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Tuesday Feb 13, 2007
Charitable quangos
When is a charity not a charity? When it gets most of its funding from government.
That's the view of Nick Seddon, anyway.
It used to be the case that a charity in need of some money turned to the public for support. But this is no longer so. Some of the biggest and most famous charity brands are now all but dependent on the state. These include Barnardo's (78% of annual income), NCH (88%) and Leonard Cheshire (88%).
The state has now become the biggest donor to charities in the UK, outweighing contributions from individuals, trusts or companies.
Politicians are beginning to define what charity is: it's what the government will pay for. And this relationship gets uncomfortably close when government departments use government-funded charities to carry out research that supports government policy. Thus the National Family and Parenting Institute (97% state funded) and NCH (88%) produced an inquiry into the relationship between the state and the family that reads just like an official government report. This little arrangement is convenient for the government because it carries all the authority associated with an "independent" charity.
The counter argument is that putting money into charities allows the government to deliver services in a greater variety of ways. While state funding inevitably follows a certain agenda, politicians are primarily looking for solutions to social problems and the third sector has a good track record of coming up with them.
Seddon does, in fact, acknowledge this point. The danger, he says is that smaller charities are in danger of losing out and he suggests categorising charities according to how much state funding they receive.
If we don't want to do away with the big charitable quangos, as much of what they do is important, we will have to make sure we don't do away with the charities that take not a penny from the state - the many small, local organisations that play a vital role in creating inclusive communities, and which are increasingly struggling to survive.
Update: Martin Narey, chief executive of Barnardo's, rebuts Seddon's argument.
Posted by Tom Green ( 12:57 PM ) Link to this post Comments[0]