Conservatives launch online consultation forum for voluntary sector
Howard Lake | 3 August 2003 | News
The Conservative Party is encouraging voluntary and community groups of all sizes to respond to its consultation paper for the voluntary and community sector.
The Conservative Party leader, the Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP, recently unveiled sixteen wide-ranging proposals to enhance the status and effectiveness of Britain’s voluntary and community sector.
The proposals were contained in a green paper entitled ‘Sixty million citizens’. These issues can now be discussed in an online discussion forum at efeedback.biz.
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Here visitors can comment on proposals to such as introducing ‘charity choice’ for National Lottery players; setting up a system of ‘Bureaucracy Busters’ to help not-for-profit groups navigate the Whitehall bureaucracy; and introducing a right of asset transfer of under-used community facilities to local charities.
The online forum allows visitors to read and reply to other peoples’ views on the Conservative Party’s proposals. It also gives the Conservative Party an opportunity to ask visitors further questions about their views.
The Party says that the results from the online forum will be helpful in determining which of the sixteen proposals become part of a ‘Voluntary Society Bill’ that the next Conservative Government has promised to enact. They will also be help influence the practice of existing Conservative-controlled councils.
Welcoming the launch of the online consultation, the Shadow Home Secretary, Rt Hon Oliver Letwin MP, said: “We hope that this innovative online forum increases participation in our consultation process. Through a forum like this we aim to reach beyond the essential contribution of the larger charities and representative groups and hear the views of social entrepreneurs and some of the nation’s smaller community groups. Because of its interactivity and transparency I hope online consultations such as this may become an effective tool for democratic policy-making.”
The forum is divided into sub-sections on “fundseekers”, accountability, volunteering, regulation, mission, and representation. There is little activity to date but it has of course only just launched.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.