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CWA Blog
Assets or Partnership?At the Central Scotland Forest Trust Conference in Bathgate last week I was struck by the contrasting situations outlined by two excellent speakers.
Simon Rennie, CSFT CEO, articulated very clearly some of the downsides of working in the modern Scottish voluntary sector: the lack of statutory position that means every time you want to do anything you have to make the case and win the argument with funders and regulators; and the cost (time and effort) of the constant “struggle for air”, trying to secure your own future for another year or two.Add to these the demand for triennial reinvention and continual re-couching of objectives to fit the whims of partners and policymakers, and you have an unmistakable recipe for instability and unsustainability.
In contrast David Foster, CE of The Parks Trust, Milton Keynes, was able to paint a very different picture – independent, self-financing, stable, the Trust’s management can plan for decades not months, and crucially, can concentrate on getting the job done.The key difference is that the Trust, a charity, was established with an endowment following the dissolution of the MK Development Corporation in 1992, and it owns 1,800ha of green infrastructure in Milton Keynes (c. 20% of the city area).Now the Parks Trust isn’t a community organisation in the way that we would understand it, it doesn’t have open membership for example, but it is largely governed by those who live and work in the city, has begun to have open recruitment to the Board, delivers a huge number of public events on its land and seeks regular feedback from the locals to guide its work.
At the moment the rhetoric of government is focussed on economic growth (or at least economic recovery) and financial sustainability, but the development model pursued – the partnership paradigm where assets and power are retained by statutory bodies – seem singularly unsuited to deliver. The voluntary sector is full of passionate and committed people, but they aren’t trusted with the assets and resources they need to do the job properly, and until communities are genuinely trusted and empowered, and allowed the security and stability to concentrate on their core objectives, it’s always going to be an uphill struggle…
Next entry: What is the land for?
Well done on first blog post. hopefully this will generate more to & fro exchanges from member groups (and others!) on topical topics.
Reading this prompts thoughts on what's happening in Wales, where they seem to have been much more successful in translating the case for 'asset transfer' into Gov't action. I was reading the
Coed Lleol E-Bulletin - September 2009 at w/end
and saw this:-
"Community Asset Transfer – Wales
The website states 'We want to enable communities to have more control and influence over their future development. Through the transfer of assets from public organisations we want to enable communities to improve their livelihoods and neighbourhoods='.
The total budget for the programme is £13million made up of capital money from the Welsh Assembly Government and revenue funding from BIG. The programme will be run over three rounds. The first round will open in mid October 2009.
Website: http://digbig.com/5bafdm "
And further down the Newsletter there is this:-
"BIG - Community Asset Transfer – Wales.
The Big Lottery Fund (BIG) in conjunction with the Welsh Assembly Government has launched the new Community Asset Transfer programme. This partnership will bring together capital and revenue funding to support the transfer of under-used land and buildings from the public sector to community ownership and management."
Are there any indications that Scot Gov/BIG lottery in Scotland are thinking along similar lines? Pro Rata we would be looking at about £30million - dream on!
But actually it needs to be this size of pot if NFLS ia to have any real impact.
Cheers,
Andrew