This position has been developed through discussion and debate over time within RAPAR. We have also been listening carefully to some other voluntary sector organisations who are very concerned about this issue.
With all the discussion about the Big Society and what it means for the voluntary sector we at RAPAR feel it necessary to make this statement about where we stand as a voluntary organisation in Manchester.
The concept of Big Society is a foil – a cover up for cuts. Indeed the very charities, which are at the heart of the Big Society concept, are in grave danger of falling first in the shrinking state. To show solidarity with the public sector RAPAR will follow the actions set out below:
- RAPAR will not take any contracts derived from job losses.
- RAPAR will be active in our commitment to sustaining safe and appropriate services.
- RAPAR will take no sub-contracting from the ‘for-profit’ sector.
- RAPAR will make a rigorous appraisal of prospective partners in projects to ensure that we are not, by proxy, participating in privatisation of the public sector by the back door.
- Having attended the inaugural conference for Right To Work that numbered 900 people and that took place in Manchester in Feb 2010, since which time RAPAR has had a standing delegate to the right to work committee, RAPAR remains supportive of the 'Right to Work for All’. The Right to Work is a Human Right.