Most comment in Tribune about the voluntary and community sector has been focused on its increasing role in delivering public services. Less attention has been given to the voluntary sector’s right to campaign and to the importance of protecting and promoting this right.
The special contribution of the sector is to get things done and make a positive difference. It does this by delivering services, but also by campaigning and advocating – acting as the voice of disenfranchised citizens, championing the causes they believe in and transforming people’s lives.
Recently, Oliver Letwin, the senior Conservative MP charged with drawing up Tory policies for the general election, publicly regretted that “so much of the effort in some parts of the voluntary sector is devoted to campaigning”. He wants more focus on service provision.
Meanwhile Labour politicians such as Ed Miliband have reiterated that the Government respects the independence of the voluntary sector and its right to campaign. The Energy and Climate Change Secretary said community organisations “must be able to bite the hand that feeds you”. This could be an interesting dividing line in the election campaign.
Voluntary and community organisations exist for a clear purpose: to meet the needs and concerns of their users and beneficiaries. To this end, campaigning and service delivery are not mutually exclusive but complementary ways of working. They ensure that the type and quality of service an organisation offers is informed by knowledge of user needs. Equally, campaigning and advocacy work is strengthened and gains legitimacy because these organisations also have valid experience of providing services. Their links to and work with local communities enable them to reach parts of society that others do not. They enable policymakers to engage with a much wider range of interests than would otherwise be possible. And they create opportunities for people to learn from one another in order to identify their collective needs – and then work together to find ways of meeting them.
Voluntary sector campaigning strengthens democracy. The ability of voluntary and community organisations to give voice to people’s concerns and aspirations, as well as giving them the support and confidence to speak for themselves, means that through this campaigning work they make a fundamental contribution to an active and healthy democracy. In an age when many people are distrustful of political parties and have no interest in adopting wholesale the policies of any one party, it is increasingly through the voluntary and community sector that much civil engagement takes place.
Voluntary sector campaigning is at the heart of public debate and sets the agenda in many key areas. From small, grassroots projects seeking to create change in their neighbourhood, to high profile actions involving people from across the country and even across the globe – and everything in between – campaigning brings energy and passion to public debates and ensures that a wider range of voices can be heard.
Obviously, an important question that campaigners must bear in mind is how to achieve the correct balance between speaking on behalf of our beneficiaries and enabling them to make themselves heard. Our aim is for people to feel empowered to make an active contribution and to be the subjects of policy rather than its objects.
We have already witnessed disability groups, children’s charities and environmental campaigns increasingly engaging with their users and supporters in decisions about policy priorities and putting their beneficiaries in the frontline to argue their own case.
But whatever challenges we may face, one certainty remains: that is the centrality of campaigning to our democracy. Through campaigning, voluntary organisations create space for debate about how the world is and how it could be. They draw attention to different voices, and to those who are often marginalised by society. Indeed, campaigning by charities has often energised and provoked debate in a way that has left traditional politics in the slipstream. Who today would question the abolition of the slave trade? Or women’s right to vote? Would we have made any progress on the issue of climate change if it weren’t for environmental campaigners?
It is vital that all politicians respect our independence, but it is also our responsibility to ensure that we provide an independent and impartial voice, particularly in the run-up to the election. We must ensure we speak for our beneficiaries, drawing from the needs and direct experience of those who are or will be affected by policy, challenging all political parties and supporting none.
It is time that the voluntary sector’s role in giving voice to civil society is celebrated. Through their campaigning role, voluntary and community organisations help promote public engagement, bringing people together to make a positive difference to their lives and the lives of others.
This is about making our representative democracy work better through meaningful citizen participation. That is what voluntary and community organisations can achieve through their advocacy and campaigning. Democracy is stronger when people feel able to stand up for what they believe in and speak out on things they feel passionate about.
Liz Atkins is director of public policy for the National Council for Voluntary Organisations
