21 January 2011

Details of further government support to the voluntary and community sector have been announced in the Government's Green Paper on giving, which looks at how it can encourage social action by increasing the levels of giving and mutual support in society.
Launched at the end of December, the consultation paper, Giving, sets out the Government's initial thinking and some ideas, and aims to start a debate which will feed into a White Paper that it intends to publish in the spring. The aim is to bring about a radical change in the culture of giving.
Some of the suggestions, such as giving via cash machines (the Colombian system which allows people using cash machines to make a donation every time they withdraw money) have been picked up by the national press. Other ideas to encourage us all to give time and money include:

•  Using new technology to encourage giving - for example, through mobile phones and internet shopping

•  The use of internet sites to encourage micro-volunteering - volunteering for short periods of time or from home

•  How to catalyse further innovation in social media to support giving - how social networks can be used to spread messages about giving and make it part of everyday life

•  Ideas for time banking and complementary currencies to encourage the giving of time.

However, in spite of being about giving from the public, the paper also announces further support from government to the community sector. This includes the formal announcement of the Community First programme, which will replace the Grassroots Grants scheme. This programme will:

•  Provide funding to neighbourhood groups to help them implement their projects and plans. It will be focused on areas with low social capital and significant deprivation. It will seek to encourage the giving of time, money, goods, services, and facilities for wider community benefit by matching these donations with money.

•  Provide at least £50 million of match funding over the next four years to encourage the building up of local endowments.

In addition, the paper mentions the Community Organisers programme (announced last year) which aims to train 5,000 full-time community organisers, over the lifetime of the current parliament. The idea is that the organisers will be able to identify local community leaders, bring communities together, help people start their own neighbourhood groups, and give communities the help they need to take control and tackle their problems.
Further support to assist volunteering is mentioned in the form of a Volunteering Match Fund, with up to £10 million a year being made available to match private donations to volunteering projects on a pound for pound basis. There will also be £42.5 million over four years for an England-wide Volunteering Infrastructure programme that will provide frontline support to volunteers and the organisations that manage them. Hopefully this will go in some part to existing Volunteer Bureaux.
Other, non-monetary ideas for supporting community groups include: lessening the bureaucracy of CRB checks; reducing the regulatory burdens; and opening up under or un-used spaces in government property to community groups.
The government is interested in hearing the sector's views and is asking for comments by 9 March 2011.
You can download the document from here.