Local Government

The relationship with local government is crucial for the local voluntary and community sector and our strategic policy work reflects this.

Local councils are responsible for providing a wide range of statutory local public services and are bound by statute to deliver on certain statutory duties.

We want to see councils and voluntary organisations and community groups working together to enable communities to play a full and active part in their local areas. NAVCA believes that a local authority will achieve better outcomes for citizens if it actively engages with local people through the many and varied groups and community organisations in which they participate.

We believe that elected members (Councillors) have a crucial role to play in community engagement, linking the communities who elect them and whom they represent with the Council's decision making processes.

NAVCA is committed to working in partnership with the Local Government Association (LGA), the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA), the Local Government Information Unit (LGIU), Urban Forum, and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), government departments, statutory agencies and other national voluntary organisations who work in this arena to build effective local relationships.

We are working with our partners on three key objectives:

1. Community Engagement - developing a voice for communities to enable them to participate more effectively and to increase the accountability of service providers within local authorities;
2. Social Capital and Civil Renewal - to increase the confidence and ability of individuals and groups to get involved in activities that hold communities together;
3. Service Delivery - to ensure that local communities can properly influence and, where appropriate, deliver services on behalf of local government.

NAVCA's local government work also complements our strategic aims and objectives by:

• providing assistance and information to improve the quality of support and development activities for local voluntary and community sector organisations
• supporting local support and development organisations to increase their influence on local partnerships
• promoting collaboration between generalist and specialist umbrella organisations to support the inclusion of all local voluntary organisations and community groups in local partnership processes.