Abstract
In this chapter Davis Smith locates the history of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) within the context of the moving frontier between the state and the voluntary movement. From its establishment at the end of the First World War, through the creation of the Welfare State in the middle of the twentieth century, to New Labour and the Big Society at the beginning of this century, the Council has been at the forefront of major developments within the voluntary movement. The Council’s role has been fiercely contested and this chapter outlines the criticisms it has faced; in particular, by pursuing a partnership agenda and championing professionalisation, it has contributed to an erosion of the movement’s independence and distinctiveness.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
Harrison, 1988.
- 3.
6 and Leat, 1997.
- 4.
- 5.
Harris, 2003, especially pp. 1–12.
- 6.
Brasnett, 1969.
- 7.
On transfer of voluntary sector responsibility to the devolved administrations, see Alcock, 2010b.
- 8.
- 9.
See, for example, Hilton et al., 2012.
- 10.
Thane, 2012, p. 409.
- 11.
- 12.
- 13.
Lewis, 1999.
- 14.
Kendall, 2000.
- 15.
See, for example, Rochester, 2013.
- 16.
- 17.
Civil Society Futures is an independent inquiry into the future of civil society. Funded by a number of charitable foundations, it is chaired by Julia Unwin, previous chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. It began work in 2017 and reported in 2018. For a summary of its findings, see Civil Society Futures, 2018.
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Davis Smith, J. (2019). Introduction. In: 100 Years of NCVO and Voluntary Action. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02774-2_1
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