Baroness Morgan of Drefelin
That this House takes note of the contribution of the community and voluntary sector to society across the United Kingdom.
Baroness Morgan of Drefelin (Lab)
My Lords, I am genuinely humbled to be introducing this debate, given the unparalleled collective wisdom that I see across the House among all those taking part today. That is why I am delighted that we gather to acknowledge and celebrate the indispensable role of charities in our nations. I look forward to the maiden speech of the noble Baroness, Lady Porter of Fulwood.
Charities are indeed the backbone of our society: they are on the front line wherever things are in crisis in our communities. From the riots in the summer to the pandemic to the devastating cost-of-living pressures still being experienced across the country, charities are there for people at the worst of times. However, charities are also there for things that make life better and communities richer. They build bridges; they bring people together where there is division; and they are deeply trusted, often where the state is not.
I am delighted to share, hot off the press, figures from the National Council for Voluntary Organisations’ annual voluntary sector almanac. This shows the size and shape of the sector and provides rich data to understand the trends and challenges that are being experienced. The latest data published only last week shows that, in 2021-22, we had 166,000 voluntary organisations across the UK, and a striking eight out of 10 of these were small charities with income below £100,000. These organisations provide essential services, from health and social care to homelessness, and we will hear so much more about that today. While some services receive government funding, let us remember that many do not.
Charities strengthen our communities by engaging volunteers and creating spaces for connection. They are led by volunteers, who give their time and skills as trustees, and many are entirely volunteer run. Moreover, they amplify the voices of the marginalised, ensuring that they are heard by decision-makers. It is such a key role for the sector. Last year—we will hear more about this this afternoon—the Association of Medical Research Charities invested £1.7 billion in UK research. It has contributed much more than money to the sector, supporting R&D that focuses on patients, accelerates impacts and addresses areas of unmet need.
Charities play a crucial role in our economy, as everyone knows. They develop skills in communities, supporting people back to work and providing opportunity to young people. As organisations, charities are major employers, running businesses with a social purpose. Charities contribute an estimated £20 billion per year—or 1% of GDP—to the economy. That is very impressive. Andy Haldane, former chief economist of the Bank of England and now chief executive of the Royal Society of Arts, has estimated that, when the impact of volunteering is accounted for, this contribution increases tenfold to £200 billion, which looks like 10% of GDP. In 2024, the sector employed 3% of the UK’s workforce, and the sector’s workforce has grown by 30% since 2011. Believe it or not, charities employ more people than all the major supermarkets put together.
Charities raise funds from diverse sources, including philanthropy, social enterprise and innovative partnerships with businesses. In 2021-22, the sector generated £69.1 billion, with the public contributing an amazing 48% through donations, legacies and trading activities in charity shops. Notably, according to the UK Giving report, some of the least affluent areas are the most generous—it is such an impressive observation. Government funding accounted for 26% of the sector’s income in 2021-22—down, I am afraid, from 30% in previous years—and this is part of a long-term decline in government funding to the sector. I very much hope that this might be about to change.
As the Prime Minister said at the launch of a new civil society covenant earlier this month, charities are innovative and dynamic. They are, indeed, resilient. However, crisis upon crisis, experienced by many charities, means they are struggling. More people than ever are turning to charities for the support that they cannot get elsewhere. According to the latest VCSE barometer from the Pro Bono Economics observatory, most charities expect demand to rise for their services. One in three charities do not expect to be able to meet this demand, which is very concerning.
I believe that, with the right focus, we have the opportunity to create a better environment, where voluntary action can thrive, especially in deprived areas where the impact can be so great. There are three main areas on which I want to quickly focus, because I know we have so much to talk about today.
First is the relationship that the sector has with local and national government. Charities and volunteering are essential, as we know, for building a healthy, resilient society, yet the relationship between the voluntary sector and government has become truly strained in recent years. This is especially true for the vast majority of charities that are small, local and heavily reliant on local government support—support that has been continuously cut over recent years. Despite these challenges, 61% of the public believe that Britain would be a better place if charities and community groups had a stronger voice in decision-making. Initiatives such as the VCSE accord in Greater Manchester show what is possible when civil society and public bodies collaborate effectively together, but these successes need to be more widespread, and there is huge potential for that.
NCVO and the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations are effectively working together to change the dynamic with government, and I know that the Minister will want to say more about that. Following the publication of their Voluntary Sector Manifesto, they are engaging directly with government to reset the relationship with civil society. On 17 October, I was delighted to hear, a ministerial round table and a reception hosted by the Prime Minister in Number 10 kicked off the development of this new civil society covenant—a vital opportunity to redefine how we all work together. NCVO and ACEVO are engaging with civil society to bring them in and help shape the covenant, including charities and voluntary organisations, particularly including those small organisations I have talked about. The new covenant has a real chance to build meaningful, long-term partnerships for social change. That is what it is all about. For this to succeed, both government and civil society must commit to collaboration, ensuring that charities can continue their mission while helping shape a more equitable, engaged society.
The second area that I think is worth focusing on briefly is how the voluntary sector is indispensable to public services. It delivers nearly £17 billion in services each year, reaching people often left out of mainstream systems. Charities bring innovative, efficient solutions across health, social care, housing, the environment and education, meeting essential needs, often where government services fall short. Yet austerity measures have cut deeply into local and departmental budgets—we know that. Many charities are now subsidising public services out of their own limited funds. According to NCVO’s March 2024 research, 72%—a striking number—are starting to step away from public service delivery, with more than one in 10 forced to return contracts before they are completed, despite serious financial and legal consequences for the organisation.
The Government’s redrafting of the national procurement policy statement, which underpins the Procurement Act 2023, is a vital opportunity to emphasise the inherent social value that charities create. The policy statement has the opportunity to clarify that commissioners must account for this social value and reinvest the surplus in innovation and service delivery, where possible. There should be recognition that charities typically do not operate in markets in any conventional sense of that phrase.
Thirdly and finally, I want to say something about volunteering. I can see that everyone around this Chamber has some experience of volunteering; I know the incredible work that that noble Lords do to promote the sector. Volunteering, as everyone here knows, plays a vital part in our society and our economy. The evidence shows that around 14.2 million people volunteered in the UK through a group, club or organisation in 2021; many more volunteered informally. The ONS calculated that, in 2012, frequent formal volunteering produced around £24 billion of economic output, or 1.5% of GDP. That is pretty amazing. If occasional and informal volunteering had been included, that figure would have been much greater.
People give their time to their communities and to the causes that they care about in diverse ways. Volunteers for the RNLI save lives at sea. People in hospitals provide social connection. Governors support the strategic direction and sustainability in schools. Breast Cancer Now campaigners champion access to modern treatments. Volunteers run over 160,000 charities across the country, with 1 million people serving as trustees. Volunteers play a vital role in supporting our communities, delivering public services and building social cohesion. Eight in 10 volunteers give their time in their local area—what a feeling of community this has the opportunity to develop. Volunteering brings significant benefits to individuals, communities and society. It supports positive social, mental and physical health and well-being. It helps to develop skills, knowledge and experience, sometimes serving as a stepping stone into employment. It helps people to build social connections and capital, fostering that sense of community that we all know matters so much. When asked why they volunteer, people say—there are no surprises here—that the most common motivation is the desire to make a difference.
However, fewer people are volunteering now, particularly in formal roles, and this decline in volunteering is particularly challenging for smaller organisations. There are many barriers to volunteering today, which need to be addressed. People living in deprived areas find it more difficult than others to volunteer. Disabled volunteers and people from the global majority are less satisfied than other volunteers, so there is much that we could do there. Younger people are more likely to cite financial issues as a barrier. I therefore support calls for the uplift in the approved mileage allowance payments scheme, which would allow volunteers using their cars to be reimbursed to reduce that financial burden. I also support calls to broaden Section 50 of the Employment Act 1996 to give trustees reasonable time off to carry out their duties, similar to the current provisions for magistrates and school councillors. These ideas could help address the challenge in recruiting trustees, as there are currently 100,000 trustee vacancies and 62% of people who volunteered in the last three years say they could be encouraged to take part in volunteering again. We should look at that huge potential.
In closing, I am extremely honoured to be the president of NCVO, and I take on that role following the incredible contribution of my noble friend Lady Pitkeathley, who is in her place today. I acknowledge the incredible work that she has done. NCVO supports campaigns, such as Volunteers’ Week and the Big Help Out, and celebrates volunteers, encouraging people to get involved. NCVO regularly brings together those involved in the sector to support volunteers across the country, and it is one of the partners of Vision for Volunteering, a 10-year collaborative project to create a better future for volunteering.
I am looking forward to hearing the contributions from across the House and to learning a great deal from the noble Lords speaking today. I also look forward very much to hearing the contribution of the Minister, who I know is very thoughtful on these matters. I beg to move.
Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie (Con)
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan of Drefelin, for securing this important debate and for her excellent introduction on the—as she said, indispensable—contribution of the voluntary sector. I declare my interests as set out in the register; in particular, as chief executive of a voluntary sector organisation, Cerebral Palsy Scotland. The work that we do supports people with CP, their families, the NHS and education and social care services. It seems, however, that too many people think that we can do this for free.
This sector is not voluntary. As the noble Baroness said, it employs around 1 million people, the majority of whom work for smaller organisations with fewer than 50 employees, which will all be struggling with yesterday’s announcements regarding increased employer NI contributions and an inflation-busting 6.7% increase to the living wage. According to the SCVO’s Scottish Third Sector Tracker, Scotland’s voluntary sector is facing unprecedented challenges. We have had years of warm words and promises of multi-year funding from the Scottish Government, which have yet to be fulfilled. Crises such as the pandemic and increased costs of goods and utilities have all put the sector under increasing pressure. As costs for organisations have risen, so too has demand for services. The sector is in crisis, and many organisations are having to close their doors.
Headway is the UK-wide charity that works to improve life after brain injury. Key information and vital services provided by local Headway charities have propped up statutory services but, now that financial pressures are accumulating from all sides, this has become unsustainable. Over the last two years, four local Headway charities have had to close their doors—three volunteer-led branches have also closed—leaving many vulnerable brain injury survivors and their families with no support. Three more are scheduled to close in the next couple of months. The strain placed on families as survivors can no longer access specialist daycare services will be unsustainable. Many will not cope, leading to family breakdown due to family carers becoming unable to meet their loved ones’ needs that previously were met by Headway services, and unable to access respite care.
Small and medium-sized charities such as Headway are the most likely to close. Charities with an income of under £1 million each year accounted for over 97% of charity closures for each of the last 10 years. As these organisations have seen diminished statutory funding over the years, a decline in meaningful corporate support and not enough philanthropists, they have become over-reliant on funding from trusts and foundations.
However, in recent months, several large and well-known funders, such as the Foyle Foundation and the Schroder Charity Trust, have closed applications and are spending down their funds. Others, such as the Henry Smith Charity and the Tudor Trust, have changed their priorities. Their motivation is often rationalised by pointing out that they receive many more applications than they can fund, and how few of these can be successful.
The sector is facing a perfect storm, and I am deeply concerned about what the future looks like for many, many charities. We face a situation where organisations are closing due to cash flow, not based on their impact. This will affect beneficiaries as well as essential public services. NPC, which the noble Baroness referred to, estimated recently that charities prop up state services by £2.4 billion a year. These organisations are key partners and it is about time we treated them as such. When will there be recognition that this sector is not voluntary, it is essential?
Baroness Scott of Needham Market (LD)
My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness on securing this debate. It is easy to see that NCVO continues to be in great hands. The number of speakers today is testament to both the importance of the subject and the wide range of experience in this House. I am sure we have all been impressed by the many briefings that we have received, which show the sector in all its diversity. The recent praise for the sector from both Keir Starmer and Lisa Nandy has been very good to hear, as was their commitment to resetting the relationship. Hopefully, the days of government telling charities that their deeply held views are somehow woke and undesirable are behind us.
One of the problems with getting to my age is the constant sense of déjà vu—covenants, compacts, big society and so on—and how few lessons are ever learned from what has happened in the past. I am a member of the advisory board of the Institute for Volunteering Research at the University of East Anglia, and I can point the Minister and her team to some excellent analysis of what works and what does not, when it comes to the relationship between government and the sector.
There is not time today to go into why this relationship can be so problematic, but it is like that popular book from the early 1990s: Governments are from Mars and charities are from Venus. Charities have their own specific purposes, which do not always dovetail with the conventional way that government like to do things. Nowhere can you see this better than in commissioning. There is a body of advice available to government on making procurement practices really work for this sector and on the need for sustainable funding models, but it is too often ignored. NCVO reports that 84% of the organisations it surveyed reported that their grants and contracts had not covered their costs since 2020.
Community Action Suffolk, the county’s infrastructure body where I live, reported that 65% of respondents were oversubscribed and underfunded on projects for which they receive statutory funding. It seems to me that this is based on the myth that charities have a bottomless pool of volunteers on which they can draw and that it is somehow free labour—and that funding will always be met by an endless stream of philanthropy. Of course, none of the above is true. Volunteers need to be recruited, trained and managed, and, in an ideal world, we should meet some of their basic costs, such as bus fares. In any event, as we have heard, volunteering is in decline. Many people are working longer hours, older people are undertaking childcare duties and some cannot afford the basic costs of volunteering.
There are a few things government can do, as we have just heard from the noble Baroness, such as enabling more employer-supported volunteering. However, one of the lessons of the past is that top-down initiatives —snazzy apps and so on—simply do not provide results. The fact is that volunteering is an expression of an individual choice to give your time to something that you value; it is not really under the direction of the state.
Larger charities do have a bit more in the way of resource to recruit and manage volunteers, but we know that 77% of organisations have an income of under £100,000 a year and 47% have under £10,000 a year. I want to end with a plea for local infrastructure bodies such as Community Action Suffolk, where I was a trustee. They provide advice and support to hundreds of community-based voluntary organisations: everything from trustee recruitment and training, volunteer portals, a directory of funding opportunities and help with IT, DBS and charity commission compliance. We have heard a lot about investment and infrastructure, so let us not forget our social infrastructure.
Baroness Grey-Thompson (CB)
My Lords, I too thank the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan of Drefelin, for tabling this debate. I draw noble Lords’ attention to my registered interests: I am chair of trustees for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, president of the Local Government Association and chair of Sport Wales.
Voluntary organisations and community groups are the backbone of social and economic provisions across the United Kingdom. In 2021, the voluntary sector injected £17.8 billion into the economy and employed nearly 1 million people, making up 3% of our national workforce. But there are many challenges for volunteering, which is an important part of the sector.
Youth Employment UK have said that the volunteering participation rate among 11 to 30 year-olds has reduced from 24% in 2023 to 17% in 2024. As more young people become socially isolated, more sedentary and resultingly more vulnerable to physical and mental health issues, I am particularly worried about the impact on young women. Girlguiding’s Girls’ Attitudes Survey 2024 has shown that the number of young girls who feel unsafe due to sexism has doubled over the past decade; it has gone from 17% to 47%. That is just one organisation that helps young women volunteer.
Organisations such as the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award continue to champion youth volunteers because we recognise the profound impact that volunteering has on young people. Overall, more than 545,000 young people across the UK are currently working towards a DoE award. Participants gave 4,725,825 hours of volunteering in their communities. This is equivalent to over £24 million in paid working hours. Young people come from a variety of backgrounds; among last year’s participants, 15.2% were experiencing poverty, 26.7% were from ethnic minority backgrounds and 7.8% had additional needs. It is important that volunteering opportunities are open to everyone.
The Local Government Association’s 2010 Hidden Talents report, which is still valid, shows how volunteering helps build the confidence of young people, instilling in them invaluable interpersonal skills that they may not receive in the classroom. Whether it is volunteering at a sports club, helping in a charity shop or even shopping for an elderly neighbour, these experiences foster real-world interactions that are so evidently lacking in a world that revolves around technology. I know my own personal experience of volunteering had a huge impact on my life. When I was an athlete, all my coaches were volunteers; I could not have done what I did as an athlete without them.
Local authorities are under huge pressure and we must find ways to strengthen the relationship that they have with other organisations. Without cohesion and support, these organisations cannot close service gaps within communities, nor will they be able to provide adequate assistance to the most vulnerable in our society.
Finally, while I welcome the Government’s introduction of the new Civil Society Covenant Framework, I urge the Minister to maintain continuous dialogue and co-ordination with the devolved Governments. In order to achieve the full, positive impact of this covenant, it is essential that it resonates across all nations within the United Kingdom.
The Lord Bishop of Newcastle
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness for bringing this timely debate to your Lordships’ House and I look forward to the maiden speech of the noble Baroness, Lady Porter.
I recently had the privilege of attending the North East Charity Awards. I wish I could highlight all the inspiring charities and individuals featured but, for the sake of time, I will limit myself to two. The North East Young Dads and Lads Project is a support service dedicated to helping young men and fathers play an active and meaningful role in the lives of their children and wider society. The project works with them to build a greater sense of self-worth and resilience, reducing social isolation and challenging negative perceptions. Smart Works Newcastle helps unemployed women with clothing and coaching into employment, transforming their lives. Some 69% of clients gain employment within one month. These are small, local north-east charities that understand the needs of their communities and make a tangible impact. It is so often the small charities with personal relationships that can most effectively bring about lasting change in people’s lives.
When it comes to funding, 85% of charitable income in England and Wales goes to just 4% of registered charities, with small charities often struggling to raise the funds they need. What steps are the Government taking to rebalance charitable funding and ensure adequate investment in smaller charities that possess a deeper understanding of their communities?
I must also recognise the work that local churches and faith communities do to serve their communities. In Newcastle, the cathedral plays a vital role in responding to prison leavers, those seeking asylum, those sleeping rough and those struggling with drug and alcohol misuse within the city. What steps are the Government taking to support the work of faith groups in their communities?
I expect there will be more to say on this in the forthcoming Budget debate, as the noble Baroness, Lady Fraser of Craigmaddie, alluded to in her excellent speech. For now, I welcome the Government’s recently announced civil society covenant and the emphasis that it places on partnership. So much can be gained from government and civil society working together, but we must also ensure that it is a constructive partnership, as the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan of Drefelin, mentioned in her opening speech, not one where the work of the voluntary and charity sector becomes a substitute for effective government policy.
The value of the community and voluntary sector across the UK cannot be overestimated nor taken for granted. It is the glue that fills in the gaps in our society, and I am glad that this House is recognising this today.
Lord Kestenbaum (Lab)
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan, for securing this important debate. I declare my interest as a trustee of Teach First.
This debate, coming as it does one day after the Budget, could not be more timely. Yesterday, we heard a passionate, well-reasoned argument on the vital role of the state: where it can intervene, where it makes a difference, where it can change lives—and rightly so. Yet Governments themselves are the first to acknowledge the limits of the state. However well intentioned, it has those limits. We have long understood that overcollectivist economies are deeply flawed, not least as inhibitors of growth. However, this country has also seen and indeed lost faith in the alternative too, namely that what we cannot achieve collectively as a state we will achieve as individuals. The state withdraws; the free market does it all. Were we not told once:
“There is no such thing as society”?
Yet in each case, profound social ills continue, while expectations of services are in danger of outgrowing our ability to fund them. We know that between the overinterventionist state and the minimalist state lies the most potent force of all, found in localities, voluntary associations and faith groups: the force of community. It is in communities that we find—indeed learn—the virtues that sustain the common good: integrity, compassion, neighbourliness. These are the kind of virtues that both state and market are too impersonal—at times too arbitrary—to nurture. It is in communities that we find shared belonging.
For that reason and more, I, like other noble Lords, welcome the Government’s creation of a civil society covenant, a new era of partnership that will help to tackle some of the country’s biggest challenges. The very concept of covenant, as used in this instance by the Government, is inspired. That is not just semantics, for covenant is at the heart of a community’s power. Most economic and indeed many political relationships are by no means covenantal. They are, as we all know, contractual; they assume a coming together of broadly self-interested parties that benefit from an exchange. Contractual relationships are transactional.
Covenantal relationships, as found in communities and voluntary organisations, are not transactional at all. They are about common good; they foster trust, reciprocity, loyalty. Economists of course call this social capital. We have seen that without the features of social capital—such as mutual help, compassion and kindness—societies break down. Such social capital is not created by isolated individuals or remote mechanisms of state, but by the strength of community networks and the bonds of volunteerism. Societies rich in social capital, with strong, inclusive communities and vibrant voluntary organisations, will have high morale, a strong sense of belonging and greater cohesion.
We are blessed in the UK to find these ties up and down the land. I personally have experienced their impact particularly strongly in my faith community. The Jewish community, of which I am proud to be a part, through its multiple voluntary organisations and its care for the vulnerable aims to be a community of dignity and purpose, and in so doing helps make Britain a better, stronger society. As we have just heard, it is so often in faith communities that we help others, and they help us, without calculating relative advantage. As the late Lord Jonathan Sacks, former Chief Rabbi, whose eloquence hovers across this Chamber, has written:
“The virtues of the common good are found not where people are brought together by exchange of wealth or power, but by a commitment to one another and to a larger common cause”.
For the foreseeable future we will be beset by social problems which will yield neither to state intervention nor to private initiative. This is indeed the moment for a partnership to be forged between politicians, communities, voluntary organisations, churches, entrepreneurs and others. Underpinning it all is a vision of society where we can bring our diverse talents and traditions as gifts to the common good.
Lord Bassam of Brighton (Lab)
My Lords, I begin, as others have done, by congratulating the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan, on initiating this debate. Apart from being a highly effective Minister in the last Labour Government, she has for many years skilfully led Breast Cancer Now. Her work has undoubtedly saved many lives and raised awareness of this awful disease.
I also declare my interest as a co-director of Place, working for Business in the Community, a role I share with the noble Baroness, Lady Valentine—I am told, the oldest job-share in the UK. We are the UK’s largest and most influential responsible business network dedicated to building a fairer, more sustainable world. We work in the UK’s most deprived communities, mobilising leading figures from FTSE 100 companies to transform the lives and opportunities of millions. Led by our inspirational CEO, Mary Macleod, we aim to operate in 50 places by 2032, focusing on literacy, training, food poverty, upskilling and capacity building. Our business-led boards focus on physical regeneration projects like housing and transport.
However, we are one small part of the eco-structure of the 166,000-plus voluntary organisations identified by the NCVO. Although a major charity in NCVO terms, we have fewer than 250 staff. In a “bang for buck” ratio, our impact, like that of other voluntary organisations, is immense. The sector is estimated to contribute nearly £18 billion to the economy and employs, roughly speaking, a million people but mobilises over 14 million a year as volunteers. Our impact is unquantifiable.
Without the voluntary sector, community cohesion, the drive for social justice, economic fairness and greater equality would have long ago withered. We campaign, provide life-saving services, change lives, and shape opportunities. Our research changes perceptions.
However, we should not kid ourselves that everything in the voluntary sector is rosy or that we could not do better. Worryingly, there are signs that our work and impact may be faltering. A recent DCMS survey found that participation rates in formal volunteering have fallen. The NCVO too found a significant drop-off. Most concerning is the decline in young people volunteering, down 7% in 2024.
Like others, I welcome the Prime Minister’s announcement of a fundamental reset. His aim to unlock and harness the sector’s dynamism, innovation and trust is timely. The covenant framework, incorporating high-level principles of recognition, partnership and participation is most welcome, and I applaud the desire to engage across government.
The strength of voluntary organisations is, as others have said, our ability to be different, to innovate and to challenge. These strengths have been sorely tested over the last 14 years, as government has looked to us to solve its problems. Too often, we have been seen as a cheap option or substitute for government intervention.
Lisa Nandy was right when she said that we should be recognised as a “trusted partner” but, to fulfil that role, we must find ways to collaborate better, maximise our impact, and acknowledge that there is overlap and duplication. As a quid pro quo, we need long-term funding commitments from central government and our local and regional partners. UK businesses, like BITC’s partner, Aviva, could be better incentivised to support communities.
Finally, as a piece of advice to the Government, while there is no free money on offer to fund initiatives, there are dormant assets. Gordon Brown’s scheme was given a boost by the last Labour Government, but it barely scratches the surface in unlocking assets tucked away in the banking, insurance and financial systems that could provide billions for social purposes. Will the Minister urge the Government to reconvene the commission that examined options for expanding the scheme? There is an estimated £800 million coming through the new scheme, and it could fund the community wealth fund that provides essential services for long-term investment. There are other funds that could be tapped from dormant assets: £1 billion in unclaimed gift cards; £3 billion in Amazon gift cards; and Sadiq Khan estimated there is a quarter of a billion pounds in balances on Oyster cards. Unused assets like these could be unleashed to transform the lives of millions of people across the UK and unlock the real potential of our civic institutions.
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
My Lords, can we just be mindful of the four-minute advisory time, please?
Baroness Porter of Fulwood (Con) (Maiden Speech)
My Lords, at a time when our country is facing challenges on so many fronts, the unique role of your Lordships’ House is more important than ever. It is a privilege to be joining at such a critical time.
I have appreciated so much already the collegiality and warmth of this place. I would like to especially thank those who have made my introduction to this House so smooth—Black Rod and her team, and the doorkeepers. I would also like to thank the clerks, as well as my noble friends Lady Vere of Norbiton and Lord Johnson of Lainston, who supported me at my introduction, and my mentor, my noble friend Lady Wyld, all of whom have given me valuable advice.
Like others in your Lordships’ House, I have spent many years working in government across various departments as an adviser. I have been privileged to serve in Defra, the Cabinet Office, the Department for Transport, the Ministry of Justice and No. 10. I have also worked in business at the heart of the City, helping countries and companies from around the world raise capital and advising some of the world’s largest public and private businesses on their corporate reputation. During the Brexit years, I saw first hand the value of this House when I was working at the London Stock Exchange Group, and we were navigating many detailed, complex regulatory changes. The tireless work of so many here was invaluable.
I am very aware that life is not just—in fact, not even primarily—about formal institutions, whether Parliament or the City of London. As a mother of young children with no extended family living nearby, the invisible mesh of mutual support and care from others in my community is what makes life possible. We all know this, and during Covid it was the glue that held the country together. It takes all these elements: business, politics, media, community and family. We are at our best as a country when these parts understand each other and work well together. They are, though, too often siloed and at cross-purposes. This House has a special role to play in its ability to offer a dialogue between our country’s formal and informal institutions, and to foster and build the social capital that our future depends on as a country.
It is this that brings me to today’s debate. One area where we need to focus in coming months where this is especially true is criminal justice. This country has roughly 90,000 people locked up—almost double the number of people who were in prison when I was born, just over 40 years ago. Anyone who has been involved with criminal justice will tell you the same stories of heartbreaking, layered problems: gangs; drug abuse; mental health issues; a lack of mentors or family figure role models; children growing up who barely stood a chance. They will also tell you stories of transformation, where the practical commitment of a volunteer, or the deep care of a family member, has been the key to someone finding the strength to turn their life around.
Circumstances are forcing our hand on prisons. We should not look for quick fixes for this crisis but rather far-reaching reform. As the Government respond to this practical imperative, they need to use this moment as a jumping-off point for a proper rethink of how we approach criminal justice and the role of prison more generally. The part that community and the voluntary sector plays in this must be at the heart of this reform. Charities are able to provide a level of personal support and resource that government simply cannot. The charities Clean Slate Solutions and Recruitment Junction are both great examples of this, helping people who have been in prison adjust when they get out.
I started by referencing the breadth and scale of the challenges the UK faces. These are serious times. They are also times that require us to take a look at how we have been doing things and think anew. I look forward to working with other noble Lords who are focused on these issues to bring about lasting change.
Baroness Stroud (Con)
On behalf of the whole House, I congratulate my noble friend Lady Porter on her excellent maiden speech. It is a privilege to speak after her, and we can all see just how much she will contribute to this House.
We have known one another for many years. I first met my noble friend when she was working for the Maxim Institute in New Zealand, which is a think tank that works to promote the dignity of every person by standing for freedom, justice, compassion and hope. It therefore came as no surprise to me that, with this background, she pursued her commitment to human dignity, freedom and justice and made her way to the UK, expressing those principles in both the business world and the political world as a special adviser. It came as even less of a surprise to hear that she had rightly been elevated to this place, and that at the first opportunity she chooses to contribute to a debate on the importance of the community and voluntary sector. We are delighted that she is here.
It is easy in today’s individualistic world to conclude that there are two entities that make up our society: the individual and the Government. The noise in the public square in the advent of social media makes individuals feel atomised and makes the state feel powerful, but there is supposed to be a space between the individual and the Government, and that space is called family, civil society, community and the voluntary sector; together they bring life and vitality to our nation. It is the place where you can give and where you can receive. It is a place of reciprocity and mutuality.
I can remember a young girl in the care system saying, “I just want someone to take me to the dentist who wants to take me to the dentist and not because they are paid to do so”. It was a cry for family. It was a cry for community. In our atomised society, the danger for the voluntary sector is that in its pursuit of funding and professionalism, it forgets its unique contribution to the space between government and the individual—that is its humanity. There are many reasons for this. It is the voluntary sector that can break the norms of a maintenance culture and bring healing and transformation. What is it that transforms the human heart and restores the soul? Is that not sacrificial love? Person after person around this nation is serving their neighbour sacrificially in a volunteering capacity.
For 17 years, I used to run a community project for homeless people. We were able to say to them that if they came across someone who was hungry, they should feel free to give them something to eat; that if they came across someone who needed a coat, they should feel free to give them theirs. What professional organisation is still free in the 21st century to say these things to people? The act of sacrificial love coming from a volunteer was healing and dignifying for both the individual giving the care and the individual receiving the care. It was human.
The voluntary sector is free to intervene early, too; the voluntary sector is free to get ahead of social breakdown. For many years, many of us have spoken about the need for government programmes to be built around early intervention. It was the noble Baroness, Lady Stedman-Scott, who co-chaired the CSJ’s work on Breakdown Britain 20 years ago, who said that it was better to build a fence at the top of a cliff than to drive an ambulance at the bottom. Even though there is nothing new about how obviously right this early intervention is, over the last 20 years, with Governments of all colours, who all believe that early intervention is the right approach, none of us has found a systematic way through the funding structures of the Treasury to change the orientation of government social programmes away from picking up the pieces towards early intervention on a systematic scale.
So far, it is only the voluntary sector that is genuinely free to do that. Take, for example, Safe Families, which is a great example of a voluntary sector programme that can save the Government literally millions of pounds by caring for children ahead of a family breakdown, so that the children do not need to go into care. Made up of over 5,000 volunteers from over 1,000 churches and community groups, with a staff of around 150 passionate, talented and dedicated people the UK, they care for children and families before they reach breaking point and prevent them from going into prison. We all know that, but can a Government—of any colour—get funding to reflect that? No. But that does not stop the determination of the voluntary sector or Safe Families. So let us not burden the sector; let it be deeply relational, let it take time with people, do not overprofessionalise it, and allow it to be free.
Lord Dubs (Lab)
My Lords, I welcome this debate and I am grateful to my noble friend for having initiated it. I declare my interests having been the chief executive and chair of a number of voluntary organisations and having served on various boards. I will talk about three things: the relations between the voluntary sector and government; the influence on debate and legislation by the voluntary sector; and some important voluntary initiatives.
The voluntary sector is a crucial part of a democracy, and I welcome very much the recent speech made by the DCMS Secretary of State, when she said that it should be up to charities to tell government when it has got it wrong and to co-operate with government to get things right. That is in contrast to the disparaging comments made by some people from the previous Conservative Government, who told the voluntary sector to stick to their knitting and the RSPB that it should not stray from nesting boxes and bird feeders. Clearly, what we want, and what we have now, is a much better relationship, which was initiated at the meeting in No. 10 and the consultation on the civil society covenant. It is fundamental to the voluntary sector that it should be able to criticise government and to state its views on government policy—provided that these are within the general terms and scope of what that voluntary organisation is about. In the past, attempts have been made to stifle the voluntary sector from making comments on policy.
I think we all welcome the fact that voluntary organisations contribute by briefing us on debates and amendments to legislation. Some of us depend very much on this help and support. It ensures that our debates are better informed and based on the experience that the voluntary sector itself has, as opposed to just theoretical concepts. I have worked very closely with both the Refugee Council and Safe Passage on supporting the cause of asylum seekers and refugees, and I very much welcome the help that they have given us. Of course, there are so many other organisations—I cannot mention them all—including the Holocaust Educational Trust, the MS Society and Humanists UK. In Northern Ireland, the Integrated Education Fund has played a key role in ensuring that integrated schools play a larger part in educational provision there. We depend on the voluntary sector. When we come to debate on assisted dying, which will be quite an issue—first in the Commons and then possibly here—we should get briefings on opposite sides of the argument. That is not unhealthy; it is a good thing.
I must mention one or two important initiatives from the voluntary sector. I particularly welcome the part played by volunteers in refugee camps abroad—for example, in Calais—where individuals from this country have gone and given a lot of their time, sometimes years, to support the most vulnerable of their fellow human beings. The Refugee Council has done enormously good work on this. The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award is also important. I will give one example. Some years just before the pandemic, the Chelsea and Fulham football foundations—I say this as a Manchester United supporter, alas—joined together to provide an evening of football training for refugee boys on Fulham football ground, inspired by Gary Lineker. It was a great evening and a very important contribution to the understanding by refugees of sport in this country. All over the country, there have been initiatives such as Wandsworth Welcomes Refugees and so on, and refugees have come. It is a privilege to have been involved with the voluntary sector, which has helped me with some of the contributions I have made to debates in this Chamber.
Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Lab)
My Lords, it is a great pleasure, as always, to follow my very good friend—my noble friend Lord Dubs—and to congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan, on her wonderful introduction to an important debate. I pay tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Porter, for a very impressive and effective maiden speech; we look forward to hearing far more of her speeches in the years ahead.
A few weeks ago, I spoke in this Chamber in the debate on social care and referred to the work of my own local authority in Wales, Torfaen County Borough Council, on the importance of community and voluntary groups in trying to solve the social care issue. That also applies to other issues and problems as well. Today we celebrate the community groups, voluntary groups, churches, Rotary International, charities, pensioner groups and youth groups, all of which play an enormous part in our society, locally and nationally.
Very often, they are unco-ordinated. Local voluntary groups can come together—of course they can—but I will bring to the Minister’s attention the work of my own local authority, which employs what it calls “community connectors”. These are individuals who go into various parts of the local authority, work with the community groups, identify issues such as isolation and then report back to the local authority.
The reason I wanted to say that to the Minister is because there is a tendency to ignore what happens across the River Wye in Wales—or, for that matter, in Scotland and Northern Ireland as well. For the five years when I was Welsh Secretary, it was often a battle against the establishment in Whitehall to learn best practice from the devolved Administrations. It was referred to as “devolve and forget”. In fact, we should do the opposite: devolve and work together.
The NCVO has pleaded that it should be allowed to have a more structured engagement with the United Kingdom Government and to make its comments on the civil society covenant framework, which the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, referred to. It seems to me that we can learn from each other in a very special way. Very often, we criticise each other in the different nations, countries and regions of our United Kingdom, but the Government themselves have decided that there should be a Council of the Nations and Regions. There is already a British-Irish Council and a British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, which bring together Governments and Parliaments from across these islands—and we learn from each other. There is still a reluctance in government here in London for that to happen. If one thing can go from this debate to my noble friends and colleagues in government it is: connect, connect, connect with what goes on elsewhere in the United Kingdom. Devolution does not mean separation; it means working together as much as anything else.
Lord Addington (LD)
My Lords, I totally agree with the last sentiment. We tend to find that Governments think that the voluntary sector is a great idea until it starts to criticise their current policy, as my noble friend Lady Scott referred to. It is almost universal; Governments of all colours have done that. As the noble Lord, Lord Dubs, said, when we deal with any subject in this House, we get our information from the voluntary sector. They are outside groups that lobby us and make us better at our job. I encourage all of them to keep that stream of information coming, because without them, the process of government is worse, and government itself will not be able to answer the questions it should on all its legislation.
I welcome—as I should have done earlier—the noble Baroness, Lady Porter, to our midst. The first 30 years are the worst, in my experience. Somebody with outside experience and new experience is always welcome here. She has started well and I hope that the next steps are at least pain-free.
The one section of this that I really wanted to raise has already been touched on, which is reaching those who are, as we used to say, in danger of offending: those who have had bad experiences going through life. People with bad experiences, bad educational backgrounds et cetera, end up filling up our prisons. We will all be drawing attention to a charity that I have had some interaction with: TackleLondon. It is a rugby-based charity. Your Lordships would never have guessed, would you? What we do there is something that has been referred to by many. We go in, speak to young people who have had, in our terminology, ACEs—adverse childhood experiences such as family breakdown, losing a house, something that puts you on a path towards educational failure, disruption and being in that group that is vulnerable to getting sucked into the criminal justice system.
A major problem that we have down there, after you have got through people from the Atlas Foundation such as me who are raising money for them, which is always a battle, is the interaction with the state. We want to get into schools. We have got expertise, volunteers, people coming forward, people who like their sport, people who think that it should go forward and people who enjoy getting information out there. Remember, it should be people who enjoy what they are doing and enjoy giving. We are not looking for masochistic saints. If you are, you will have nobody to do this. What are the Government going to do to make sure that we can get into that school, that section, and do it easily? We know that we have to do DBS checks and all the rest of it. If we are prepared to do this, how will the education sector embrace this expertise?
As to positive experiences, rugby union is a good sport because it is complicated. You have nice authority figures. Other sports may be better for playing but, for giving authority and structure, rugby union is great. Many other sports do not have their rules described as “laws”: we are a very authoritative sport. How will the Government enable the volunteering charity sector, if they approve of it, to get into the education system and give support? It is a problem that we have had for a long time. It is a resource that we do not make the best of. I look forward to hearing what the Minister has to say about this, if not today then at least in the future.
Baroness Wilcox of Newport (Lab)
My Lords, I am delighted to speak in this debate, called by my noble friend Lady Morgan of Drefelin, whom I congratulate. I also congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Porter, on her maiden speech, and welcome her to her place. I associate myself with the wise words of my noble friend Lord Murphy of Torfaen.
Volunteering is recognised by the Welsh Government and the Third Sector Partnership Council as an important aspect of strong communities and something to be promoted and supported. Jane Hutt MS, the Minister for Social Justice and Chief Whip, made an Oral Statement last year outlining the development of a new approach to volunteering in Wales. She noted that the approach will be one that is fit for the future, for generations of volunteers and including the voluntary, public and private sectors. In preparation for this debate, I, like others, was contacted by the Wales Council for Voluntary Action, the national membership body. It welcomes the launch of the Government’s new civil society covenant framework and, as others have already mentioned, it believes that the covenant should include a commitment to continuous dialogue with devolved Administrations across the UK. That ensures the co-ordination of all policy, legislative and funding decisions.
Last week, we had the annual celebration event of the Gwent Association of Voluntary Organisations. Due to parliamentary business, I was unable to attend. It celebrated volunteers who have been nominated by the community in 12 different awards. It was an excellent evening and my Newport colleagues, Jess Morden MP and Jayne Bryant MS, had great photographs of the event on their social media pages.
I have decided that one way to highlight the work of volunteers would be to record the immense contribution that individuals have made to my own experience of working together with them over my 20 years as a local councillor. Sadly, Joan Davies is no longer with us. However, as I said when I had the honour to give the eulogy at her funeral two years ago, Joan was the heart and soul of the Maesglas community in Newport. She dedicated decades to volunteering, running a branch of the Newport credit union from the community centre, where people could save money and take affordable loans. She was a key figure in running the centre, where she held the wonderful Wednesday night bingo club. Over the years, the people of Maesglas, one of the lowest socioeconomic wards in the city, under Joan’s leadership raised many thousands of pounds for charities. In 2018, Joan was given the High Sheriff of Gwent award. When asked for my nomination, as leader of Newport City Council, without hesitation I nominated Joan, who was the epitome of what it meant to serve the community.
The spirit of volunteering lives on in Newport today. In closing, I will mention two further people who volunteer in the important area of school governorship. I worked beside them on the governing body for many years at the John Frost School in Newport. Sue O’Brian is not only a committed and supportive chair of the governing body; she is at the heart of girl guiding in Newport and runs one of the many popular Brownie packs in the city. Similarly, the vice-chair of governors, Jan Atkinson, has a long background in the community, including foster caring, raising funds and cooking a Christmas lunch in one of our community centres for people who would otherwise be alone on Christmas Day.
I am glad that this debate has allowed me to put on record their achievements and the importance of people such as Joan, Sue and Jan to the future of the sector in communities in Wales, and indeed across the whole of the UK.
Lord Black of Brentwood (Con)
My Lords, I join others in congratulating the noble Baroness on leading this debate and my noble friend on her excellent maiden speech. I am a trustee of a number of charities that are listed in the register and declare an interest accordingly.
I want to talk about a specific set of charities that rely on an army of incredible volunteers in communities across the country to look after one of the most vulnerable groups in our society: our pets and animals. Mine is one of the 57% of UK households that own a pet. Over a quarter of a century of owning cats, I have seen up close the work of animal welfare charities, which is not just about caring for animals that have been abandoned or cruelly treated—the tragic face of so much work in this sector—but about education for young people, giving support to bereaved pet owners, and many other areas that are crucial to a caring society.
Every day, the UK’s largest animal welfare charities—Cats Protection, Dogs Trust, RSPCA, Blue Cross, Battersea and PDSA—do astonishing work on limited resources that is made possible by the work of around 29,000 volunteers, contributing an average of 2.5 million hours of work each year. Cats Protection values its 9,000 volunteers’ priceless gift of time at around £37 million each year, while volunteer cat and dog fosterers at Battersea each gave an average of 200 hours of volunteering last year. PDSA has volunteer vets and nurses within its veterinary hospitals, providing essential care. As Cats Protection says to its volunteer army, and it is the same across the sector, “We wouldn’t be here without you”.
What these charities and their remarkable volunteers—increasingly, people under the age of 35 and many who identify as disabled—achieve in incredible circumstances is remarkable. Volunteers are there for not just animals but their owners. Anyone who has ever loved a pet knows full well the terrible pain of parting. Blue Cross is there to help by running a wonderful bereavement service, with volunteers dealing with over 20,000 calls, webchats and emails each year from those in distress.
It is not just the big charities that gain so much from volunteers: smaller ones rely on volunteers even more. Take the Suffolk Owl Sanctuary, where my husband and I help sponsor Titch, a tawny owl. Its volunteers get involved in aviary cleaning, feeding rounds for the birds and painting, decorating and gardening—all essential to the smooth running of a really small charity.
Equally vital is the role that volunteers play in raising funds. They give money themselves, organise events and encourage their friends and colleagues to do so as well, helping to ensure that 15 million people each year donate to animal charities.
There is another crucial role that volunteers for all these charities play as vocal ambassadors for animals, providing an independent voice for those who have none, ensuring that animals always remain high on the political agenda here in Westminster and in local authorities, and ensuring that we are held to account for delivering for those in need of care.
There are many things we can do to assist this army of volunteers, as the noble Baroness said, not least by developing a civil society engagement strategy and charter, as set out by the NCVO, to reduce barriers to volunteering. Training passports would help too, allowing volunteers to develop transferable skills, such as in health and safety or safeguarding, across different charities.
This debate has shown of how much we have to be proud as a country. I take this opportunity to applaud the tireless, selfless and often unsung work that so many volunteers undertake for our pets and animals, and to thank them for their devotion and energy. They are a jewel in the crown of our civic life; without them, our society, two-legged and four-legged, would be so much the poorer.
Lord Parekh (Lab)
My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan of Drefelin, on initiating the debate so very well. Basically, we are concerned with exploring the relationship between civil society and the state. Civil society represents the idea of persuasion and the state represents the idea of compulsion. The question for any kind of civilised society becomes: what is the role of persuasion and what is the role of compulsion? Which areas of life are best left to persuasion and which to compulsion? Once you have formulated it in this way—I find it easier to handle—you begin to see how it applies to our own situation.
This is a problem that every society faces, because every society involves both coercive machinery in the form of the state and a voluntary set of institutions in the form of associations. One could say, for example, that the two should be merged, as is the case in Germany. In Germany, the state collects taxes for churches. In France, it is the opposite; the two are totally separate. The state has little to do with civil society.
Our approach has been mixed. We rely on the state in certain cases, on civil society in other cases. We expect the state to intervene in certain areas of civil society. This mixed approach has been a source of much beneficence, but also much unease. I will briefly point out why it has led to some degree of unease.
First, when you talk about civil society, will you support organisations concerned with protest—for example, against Israeli actions in Gaza, the Indian occupation of Kashmir or whatever? The state would say that it is not going to support that; it is against its policy. What happens to the issues concerned? As we have not been able to handle this question, the result is that we periodically hear issues about people not being allowed to protest and why.
Secondly, the state draws a conventional set of lines. Within those lines and that framework, civil associations are supposed to function. That is all right, but it leads to the bureaucratisation of civil society, and that bureaucratisation does not allow associations to function properly.
The third difficulty is that it concentrates on certain material things. A philanthropic activity is one where you give money, but what about those societies where money is not given or prized, but time or concern is given? I come from a society where per capita philanthropic contributions would be rather low, but per capita time or attention would be far greater. Would you therefore say that one society is more philanthropic than another? Our society, by and large, has been concentrating on money and matters other than personal sympathy and concern for rehabilitating individuals. This can be seen in relation to prisoners.
Lastly, the relation between civil society and state is not ultimately a matter of ad hoc contestation and compromise. It is a matter of culture, and a culture has to develop that allows that society to throw up responsible civil associations.
Lord Hastings of Scarisbrick (CB)
My Lords, we all love a debate of this nature, because it shows the very best of British brilliance, so I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan, for allowing us to have this wide conversation together. All of us have interests that express our passion for communities and our voluntary engagement, and we all know that, as much as we may give voluntarily, we receive immense delight, joy, respect and purpose in the time and resources that we give away to others.
My many interests are in the register, but I will focus on a few. As president of UK Community Foundations, I am proud that we are in every single constituency of the UK, through our 47 community foundations that cover every postcode of the UK. Some £190 million of resources are contributed to individual and community needs every year through the Community Foundations network. We provided small things such as basic laptops, in the Covid years, which individuals needed so that they could undertake work from home. We provided support and resources for people to get access to psychiatry and individual support for mental health, so that people can ensure that they can work. That is the value of Community Foundations, and that money is gathered mainly from local contributions and giving. People feel so proud; 86% of people feel proud to give locally, volunteer locally and support locally.
I am also chairman of the Pathway Fund, and I am glad that the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, raised dormant assets, because we are awaiting the Government’s release of information on the availability of dormant assets and the expectation that the Pathway Fund will be one of those. I ask the Minister at what point a decision will be reached on the release of dormant assets for 2024-25. We are expecting a substantial allocation to do the work that the Pathway Fund was set up to do. I only recently became its chairman, in the last couple of months.
One of the greatest areas to which I contribute voluntarily is ongoing. I refer with grateful respect to the maiden speech of the noble Baroness, Lady Porter, which raised issues of criminal justice. I have spent 21 years as a trustee and chairman of Crime Concern, where we helped to create neighbourhood watch and Victim Support. To this day, neighbourhood watch is probably one of the best community access linkages that we have across the UK. I know that from my own area, where you just watch the angst of the people going back and forward and their joy in realising that we are not under threat.
Community crime prevention was Crime Concern’s theme and we have carried that on into Catch22, which I was also delighted to found in 2009. All these interventions save the taxpayer substantial amounts of money but allow individuals to give to the better estate of preventing crime and making communities safer.
I am also the co-founder of My Brother’s Keeper, which is a prisoner engagement programme. On Tuesday, I made my 11th visit to HMP Isis, where it was delightful to spend time with 46 young men in the prison. Our team of eight is mentoring those 46 and has seen the transformation of that particular prison and its culture. None of us gets paid and we do not seek to be paid; the payment is in the delight of witnessing transformation and life for others.
As the Government look around for ways to save money, as well as invest it better, I ask them to please rely more heavily on the voluntary sector and volunteers to do the great work that we all love to do. Give others life and freedom.
Baroness Thornton (Lab)
My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend on securing and opening the debate. I also congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Porter, on her maiden speech.
This is an important debate because our Government have the chance to restore the mutually productive trusting relationships with civil society that we have enjoyed in the past and which have been eroded in recent years. I unreservedly welcome the words of my honourable friend the Minister, Stephanie Peacock, who said,
“this government has announced a commitment to reset the relationship with civil society and work together to develop a new Civil Society Covenant”.
As someone who started their working life at Gingerbread then moved to the citizens advice bureau and then worked for Michael Young at the Institute for Community Studies, I have huge commitment to this sector going back 50 years.
From the Ministers in the last Government I am afraid we saw attacks on charities to generate headlines and attempt to stoke culture wars. We should be pleased that the public has sound instincts on this. We all know about the campaigns to undermine the work of great charitable institutes such as the RNLI and the National Trust—it did not work. Attacks on the National Trust by political campaigners have included everything from its research into the historic places in its care to “secretly woke” scone recipes. Public trust in the National Trust has, I am glad to say, only increased since all this began, but it represents a waste of charities’ scarce resources. Let us hope that, under a new leadership, and with the influence of noble Lords opposite, there will be a change in attitude toward the voluntary sector.
As I said, the resetting of the relationship with civil society is wholly to be embraced. However, I have to ask my noble friend where social enterprises and social and community businesses feature in this new world. Because of an accident of supine government, the social enterprise world ended up in the DCMS, along with civil society organisations, several years ago. There are more than 131,000 social enterprises in the UK, with a collective turnover of £78 billion and employing around 2.3 million people. They can be SMEs or very large suppliers of public services. Therefore, this is not a small matter, as they match in size the voluntary sector. It feels that, at the moment, they are slightly losing out in the policy world. Unless I am mistaken, I cannot see any mention of social businesses in the proposals for the new compact.
If we wish to fulfil our manifesto commitment to build diverse business models to support the regeneration of our economy, co-operatives, mutuals and social enterprises have an important part to play. The same is true of civil society organisations, but the support and policy that they need are not the same.
I asked this question during the King’s Speech debate and I ask it again: how is that diversity to be achieved? How will social enterprises be involved in the important discussions around procurement, reform of our public services and things such as regional investment? I and the sector have long believed that social enterprises and social businesses should be the responsibility of the Business Department not the DCMS, because they are businesses. At the very least there needs to be a plan to promote and support social businesses. Will my noble friend the Minister help to organise a meeting with her honourable friend Stephanie Peacock, social enterprise leaders and me to find a way forward with this dilemma?
Lord Griffiths of Burry Port (Lab)
My Lords, it is a great privilege to speak in a debate of this kind and to thank my noble friend for giving us the opportunity to share experience in this way.
I have spent my entire working life in the voluntary sector and have struggled very hard throughout that time to maintain the balance between administrative roles, management and client-facing co-working with the people one is serving through the voluntary activities in question. That is an immense privilege, as my dear and noble friend Lord Hastings in the corner alluded to—why he sits in the corner, I do not understand. His practical experience is a model for all of us. He has held high office at a number of very significant institutions and yet it is the person-to-person relationship that strikes home whenever one meets him. I would hope that that would be my emphasis too.
I pay tribute to this little man sitting next to me, my noble friend Lord Parekh, whose books I read years ago, whose leadership I enjoyed on visits to South Africa and other places as part of building relationships across international borders, and whose thinking has always been so clear and helpful.
I am unashamedly going to speak about churches today, and have been given encouragement to do so by my noble friend who, from a Jewish perspective, seemed to open the door for that. Years ago in my work, I had responsibility for a day centre for homeless people in Seymore Place, Marylebone, and for halfway houses for young offenders in Wandsworth. The Home Office approved a centre for prisoners on remand, resourced by an astonishing criminologist from the University of Cambridge, and a self-referral place for people fearing that they were dependent upon substance abuse. In that context I have witnessed human suffering at an extraordinary level. In order to catch the picture properly, I remember, for example, sleeping in Lincoln’s Inn Fields or in shop doorways with the homeless as we built relationships that would allow for a conversational approach to the way we handle what we on the giving side too often describe as problems when in fact they are situations that can be entered into and dark places that people can be brought out of simply by having someone else they can trust.
In my cozy retirement in leafy Croydon, and attending church—no longer running the wretched place because it was so complicated in the end—it is wonderful to have the space and the people who bring people from the community together. We help people with mental health problems, we hold art classes and University of the Third Age sessions, we host winter sleeping shelters on rota with other churches in the region, and those of us who do not need our £300 winter fuel allowance put it into a fund so that it can be administered on behalf of those who need it most. In all these ways, such wonderful opportunities occur. I so agree with my noble friend in the corner that what you receive is far more than anything that you give.
The last thing I want to say, although noble Lords will get the sense that I could go on a long time, is that I picked up the Methodist Recorder—who has heard of that?—this morning on my way here. It carries a report from the National Churches Trust that shows how—it has been quantified and worked out by experts—churches save the NHS £8.4 billion per year through the direct and indirect services that they offer to their public. So let us note the decline in numbers who go to church, but glory in the fact that those who do punch above their weight.
Baroness Sater (Con)
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan, for securing this debate today and I congratulate my noble friend Lady Porter on her excellent speech. I am fortunate enough to be on a fellowship programme with the Industry and Parliament Trust, focusing on corporate social responsibility and looking at how companies and organisations are delivering their employee workplace volunteering programmes. Today, I will talk about the contribution that businesses and their employees can make to charities, voluntary organisations and communities, and how society and the economy are benefiting from their work. I declare my interest as a trustee of the Dartington Trust and vice-chair of the Specialised Healthcare Alliance.
Volunteers provide a vital resource to charities and volunteering organisations across the UK, many of which work to support the most vulnerable members of society. In turn, volunteers benefit hugely in personal satisfaction from knowing the value their contribution makes and from the skills that they can acquire. The Time Well Spent report from the NCVO—the National Council for Voluntary Organisations—backs this up, with 74% of volunteers feeling more confident and 71% feeling that their skills have improved.
I recently visited the impressive Felix Project charity in Poplar and was overwhelmed by the contribution that volunteers were making daily to help deliver meals to local communities. A survey of some 200 corporate volunteers visiting one of its farms this year reported that 92% said it improved their relationship with their colleagues and made them more aware of the issues around food waste.
Analysis conducted earlier this year by Pro Bono Economics—PBE—highlighted that workplace volunteering benefits individual employees and their employer by improving well-being and delivering improved skills. This combination drives productivity and means that £1 spent by employers on good-quality workplace volunteering schemes can generate between £1.50 and £3.60 in benefits. The Business in the Community 2024 State of the Nation report surveyed CEOs from some of the largest companies and found that 78% believe that progress on addressing societal and environmental issues can also help with business growth. BITC is a responsible business network that works with charities, voluntary organisations and local authorities. More than 20% of the UK workforce, some 7 million employees, are its network, which shows the potential scale of what can be achieved.
These behaviours, values and cultures are becoming increasingly important to young people. When they are looking for a job, they will sometimes be the reason that they will choose one company over another. A KPMG study last year revealed that nearly half of UK office workers considered a company’s ESG credentials important, with this sentiment most pronounced among young groups. This potential new group of volunteers in business can help communities continue to make a difference in tackling social injustices and improving our environment with much needed additional capacity at a crucial time, with six out of 10 charities struggling with volunteer recruitment, as reported by the VCSE Data and Insights National Observatory at Nottingham Trent University in May this year.
However, charities, voluntary organisations and business should not be burdened with these responsibilities alone. Government also has a role to play. The PBE report in April cited some £1.6 billion to £2.8 billion of net productivity benefits to the economy from rolling out more workplace volunteering. Companies and organisations are required to report on many things and need no more burdensome obligations, but I wonder whether there may be a benefit in voluntary reporting of employee hours spent volunteering, both in business and perhaps across the Civil Service. With PBE reporting that 17 million to 23 million employees do not have the opportunity to access workplace volunteering, that tells us we have a long way to go, but the potential is huge.
Baroness Pitkeathley (Lab)
My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lady Morgan for this debate. It was an honour to precede her as president of the NCVO and to listen to the maiden speech of the noble Baroness, Lady Porter. I have worked in or with the charitable sector for most of a long working life and I was privileged to chair one of your Lordships’ Select Committees on charities in 2017. I begin with a quotation from the report we produced:
“Charities are the eyes, ears and conscience of society. They mobilise, they provide, they inspire, they advocate and they unite … their work touches almost every facet of British civic life”.
The then Government took 10 months to respond to the report that my committee submitted, and, when it came, the response was not worth waiting for. Although there was general acceptance of the problems facing the voluntary sector, there was no plan for dealing with them and much of the tone of the response could only be called dismissive.
Indeed, this rather typified the relationship between the previous Government and the voluntary sector, which is why the Labour Government’s renewed approach has been so welcomed by colleagues. A fundamental reset was needed and has now been announced by the Prime Minister in the form of a covenant, as we have heard.
We are in the engagement period now for that covenant, when consultation is going on between the Government and the sector; and the sector, as we know, will not be reluctant to make its views known. However, the huge variety of the sector, as we have heard, from tiny kitchen-table charities to multi-million-pound enterprises, makes it very difficult to consult in any meaningful way, although the intermediary bodies such as the NCVO and ACEVO do a magnificent job.
Up until 2010 I had the honour of chairing the advisory body for the third sector. This was set up by the Labour Government to encourage, promote and facilitate communication and co-operation between the sector and the Government. All the appointments to it were made through a public appointments process and members sat, not as representatives of their particular sector, but to act as a sounding board and a conduit for issues of concern to both the Government and the sector. All parties seemed to find this helpful and I wonder if the Minister would consider reactivating the idea. It was wound up by the incoming coalition Government but I believe it did a useful job. Our Leader, the noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Basildon, was Minister for the Third Sector at the time. She had a lot of contact with us and I am sure could be consulted about the role of such an advisory body going forward.
I will just say a word about partnership. If I had £1 for every time I had heard Governments, the NHS and local authorities say they wanted to work in partnership with the voluntary and community sector, I would be a rich woman. We have to ask what partnership means. It does not mean deciding what services you want to provide for your citizens, progressing those plans, and then throwing a crumb or two out about what you want the volunteer sector to do when it was never even in the room when the plan was devised. This is very short-sighted for two main reasons. First, you do not get the best out of any partner unless you involve them at the earliest possible stage in planning, and secondly, you are ignoring the priceless contribution of the voluntary sector, which is its contact with consumers. Every piece of research about consumer involvement shows that people, especially those who are disadvantaged or vulnerable, engage more readily with charity or non-statutory agencies than someone perceived to be from the Government or the council. This is one of the many priceless contributions that the voluntary sector brings to the public life of our country.
Baroness Gohir (CB)
I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Porter, on her maiden speech and thank the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan of Drefelin, for securing this debate and for her excellent introduction. I declare an interest: I am the CEO of a women’s charity and a trustee of another, so I will focus my comments on the women’s charities sector, which is underfunded and undervalued.
A study commissioned by the Rosa fund for women and girls, the National Lottery and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation found that women and girls’ charities get less than 2% of grants and that these are often micro grants. The study showed that 50% of the grants are for £10,000 and less, so the grant value going to women and girls’ organisations is far less compared to other organisations, and the situation is far worse for minoritised women’s groups.
Some of the factors contributing to this include the fact that the sector is undervalued. It is expected to do the work for little or no money. Also, the previous Government made it very hard for small organisations to access funding to address violence against women and girls. They changed a very simple grant process to a complicated tender process and raised the income threshold so that only large charities could access that funding. Smaller organisations had to form coalitions so their collective income could meet the threshold, but managing coalitions is very difficult and resource-intensive.
Other barriers include local councils having their budget slashed, which means less or no money going to local women’s groups. Also, several charitable foundations and trusts, which are very good at giving money to women’s groups, have paused their allocation of grants temporarily for more than a year while they refresh their strategy—something highlighted by the noble Baroness, Lady Fraser. I wish they had consulted and spoken to each other and staggered that process, because they have made life very difficult for charities such as mine.
Now I turn my attention to the Budget. I welcomed some announcements which are helping to put more money into the pockets of women. However, some announcements are going to hit the charity sector very hard. As mentioned by the noble Baroness, Lady Fraser, the rise in employer national insurance contributions is going to significantly increase the wage bill. If you take that in combination with the rise in the national living wage, plus pay rises that charities would like to give their workers in line with national inflation, even with the employer allowance it is going to be a significant increase. Last night I was number-crunching what the salary bill for my charity is going to be next year and thinking about how I am going to raise that money in a very precarious, unstable funding environment.
Women’s organisations, with that rise in demand that has already been highlighted, are having to do a lot more for a lot less money. Staff are getting burnt out and they are leaving the sector. On top of that the charity sector will probably have no choice but to scale back services, close down some of them and make staff redundant, and unfortunately many charities will end up closing.
This is deeply concerning because the women’s charity sector is an essential source of support. It is also a source of employment, as highlighted by the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan, and an essential source of volunteering. I started my second career, after caring for my children, by getting back into volunteering and that has led me to your Lordships’ House. Pro Bono Economics has estimated that women in the charity sector contribute £19 billion to the economy, £9.9 billion through volunteering and £9.2 billion through employment. How are the Government going to support the charity sector? Will they increase funding to it and make that funding accessible, including through the dormant assets highlighted by the noble Lord, Lord Bassam?
Baroness Prosser (Lab)
My Lords, along with others, I thank my noble friend Lady Morgan of Drefelin for introducing this debate. I have long held a very fond memory of the voluntary sector and the role of volunteers. Many years ago, I was lucky enough to work in the voluntary sector in the London Borough of Southwark. At that time, the Home Office had its community development programme and Southwark was one of the boroughs fortunate enough to be funded in this way. The CDP, as it was called, was established in an area of the borough that was up for regeneration. It was generally seen as pretty deprived. The work we did there was in reaching out to the local community and making ourselves known, via mother and toddler groups and the local youth centre—back in the days when we had youth clubs, of course—or through the churches and any organisations within that part of the borough where people met and got to know each other.
The whole difference between the voluntary sector providing services and services provided by what we might call the more formal authorities, such as the local authority or the Government, is that it is in a position to go into areas where local people meet and go about their business. We could set up our own little schemes by making ourselves known and giving confidence to those people who have questions to ask or are in need of some sort of service and advice. In that part of Southwark, there were a lot of what used to be described as problem families—they gave lots of problems to lots of people in the area, that was for sure. Those people really did not know how to organise themselves. The pity of it was that many children were therefore not properly brought up, advised or guided. We had community workers who worked with those young people, getting them back into school and a bit more on the straight and narrow.
We then applied for funding to establish a law centre, and I was fortunate enough to find work there. We had four qualified lawyers and two of us who did welfare rights advice and support. Again, we went out into the community, meeting tenants’ organisations and residents’ groups et cetera, to make sure that our services were known to everyone.
Back in 2010 David Cameron, now of course the noble Lord, Lord Cameron, launched what he called the big society. At the time—I have never been convinced otherwise since—I drew the conclusion that he had absolutely no idea what the big society was supposed to do and how it would be able to do it, because there was no recognition of the need for some kind of structure or support. There needed to be some kind of link to local government, to the Government themselves and to the community in general. I think it was somehow supposed to come out of thin air.
In much later times, I have been grateful for support from the voluntary sector in a different way. I am advised, helped and guided by a volunteer from Sensory Services by Sight for Surrey, an organisation that works across the county of Surrey, where I live. Its volunteers come and enable people like me who are now registered as partially sighted to do all kinds of things that, on our own, we would not be able to do. That is a very different kind of volunteering but it is just as good, as important and as meaningful as the voluntary sector where those being paid operate. I congratulate my noble friend Lady Morgan again because this is a very important debate.
Lord Rooker (Lab)
My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Porter, on her excellent maiden speech.
Last Thursday, at a fund-raising quiz in Ludlow Brewery, Susie O’Hagan, the chief operating officer of the charity Hands Together Ludlow, outlined the aims of the charity: reducing isolation and loneliness; helping people remain independent; supporting the most vulnerable; and building networks across the town. Ludlow is a wonderful market town with much history, but it has wards in the most deprived categories and the numbers of people registered disabled and children on pupil premium are above the national average. Salaries in Ludlow are 12% below the national average, and it is the southern tip of a financially failing council. Hands Together Ludlow receives no public finance and raises running costs from trusts, individuals and fundraising. The brewery fundraising quiz was sponsored by MFG Solicitors.
To best illustrate the work of Hands Together Ludlow, Susie simply described the work it had carried out in three days last week—last Thursday evening, she described Monday to Wednesday. Volunteers collected 145 kilograms of surplus food from local supermarkets and stocked the community fridge they operate. In those three days, the community fridge served 57 people and distributed all the surplus food. Some eight people worked in the men’s shed, which also caters for women. Rough sleepers were fed and supported to engage with other services. Someone was provided with a phone and a quiet space to access universal credit. The charity organised for a 90 year-old with no food in the house to be taken shopping, followed up with a visit to the doctors’ surgery and a social worker to agree a forward plan. It liaised with 30 organisations across the county to identify sharing-information opportunities and keep Ludlow on the map. It explored improvements in the referral process for the household support fund and looked at how it could better support people to apply to the fund. It also responded to issues received from Facebook, the telephone and the website—from finding financial advisers to offers of free wood, requests for a befriender and how to dispose of white goods.
Some 37 people were fed at the community lunch, and the charity served another 22 in its own community space; 10 people were taken for a social walk around town followed up with refreshments. The charity provided mindful colouring and board games social sessions, walked a dog whose owner was ill, planned for an event to highlight and celebrate volunteering in Ludlow, and met with the town council to plan co-delivery of a new food project. Some nine lonely people spent an hour with a volunteer befriender, and the charity organised and supported 40 volunteers to deliver 111 hours of activity. All that happened in just those three days.
That was Susie’s brief introduction to what the evening was about. These activities cannot be delivered without a secure infrastructure of small staff and building costs. The charity has to stay flexible to meet the needs of the town, as statutory services are cut, closed or moved out of town to Shrewsbury. Last year, 18,332 hours of volunteer time was given. Small local charities, such as those we have heard about today, keep society going. They reduce isolation for individuals and help them maintain independence, and they support the most vulnerable.
Finally, the thing noble Lords will want to know—the quiz team we were on included the mayor, and we came fourth.
Baroness Barker (LD)
My Lords, I welcome the noble Baroness, Lady Porter. Noble Lords who, like me, have visited Fulwood, will appreciate that it is one of the best places in Britain to test new models of buses and possibly the worst place to sit your driving test, as you head up those hills out to the Peak District. I wish her all the best.
I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan of Drefelin, for this very timely debate. Every new Government come into power and have a vision for the voluntary sector. It is good that we get to discuss it at this point. I am not sure what a covenant is, but I am going to make some suggestions about what I think it might be. As others have said, the voluntary sector is important. I declare my interests. I have always worked in the voluntary sector. I have a consultancy, which works primarily with charities. I am on the board of GiveOut, a charity developing philanthropy to support LGBT human rights around the world.
If you want to know about the importance of the voluntary sector—my noble friend Lord Fowler is here; I will call him my noble friend on this occasion—look at the progress made over the last 40 years on HIV. None of that would have happened at the pace that it did without the ability of innovative voluntary organisations to bring together scientists, Governments, health and everybody else, with intensity and purpose. When Governments get that the voluntary sector has a powerful presence and part to play in convening different sectors, things begin to happen at pace.
I hope that a covenant means that the Government are going to properly treat charities as professionals. I hope for one thing they dismiss the suggestions in the last few days that the NI increase should not apply to charities. We are professional bodies; we employ professional people. Yes, we do a lot as well and have a very different role and approach to what we do, but we are at heart professional. That is why government—local government as well—needs to start treating us as professional bodies which add value to what they do. I hope that we will stop treating charities as organisations that subsidise public services but instead as ones that bring value to them. I would like to ask the Minister whether the procurement regulations will be reviewed, and if we will go back to looking at the social value Act, which I think is a key point about how we treat charities properly.
One of the big announcements in the Budget yesterday was £22.6 billion for the NHS. As a user of NHS services, along with everybody else, I have come to wonder whether we have a National Health Service. I really do wonder whether it delivers care pathways, as it often says it does. I suspect quite often it does not; I think it delivers episodes of care, not many of which are joined up to form a pathway. It is often informed voluntary organisations, such as the one chaired by the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan, which does the work of developing care pathways. Will the Government be bold—they are not, at the moment, appearing to be a very bold Government, but they should be—in making a large part of that £22 billion conditional upon proper involvement of the voluntary sector? They should make sure that some of that £22 billion goes to the voluntary sector, that day in and day out covers many of the deficiencies of a malfunctioning service.
I have a great deal of sympathy for chief executives of local authorities, whose budgets are disappearing. As part of what they have to do, they focus on the statutory responsibilities and are often forced to cut the voluntary sector. I would like the Minister to say whether the Government will be looking at the way local authorities in jeopardy and the voluntary organisations within them can be maintained and helped to endure. They are very much needed in those situations.
Now, people have heard me speak about this subject before, so it will come as no surprise that I want to return to one of my particular hobby-horses—the fact that the majority of central government funding for youth services goes to the National Citizen Service. The National Citizen Service is a good organisation and does good things, but it was set up under the previous Government with an enormous amount of political cover and investment. It was given a royal charter body status, which it did not deserve and does not need. I think it is now time that the National Citizen Service should be reviewed, and there should be a comparative review of what it does alongside other youth services, to see whether or not—and I make no prediction about the outcome—it deserves to continue to have that favoured status. As we all know, around the country, youth services have been badly hit.
I want to follow up the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, about the development of the social enterprise sector. It is a long-running and very technical issue—charity “anoraks”, put them on now: this is your moment. Enabling individuals who do not mind investing in the social capital of their area to do so by liberalising the rules on social investment bonds is something various Governments have looked at and run away from. Now is the time, under a covenant, if you like, to look again at that issue.
In recent years the Charity Commission has done a very good job of digitising and improving its information systems, but like the EHRC, it has been very politicised under the last Government and has strayed—admittedly not as far as the EHRC—from its purpose. It is time to depoliticise the commission and get it back to doing its job, which is the impartial regulation of charities. There is enough to be doing on the technical regulation of charities and social enterprise without becoming another warrior in the fake world of woke wars.
This covenant could be a good thing if, in particular, it got an agreement from government to work with the sector on costing models for prevention. We know that in pretty well every government department—Home Office, Justice, Environment—the imprint of the voluntary sector does save money. Prevention saves money, but we have never been able, nationally or locally, to come up with a costing model that enables an authority, particularly one with statutory responsibilities to deliver services, to defend the funding of something preventive at the expense of something immediate and urgent. If the Government assembled a task force to do that—it could include all sorts of economists and so on—that would be a very important service.
One group that should be involved, although we have not spoken a lot about it, is the big tech companies. I am old enough to remember when there were towns that were company towns, where everybody worked for a particular company. The people who owned those companies had a strong sense of social responsibility to the places where they were based. Not Google, not Microsoft—I look at the towns up north, which I know very well, and such companies contribute nothing. They might come along and find the brightest and best in schools and take them out to work for them, but they do not contribute at all. They have got away with so much. A bold Government would challenge them, first, on the paucity of what they call their charitable donations, and most of all on what they take from communities and fail to return.
I thank noble Lords for this debate. I hope the Minister is going to go back to her department with some specific arguments for being bold and making an actual difference to the voluntary sector.
Viscount Younger of Leckie (Con)
My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan, allows this House once again to highlight the importance of community work and the role of the voluntary sector in our lives. This has been an excellent debate, and I pay tribute to my noble friend Lady Porter for an excellent maiden speech. I am sure that her experience in government, No. 10 and the City will stand her in good stead for her future contributions in this House.
Speaking of maiden speeches, volunteering happened to be a core theme of my own back in 2010, and it is just as important and relevant now as it was then. What I said in speeches then rather chimes with remarks made by the noble Lord, Lord Parekh, who I see is not in his place. I said that this is
“all about effecting a behavioural and cultural shift for individuals within communities. It is about extending the concept and values of volunteering and self-help from societies and geographical areas where they are working to those where they are not”.—[Official Report, 11/5/11; col. 955.]
As was alluded to by the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan, the voluntary sector contributed £17.8 billion to the UK economy in 2020-21, according to NCVO estimates, equating to approximately 0.8% of total GDP.
Volunteering is indicative of a way of thinking, or a philosophy, based on stepping up and solving problems. Essentially, it is altruism in its purest sense: working to the benefit of others. There are numerous examples of generous and selfless work all over the country, and we have heard many examples this afternoon. In my local area, I witness small groups of people picking up litter along roads, way beyond the boundaries of their own front doors; people generously giving to food banks; and professionals giving their time and expertise pro bono in legal advice clinics, for example. It would be fair to describe volunteering as a British value of which we can all be very proud.
In my role as Minister for Communities back in 2019, I saw much good work undertaken by a small and dedicated team of civil servants embedding themselves in specially targeted communities, such as Wolverhampton. Success was measured by the work these people did to initiate and encourage the development of nascent communities, then backing away when they were operating and flourishing. I witnessed diverse communities mingling and families coming to know each other and becoming firm friends, with their children playing together; thus, a cohesive community, imbued with self-help, was born. It was satisfying to watch that. Can the Minister update the House on the progress of these initiatives, admittedly five years on?
From such work, I urge the Minister to help people lead by example. The nature and number of successfully burgeoning projects should be broadcast both regionally and nationally. I believe that this will generate interest, develop momentum and, I hope, encourage copycat activity in other localities. Is this government policy? I hope the Minister agrees that there is a balance to be struck, so does she also agree with me that the Government should not micromanage the sector? The voluntary sector should be allowed to flourish and do what it does best: use local expertise to help local communities and people.
I want to highlight an example of volunteering that is not often enough honoured, applauded or even venerated: the lifeboats, alluded to by the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan. I do not have an interest to declare, but I have a badge in the form of some yellow wellies on my lapel. A fortnight ago, I was privileged to visit the impressive RNLI centre in Poole, where lifeboats are manufactured and lifeboat personnel trained. More than 10,000 of the operational crew members and around 100 lifeguards are volunteers. A further 14,000 volunteers fundraise and help the charity in other ways. To date, in 2024, the lifeboats have launched around the UK—wait for it—7,307 times, saving 160 lives and helping another 6,795 people, 98% of whom found themselves in difficulty onshore rather than offshore, which is an interesting statistic. We should remember that lifeboat volunteers are often on call and have to drop everything at their jobs or in their beds, if at night, to go and risk their lives in their difficult work.
However, examples of a voluntary spirit do not always take the form of heroism. Sometimes, they just make the world a more tolerable place. Here, I am talking about pubs. The pub in my local village closed about two years ago, but it has been rescued through a funding collaboration by not only villagers but many supporters much further afield. We read of similar stories in the papers.
A line must be drawn between where the state—mostly in the form of local government—is obliged to help and where local communities should support themselves. I think this point chimes with questions raised by the noble Baronesses, Lady Morgan and Lady Scott, and the noble Lord, Lord Addington. Where do the Government think that the line should be drawn? That is perhaps rather a challenging question.
This debate would not be complete without mention of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme. It was mentioned yesterday by the noble Lord, Lord Boateng, and today in the Chamber, notably by the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson. We know the scheme focuses on young people aged 14 to 24 developing their own programmes, with the gold award the ultimate goal. It is run not just in schools but in youth clubs, hospitals, fostering agencies and prisons. The noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, stole my thunder in reading out a number of key statistics from the award scheme, and the House will be relieved to know that I am not going to repeat these. Will the Minister tell us what commitment the Government are giving to provide our young people with activities that prepare them for—to quote the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme—
“the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life”?
We know that many young people are struggling with mental ill-health and that rising NEET rates are taking their toll. We were made aware of those disturbing figures on Tuesday in the Chamber. Participation in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award helps to engender positive outcomes for young people. They include improved skills and independence, improved social mobility, and improved mental and physical health, including reduced likelihood of mental ill-health in later life. It can also foster non-academic skills and soft skills that can lead to successful career pathways. Can the Minister outline the steps that the Government are taking to engage the young in voluntary work?
Access to youth work and positive activities is directly correlated with a reduction in incidents of anti-social behaviour and low-level crime, and with improvements in school attendance. That is a key point to make. I will now ask the question that was asked by the noble Lord, Lord Addington: to what extent are schools including this in their curriculum? Are they perhaps including the spirit of citizenship? What are the Government doing here?
When given the opportunity, communities are more than capable of coming together and achieving truly astonishing results. This was never clearer than during the lockdowns, when people dropped off supplies at the houses of those who were sheltering. Coronation and jubilee street parties have been a magnificent, visible and prime example of how volunteering to organise a community event can raise people’s drawbridges and bring them out to meet, talk and engage with one and other—sometimes for the first time.
I believe there is more that can be done to encourage people to come out of their front doors, to put away their mobile phones, to not look at the next episode of reality TV, and, simply, to help in their neighbourhood. I look forward to some answers from the Minister.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Baroness Twycross) (Lab)
My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lady Morgan of Drefelin for securing this excellent debate on such an important topic, not just for my department but for society as a whole. She has a wealth of experience in this field, as do so many noble Lords who have spoken today. I congratulate my noble friend on her recent appointment as president of the NCVO.
I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Porter of Fulwood, on her maiden speech. I have no doubt that the noble Baroness will make a valuable contribution to the work of this House.
We are quite tight on time and a lot of questions were raised during the debate, so if I do not respond to specific questions, I will write and place a copy of the letter in the Library.
As the title of the debate acknowledges, the voluntary and community sector plays an absolutely vital role in all areas of public life, right across the UK. It is no surprise that there is general cross-party recognition of the sector’s value, as has been reflected in today’s debate. I personally had the pleasure of working in the charity sector, being a trustee, and working closely with the voluntary and community sector as chair of the London Resilience Forum. I know that the sector has a hugely valuable role, not least during the Covid pandemic, as has been noted in the debate.
The right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Newcastle referred to the sector as the glue that holds society together, a point reflected in the speech of the noble Baroness, Lady Porter. My noble friend Lord Parekh noted that the relationship between the voluntary sector and the state is one, essentially, of culture.
My noble friend Lady Morgan highlighted the economic value of the sector. The Government highly value the work that the sector does and the social value it delivers; it is an incredible force for public good. We recognise the sector’s economic value, with civil society contributing over £22 billion to the UK economy and employing approximately 981,000 people. A 2023 survey by the NCVO reported that, for every £1 generated by a community organisation, £2.50 is created for the local economy. There have been numerous other statistics cited in this debate.
There are approximately 160,000 registered charities in England, 9,000 in Wales, 25,000 in Scotland and 7,500 in Northern Ireland. The breadth of the sector is vast, both in the types of organisations within it and the variety of work that they do. Organisations might be large multinational charities responding to international crises, such as the Disasters Emergency Committee, which recently launched the Middle East humanitarian appeal through which the Government are matching public donations to provide urgent humanitarian assistance up to £10 million. However, we must not forget—noble Lords definitely have not—the importance of the thousands of local groups run solely by steadfast volunteers, including sports clubs and community libraries.
There were so many examples of the contribution of this sector; I had meant to reflect some of the examples that noble Lords gave, but there are far too many for me to list without going way over time. All of them are clearly making a valuable contribution, both locally and to our society. I particularly recognise the point from the noble Baroness, Lady Barker, about their role in innovation, which is one that we forget at our peril.
As my noble friend Lady Thornton noted, social enterprises and community businesses also make an incredibly important contribution as part of the broad umbrella of civil society organisations. The DCMS is currently delivering the Social Enterprise Boost Fund to drive local growth and innovation. We recognise that the issues affecting such organisations are different from those of other civil society groups and we will, and do, work closely with colleagues from DBT and HMT to develop policy solutions in this space.
I particularly welcome the focus by the noble Viscount, Lord Younger, on his legacy during his time as a Minister. I will write with an update on the projects that he mentioned, which I have not been able to secure in time for today’s debate.
It is clear that civil society organisations perform a multitude of functions, including the relief of poverty, tackling environmental issues, supporting conservation and heritage, and providing education and training. The sector consistently rises to some of the major challenges that society faces, whether that be the Covid-19 pandemic or the civil unrest this summer. I reassure the noble Baroness, Lady Fraser, that we do not view the voluntary sector as an add-on; we view it as essential. I noted my noble friend Lord Griffith’s point about the role of churches.
Voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations are an essential and major provider of services across the country, delivering almost £17 billion-worth of UK public services each year, including 69% of contracted homelessness support and 66% of contracted domestic and sexual violence support. The noble Baroness, Lady Gohir, focused particularly on the charities and organisations that support women in this sphere.
The sector plays an important role in advocacy and campaigning, with an ability to amplify the voices of different groups, evidence people’s lived experience and speak truth to power. This includes work by my noble friend Lady Morgan during her tenure as the chief executive of Breast Cancer Now and in her continued work within the sector.
One of the sector’s unique strengths is voluntary and community organisations’ rich understanding of the areas and communities in which they are embedded. Indeed, they are often trusted when formal public services are not and are able to reach underrepresented groups in society to provide critical support and services to those most in need. In 2018, 90% of households reported having used a charity service at some point.
The sector is therefore essential to deliver our government missions effectively. I will not touch on all five but, as an example, the sector will be a critical partner in building an NHS fit for the future, with direct delivery responsibilities for a large array of community-based health services. Civil society will play a particularly pertinent role in the preventive space, including interventions to tackle loneliness—which has come up in the debate—or employment coaching for those returning to work with health conditions or disabilities.
The noble Lord, Lord Addington, raised charities’ access to schools, and I will raise his points with my noble friend the Minister of State for Education. However, voluntary and community organisations are, in the Government’s view, fundamental to our approach to improving opportunity for all. For example, the charity Football Beyond Borders found in its 2021-22 impact report that young people at risk of exclusion who participated in the programme were 11 times more likely to achieve their GCSE English and Maths than those excluded from school and attending alternative provision.
The noble Baroness, Lady Porter, and the noble Lord, Lord Addington, both raised points around youth. The Government are committed to intervening early to prevent young people being drawn into crime and other poor outcomes. Fundamental to this is the delivery of the Young Futures programme. The Young Futures hubs will reach every community, delivering universal youth programmes as well as support for young people at risk of being drawn into crime, or facing mental health challenges. The establishment of prevention partnerships in every local authority will help map local provision, identify at-risk young people, and bring together local services to tackle local drivers of serious violence and better support young people.
This Government understand that, to achieve our vision for these missions throughout the whole of the UK, we must work more effectively and in genuine collaboration with the voluntary and community sector. Doing so will help us deliver for the public, 61% of whom—I was surprised it was only 61%—believe that Britain would be a better place if charities and community groups had more involvement in decision-making at a national level, according to the Law Family Commission on Civil Society in 2020.
As my noble friend Lady Pitkeathley said, a reset with civil society is needed. This Government, led by our Prime Minister, are committed to resetting the relationship with civil society and ensuring that the sector is recognised and valued for the crucial support it provides to so many people. I hear what my noble friend said about the importance of partnership and I will pass on the points made by the noble Baroness, Lady Barker, on this issue.
My noble friend Lord Kestenbaum focused on the value and significance of the word “covenant” and the covenant itself. DCMS has worked closely with key civil society bodies to develop a framework for the new covenant between the Government and civil society, which was launched by the Prime Minister earlier this month. There is currently an eight-week period of engagement during which we want to hear from the rich diversity of the civil society sector across the UK. My noble friend Lady Wilcox raised the importance of including devolution in the mix of the covenant. I reassure her, and my noble friend Lord Murphy, that we recognise the importance of learning from best practice across the devolved nations.
Policy on civil society and many of the issues that civil society organisations focus on are, as my noble friend Lord Murphy highlighted, devolved. Over the coming months, DCMS plans to engage and listen to devolved Governments and civil societies across all four nations, to help inform the development of the covenant framework.
I am proud that DCMS holds responsibility for civil society policy across government, recognising and responding to the pressures the sector faces. I acknowledge, however, that this is not an easy time for voluntary and community organisations, many of which have had to reduce or adapt their services, or even close their doors, in the face of the financial pressures of the last few years.
In response, DCMS supports the sector through a variety of mechanisms. This includes the delivery of direct funding to voluntary and community organisations, such as in the response to the Covid-19 pandemic and to the cost of living challenges last year. Our role at DCMS also covers developing other funding sources for the sector, from growing the impact investment market to supporting organisations to apply for government contracts. It includes driving innovation and best practice, such as through the Know Your Neighbourhood Fund, focused on increasing volunteering and tackling loneliness.
My noble friend Lord Bassam, the noble Lord, Lord Hastings, and the noble Baroness, Lady Gohir, referred to the potential of the dormant assets. The dormant assets scheme has unlocked £982 million across the UK to date. In England, this has been directed to independent, expert organisations to deliver innovative programmes seeking to address complex social challenges at scale. The Government will shortly set out how they intend to allocate the £350 million expected to flow into the dormant assets scheme in England between 2024 and 2028 to the named causes: youth, financial inclusion, social investment and community wealth funds.
We have taken a phased approach to implementing the expansion of the scheme into the three new sectors. Any further expansion will need to be carefully considered and will require close collaboration between the Government, RFL and industry. The Government recently ran a call for evidence, seeking views on the expansion of the scheme.
I will now touch on the points raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Gohir, about the implications of the Budget, including the potential impact of national insurance contribution and minimum wage increases—a point on which I feel she and the noble Baroness, Lady Barker, potentially differed in their views. These decisions and the minimum wage increases were necessary as part of the package in the Budget to restore economic stability. I also highlight that the minimum wage increase will potentially benefit some of the lowest-paid workers in the sector, so we need to understand the balance.
However, the Government recognise the need to protect the smallest businesses and charities, which is why we have more than doubled the employment allowance to £10,500, meaning that more than half of businesses with national insurance contribution liabilities will either gain or see no change next year. Businesses and charities will also still be able to claim employer national insurance contribution reliefs, including those for under-21s and under-25 apprentices, where eligible. More broadly, our tax regime for charities, including exemption from paying business rates, is among the most generous of anywhere in the world, with tax reliefs for charities and their donors worth just over £6 billion for the tax year to April 2024.
My noble friend Lady Morgan raised points around charities withdrawing from public sector delivery. I am aware that cost increases will compound the fact that public sector grants and contracts have often not covered rising services costs for organisations in the sector. On an individual basis, commissioners are able to adjust contract terms where appropriate, through existing provisions in contracts.
On procurement, mentioned by the noble Baronesses, Lady Barker and Lady Gohir, and my noble friend Lady Morgan, a key initiative being introduced by the Cabinet Office is the new Procurement Act, which includes a host of reforms that make it easier for smaller providers, such as VCSEs, to bid for public contracts. On the points made by the noble Baroness, Lady Barker, about public procurement and social value, this Government recognise social value as a vital element of public procurement. DCMS is also working to deliver the VCSE contract-readiness programme to help improve the capability of VCSE organisations when bidding for public contracts.
Crucially, the tough decisions taken in the Budget will allow for vital investment into public services. The Chancellor announced yesterday that the Government are providing an additional £233 million in grant funding for homelessness services, over £250 million to continue testing children’s social care reforms and a £1 billion uplift to SEND and alternative provision funding other public services, to allow local authorities to further support those most in need. Much of this investment will of course be delivered through the voluntary and community sectors, as outlined by many of the examples in today’s debate.
Yesterday’s Budget was focused on “investment, investment, investment”, and this includes exploring a way for socially minded investors to support the Government to deliver better social outcomes, aligned with their missions, with further details to be announced in the spring. Alongside the important funding landscape, the Charity Commission for England and Wales, as well as the charity regulators in Scotland and Northern Ireland, help to ensure that charities are appropriately and robustly regulated and carry out their responsibilities effectively and in line with the law. I noted the noble Baroness’s points on the Charity Commission and will feed them back to the Minister, Stephanie Peacock.
A number of noble Lords, including the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, mentioned the importance of volunteering, not just what it contributes to society but what it gives to the person volunteering. The Government are aware that what really drives civil society are those people who constitute it—both the staff and the amazing contributions of volunteers. In 2021-22, approximately 25 million people in England volunteered at least once, and my noble friend Lord Rooker gave a vivid portrait of what volunteers deliver. We want to see as many people as possible getting involved and taking action on the causes that mean the most to them. My noble friend Lord Bassam also raised the challenge of recruiting volunteers, and we support people to volunteer through a range of government policies and programmes, including supporting this year’s Big Help Out campaign in June, which amplified local volunteering programmes and opportunities for people to support their communities. Despite this, the recruitment and retention of volunteers is an increasing challenge for charities, with barriers ranging from a lack of awareness to opportunities to time constraints—I am aware I have one of the latter.
We are committed to removing these barriers and to supporting organisations to adapt to a changing world where increasing numbers of volunteers want to get out in a less formalised way. The Government’s reform of employment rights should help enable this. I probably do not have time to go into the points from the noble Baroness, Lady Sater, on the volunteering premium and the benefits, but I will revert to her. I will also respond to the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, and the noble Lord, Lord Black, on volunteering and community ownership, and to the noble Viscount, Lord Younger, about young people volunteering.
We know that charities and their trustees play a valuable role in society, and I am hugely sorry not to be able to go through all the other points I had, but I note the time. I finish by taking this opportunity to say thank you again to the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan, for securing this debate, and to all those Peers who have taken part, and to say a heartfelt thank you to all those working and volunteering in the sector for the invaluable work they do day in, day out.
Baroness Morgan of Drefelin (Lab)
My Lords, the Minister speaks on behalf of us all when she thanks those volunteers throughout the country. I have only a couple of minutes. I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Porter of Fulwood, on her lovely maiden speech. I also thank each and every Member of your Lordships’ House who has taken the time to join this debate and furnish us with yet more insights into the way that the voluntary and community sector adds incredible value to our society.
We have been reminded that the voluntary sector must not be complacent. It has to continue to think about inclusion and how to drive up volunteering rates. We have been reminded of the sector’s power to convene and the responsibility that that brings with it. The incredible variety and diversity of the work of the sector has been discussed brilliantly today. We have also been encouraged—and I want to say this very clearly—to learn from all our nations, particularly sWales. There is so much to learn and so much positivity that can be gained by all the nations working together on the covenant. We learned about the importance of the word “covenant” and how it means not being about transaction but very much about values.
We have heard about people from all over the UK, from Ludlow to Newport, and about the North East Young Dads and Lads. There have been so many great insights in this debate. Something that really piqued my interest is the potential for finding new dormant assets, and I wonder whether the Minister might want to look at that. Perhaps she will write to us about that when there is more to say.
Finally, I say another huge thank you to everyone who has taken part in this debate and to all the voluntary organisations throughout the sector which have sent briefings to your Lordships and supported us in making this such a tremendous debate.