Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to page 37 of the Government's Civil Society Strategy published in August 2018, what plans his Department has to support and encourage the sustainability and spread of community organising in the longer term will; and if he will publish those plans.

Government is fully committed to the Civil Society Strategy: it is the beginning of an ambitious, evolving work programme to help build a strong society. As part of this, and following the success of the original Community Organisers Programme (2011-2015), we launched the Community Organisers Expansion Programme in early 2017. This programme will train 3,500 more individuals in community organising, across England, by March 2020.

We are currently in discussions with Community Organisers Ltd to determine how best to support the long term sustainability of the training programme, the National Academy of Community Organising and the network of community organisers, so that as many individuals and communities as possible can benefit from community organising training.