Cabinet Office and HM Treasury review of the future role of the third sector in social and economic regeneration

Budget 2006 announced a review of the future role of the third sector in social and economic regeneration.

The review is part of a series of reviews informing the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review which will set departmental spending plans and priorities for the years 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11.

The third sector review is overseen by a cross-departmental ministerial group and is advised by a third sector advisory panel, drawn from organisations across the third sector.

Budget 2006 announced that the review would be informed by the largest ever consultation with the third sector, reaching all parts of England and listening to all parts of the sector. The first stage of open consultation from May 2006 to November 2006 reached over 1,000 organisations through 93 consultation events, held in partnership with Government Offices, Government departments, and national, regional and local third sector networks and organisations. During the first stage of consultation, over 250 written responses were also received.

Interim report

The interim report of the third sector review, published alongside the 2006 Pre-Budget Report in December 2006, brought together the most consistent messages from the consultation. Further analysis of the consultation can be found on the publications page.

The interim report also identified areas of work requiring further investigation and in the second phase of the review from December 2006, further consultation and analysis has been undertaken under five themes:

enabling voice and campaigning;
strengthening communities;
transforming public services;
encouraging social enterprise; and,
supporting the conditions for a healthy third sector.

The future role of the third sector in social and economic regeneration - interim report

Final report

The final report of the third sector review was published on the 24th July. The final report sets out measures under these five themes to build the partnership between the Government and the third sector. Key measures in the review include:

a new focus on enabling the third sector's role in campaigning and voice activity, including investment in innovative consultation approaches and better using the Compact to protect the right of organisations to campaign;
a new £50m local endowment match fund enabling local independent foundations to develop community endowments to provide sustainability in future grant making, building on the £80 million small grants programme for community action and voice announced in Budget 2007;
at least £10 million of new investment in community anchor organisations and community asset and enterprise development, building on the £30 million Community Assets Fund announced in the 2006 Pre-Budget Report;
£117m of new resources for youth volunteering, building on the work of v, alongside other volunteering programmes;
building capacity of third sector organisations to improve public services, through the Futurebuilders Fund, training for public sector Commissioners and work to build the evidence on opportunities for the third sector;
additional investment to raise awareness of the social enterprise business model and support for Government Departments to investigate areas for social enterprise delivery;
better mechanisms to drive best practice in funding the third sector, including in the expectation that when Government Departments and their agencies receive their 2008-11 budgets, they will pass on that three year funding to third sector organisations that they fund, as the norm;
a new programme to build the third sector evidence base, including a new national research centre;
a new third sector skills strategy;
over £85 million of new investment for third sector infrastructure development through Capacity builders, with new programmes on voice and campaigning, social enterprise and a focus on reaching down to the smallest community groups; and,
continued focus on the Compact as a means to build the relationship between the third sector and all levels of Government.

PDF file of The future role of the third sector in social and economic regeneration: final report (ISBN 978-0-10-171892-9) (602KB)

Building the evidence

The review into the future role of the third sector in social and economic regeneration recognised the desire to be able to further demonstrate the third sector's impact in public service delivery more persuasively through a stronger evidence base, moving beyond individual examples of good practice. This paper articulates some definitions of value, and discusses how they can be best embedded in the commissioning and procurement framework.

PDF file of Building the evidence base: third sector values in the delivery of public services (ISBN 978-1-84532-367-7) (480KB)

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