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The Tories and the Third Sector |
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Date & Time: Thursday 28th January 2010, 9.30am - 12pm Venue: The Ulster Hall, Bedford Street, Belfast Cost: £75 Member/ £100 Non Member (includes light lunch) About the Event The Conservative Party's policy paper A Stronger Society: Voluntary Action in the 21st Century states amongst other things it would: - Replace the office of the Third Sector with a more powerful “Office for Civil Society”
- Scrap the Big Lottery Fund and replace it with a Voluntary Action Lottery Fund
- Simplify the Gift Aid System
- Establish volunteering as a social norm
- Set up a passport scheme to bypass repetitive grant application schemes
- Create a network of social enterprise zones to provide incentives for social investment in deprived communities
So what will this mean, in practice in Northern Ireland? Will it lead, as the Tories say, to a stronger, more vibrant sector? Or will issues currently the responsibility of the public sector simply be transferred to the voluntary sector without the necessary resources to deal with them? And how will Conservative Party thinking influence their new allies in the Ulster Unionist Party.
About the Speaker Shadow Secretary of State Owen Paterson, his newly-appointed chief of staff Jonathan Caine and Councillor Ian Parsley who is working on the Breakthrough Belfast project for the Centre for Social Justice will spell out Tory policy and how it would affect the sector if they came to power. A brief policy paper from the Conservatives will be circulated to all delegates in advance TO BOOK A PLACE PLEASE COMPLETE THE ATTACHED BOOKING FORM AND RETURN TO Tracey McCreanor at CO3 |
