Cameron – Charities to be allowed to make ‘substantial profits’ under Tory reforms
Cameron to announce new Tory Reforms for Charity and Voluntary sector. Cameron speaks of ‘Bottom up Social Responsibility’ and organisations being ‘allowed to act on their own initiative’
Are the Conservatives changing? David Cameron is going to announce sweeping changes for the charity sector later today, where Charities will be able to make ‘substantial profits’. Conservatives and Charity does not normally come up in the same sentance, if it does it will normally be as rare as charity and profitability. Is David Cameron making further changes to the Tory policy? What will this mean for the Further Education and Work Based Learning sector?
David Cameron accused the Labour Party of holding back the potential of the voluntary sector with red tape and centrally-set targets and promise to ‘set it free’. Charities would be allowed to make "substantial" profits from running public services under Conservative plans to boost their role being unveiled by party leader David Cameron.
Under the Tory proposals, the voluntary sector would compete to provide services on an equal footing with private firms and would be given freedom on how they were delivered. They would benefit from longer-term contracts and charitable giving rules would be simplified to help stimulate flagging levels of donations from the public. A new network of Social Enterprise Zones would encourage investment in deprived areas.
Cameron accuses the Government of losing sight of the beliefs of welfare state architect William Beveridge that individuals and groups had to be allowed to act on their initiative. Recent research showed that only 12% of charities were paid enough to cover the costs of helping deliver public services and that innovation was being stifled by government rules, he will say.
Mr Cameron, who will launch the proposals at a Kent community organisation, will say: "Every day we see new evidence of things going seriously wrong in our society. The social challenges we face today are every bit as serious as the economic challenges Britain faced in 1979.
"And now, just as then, the scale of the challenge demands radical Conservative reform. The big difference in British politics today is about the role of the state: Gordon Brown believes in top-down state control; we believe in bottom-up social responsibility.
"Labour believe that only the state can organise and deliver collective provision: we have a vision of non-state collective provision. The modern Conservative Party stands for a simple principle when it comes to social reform and the role of the state: that there is such a thing as society, it’s just not the same thing as the state.
What do you think about this Tory Reform idea? What does this mean for the Further Education sector? Has Tory policy changed, do you normally associate Conservative and Charity in the same sentance?
What are your views on bottom up social responsibility – does this mean no support from the Government or open the doors for profitability? What does ‘allowed to act on their initiative’ mean to you? Will more training providers, consider applying for charitable status? Let us know what you think
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