UK: Criticing government is charity’s right, says Miliband

The third sector must be able to "bite the hand that feeds it" and be free to criticise local and central government, Cabinet Office minster Ed Miliband said today.

Speaking at the Guardian sponsored National Council for Voluntary Organisations annual conference the minister said the government had to show more respect for the sector by providing a stable financial framework and respecting its diversity and independence.

"The charity sector needs to be able to bite the hand that feeds it," said the minister. "Small organisations should be able to criticise local authorities and large organisations should be able to tell the government when it gets something wrong."

He said there had been a positive culture change around funding for charities, but the shift towards longer term funding would take time. "Three year funding should not be the exception, but the rule," he said. "The culture change we are talking about is really hard and it is not going to happen over night. We are determined to make a significant shift to three-year funding over the next spending review."

The minister said that recognising the breadth of the third sector was vital: "The third sector is not simply a delivery arm of government," he said. He added that charities had a vital role to play in addressing the challenges facing the civil society.

"We are facing a large challenge because of globalisation at the same time as seeing a decline in traditional community organisations, which creates a sense of dislocation and separateness. Charities have a vital role to play in bringing people together." The government had to recognise that small organisations could make a big difference with just a small amount of money.

Charities were also key to tackling inequality in society, he said. Government had to play a role in tackling poverty in a world of affluence, through things such as tax credits, but charities had to act as partners in order "to build the type of society we all want to see."

Source: The Guardian