3 November 2010
Nick Hurd, Minister for Civil Society, today published examples of how local authorities can work well with charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises to minimise the impact of any spending cuts.
The examples, published jointly by the Cabinet Office and the National Association for Voluntary and Community Action (NAVCA), will provide a resource for local authorities making difficult funding decisions. They are accompanied by analysis of data to help local authorities in the decision making process.
Speaking at the NAVCA conference in Bournemouth today, Nick Hurd, Minister for Civil Society, said:
“Small local groups bring people together and drive social change, lose them and you risk losing the community. The examples of best practice that we have published today show that local authorities can do much to support these groups even while making the difficult decisions necessary to reduce the deficit.”
Kevin Curley, Chief Executive of NAVCA, said:
“These case studies show how valuable NAVCA members can be to local authorities in managing the impact of public sector cuts. There is no reason why local authorities should not follow these examples. In fact, they will be doing a disservice to their local communities if they make cuts without first talking with their local voluntary and community sector and listening to how they can help.”
At the NAVCA conference the Minister reiterated the Prime Minister’s message to the public sector not to do the ‘easy thing’ and target charities and voluntary groups for savings. He also called on charities and voluntary groups to ‘red flag’ poor practice and make sure it does not go unchallenged.
Cabinet Office Press Office
LONDON SW1A 2WH
Tel: 020 7276 0393
Out of hours telephone 07699 113300 and ask for pager number 721338