I have just received this from a constituent. It sums up the government’s attitude to its so-called “big society” – they make a lot of noise about their policy but will not do anything to back it up.
This letter is particularly timely as 2011 is European Year of Volunteering.
I thank the sender for drawing the matter to my attention and I will do whatever I can to turn round this short-sighted decision by the Office for Civil Society.
Funding cuts to volunteering charity TimeBank
I have been shocked to hear that the national volunteering charity TimeBank has been refused funding by the Office for Civil Society this week. TimeBank has a track record of helping 300,000 people into volunteering, and in my opinion, has made a significant contribution to the government’s vision of a Big Society for the past decade. It therefore seems very contradictory to me that the government has chosen not to support an organisation that offers thousands of people the training and support they need to volunteer and improve their communities.
I understand that these are challenging times, but I am seriously concerned that cuts like these will not only devastate the organisations that enable volunteering, but also the implications they have on the public sector and wider society. I strongly believe that volunteers are a unique force for social change and can supplement public services in a way that cannot be achieved through traditional services. But for volunteers to have a lasting impact, they need advice, training and ongoing support, and TimeBank clearly has got the expertise and processes in place to deliver this service.
Without the funding from the OCS to cover their day to day running costs the organisation will not be able to continue to facilitate and improve volunteering in the UK. I therefore ask you to please bring up this issue in parliament and ask Nick Hurd to urgently reconsider his funding decision for TimeBank.
I think that if you didn’t just jump on the bandwagon and took a closer look at them you would see like alot of charities set up under the labour government they create little social value with senior managers taking very health salaries
Yet more Labour Party anguish at this or that being cut – but what would Labour cut? I think we should be told, they are so emphatic about cuts, they are so worked up on the subject and so sanctimonious about the Tory choice of cuts that you would reasonably expect them to be able to name a few.
I watched the Daily Politics earlier; Anita Anand was trying very, very hard to get Harriet Harman to say what she would cut. She asked her again and again but she just changed the subject again and again. Ms Harman was so shameless in her obfuscation that I doubt if Ms Anand would have been more successful if she had applied thumbscrews.
The Tories aren’t particularly keen to cut things, they are just like Labour in their addiction to bribing us with own money in order to win elections. Their current cuts are far too slight and they are going for the difficult cuts instead of the really easy, painless ones like cutting all the money we squander thanks to our unwanted EU membership.