'Supporting' the voluntary sector in an age of austerity: the UK coalition government's consultation on improving support for frontline civil society organisations in England

Macmillan, Rob

doi:10.1332/204080511x560666

Cited by 21 publications

(17 citation statements)

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“…A growing literature has considered the effects of changes in public services on third sector agencies, highlighting the growing emphasis on competition and regulatory and performance frameworks in this mixed welfare economy (Baines et al 2011). As pressures on public sector spending grow, there is a shifting dynamic between 'old' and 'new' values, as the distinctive character of TSOs gives way to regimes legitimised through dominant managerial cultures (Milbourne, 2009) and entrepreneurial approaches (Macmillan, 2011). Consequently, trust, which formerly underpinned varied relationships between public and third sector agencies, has been widely displaced by formalised arrangements which control and manage meanings, reshaping and normalising an asymmetry of relationships between state and third sectors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From the Third Sector to the Big Society: How Changing UK Government Policies Have Eroded Third Sector Trust

Milbourne

Cushman

2012

Voluntas

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This paper draws on concepts of trust to analyse recent policies affecting public/third sector relationships, examining the parallel policy strands of competition, 'command and control' mechanisms and the community turn in shaping recent cultures of relationships. The paper draws on examples from two empirical studies in English inner-city areas to explore ways in which power and regulatory frameworks exerted through dominant organisational cultures and arrangements undermine the independent approaches to communication and action, necessary to develop innovative work and organisational learning within and across sectors.State bodies have behaved as though trust in their actions is a given, while increasingly shifting responsibilities for service delivery and risks of failure to others. Drawing on our research, we argue that the increase in market cultures and regulatory frameworks have damaged trust in cross-sector relationships, promoting divisive interests and riskaverse behaviours, restricting the autonomy, innovation and community action presumed in the Big Society agenda. We conclude by highlighting issues that need to be addressed to ensure the development of collaboration with community-based providers in the future including a focus on the processes and relational spaces which will enable positive alternatives.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From the Third Sector to the Big Society: How Changing UK Government Policies Have Eroded Third Sector Trust

Milbourne

Cushman

2012

Voluntas

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“…In addition there is only so much that can be achieved without putting the quality of services and the well-being of practitioners and service users at risk. If localism is meant to engage local communities in developing their own solutions, we need to re-think definitions of 'community' to include both service users and providers who are locally embedded and historically connected (Macmillan, 2011). Those who have the tools and trust to deliver public services at a time when such services are in greater demand than ever, must be at the centre of attempts to engage in what Featherstone et al (2012) calls 'progressive localism'.…”

Section: Conclusion: Politics Of the Local And Uneven Geographiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distancing and limited resourcefulness: Third sector service provision under austerity localism in the north east of England

2015

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“…It is a period in which these conditions have been dramatically transformed. The election of the 'New Labour' government in 1997 with its `Third Way' politics also set a political context in which the voluntary and community sector engaged -in varying degrees of contestation -with a reconstituted, `enabling' state and a general turn to communitarianism (Alcock, 2010b;Alcock and Kendall, 2010;Carmel and Harlock, 2008;Macmillan, 2011). The sector was promoted through a narrative in which it was represented as the intersection between neoliberalism and neo-communitarianism, and the 'organised vanguard' of civil society' (Fyfe, 2005; p.539) which, along with novel governance structures, helped create the environment and capacity within the sector, that enabled it to grow and increase its involvement in service provision.…”

Section: The Voluntary and Community Sector -Changing Times Changingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Macmillan (2011) argues that the Coalition Government's deficit reduction programme will have far reaching consequences in terms of the size, shape and reach of the voluntary sector, with organisations being forced to close or contract their services (p.115). In addition to significantly reduced public funding, the sector is also facing large reductions in donations from the public, with findings from the 2011/12 UK Giving report (NCVO and CAF, 2012) showing donations to the charitable sector hitting an all-time low (in real terms) of £9.3 billion, the lowest since the survey began in 2004, and 20 per cent lower than the total from 2010/11.…”

Section: The Voluntary and Community Sector -Changing Times Changingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The uneven impact of austerity on the voluntary and community sector: A tale of two cities

et al. 2015

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General rightsThis document is made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the reference above. Full terms of use are available: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/pure/about/ebr-terms likely to suffer most due to the combined effect of cuts in government funding in these areas and their greater dependency on statutory funding. This paper develops this argument by exploring the sector's changing relationship with the state through an empirical analysis of the differential impact of recession and austerity on VCS organisations involved in public service delivery in the two English Core Cities of Bristol and Liverpool. This paper highlights how the scale and unevenness of public spending cuts, the levels of voluntary sector dependency on statutory funding and the rising demands for the sector's services in a period of recession and austerity are being experienced locally. It portrays a sector whose resilience is being severely tested and one that is being forced rapidly to restructure and reposition itself in an increasingly challenging funding environment.

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'Supporting' the voluntary sector in an age of austerity: the UK coalition government's consultation on improving support for frontline civil society organisations in England

Cited by 21 publications

References 0 publications

From the Third Sector to the Big Society: How Changing UK Government Policies Have Eroded Third Sector Trust

From the Third Sector to the Big Society: How Changing UK Government Policies Have Eroded Third Sector Trust

Distancing and limited resourcefulness: Third sector service provision under austerity localism in the north east of England

The uneven impact of austerity on the voluntary and community sector: A tale of two cities

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