Lisa and colleagues at NICVA. Great idea to get the blog going and interesting to note that NICVA seem to be the only organisation leading the debate on the likely impact of cuts. I feel the input to debate from elected representatives in particular is incredibly poor.

I think highlighting and showcasing smart solutions in touch times is a great idea but there's a flaw. Unfortunately I still sense that many within the sector see the whole debate around cuts as an opportunity to only promote and strengthen the position of their own organisation and it's axiomatic within the sector that everyone assumes their organisation and services can't be done without. I fear that what is going to happen is incresing competition and jockeying for position and maintenance of funding rather than organisations taking an honest look at themselves , the communities and needs they are meeting and identifying how those needs can be identified and met in the most sustainable way into the future.

As we know that cuts are going to happen , it is also worth reminding ourselves that the majority of community and voluntary sector organisations here are exclusively voluntary and I think i'm right that exclusively voluntary organisations also involve the most volunteers numerically. We need to think about how local communities can be supported and encouraged to form, maintain and develop these smaller groups and involve people as volunteers given the imminent challenges. A future with less funding could mean these types of groups becoming more important in the future. We need to be having a debate here about the " Big Society" and considering how its stated aims sit with the cuts which will likely make it harder for people to get involved in local community activity.

In the future we have to get away from the model that states organisations follow a certain development trajectory from exclusively voluntary , growing , seeking more grant aid , employing staff etc and my personal view is that we have also within the sector have to address the sectarianisation of development and funding where we have paralell but seperate groups. We need to inculcate an awareness that sometimes its time to call it a day and organisations should finish their activity, close down , hand assets to someone else and those involved move on and develop other organisations, activities and ideas. I don't think we're very good at the closing down and moving on here.

Just a few random thoughts and I look forward to engaging with the ongoing NICVA programme