David Cameron has launched Voluntary Action in the 21st Century, a Green Paper which highlights the importance of the voluntary sector and sets out ways to encourage it as a force for social progress.
The document outlines a broad policy agenda to expand the role and influence of voluntary organisations, including measures to:
- Increase volunteering
- Encourage more charitable giving
- Allow the voluntary sector to compete on an equal footing with the private sector
- Make government contracting of the voluntary sector less burdensome
- Create a network of Social Enterprise Zones
At the launch, David stressed the Green Paper was founded on the Conservative principle of “bottom-up social responsibility”:
“It looks at how we can nourish the voluntarism, altruism, locality, independence and diversity of Britain’s civil society, not only as an end in itself, but because it is the voluntary sector that will provide many of the solutions to tomorrow’s problems.”