FRESH START FOR THE VOLUNTARY SECTOR AND COMMUNITY GROUPS

As I travel around the Kemptown constituency, I am often struck by how many people volunteer for their local charity, help out to raise money for good causes or just lend a hand when it is requested. People give of their time and money because they want to make a difference and in their own way help to improve people's lives.

One thing often comes over though when I talk to people about the work they do and the time they so selflessly give. That is they could do so much more if the Government would step out of the way and allow the services to develop and be provided in ways which those who are working in the charity or organisation know best. To my mind, the people who are working on the 'front line' know far better what is needed than an official in Whitehall.

That's why I am really pleased that the Conservative Party, in Government, is going to work hard to free charities and voluntary organisations, the 'third sector' as people call it, from rules and regulations that have become increasingly onerous as time has gone on.

It's time for a change.

Below is a list of my Party's pledges for the voluntary and community sector. These are designed to encourage a new wave of volunteering and commitment. David Cameron often talks of us 'all being in this together'. Here are our firm commitments to ensure that the third sector has the room to breathe and grow and be an even stronger force for good in our society.

Top twenty policy pledges

1. Simplify the Gift Aid system to reduce the bureaucratic burden on charities.

2. Work with charities to sponsor a debate on whether it is possible to establish a new social norm around charitable giving.

3.Direct support for volunteering through grassroots volunteering organisations not government quangos.

4. Prioritise development work in ‘charity deserts’ to establish new volunteer-led organisations where none previously existed.

5. Support efforts to establish regular volunteering as a social norm – leading by example by giving central government employees an annual entitlement to at least eight hours volunteering.

6. Reduce the burden of regulation on volunteers – improving the system for CRB checks and clearing up the confusion over benefit rules.

7. Replace the Big Lottery Fund with a Voluntary Action Lottery Fund dedicated in its entirety to the voluntary and community sector – returning the National Lottery to its original four good causes.

8. Respect the difference between grants and contracts – using contracts, rather than grants, only where there is a clear justification.

9. Operate a genuine one-stop funding portal for significant government grants.

10. Set up a funding passport scheme so that voluntary organisations can bypass repetitive grant application and contract tendering bureaucracy.

11. Draw up model grant and contract agreements to minimise the bureaucracy facing voluntary organisations in seeking funds.

12.Create a network of Social Enterprise Zones to provide incentives for social investment in deprived communities.

13. Set up a Social Investment Bank as a wholesaler of ‘patient capital’ to a wide range of social investment institutions.

14. Allow voluntary organisations delivering public services to earn a competitive return on investment by sharing substantially in the rewards that come from success.

15. Offer multi-year funding terms on contracts and grant agreements.

16. Remove the interference and bureaucracy of state funding by agreeing on goals and outcomes, not dictating methods of delivery.

17. Agree and implement a Co-operative Action Plan – empowering and enabling co-ops to play a much bigger role in running and owning community assets and services.

18. Create a powerful Office for Civil Society at the heart of government to fight for the interests of charities, social enterprises, co-operatives and community groups.

19. Ensure proper democratic scrutiny of government policy towards the voluntary sector – led by a new civil society select committee.

20. Enforce an improved version of the Compact on relations between government and the voluntary sector.

If you want to read the Conservative Party's plans in full, you can do so by following this link:

http://www.conservatives.com/Policy/Where_we_stand/Voluntary_Sector.aspx