Third Sector

The merits of the Third Sector given priority at South East conference

The first ever conference held in the South East to highlight the benefits of the volunteering sector, commonly known as the Third Sector, was recently held in Crawley, Sussex. The event, entitled ‘Smart Skills – Smart Sector, which was organised by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), RAISE, the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA), Slough Council for Voluntary Service and Surrey Community Action and attracted over 100 stakeholder delegates from a wide range of voluntary sector organisations. The conference aimed to highlight the extensive contribution of the sector to economic prosperity and local communities.

The Third Sector is defined as organisations that are non-governmental and are ‘value-driven’, this is where they are primarily motivated by the desire to further social, environmental or cultural objectives rather than profit driven. This definition includes voluntary organisations, large and small charities, co-operatives and community interest groups.

The impact of the voluntary sector in the South East shows that there has been up to 35,000 voluntary and community organisations, employing over 300,000 (about 6% of the region’s workforce) with an additional 700,000 volunteers. The sector accounts for 3% of the region’s Gross Value Added (GVA).

The keynote speech at the conference was made by Slough MP, Fiona Mactaggart, who spoke of the role of the Third Sector in transforming public service delivery. Contributions were also made by Jenny Clark and Mark Freeman from the NCVO, who spoke about the skills of the voluntary sector in the South East, Neil Cleevley, Director of Policy and Communications for the National Associaiton for Voluntary and Community Action (NAVCA), who gave a Third Sector perspective on commissioning and procurement, Ramesh Kumar, Slough Council for Voluntary Service’s Chief Executive Officer who spoke about the training available specifically for volunteers and David Rowland, Chief Executive of Skills South East, who spoke of the benefits of Train to Gain.

Using real time technology, conference delegates were able to give rapid responses to a range of questions, including how they would like to see the Third Sector developed. Responses ranged from delegates calling on appropriate training programmes to be worked on that identified the specific training needs of those working in the sector, as well as the need to raise the sector’s profile at a national level and called for a strategic conference to be held which would clearly outline the Government’s direction for the sector.

Third Sector Noticeboard

Latest Edition - November Third Sector Noticeboard

October was certainly a month of announcements – a new Minister at the Office for the Third Sector, Kevin Brennan, as well as £2 million Government investment in a new Third Sector skills body.

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Previous Issues:

· September Edition - Third Sector Noticeboard

· August Edition - Third Sector Noticeboard

· July Edition - Third Sector Noticeboard