Central government aspires to develop the voluntary sector's role in delivering public services and the voluntary sector's involvement is steadily expanding.
Government initiatives to strengthen the voluntary sector's ability to deliver public services have had limited success. A few, highly effective commissioners adopt intelligent commissioning, rather than offer special treatment, to get the best from the voluntary sector.
In commissioning intelligently, councils need to ensure that their chosen funding mechanisms help to achieve their objectives and commissioners need to develop a better evidence base to demonstrate value for money.
Included in this report are recommendations for:
- local public bodies
- voluntary organisations
- regulatory bodies
- central government can play a supporting role