“Sidelining” the charitable sector would be detrimental to the advancement of public services, the chief executive of the think tank NPC has warned.
Speaking at the NPC Ignites 2023 conference in London today, Dan Corry told delegates that politicians need to take civil society more seriously.
“If you want our public services to innovate and progress, in areas from mental health to reducing reoffending, you need to embrace the charity sector – not treat it like a difficult relative to be patronised at best and ignored at worst,” he said.
Corry, who is a former Treasury official and head of the Number 10 policy unit, noted that charities go “unmentioned” in political debates by all parties, an attitude he said must change.
He said: “On both left and right, some doubt whether civil society can deliver, while others are outright hostile towards us.
“Civil society is an annoyance if you think there is no such thing as society, just individuals. At the other extreme, if you see the state as saviour, then civil society becomes a barrier to delivering universal and fair public services.”
Corry cautioned that sidelining the charitable sector would be a mistake.
“The public sector, the private sector and civil society are the three legs our society rests on,” he said. “Take one away and the whole stool wobbles.”
Corry said that having a “strong and lively civil society” was at the heart of a healthy democracy and “allows debate and collaboration to flourish and to grow”.
He pointed out that engaging with charities could be beneficial for politicians as the election nears, saying that NPC analysis has indicated a correlation between areas with high charity density and high voter turnout in local elections.
“We do know that more engaged citizens are more likely to take part in things like elections and that active citizenship, that charities help with, is one way of cultivating that engagement.”
He said that charity campaigning can galvanise the public on issues that matter to political parties, adding: “Trying to silence them – as has been done in various ways over recent years – is not a sensible way forward for a pluralist democracy.”
Corry concluded that charities need a “different relationship” with government, saying: “We need conversations at all levels – with politicians, with their officials. For government and opposition parties.”
He also suggested ways that the next government could engage with charities, such as by introducing a “civil society test” – which would involve all new policies being assessed to see if they could be delivered more efficiently by charities and other social organisations.
“Your attitude towards charities and how you will work with them should be part of your election campaign – and you should be talking with them, all sorts of them, especially now with an election looming.
“We as a sector, as sector leaders, need to be out there pitching to the political parties to take our sector seriously, making the argument, proving our worth,” he concluded.