Devolution has now got real momentum and so understanding what it means and how it will evolve is going to be crucial for private, public and charitable organisations.
Of course there are many high level questions to be answered. Is this a real revolution in the way we govern our country, or a cynical attempt to make localities carry the can for austerity? Are the devo deals on the table good for the independence of local areas or a way of widening inequalities between regions and rewarding those who are already doing well?
But at a more detailed level, we all need to try and understand – and shape - how the new governance and power structures will work. I believe there are potential problems as well as opportunities, making this an anxious time for many voluntary sector leaders.
For example, for a small or medium-sized charity, what appears like devolution if you are sitting in Whitehall could look a lot like centralisation to you. Imagine you’re in somewhere like Greater Manchester before ‘Devo Manc’ really takes hold. You have good relations with your local council, and perhaps your Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). You know some of the key players and they also know you and whether you are any good. They even try to make sure that some grants and small contracts come your way.
Now you see that the real power in Greater Manchester is surging up towards what looks like a ‘super’ council led by an elected mayor with some enormous all Manchester CCG flanking it - all at a great distance from you (probably physically, not just metaphorically). Your old relationships are of no use anymore. Even worse, the only funding available is through big contracts issued by this vast new bureaucracy. You are likely to find it almost impossible to know what to pitch for, let alone how to actually win anything.
So far from an opening up to civil society in all its forms, charities are right to be anxious that bringing together different bits of the public sector — including health and social care — in a new devolved Greater Manchester may actually cement power of state sector actors and marginalise the voluntary sector.
Such a scenario would not only spell bad news for charity and community groups, but also the people in devolved areas. But it need not happen this way.
Devolution deals will see a lot of furniture uprooted. The key is to avoid it just landing in the same old patterns and reproducing on a bigger scale the barriers to better services and communities which have existed for decades. City regions have a chance to change the way they work, to focus more on preventative and demand-reducing activity and to be more asset-based, built around the capabilities of communities not just their needs.
In all these areas, the community and charity sector can play a major role. They can bring real value delivering services, adding voice and energy to the area, mobilising voluntary action, and even bringing in philanthropic funding through community foundations. Will devo Manc – and elsewhere – grasp this opportunity?
My hopeful thought is that the coming of a directly elected mayor presents an opportunity for more collegiate working with the voluntary sector. I observed quite closely the early experiments with directly elected mayors in the UK, not least as boss of local government think tank NLGN in the mid 2000s. Success was mixed. While council leaders inevitably felt their prime responsibility is to their council, a directly elected leader’s mandate meant they represent everyone and every group.
The Mayor’s job is to be real place-makers, to bring all the assets of the locality together to do their best for their citizens. Couple this with a severe shortage of funds in the foreseeable future, and they will want to work with the voluntary sector, big, small and in between, much more than they have in the past, seeing them as partners rather than potential rivals.
Ideally candidates in the 2017 Manchester elections will partly compete on their visions and intentions in areas like these. Then we really would see the devo revolution kick-started. Over to you Manchester!
Dan Corry was formerly Head of the Number 10 Policy Unit for former Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. He is currently the Chief Executive of New Philanthropy Capital.