Many charities receive public money and even more receive donations from individuals, corporations and foundations. Some undertake commercial activities to raise revenue. Often donations attract tax relief for the donor and/or financial benefit for the charity. Government and the wider public sector increasingly contracts with charities for the delivery of public services and public funds are transferred as well...

It is seemingly inevitable that the Government and many public bodies will press still further ahead with public service outsourcing in 2016. And whilst the political rhetoric will continue to promote a greater role for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), charities, the voluntary and community sector, co-operatives and social enterprises – the reality is that most procurement policy will...

We face a further year of uncertainty and challenge, to survive which, social sector solidarity is going to be essential.

Leaders of charities and voluntary and community organisations, both locally and nationally, should co-ordinate their activities and form alliances around shared agendas.

To that end, I have identified four areas around which, I believe the sector should focus in 2016. These...

The tragic floods in Cumbria and other parts of the north of England and Scotland remind us of the importance of public services and public service. Whether it is the police officers, local authority staff, ambulance and other NHS staff or engineers f...

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Recent failures of governance at high profile charities such as Kids Company have been subject to many articles, much comment and some analysis.  I do not intend to add to this but have been reflecting on the role of trustees – and specifically charity board chairs and their responsibilities.

I know from personal experience that being a chair can be...

Regardless of how it has been reported, the spending review has signalled that austerity will continue throughout this Parliament. There may be some additional money but there will still be major cuts to services and benefits. These cuts follow five years of austerity and will hit local government in particular very hard, with over 50% grant reductions by 2019/20.

The...

Six years ago I reviewed “Competitive Dialogue – A practical guide” written by Mike Burnett with Martin Oder.

In that review I said that competitive dialogue, when applied in a timely and effective fashion, provides the basis for creating long-term partnerships between provider and public sector client. I also said that when it is applied badly it can lead to...

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The last five years have been hard and challenging for the public sector, most especially for local government, but also for many central government departments and agencies. The reality is that it is only going to get more challenging still, for these bodies and others such as the police, as the Government’s 2015 spending review is enacted. Indeed, schools...