The Cross-Cutting Review of the Voluntary Sector: Where Next for Local Government– Voluntary Sector Relationships?

Abstract

Osborne S. P. and McLaughlin K. (2004) The cross-cutting review of the voluntary sector: where next for local government–voluntary sector relationships?, Reg. Studies 38, 573–582. This paper evaluates the impact of the recent ‘cross- cutting review of the voluntary sector’ by HM Treasury in the UK upon that sector and places it within the context of evolving relationships between government and voluntary and community organizations (VCOs) over the past 30 years. It argues that this review represents a shift away from the recent policy paradigm of community governance, and the co-governance of local services, and back towards one of co-production, with the role of VCOs being that of service agents. It discusses the import of this paradigmatic shift in public policy upon the CVO sector. It argues that this new paradigm is predicated upon an attempt to modernize the CVO sector and to develop neo-corporatist relationships by it with government that threatens both the distinctive competencies of the sector and its distinctive contribution to local public services.