Independent Funders: your sector needs you

Recently I watched a presentation by a local authority commissioner. The presentation was informative and the presenter was keen on consulting with the voluntary sector. But for the whole time I was listening, I was also thinking “I am so glad I am not a commissioner”.

Why? Some of the issues were the same as any funder e.g. how do you invest in prevention when you also need to fund acute services until prevention work starts to have an impact? But other areas seemed even more difficult to work with:

• the jargon (co-creation seemed the latest buzz word);
• the long timescales (3 years from start of process until contracts awarded);
• the external drivers (not re-tendering because unhappy with the current service but because have to under European law);
• the politics (no activity for the period of the coming election);
• the players (6 commissioning groups responsible for 1 contract).

As an independent funder, I am very lucky not to be so constrained. But I believe it puts the onus on all independent funders to appreciate and exercise our freedoms - to support the unpopular, the small, the unproven and to take risks when other funding bodies are less able to.


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