General Election
While the next General Election date is still unknown, we are nevertheless busy planning our General Election campaign / manifesto.
And we want to hear from YOU!
The next General Election will be a critically important time for increasing awareness of the main issues facing the charity, community and voluntary and social enterprise sector, and securing commitments from political parties to sufficiently address them in party manifestos and eventual Programme for Government.
We are excited to build this campaign with our members and are beginning consultations across several formats in the coming months. This collaboration with members will form the basis of our campaigning messaging and election asks. It is vital that we hear from as many of you as possible so we can capture the main issues you are facing on the ground.
We have launched an online consultation to gather members views on what we expect political parties to include in their manifestos to support the charity, community and voluntary and social enterprise sector.
Taking only minutes to complete, this online consultation will remain open until 6 December. We hope that you - or the most appropriate person in your organisation - will complete the survey below to identify the priority issues for the sector to be addressed in the context of the next General Election - whenever it happens.
The Wheel’s General Election Campaign 2016
The Wheel worked hard in the run up to the 2016 General Election to ensure that all the political parties were aware of the need to develop coherent and supportive policy to support the Community, voluntary and charitable sector, so we were delighted that the Programme for Partnership Government (page 131) contains these important statements:
“We want to affirm the contribution of the community and voluntary sector to building a more just and prosperous society, and its strong focus on urban and rural regeneration. Community and voluntary organisations provide the human, social and community services in all key areas of our national life. In this work they contribute to the economy as well as create value for Irish society.”
“We will increase funding levels to support the sector, and develop a multi-annual funding model that focuses on quality, effectiveness and efficiency. We will produce a coherent policy framework and develop a strategy to support the community and voluntary sector and encourage a cooperative approach between public bodies and the community and voluntary sector.”
“We will also ensure that all commissioning for human, social and community services takes place in a societal value framework (targeted at maximising the value for society)”.
The Five-year Strategy to Support the Community and Voluntary Sector was launched in August and addresses many of the key issues facing the sector. The National Social Enterprise Policy for Ireland 2019-2022 was also launched this year and combined with the National Volunteering Strategy, expected in early 2020, will complete an important suite of strategies which will impact the sector.
It is vital that we work together in the run up to the next election to ensure these strategies are fully resourced and implemented in a timely manner. There are of course, also many other pressing issues: Insurance, Pay Restoration, Compliance and Regulation, Multi Annual funding models etc. We need your help in shaping our campaigning work to ensure we can raise maximum awareness of all the issues facing you and impacting on your work daily.