Investing Together at last

The much anticipated report from the Taskforce on Resourcing the Voluntary and Community sector has just been published and handed over to Minister John Spellar. The report Investing Together makes a series of recommendations after a process lasting almost two years, which involved an initial report and extensive consultation with the sector and beyond.

Investing Together focuses its recommendations around the following themes:

Funding Approaches
Community Development
Internal Governance
Management and Accountability
Change Drivers
Next Steps

Recommendations include a new £25 million fund for community development, a longer-term approach to funding and a kitemarking system for voluntary and community sector accounts to ensure good practice without the need for constant auditing.

NICVA welcomes the report as an important signal that the sector is valued at the highest levels and that very pressing practical problems such as audit and short-term fundingare recognised as requiring immediate attention.

The Minister will now decide how to proceed and whether all or any of the recommendations will be accepted and implemented. NICVA is urging groups to write to the Minister if they are in support of these recommendations so that a strong voice for adopting them and moving forward is heard.

Read the report in full at http://www.taskforcevcsni.gov.uk/ .

Hard copies are available from the secretariat 028 9082 9424