Developing a thriving third sector
Policy
We were commissioned in 2008 by the National Audit Office to conduct a top line review including literature review and stakeholder interviews on activities and funding for the third sector across national government departments. The purpose of the research was to help the NAO gain a clearer understanding of policy and interventions in the sector to inform their research and development programme. It was completed within a very tight timescale with the core research being carried out in a four-week period.
Creating consortia
We were commissioned by the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (acevo) to undertake research on third sector partnerships for public service delivery. We initially focused research on three strands which are strategically important in helping the sector to thrive in the current policy climate and economic situation. These were: prime contractors (especially in the welfare to work arena); personalisation of services (especially in health and social care); and the recession (especially the impact of this on organisations merging or collaborating). As well as undertaking desk research on these areas, we interviewed key figures from the sector to produce a couple of commentary pieces on the first two research strands. We also undertook preparatory work to help Acevo produce podcast interviews for their Recession Support website. The next stage of our research involves creating action learning sets with third sector organisations and second tier support groups to further explore the issues around partnerships for public service delivery, prime contractors and personalisation.