By Keith Aitken in Edinburgh | 2 November 2012
The bodies representing Scotland’s third sector in community planning and local service delivery aim to transform themselves into a major new national force in public policy debate over the coming year, their new head has told Public Finance.
Calum Irving was speaking a month after taking up a post as the first-ever chief executive of Voluntary Action Scotland, the national network set up three years ago to link up the Third Sector Interfaces in each of Scotland’s 32 council areas.
‘I would expect us to be a lobby within public debate, but at the same time, “lobbying” sometimes diminishes what needs to be done,’ Irving said. ‘We need to be a partner – a critical friend, if you like – to Scottish government and public bodies in Scotland.
‘We need to say we support the agenda to make the most of the voluntary sector, but by the same token, we ask you to recognise what you [the Scottish Government] need to do in terms of supporting and trusting that voluntary sector – part of which is ceding power where appropriate to ensure that you have a more equal relationship with partners when you’re taking forward the big agenda around community planning, procurement and so on.
‘I think it’s also about trying to set the agenda: why should community planning change? What’s the purpose? And [we need] to advocate a stronger role for TSIs, because we want a stronger role for the communities we work with from day to day.’
Irving made it clear that he envisaged a brisk timetable for the new role: ‘I think in a year’s time I want the network to feel stronger and more confident, and I want VAS itself to be able more clearly and confidently to advocate things that TSIs and VAS together know need to happen.’
The appointment of Irving, former Scottish director of the gay equality charity Stonewall, reflects a view that the sector has sometimes struggled to punch its weight in dealings with councils and other local partners. Coming legislation on prevention, procurement and community empowerment is seen as an opportunity for the sector to do better.
Irving said the plans also reflected a maturing, both of the network and of the idea of TSIs, since VAS was formed in 2009. ‘Probably because TSIs themselves are a relatively new thing, the focus has been more on the locality rather than on what can be achieved together across the nation,’ he explained.
‘It’s very hard to ask people to focus together on what the collective power of that network is when you’ve got stuff to sort out back at the ranch.’
He dismissed suggestions that VAS would become just one more third-sector lobby in an area already thick with them. TSIs had a uniquely multifaceted role in developing volunteering, charities, social enterprises and links with other sectors, Irving said. ‘TSIs are comprehensive in terms of what they do, and in covering every local authority.’
VAS convener Harriet Eadie told PF that the upcoming legislation increased the pressure on TSIs to represent third-sector bodies more effectively to local partners, and that this role was also important to the partners who needed the TSIs to bring shape to the ‘cacophony’ of third-sector groups.
Asked whether this meant that councils had become better reconciled to an increased third-sector role in service delivery, Eadie replied: ‘A bit. There are two sets of attitudes. One set of public sector officers see opportunities in the third sector as potentially a cheaper deliverer or alternative deliverer of public services.
‘But there is another set – the middle managers – that tends to be less strategic, and that feels threatened by the third sector. There are huge tensions around what this relationship should look like, and massively shifting sands in this relationship.’
This article first appeared in the November issue of Public Finance
The bodies representing Scotland’s third sector in community planning and local service delivery aim to transform themselves into a major new national force in public policy debate over the coming year, their new head has told Public Finance.
Calum Irving was speaking a month after taking up a post as the first-ever chief executive of Voluntary Action Scotland, the national network set up three years ago to link up the Third Sector Interfaces in each of Scotland’s 32 council areas.
‘I would expect us to be a lobby within public debate, but at the same time, “lobbying” sometimes diminishes what needs to be done,’ Irving said. ‘We need to be a partner – a critical friend, if you like – to Scottish government and public bodies in Scotland.
‘We need to say we support the agenda to make the most of the voluntary sector, but by the same token, we ask you to recognise what you [the Scottish Government] need to do in terms of supporting and trusting that voluntary sector – part of which is ceding power where appropriate to ensure that you have a more equal relationship with partners when you’re taking forward the big agenda around community planning, procurement and so on.
‘I think it’s also about trying to set the agenda: why should community planning change? What’s the purpose? And [we need] to advocate a stronger role for TSIs, because we want a stronger role for the communities we work with from day to day.’
Irving made it clear that he envisaged a brisk timetable for the new role: ‘I think in a year’s time I want the network to feel stronger and more confident, and I want VAS itself to be able more clearly and confidently to advocate things that TSIs and VAS together know need to happen.’
The appointment of Irving, former Scottish director of the gay equality charity Stonewall, reflects a view that the sector has sometimes struggled to punch its weight in dealings with councils and other local partners. Coming legislation on prevention, procurement and community empowerment is seen as an opportunity for the sector to do better.
Irving said the plans also reflected a maturing, both of the network and of the idea of TSIs, since VAS was formed in 2009. ‘Probably because TSIs themselves are a relatively new thing, the focus has been more on the locality rather than on what can be achieved together across the nation,’ he explained.
‘It’s very hard to ask people to focus together on what the collective power of that network is when you’ve got stuff to sort out back at the ranch.’
He dismissed suggestions that VAS would become just one more third-sector lobby in an area already thick with them. TSIs had a uniquely multifaceted role in developing volunteering, charities, social enterprises and links with other sectors, Irving said. ‘TSIs are comprehensive in terms of what they do, and in covering every local authority.’
VAS convener Harriet Eadie told PF that the upcoming legislation increased the pressure on TSIs to represent third-sector bodies more effectively to local partners, and that this role was also important to the partners who needed the TSIs to bring shape to the ‘cacophony’ of third-sector groups.
Asked whether this meant that councils had become better reconciled to an increased third-sector role in service delivery, Eadie replied: ‘A bit. There are two sets of attitudes. One set of public sector officers see opportunities in the third sector as potentially a cheaper deliverer or alternative deliverer of public services.
‘But there is another set – the middle managers – that tends to be less strategic, and that feels threatened by the third sector. There are huge tensions around what this relationship should look like, and massively shifting sands in this relationship.’
This article first appeared in the November issue of Public Finance
