Shake-up needed to involve third sector at regional level
The third sector is failing to engage effectively at a regional level, new research has found.
The Institute for Public Policy Research North is calling for a requirement to be placed on RDAs and city-regional partnerships, obliging them to include third sector organisations as stakeholders.
It found that despite the increased importance of regional and sub-regional working – particularly since the introduction of integrated strategies and city-regions – no uniform structure exists to ensure third sector engagement.
Its research revealed a low level of understanding about the voluntary and community sector among public officials, a perception that the private sector is more highly valued at regional level and a lack of skills within the third sector to engage effectively.
The complexity and fragility of the sector means that some regional public bodies struggle to engage with it.
IPPR North is calling on voluntary and community organisations to have an open debate about the importance of the regional tier of governance on their work.
The sector needs to decide which areas of its work are relevant at a regional level, and to be more strategic and coherent in its approach.
‘Effectively feeding into and influencing decision-making requires targeted, concise messages as well as time, resources and skills,’ said Katie Schmuecker, senior research fellow at IPPR North.
‘The third sector needs to have an open debate about how high a priority the regional and sub-regional levels are, and to invest in the skills and capacities to enhance effective engagement accordingly.’
The report calls for Whitehall to send a clear signal to the public sector about the expectation of engagement with the third sector, extending the duty to engage to a duty to involve stakeholders. The performance of regional bodies should be assessed on their level of stakeholder engagement, it says.
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