CLES News

Press Release- Grants are vital to ensuring that the VCS preserves its role in civil society, argues CLES and VSNW

4th March 2010

The report highlights how this shift in funding relationship has repositioned the VCS as a service deliverer which risks weakening its role in civil society, including the potential of the sector to foster participatory democracy.

The report charts the changes in the way the VCS has been funded in the last 30 years, noting that since the late 1970s the VCS has increasingly moved away from a grants-based approach to the ‘contract culture’ of the 1980s and the rhetoric of ‘partnership’ from the 1990s onwards.

Whilst acknowledging that a contract-based funding relationship may have some advantages, drawing on case studies from the North West and beyond, the report suggests that contracts have led to a bureaucratisation of the sector, and that contracting often encourages unhealthy competition between VCS organisations. Drawing on existing literature, the report also suggests that contracting can threaten organisations’ independence as it becomes increasingly important for them to show support for contractors’ politics and principles. In summary, CLES argue that contracting and the move towards service delivery has threatened the sector’s valued position in civil society.

In the next stage of the research (commissioned by VSNW), CLES will be mapping grant allocations in the North West before taking an in-depth look at ten grant-receiving organisations in order to explore further the social and economic benefits of VCS grants.

Neil McInroy, Chief Executive of CLES, commented: “For CLES, the VCS plays a vital role in civil society, encouraging participatory democracy and greater social interaction, with all the social and economic benefits that this brings. Whilst VCS organisations are, in many cases, well placed to deliver local services, this should not detract from the sector’s core role in society.”

Richard Caulfield, Chief Executive of VSNW said at the launch of the Listen, Value, Invest campaign in Westminster yesterday “the third sector has to maintain its role in campaigning and shaping services as well as seeking to deliver public services where appropriate: we must not let the procurement and commissioning agenda take over all our discussions and we denigrate grants at our peril.”

For comment, please contact Neil McInroy, Chief Executive of CLES, on 0161 236 7036

Richard Caulfield, Chief Executive of VSNW, on 0161 2769302

To view the think piece to emerge from this research please click here.

For more information on this research, please contact Matthew Jackson, Senior Policy Researcher at CLES, matthewjackson@cles.org.uk

[1] The Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) is an independent thinking-doing organisation, with charitable status. CLES brings together a network of subscribing organisations involved in regeneration, local economic development and local governance. CLES undertakes a range of activities including policy research, production of publications, training, an information and briefing service, events and a consultancy trading arm – CLES Consulting.

[2] VSNW (Voluntary Sector North West) is the regional voluntary sector network for the North West. The purpose of VSNW is to ensure that the voluntary and community sector (VCS), in all its diversity, takes its full part in shaping the future of the North West. For further information on VSNW visit: http://www.vsnw.org.uk/

For details of the Listen, Value, Invest campaign visit http://www.listenvalueinvest.org.uk/