Charitable Sector

Lord Phillips of Sudbury Excerpts

Tuesday 5th October 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Phillips of Sudbury]

My Lords, perhaps I can help to unravel the dispute about the number of charities. I think that neither the Minister nor the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan of Drefelin, are quite right. The Minister was right about the number of registered charities, but no one knows how many unregistered charities there are. The thought is that we have a total of 300,000 charities in this country. Never forget the tiny charities, the local ones, that often give a bigger bang for their buck than anyone in the empire of charities.

I thank the bishops for having got this debate into play. I also congratulate the seven maiden speakers. There is no doubt that the Guinness book of records needs to be informed about this; five lady Peers are making their maiden speech today, which is infinitely more than we have ever had before. How good.

I am another old charity hack. Of my more than 50 years in the law, the past 35 have been spent primarily acting for charities great and small, right across the piece. How wonderfully privileged and entertained I have been in that; it is, as has been said and will be said many times, the glory of this country.

A simple answer to the title of the debate—namely, “What is the role of the charitable sector in strengthening civil society?”—would simply be, “Unique and indispensable”. Charity, after all, preceded the state and will perhaps outlive it. It certainly still provides the context within which the state and business function.

I thought it might be of interest if I gave your Lordships the one-sentence contributions to this debate of a few of the leaders of the charity world whom I asked to make their input in this way. Noble Lords will see that their main focus is the relationship between charities and the state. Sir Stuart Etherington, chief executive of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, extolled,

“charities at the heart of civil society, bringing people together, giving voice to their concerns and enabling them to become agents of change, not objects of policy”.

Very well put, I thought.

Richard Fries, a former Charity Commissioner, now an academic in the field, remarked that,

“partnership between civil society and government strengthens both but only with the independence which charitable status guarantees, otherwise the partnership would risk civil society becoming an agent of the state”.

Debra Allcock Tyler, chief executive of the Directory of Social Change, wrote to me with the same song. She said that,

“charities are the last bastion of true democracy”—

that is challenging—

“the will of the people to do what they want in the way they want—and not merely as an agent of the state”.

Agency is mentioned yet again.

Michael Brophy, whom many in this Chamber will remember as the former leader of the Charities Aid Foundation and who did more than anyone to make the CAF such a focal point of the sector, concentrated on what the state alone can do to encourage philanthropy. He wrote:

“what is needed is a whole new, exciting gamut of government-led inducements, such as matching funds, the issuing of tax exempt social bonds and the creation of a special Gilt market dedicated to public benefit”.

Finally, Barbara Stocking, chief executive of Oxfam, and Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter and formerly of the Office of the Third Sector, concentrated on the liberating aspects of charity. The former said:

“Oxfam’s experience has shown that lasting development means poor people taking matters into their own hands to become active citizens, holding governments to account and taking on the sources of their own exclusion”.

Mr Robb noted,

“the unique role of charities in creating a vibrant, cohesive and inclusive society by … empowering their beneficiaries”.

I want to concentrate on that aspect. Before I do, I should like to take up a theme already mentioned by both previous speakers about the thin line between government assistance and smothering, between enabling and bureaucratising, between regulating and demoralising. Believe me, as a lawyer, I have seen all of that, on stilts. Too often, Governments can be heavy-handed; as a recent example, just before the election, the last Finance Act introduced the concept of the “fit and proper person” test, which sounds lovely and safe but is an absolute nightmare for the charity sector.

As regards Parliament, I propose that charities should be taken completely out of the party political arena. When charity issues are being discussed and charity Bills debated, votes should not be whipped. That was broadly the way in which we in this House dealt with the Charities Act 2006, but in the Commons votes on crucial issues such as public benefit were whipped. Many, I suggest, think that it would have been better not to do that but to leave it instead to the experience, reason and conscience of individual Members.

What of the “big society”? I would have much preferred the “good society”. It is bigness that is getting us down, whether in government or in business. It is giantism which, in an already decommunalised and deracinated society, unduly atomises and individualises. Indeed, I believe that the rabid materialism and all-enveloping commercialisation of life and our culture is doing untold damage to our values, our probity, our decency and our fellow feeling. Charities, in all their wonderful diversity, harbouring as they do a level of public trust exceeded only by doctors and policemen, and with their astonishing engagement right across society, are fit to lead a national reformation. For charity is in essence—and indeed by law—altruistic and voluntary at a time when trust and idealism are bruised and in short supply. Charity also carries the egalitarian genes of our history. Small is indeed beautiful; it is near, it is humane; it abets relationship and begets humility.

Charity is egalitarian in another way. Most people who work at the voluntary coal face will say that they have got as much from doing it as they have given to it in the form of gratitude, empathy, insight and a sense of usefulness that is so often lacking in their paid work. In short, charity reaches the parts that nothing else reaches so well.

I will quickly make two other points. First, the world of which we are a part is obsessively busy, with technology as much our slave as our enabler. In my lifetime solicitors, for example, have gone from being pillars of the community to being men and women so driven by their targets—so specialised and bound up with the law—that too often they have little or nothing to do with civil society. That pattern is repeated across the business and professional board at huge cost to our society, let alone to the individuals concerned. What happened to “example”?

Lastly, everything in this debate comes back to citizenship. Young people can leave school with no idea of what citizenship is in this grotesquely complex society; they then have no way of getting around it or feeling part of it. Indeed, many feel like outlaws in their own country. If we cannot give them skills, attitudes and knowledge sufficient for them to want to engage with, and play their part in, their communities, we are surely whistling in the wind. However, the coalition Government—my Government—currently plan to take citizenship education out of the compulsory school curriculum. That is barmy.

I end by saying simply: long live charity.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach]

My Lords, I thank all who have participated in this debate; it has been quite a marathon. The contributions have been excellent and I hope to do justice to them. I thank the noble Baroness the Leader of the Opposition for the way in which she summed up the arguments and presented evidence of the strong consensus and the shared experience of this sector which goes across all Benches of the House.

I know that there will be a considerable focus on funding—that is inevitable because we face a difficult and stringent time—but it would be wrong of me to try to anticipate the official 20 October announcements. However, I hope I can convey to noble Lords at least the Government’s sentiment on this issue and the degree to which we are determined that the voluntary sector should prosper over this period of government. I hope to explain the objectives—which all sides of the House share—and the way that we intend to fulfil them.

Many people have spoken, and if I fail to mention a noble Lord’s contribution I hope that I shall be forgiven and that the noble Lord will take pleasure in reading their contribution in Hansard. The contributions have been of such quality that it will be difficult to go through them all.

I intended to start by reinforcing what I said at the beginning but that is unnecessary because noble Lords have taken on board the central role of charities in civil society and can see how that fits in with redefining society. We are not starting from scratch. We have a strong civil society already and we can unlock the potential of people—where the state cannot—by making the most of the civil society we have. The Government are determined to remove all the existing barriers to people participating in voluntary activity across the spectrum of interests.

It was interesting that although most of the speeches concentrated on the social side of voluntary and charitable work, we were given evidence by the noble Lord, Lord Chorley, of the huge span of charitable work undertaken to protect the environment and our heritage; and my noble friend Lord Black of Brentwood referred to the care and welfare of animals. While the focus of much of our debate was on the impact charity has on our social and community support, we should not forget that it covers a broad area.

I hope to refer in more detail to the maiden speeches that have been made because they were of such excellent quality. We had the opportunity to hear the authority which the noble Baroness, Lady Armstrong of Hill Top, brings to the subject through the role she played in government. I was happy to hear her say that she did not believe that this was a party political matter, because that has been the tenor of the debate. We were delighted with the speech of the noble Baroness, Lady Wheeler, who pointed out the important role of charities in supporting carers. We were also delighted to hear the enthusiastic, bright and sparkling speech of my noble friend Lady Benjamin and its focus on children. She perhaps demonstrated the passion and enthusiasm that lies behind all voluntary workers. I was also grateful for the thoughtful contribution of the noble Lord, Lord Wills, and for his suggestion that there needs to be some accountability in service provision.

We also heard from my noble friend Lady Ritchie of Brompton, and I am sure that it will not be the last time that we hear of her concern and commitment to children, the young and families. Her experience is very valuable. I also thank the noble Lord, Lord Beecham, for his contribution, which was thoughtful and full of his experience of his time in Newcastle. It demonstrated why the Government need to be sustaining voluntary groups in deprived areas—a point to which I referred in my opening speech.

Perhaps I may turn to some of the issues raised and then come back to some of the individual speeches before I end.

The concept of community activism is not new, as noble Lords have pointed out. However, the combination of a renewed focus on local action and a redistribution of power from the state to society and from the centre to local communities is a new and potentially exciting force. The noble Lord, Lord Best, has made clear the role of charities in mobilising social capital. If noble Lords have not read the autumn issue of the Royal Society of Arts journal, I recommend that they do so, because it has sections—particularly the lead article by Matthew Taylor, the chief executive—which are well worth reading and which reinforce things that noble Lords have been saying in this debate. I was grateful for the contribution made by the noble Baroness, Lady Wall of New Barnet, in talking about the big society and its relationship.

Many noble Lords talked about the question of cuts in the sector. I recognise the concern about spending reductions in the charity sector, although, as I said, I cannot anticipate the forthcoming spending review—that is certainly way above my pay grade. However, I hope that I have been able to reassure noble Lords. It is important that we are urging departments and all levels of government, including local government, to have dialogue with the sector so that the impact on it and those that it serves is minimised. I was asked specifically by the noble Baroness, Lady Pitkeathley, about what guidance has gone out to local authorities. We are indeed making sure that local authorities are aware that they must make it clear to government on these issues. The Prime Minister himself—

[Lord Phillips of Sudbury]

When my noble friend goes back to the Minister who has the difficult task of deciding on cuts, will he make one thing clear? When talking about the charity and voluntary sector, a pound saved by the Government in cuts can mean £10 or £20 lost in volunteer input. It is different in that respect from virtually any other sector. Because of the multiplier effect of the voluntary input coming in on the back of government grants, the equation is much more complex.

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach]

I understand the complexity of the issue and thank my noble friend for making that point. He also made an excellent speech, I might add. I will take that point away, and indeed I am sure that the whole of this debate will be carefully studied. One of its values has been that it is very opportune. I therefore hope it will convey the messages that noble Lords have been sending.

The noble Baroness, Lady Morgan of Drefelin, and the noble Lord, Lord Wills, asked particular questions about smaller charities. The Office for Civil Society is working with other government departments, including the Treasury, to assess the impact of the spending review on the voluntary and community sector and on social enterprises. So this is not being done blind; there is an opportunity for taking into account the points made by my noble friend Lord Phillips.

There were suggestions from the noble Baronesses, Lady Armstrong, Lady Young and Lady Pitkeathley, that the big society might be a veil for cuts. I can just say that that is not the case. The big society has a much more positive and durable agenda than one hopes the transitional phase that the economy is going through with cuts. It has a desire to increase personal and collective responsibility, which is the key element of the policy. It is not connected with the economic situation; it is a programme, with which noble Lords opposite also identify, I think—to try to empower local communities in their own governance. The Government believe that it is time for a fundamental shift of power from Westminster to people. We will promote decentralisation and democratic engagement and end the era of top-down government by giving new powers to local councils, communities, neighbourhoods and individuals. The Government’s commitment will see a real change in who local governments feel accountable for, by a move from looking up to the centre to one whereby they look out to their local communities and citizens. This will require important changes: greater transparency, direct reporting of information to local people and local referendums.

Localism also means power resting with the individual, and with the community, enabling people to solve problems and take action for themselves—for instance, by setting up local housing trusts to develop homes for local people outside of the local planning process, as well as introducing new powers to help communities save local facilities and services threatened with closure. I have personal experience of having been involved in such an endeavour, and it certainly could be made a lot easier. These new powers will make that happen. It will also give communities the right to take over local state-run services, should they have the capacity to do so.

A key thing is to make it easier for people engaged in charitable work to operate their charities without the imposition of red tape. I welcome the speech of the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson. I am sure that his task force will come up with some extremely interesting recommendations, just in time for the quinquennial review of the Charities Act that will happen next year.

I cannot give the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan of Drefelin, any quantifiable sum that the big society bank is likely to receive, but all dormant accounts will indeed be dedicated to the big society bank. We do not know the figure at this stage, because the sums are still being calculated.

A number of noble Lords mentioned the role of faith groups and Christian churches, and the noble Lord, Lord Sheikh, mentioned the role of the Islamic faith in charities. Much of our charity is derived from local faith groups. We heard from the noble Lord, Lord Griffiths of Burry Port, about the long tradition in both church and voluntary work. It was very important that this formed a theme running through a lot of speeches. I thank the right reverend Prelate for his contribution to the debate. It is important that Christian churches are not overlooked in this matter.

Before I conclude, I shall say a few things about one or two of today’s contributions. There is the question of the right to campaign. A number of noble Lords, including the noble Baroness the Leader of the Opposition, raised this question. The Government respect the sector’s independence and its right to campaign—within the law—and have no plans whatever to change that with the review of the Charities Act. I hope that that reassures noble Lords on that point.

We mentioned the national citizens pilots. My noble friends Lady Bottomley and Lord Phillips were keen to ensure that these pilots were effective and well monitored. There will be feedback on how effective they have been. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, who also talked on this subject.

A theme common to a lot of speakers was ways in which charities, and indeed the Government’s policy towards them, needed to be able to support the most disadvantaged. This was mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Rix, the noble Baroness, Lady Armstrong, and the noble Baroness the Leader of the Opposition. The Government will always need to ensure that the most disadvantaged are protected, but we will need to build something better than a basic safety net. The big society provides a vision for tackling disadvantage, reversing social breakdown and driving progressive change for everyone. It is about unlocking the potential of individuals and communities to play a greater role in supporting everyone in society, and it is about improving services so that they are more responsive to the local needs of the most disadvantaged.

The right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Hereford was concerned about the amount of time that people may have for volunteering. I agree that this is an important issue that we must consider as the big society develops, but I make the point that getting involved in your community does not have to involve formal volunteering with a regular time commitment. There is a role for everyone in a big society. There is a role for everyone in a civic society.

I finish by thanking all noble Lords for involving themselves in today’s debate. It has been a remarkable debate both in terms of numbers and in terms of the number and quality of the maiden speeches. This Government will continue to strengthen the role that charities and the rest of the sector have at the heart of our society. They provide the bedrock of civil society and will be key to achieving the big society. Of course, like other sectors, they will inevitably face the challenges of reduced funding, but I believe that they have the unique ability to innovate. With that, they will be essential partners in helping to meet the needs of everyone in society through these difficult times. As a Government, we will work hard to support them. We will open up space for them to thrive, withdrawing state bureaucracy and monopoly as necessary. We will put in place the infrastructure, such as the big society bank, to ensure they are well equipped to play an ever important role.

This has been a productive debate. I hope that all noble Lords, and indeed those outside who work in this sector, are encouraged by the Government’s determination to encourage charities and their involvement in civil society. I beg to move.