Destruction of the third sector

THE END OF THE GRANT CULTURE

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Many of us in the Third Sector cut our teeth in the early 1990’s when the grants culture was in the ascendancy. For its absolute power the Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) springs to mind but there were many other sources of grant funding. With EU funding flowing amongst other sources, grants were abundant for those organisations writing proposals that pressed the right buttons. Organisations quickly slipped into the mind set of securing grant funding and then sitting back until twelve months before the contract end date when there would be a mad scurrying around to write further bids and thus help to secure existing employment and work streams. It led to organisational laziness, lack of strategic forward planning and an absence of career structure for employees,many of whom became expert at organisation hopping before contracts ended to stay in work. Communities were so often left bemused by the short termism it induced and the here today and gone tomorrow nature of provision. Very little improvement became sustained or replicated.

Fastforward to 2010 and the arrival of the Cameron led Tory government with its vision of the Big Society, a concept which so many of us welcomed. It promised a strengthening of the Third Sector so that realistic partnerships could be formed at community level between statutory and voluntary bodies. However, it was launched during a period of austerity when there were cuts in public funding, so the Third Sector was left stranded facing rapidly dwindling funding streams. Local authority personnel faced with austerity led contraction became competitors with former Third Sector partners for funding, leading to a lack of trust and destructive suspicion which such competitive situations inevitably induce. The net result was a destruction of the Third Sector which was made far worse by the subsequent exit from the European Union.

Here we are today in the Robert Owen Society as we prepare for our November 12^th,2024, Annual General Meeting, reporting on the year that has past but more importantly preparing for 2025 and beyond. We accept that there is so much to do in our communities either side of Offa’s Dyke to help them to become more resilient in the face of rapidly dwindling public funding. Also, in the face of a government led charge for growth we know, through hard experience, that our rural communities will be seen to be lower priority compared to our more urban brothers and sisters.

Our solution,which we will discuss in the AGM Forum will be to set up more local co-operative businesses which will at one and the same time address need and produce income streams. Now we need to know from you our members where the needs lie. If you can attend the AGM, please do and have your say. If you can’t please send me an email with your thoughts at: chris@robertowensociety.org

Co-operationwill strengthen our communities.  ChrisMorgan

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