the cliche goes "knowledge is power" and I am newly convinced that this information is vital for us as a sector to take our place in society.

Thanks to Karl and all at NCVO for making me feel so welcome, and for holding up a mirror to the very conversations we're having in Australia.

NCVO

Britain here I come!

Counting down the days to a week of meetings in Britain about social policy, pensions and poverty.  After yesterday's meetings with Politicians at parliament house I'm going to add a meeting with the UK Dept of Pensions and social services to talk about the benefits and pitfalls of a single payment social security system.