NCVO’s Head of Policy and Public Services Charlotte Ravenscroft, has penned a blog calling the government’s anti–advocacy clause “completely unjustifiable on grounds of both principle and the effectiveness of government itself.”
Today’s (Saturday 6th of Feb 2016) government announcement of an anti–advocacy clause being put into charities’ grant agreements is an extremely unwelcome development for the voluntary sector.
This has been brewing for some time – it builds on a clause implemented by DCLG last year (that was itself based on a rather thin IEA think–tank report called ‘Sock Puppets’). NCVO’s Chief Executive has spoken out and written previously about the principles at stake – a blog post well worth re–reading today.
NCVO have already reiterated to government that this clause is unjust on points of principle: that charities must always be able to speak up for their beneficiaries, campaign within the law, irrespective of their funding arrangements. We have asked government to provide evidence of the problem it is seeking to solve – with little forthcoming so far.
Moreover, there are many reasons why the clause could be counter–productive for government itself…
Alice Sharman, a reporter from Civil Society Media covers the same story under the headline “‘Draconian’ new clause in government grant agreements bans charities from lobbying” here.