It is a natural human instinct to help others. For as long as there have been people on this planet we have come together and organised ourselves to do so.

Before the Second World War, many depended on the largess of charities and philanthropists. The lofty intentions of the wealthy few and the national organisations that stood up for the poor and excluded was for all too many the only thing that stood between them and the gutter.

But with the outbreak of peace came a new vision for the welfare of all citizens. Care for the poor, the sick and the needy was taken over by the NHS and the Welfare state. This transformed life in this country and led to a massive improvement in the lives of millions of ordinary people.

But total control from the centre also led to a ‘one size fits all’, impersonal approach to welfare. Whilst the needs of local communities and individuals were not entirely ignored, they would often come second to bureaucratic ease.

But this government understands the enormous benefits to be gained by fully involving the Third Sector. That strong centralised control is not a good way to deliver the services that people really want. That your position within your community, your contact with people on the ground is invaluable if we truly want to deliver services tailored to the needs of individuals.

Henrik Ibsen said, “A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm.” Third sector organisations give people that opportunity and help to steer that ship safely through stormy seas.
Central government is just too far away from the front line to respond effectively to local and personal demands. Only locally based and locally empowered providers can do that.

The NHS
This will become increasingly important for the delivery of NHS services. Earlier this year, we published the Next Stage Review of the NHS. One of it’s recommendations was to give all front-line Primary Care Trust staff the ‘Right to Request.’

The right for the people on the ground, the people who know and understand their local community better than anyone else, to provide healthcare in the most effective and sensitive way.

Last week, on Social Enterprise Day, we launched a ‘How To’ guide to help front line staff to exercise this new right.

We will give all NHS staff practical business support and advice to help them start up a social enterprise or work with existing ones, helping them deliver vibrant and personalised services in their community.
In January, we will be holding three big conferences – in London, Leeds and Birmingham – to give people more information about the new right. This will be followed by a number of regional conferences, including one here in the South West, for people who want to get stuck in and set up a social enterprise of their own.

We see the Third Sector and Social Enterprise as potentially transformational. Connecting NHS services to communities and individuals. To give you an idea of the scale of this, there are over a quarter of a million staff who now have this Right to Request, and the value of community services is currently £10 billion!
We are the first country in Europe to use the Third Sector and Social Enterprise on such a potentially massive scale.

We are already seeing some exciting work here in the South West. NHS Somerset has contracted with Turning Point to provide services to people with drug and alcohol problems.

Torbay Care Trust has over 90 contracts with a wide range of third sector providers, spending over £9m a year on everything from palliative care and carer support advocacy to drugs and alcohol support and lunch clubs.

Compact
Not long after the government came to power we launched the Compact. A framework aimed at promoting partnership between Government and the voluntary and community sector.

I was delighted to hear that earlier this month the South West Regional Compact Partners won the Compact Excellence Award for Collaborative Working at a Regional Level. This is a wonderful example of where local organisations are working in partnership with local authorities and really making a difference on the ground.
In Gloucestershire, for instance, there has been a great deal of job shadowing and a number of workshops to help people from local government and the third sector to gain a greater understanding of how the other operates, and how they can live and breath the Compact.

Commissioning
This has meant a big change for local government. Local authorities are increasingly commissioners of services, and not necessarily a provider of them. The relationship between a local authority and their third sector partners is vitally important.
Being a good and effective commissioner of services isn’t easy. It requires a specific set of skills to understand the very different needs of third sector organisations and how the actions of commissioners, in areas like procurement, can effect the sector as a whole.

Last week we announced the 6 projects that will share the £450,000 ‘Innovation for Life Challenge Fund.’ The Fund will help commissioners to work with social enterprises in innovative ways to deliver local health and social care services.

One of the successful projects is run by Bristol City Council with Voscur, a voluntary sector body and Bristol Partnership. The project will bring together partners from the voluntary, community, social enterprise and public sectors to identify and develop solutions to local health and well-being challenges.

To improve the skills of 2,000 public sector commissioners we have developed with the Improvement and Development Agency, a National Programme for Third Sector Commissioning.

There is also a programme of accredited training for people studying public sector management. Working with the universities of Bath, Birmingham, Central Lancashire, Nottingham and Warwick this will ensure that proper third sector commissioning is imbedded sustainably right across the country and for years to come.

Independence
Third sector organisations are great at winning the trust of their clients. You are on the ground, living the reality that your clients live, dealing with the issues your clients deal with. That trust is a strong bridge over which services can be delivered, even to the hardest to reach.

The third sector is not the state. It’s not the government. It’s independent and it must remain so. Your independence is a great source of strength. It encourages innovation. You can look at problems with fresh eyes and think of solutions that don’t have to take account of vested institutional interests. Ideas that challenge us all to rethink traditional ways of doing things.

Independence also means that you can play a valuable campaigning role, highlighting pressing areas of need, and holding public authorities to account for the quality of services they deliver.
As government embraces the third sector, we must never stifle that campaigning voice.

Charities shouldn’t have to operate in a climate of fear when they consider whether to campaign politically or not. We want you to feel confident in your role of giving a voice to the marginalised and excluded. We want you to be able to argue for changes to government policy and laws.

Many others are undertaking both roles with considerable success. For example, Barnardo’s campaign on the effects of the immigration and asylum system on young people, at the same time as receiving nearly £100 million from the public sector to provide services, including a contract with NHS Bristol.

As an MP I regularly see for myself the wide range of local community groups – with their local knowledge and local understanding – campaigning for changes to local policies and making themselves heard.

Not everyone will agree with what a particular organisation is calling for, but I think that is what a healthy, mature democracy is all about.

Local Area Agreements
Government and the third sector have different strengths. Working together, we can achieve far more than if we remain separate. The trick is to find the right framework for a fruitful partnership.

Local Area Agreements set out the priorities, agreed between central government, the local authority, and the local strategic partnership, for each local area.
Once those priorities are agreed, it’s up to local partnerships to work out the best way to achieve them, and to build local solutions that meet local circumstances.

Within each Local Area Agreement, the expertise of the third sector is essential to designing, improving and delivering services – and in holding local authorities to account.

Many of you are helping to deliver against a range of Local Area Agreement priorities. Reducing the number of 16-18 year olds not in education, employment or training Plymouth. Tackling childhood obesity in Bristol.
And reducing substance misuse by young people in Somerset.

Government Support

Central government is not just telling you all how brilliant you all are and leaving you alone and unaided to get on with it.

The Local Government White Paper recognises the role that you can play in shaping services, advocacy, lobbying and in influencing policy. It also recognises that you face barriers to delivering public sector services.
There should be a level playing field with other providers and we will do this by providing better, longer-term and more sustainable funding; better procurement based on the Compact principles, better partnership working with local councillors and through giving local authorities a new duty to encourage the participation of voluntary and community groups.

We are also putting our money where our mouth is through:

• An £80 million small grants programme with a £50 million match fund to help provide that sustainable funding;
• £117 million for youth volunteering;
• £65 million for the Futurebuilders fund to build capacity and train public service commissioners;
• And over £85 million for third sector infrastructure development through Capacitybuilders.

We are making it easier for local authorities to plug into the expertise, experience, and reach that the third sector can offer.

Conclusion
The third sector offers a genuine opportunity for local authorities to deliver nimble, tailored and responsive services that meet local needs – and to do so in a cost-effective way.

The great thing about the third sector is that you think big, but you act small. If we’re to transform our communities, that’s exactly the kind of thinking we need.

ESF Technical Assistance Programme Award.
Before I go, I have the great pleasure of presenting you with an award.

As you know, the South West Forum successfully bid for a £217,000 European Social Fund grant, matched by funding from the South West RDA, for the ‘Voluntary Value’ project.

Voluntary Value strengthens the voluntary and community sector’s involvement in improving the skills and employability of people in the South West. As we enter rocky times for the British economy, its work could not be more timely or more important.

So I’d like to present this plaque for the ESF Technical Assistance Programme Award to the Chief Executive of the South West Forum, Stephen Woollett.