Micro-Mapping: what lies beneath the third sector radar?

Academic and policy discussion of the third sector has increasingly come to recognise the importance of locating and understanding the range of organised activity that is not captured by sources dependent upon existing registration and member lists of organisations – sometimes referred to as ‘below-the-radar’ activity. Research to identify such organised activity requires the development and implementation of innovative methods to search beneath the radar and map what is found. This article reports on research carried out using a ‘micro-mapping’ approach in two urban locations in England. This revealed a wide range of organisations that had not been captured by more traditional methods and found that they were engaged in a range of activities providing distinctive services and supports within their local communities. The research also revealed the critical role played by community bricoleurs and community hubs in supporting and sustaining many of these organisations. We conclude that this has important implications for research (in developing a new methodology for micro-mapping) and for policy (in revealing the range and structure of ‘below-the-radar’ activity)

SSCR Scoping Review: The role of the third sector in delivering social care

Third sector providers have been important in the delivery of social care services for some time. Long before the advent of the ‘contract culture’ that started to emerge in the 1980s, third sector organisations have been involved in the delivery of what we would today define as social care. But this role is changing as the personalisation agenda takes hold and there is a push for closer integration between health and social care services within a context of constrained financial resources

Big Society? Disabled people with the label of learning disabilities and the queer(y)ing of civil society

This paper explores the shifting landscape of civil society alongside the emergence of ‘Big Society’ in the UK. We do so as we begin a research project Big Society? Disabled people with learning disabilities and Civil Society [Economic and Social Research Council (ES/K004883/1)]; we consider what ‘Big Society’ might mean for the lives of disabled people labelled with learning disabilities (LDs). In the paper, we explore the ways in which the disabled body/mind might be thought of as a locus of contradictions as it makes problematic Big Society notions of: active citizenship and social capital. Our aim is to queer(y), or to trouble, these Big Society ideas, and to suggest that disability offers new ways of thinking through civil society. This leads us to three new theoretical takes upon civil society: (1) queer(y)ing active citizenship, (2) queer(y)ing social capital and (3) shaping, resisting and queer(y)ing Big Society. We conclude by suggesting that now is the time for disabled people with LDs to re-enter the fray in a new epoch of crip civil society

The Big Society: a new policy environment for the third sector?

This Working Paper updates the analysis of the Coalition government’s Big Society policy agenda first published in 2010. It explores the policy context for the Big Society initiative and the key features of the policy programme developed by the Coalition since 2010. It then outlines some of the contradictions and challenges within this policy programme, and for the relations between the third sector and the state more generally. It is also pointed out that the Big Society is an English political discourse with different policy developments now taking place within the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. An earlier version of this paper was published in Voluntary Sector Review, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 379-90. This version will also be published as a chapter in The Welfare State Reader, 3rd edition, F. Castles, I. Nauman and C. Pierson (eds.) Polity Press, 2012

Opportunity and influence: the third sector and the 2010 general election

This paper explores how the different voices and interests of the third sector, political parties and media have shaped and reflected the policy agenda over the course of the 2010 general election campaign and into the early post-election period. Using research methods which combined documentary analysis with qualitative interviews with key policy actors in the third sector, we examined the relative success of different campaigning methods in an election that was unique both in its uncertain electoral outcome and in terms of the relative consensus that political parties expressed at the outset towards the third sector. A range of third sector and political manifestos are considered highlighting the ideological significance of the language employed, and assessing the impact of one against the other. Attention is drawn to the raised profile achieved by the third sector early in the election campaign and reflected in its coverage in the three main parties' manifestos. This was followed by a relative lack of substantive sectoral discussion during the unusual period of the election and purdah, when the sector concentrated upon a consolidation and commentary role. The Conservative's Big Society agenda lost momentum during the election, and the Citizens UK 'fourth debate' prompted an unexpected late surge of media interest in the sector. The new political realities of the post-election period have seen refocus on policy development and rebranding, return to third sector campaigning, and realignment in sectoral-state relations in the context of a (revived) Big Society politic

From crisis to mixed picture to phoney war: tracing third sector discourse in the 2008/9 recession

The recession of 2008/09 threatened a crisis for the third sector and its beneficiaries. Amidst mounting concern for the sector’s future, national and horizontal infrastructure and government worked together to minimise the potential impacts.This research report, based on media scoping, literature review and key informant interviews, explores the evolving third sector policy environment, discourses and relationships during this period. It outlines the shift from the initial rhetoric of crisis to a ‘mixed picture’ discourse, which accommodated a lack of evidence about the impact of the recession. Despite the lack of data, national infrastructure were able to form a partnership with the government of the time which focused on supporting the sector in a time of need. However, the diversity of sector interests suggests vertical and local channels of communication between government and the sector are also important.Finally, the paper traces how sector leaders talked about the recession having lagged effects or being a phoney war. They looked with trepidation to the ‘real crisis’ predicted to hit the sector in 2010/11: a period of financial uncertainty brought about by the convergence of the spending review, the end of several large public sector contracts and the impending general election.The impact of the recession on the sector has turned out to be on-going, extending well beyond the initial crisis. But it is being played out in a very different political context, characterised by deep public spending cuts, a downsized OCS, and changing relationships. Our research on the 2008-9 recession provides a historical marker against which we can explore some of these changes. The current hard times for the sector are different to those in 2009, and it will be interesting to see how the sector is able to influence government and mobilise support in this new political and economic landscap

The role of the third sector in delivering social care

Third sector providers have been important in the delivery of social care services for some time. Long before the advent of the ‘contract culture’ that started to emerge in the 1980s, third sector organisations have been involved in the delivery of what we would today define as social care. But this role is changing as the personalisation agenda takes hold and there is a push for closer integration between health and social care services within a context of constrained financial resources. Although a number of researchers have written on the subject of social care delivery by third sector agencies, there is no single account of the state of knowledge in the area or a clear account of the research agenda for the future. This review was designed to address this and is organised around the following objectives: • to review the significant contributions to the academic policy and practice literatures in order that we might establish the existing state of knowledge in terms of the third sector in delivering social care in England; • to conduct semi-structured interviews with a number of key contacts to verify challenges identified from literature and assist in horizon scanning; • to identify the research agenda, including an indication of the main questions to be studied and the types of studies that might be needed to address them. This was not a formal systematic review of the literature, but the literature review sought to be as comprehensive as possible in drawing together the significant contributions to this area. The 1990 NHS and Community Care Act brought far reaching changes for social care, and given that this point in time meant such significant change for social care and consequently third sector organisations operating in this area, we start our review at 1990 and have only included items which have been published since this date. A search was conducted of relevant databases and a snowballing technique adapted alongside a call out to the Voluntary Sector Studies Network requesting relevant materials. In total 91 articles were identified that met the inclusion criteria. Items were included where they focused on English adult social care services and they made some mention of the role of third sector organisations. Items were excluded from the review where they did not focus on social care or the third sector or where they were principally concerned with children’s services. The literature review was complemented by eight semi-structured interviews with leading individuals from academia, policy and practice. These interviews were designed to test out existing findings but also to complement the largely retrospective research base with some prospective perspectives of what the future challenges would be for third sector organisations involved in delivering social care. Findings are set out in relation to the themes of: approaches to research in third sector and social care; the distinctiveness of the third sector in delivering social care; relationships with commissioners of social care; and the role of volunteers. These were the main areas of discussion within the literature, although the evidence base relating to these different themes is far from conclusive, with these providing a basis for debate rather than robust evidence. Many of the items we retrieved as part of this review were not robustly designed research projects in good quality peer-reviewed journals, with those retrieved being either pieces from the trade press, policy documents or pieces published by particular bodies with an interest in this area. Even when articles appeared in academic journals they were often discussion pieces or did not go into much detail as to what process had been gone through to generate the evidence set out in the article. In general we found a limited range of methodological approaches within existing research studies and a failure to theorise key concepts and critically challenge previous work. Clearly there were exceptions to this rule and there were some well-designed and in depth pieces but on the whole this is not an area which seems to have suffered from over-research. The overall conclusion from this review is that there is a relative lack of robust research relating to the role of third sector organisations in delivering social care services. This is despite the long history of this role and its growing, and changing, importance in recent and current policy contexts. There are significant gaps in the approaches to researching the third sector and social care. There is a theoretical lacuna in the literature. There is a need to clarify the different organisational forms involved in the delivery of social care and to explore the different roles that third sector organisations have played in delivering services and campaigning. There is also a significant empirical lacuna – in particular there needs to be a better mix of research methods employed in investigating this area. The use of large-scale quantitative data sets in this area has been rare. However, these are needed to provide a quantitative picture of the current scale and spread of third sector organisations involved in social care at a national and regional level. Comparative study of the third sector is required in order to determine the degree to which the third sector is distinctive across a range of different parameters. There has also been little research on the use of volunteers in delivery of social care within third sector organisations and the particular (added) value that volunteers bring. Qualitative research with volunteers and case study analysis of their involvement in delivery of services could provide important new evidence about the potential for, and the challenges of, voluntary contribution