Thursday, 26 July 2007

Consultation on Communities and Local Government

I spent today at the Arbury Community Centre on the outskirts of Cambridge. I was contributing to the consultation on the Third Sector Strategy issued by the Department of Communities and Local Government.

I travelled up with Steph Gallagher (Development Worker at the Herts Infrastructure Consortium) and we enjoyed a good talk about HIC matters. At the conference, I was pleased to see several familiar faces: Hertfordshire had a good turn out for this regional meeting.

There were five speakers: an Adrian, a Richard and three Tims. Whatever happened to the diversity agenda?

There is a growing focus on Community Anchors - larger local community-based groups representing the voluntary sector and supporting smaller charities, usually through managing facilities and delivering services. A CVS in fact. This is very interesting. On the one hand this sounds like it is good news for the CVS, and it entirely and absolutely fits in with our plans. On the other hand, it does sound like the government (again) telling the sector how it should be organised. I hear John Cleese or perhaps Joyce Grenfell: "You, young lady, stand still. You, boy, stand over there. You at the back ..."

For me, the day was useful in confirming that Watford CVS, Herts Infrastructure Consortium and Herts Compact Group are all working in the right directions. It also helped with a few thoughts on LSPs and LAA. At one point in the day, I experienced a flash of revelation and for one glorious fleeting moment I could see a beautifully simple way of addressing all these agendas and initiatives in Hertfordshire through one unified and harmonised structure. But this vision of loveliness was soon gone. Maybe I just had too much coffee.