21 October 2005
Efforts to convince public sector organisations to contract more with the voluntary sector are to be stepped up after a study showed continuing widespread ignorance of the benefits of doing so.
The research, published this week by Futurebuilders, the consortium responsible for lending public money to charities to help them compete for public sector contracts, explored the lessons learnt from its first year.
'It's a mixed picture and a changing picture,' Futurebuilders chief executive Richard Gutch told Public Finance. He said he was surprised at the lack of awareness about local compacts between the voluntary sector and the government and added that purchasers often failed to appreciate why full-cost recovery was important to the voluntary sector.
'Commissioners have not understood that interest repayments for a loan should be included in contract costs, whereas they wouldn't think twice if it was a private sector contractor,' Gutch said.
'We think one of the ways we need to promote Futurebuilders more is through purchasers. We're already involved in the Treasury's regional seminars and in discussion with the National Council of Voluntary Organisations on how we might do more work with purchasers.'
The research also showed that purchasers see the lack of capacity in the voluntary sector as the major barrier to increasing the number of contracts. But they supported Futurebuilders' efforts to overcome this problem.
One said: 'I need certainty that [a voluntary sector provider] will be there and will continue. I have more confidence knowing that Futurebuilders has invested in them.'
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