The Conservative Party has pledged more measures to grow volunteering and more payment-by-results contracts in its manifesto, published today.
The manifesto, published today, repeats a commitment to “make volunteering for three days a year a workplace entitlement for people working in large companies and the public sector”.
It also says the party will grow the National Citizen Service, and will guarantee a place for every 16 and 17-year-old who wants one. In theory this could be more than 700,000 places.
The party has also pledged to triple the size of the NCS’s international arm, the International Citizen Service.
It also pledges to match donations from the aid budget.
“We will also double our successful Aid Match scheme, which matches donations to charity from the aid budget,” the manifesto says. “We will boost partnerships between UK institutions and their counterparts in the developing world, and help people in the UK give or lend money directly to individuals and entrepreneurs around the world.”
The manifesto highlights the involvement of voluntary sector organisations in delivering public services.
“We have pioneered ways to deliver high-quality public services, including through getting the voluntary sector more involved,” the manifesto says. “For example, our Work Programme has helped harness the talent and energy of charities to help people turn their lives around and find their way back into work.
“We will examine ways to build on this type of innovative approach in the future. We have also pioneered the use of social impact bonds and payment-by-results, and we will look to scale these up in the future, focusing on youth unemployment, mental health and homelessness.”
The Work Programme has been heavily criticised by the voluntary sector because it does not allow them to access prime contracts, diverts much of their margin to large private sector bodies and leaves them vulnerable to “creaming and parking” from private primes, where charities are left with only the hardest-to-help cases.
Similarly charities have criticised payment-by-results contracts for leaving them with too long to wait until they are paid, and for transferring too much risk from government to the sector.
The Conservatives also pledged to work with charities on a new cancer strategy.
Ruth Driscoll, head of policy and public services at NCVO, said her organisation welcomed the "continuing commitment to the principles of voluntarism and putting power in the hands of communities".
But she said that over the past five years "this desire has been hampered by public spending settlements which have been very challenging for many charities".
Similarly she said she welcomed the pledge to get the voluntary sector more involved in public service delivery, but questioned the detail of the Conservative proposals.
"The Conservatives have committed to expanding use of payment-by-results and cite the Work Programme as an example of harnessing the expertise of charities," she said. "However, our research found that many voluntary sector organisations were shut out of the Work Programme precisely because of the use of this payment system."
She said the volunteering proposals had the potential to help strengthen the UK’s culture of volunteering.
"It’s important to remember that volunteering isn’t actually free, and charities and volunteering infrastructure may require some additional support if such a scheme were to expand quickly," she said.
NCVO is also opposed a proposal to scrap the Human Rights Act.
