As trailed, the government has this week published its final report from the Third Sector Review, a joint initiative of the  Office of the Third Sector and HM Treasury particularly on the role of the sector in social and economic regeneration over the next 10 years, which will feed into the Comprehensive Spending Review. This and the accompanying announcements contain a raft of measures and policies, although in some cases it is bringing together previously published items. The Conservative shadow charities minister is reported as saying “This is an underwhelming report that conceals more than it reveals. We need a proper debate in the House of Commons to give it the scrutiny it deserves.” - Third Sector news item at http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/News/672980/.

NCVO’s helpful summary is at http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/policy/index.asp?id=5776, Society Guardian overview of the “subtle shift” http://society.guardian.co.uk/voluntary/story/0,,2133509,00.html, the official news item or get the Plain English summary or full ‘The future role of the third sector in social and economic regeneration’ from the final report page.

Summary headings and a few points:
- Campaigning and helping third-sector organisations give people a voice (invest in capacity-building support for organisations that carry out campaigning work, update guidance on political activities and campaigning by charities);
- Strengthening communities (endowments for community foundations, community asset development);
- Transforming public services;
- Encouraging social enterprise (raising awareness, including at school);
- Supporting the environment for a healthy third sector (third sector research centre, further work on sector skills development).

Prime Minister Gordon Brown connected the publication of the Review report with the launch of his own book, ‘Britain’s Everyday Heroes: The Making of the Good Society’, which tells the stories of 33 individuals whose commitment to a cause or campaign has inspired him. East London charity Community Links helped with the book and will receive the royalties (and apparently VolResource is recommended in the resources section). He announced plans to celebrate social commitment every 24th July (as in commitment 24/7), with a Council for Social Action led by a Community Links Senior Advisor to advise on ways to support such efforts. Plus to “encourage the use of multimedia for community and social action”, Awards for Social Technology will be created.

More on the Number 10 web site, including link to edited video of speech on YouTube, http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page12598.asp.

A new report ‘Volunteering in the Highlands and Islands’ sees the sector as an integral part of the mix needed to renew, sustain and grow Highlands and Islands communities and the economy.

The area has a higher level of volunteering than the rest of Scotland, with Orkney particularly high. http://www.hie.co.uk/default.aspx.locid-0finewlgs.Lang-EN.htm

The ‘Sub-national economic development and regeneration review’, covering Englandand  recently published by the government, makes little mention of the voluntary sector. However proposed changes such as on neighbourhood renewal funding, supporting groups of local authorities in city regions and how Regional Development Agencies function are bound to have some impact.

More information, including link to the report and press release, on HM Treasury.

Personnel professionals’ body CIPD has produced a report based around case studies of how organisations are addressing recruitment in light of the legislation on age discrimination.

While all the organisations featured are large, it does include one charity, Cancer UK, and provides pointers to how to tackle challenging issues such as ‘length of experience’ (suggestion to be more specific about types of experience instead).

The document can be downloaded from http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/recruitmen/general/_agndrcrtmt.

The chief executive of Shelter gives a good commentary in last week’s Society Guardian on the dilemmas of taking on public service contracts, the culture change and pressures.

Widely seen as ‘just’ a campaigning organisation, Shelter has been providing housing advice for many years. http://society.guardian.co.uk/voluntary/story/0,,2128458,00.html.

(Editor’s declaration of bias - I have volunteered with South East Housing Aid)

The Office of the Third Sector is commissioning work on how to judge and measure whether the local third sector is thriving or not, alongside the quality of funding relationships and consultation between the sector and local statutory bodies. OTS News item.

Capacitybuilders has decided to make some relatively minor changes to proposals for the “future delivery of national support services to the voluntary and community sector and social enterprises” after its recent consultation.

The four themes are kept, but with Workforce becoming ‘People and Skills’ encompassing the modernisation of volunteering, ICT moving from ‘Performance’ to ‘Finance and Resources’. ‘Voice’ is the fourth theme.

It is confirmed that the four new national support services will be in operation from 1st April 2008. This is also when a three year programme of support for social enterprises starts. See their news item.

The umbrella body for local sector support organisations, NAVCA, has released a number of publications recently.

- ‘Skilling up for LSPs - Research on leadership skills for effective strategic representation’ shows that there is a shortage of training for people representing the sector in Local Strategic Partnerships and other partnership working with the public sector. The report also establishes a common set of core competencies for effective representation. http://www.navca.org.uk/news/skillingup.htm.
- ‘Building Effective Local VCS Infrastructure’ covers research on over 80 local voluntary and community sector infrastructure organisations to discover factors most likely to lead to the creation and sustainability of strong and effective LIOs. Pdf report, 307kb, via http://www.navca.org.uk/news/belvi.htm.
- ‘Why grants are important for a healthy local VCS’ explores the grant funding relationship between local government and the voluntary and community sector as part of the local funding mix. It is based on four local authorities that demonstrate good practice in grant making. Link to the pdf, 478kb, at http://www.navca.org.uk/news/whygrants.htm.

The Scottish charity regulator OSCR has produced the results from its pilot assessments leading to the full Rolling Review of Scotland’s existing registered charities. All of the 16 volunteer charities assessed demonstrated that they provide public benefit, although 2 got directions on technical constitution matters. The process has enabled OSCR to develop its criteria and process, and updated guidance, which will be applied to all 23,500 charities over the next ten years. News item with more detail and link to the rather large report (pdf, 4.7MB).

OSCR has also published a policy statement on Unduly Restrictive Conditions around benefits provided by charities, as part of the test. In pdf format, 97kb.

Meanwhile in England and Wales, the chair of Charity Commission Dame Suzi Leather made clear to the parliamentary Public Administration Select Committee (12th July) that independent schools would be judged case by case, rather than by set quotas, when the public benefit test is applied. Further guidance is expected in the autumn. See Third Sector news item (registration required) at http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/news/671670/. You should also be able to listen to the committee discussions with Leather and senior Commission staff at http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Player/?Meeting=7754 (available for 28 days).

The Charity Commission has revamped its web site. Apart from a more attractive front page and a simpler structure, the changes mean that information on the charity register can be updated online, and accounts and annual returns filed electronically too.

Commission news item at http://www.gnn.gov.uk/environment/fullDetail.asp?ReleaseID=297899&NewsAreaID=2, or just go to the site at http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk.

The government’s Third Sector Review is expected to be published shortly, before parliament breaks for the summer next Thursday (26th July). Umbrella body NCVO has created five tests to judge its success, covering Sustainable funding, implementing the Compact, a Third Sector Skills Council, creating an evidence base about the sector, a Third Sector Select Committee in parliament. See NCVO news item at http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/press/releases/?id=5712.

And the umbrella body for charity chief executives, Acevo, has penned an open letter calling for a high level Council of Third Sector Leaders to advise the Prime Minister and the Minister for the Office of the Third Sector on issues of social and economic regeneration. Its functions would include auditing the progress on third sector delivery plans and a broader role in sustainability and tackling the effects of globalisation. Acevo news item.

Seedco, a national community development intermediary in the States, has published ‘The Limits of Social Enterprise: A Field Study & Case Analysis’.

A blog post at On Work says that the case-study of a child care social entreprise in New York concludes that “…nonprofit entrepreneurship is a deceptively difficult enterprise, even for the savviest of organizations. Succeeding in business is a challenge in and of itself, but businesses run by nonprofits are subject to pressures and constraints that their for-profit counterparts simply are not.”

Download in pdf, 974kb, from http://www.seedco.org/publications/publications/social_enterprise.pdf.