Theory and Policy

Research by TSRC, in partnership with BIG, has explored the role and impact of BIG in the third sector.

The Big Lottery Fund (BIG) represents a significant source of funding for the third sector. During the current period of public sector cuts its significance is likely to increase. BIG’s mission is to ‘bring real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need’, rather than to achieve outcomes for the third sector itself. But given its scale of funding, it is likely to have had considerable - albeit unanticipated - outcomes and impacts on the sector.

The research highlights BIG's influence on the sector, not just as a result of its direct funding but also its philosophies, its strategies, and its processes. It has contributed to the establishment, continuation, diversification, expansion and capacity of third sector organisations. It has contributed to a move towards outcomes thinking across the sector, to partnership working, user involvement and the growth of local voluntary action. BIG’s impact on the sector, however, is not as consistent or significant as it might be, and is not always positive. At the sector level, BIG is more likely to be seen a ‘facilitator’ than a ‘leader’ of change.

The potential for BIG to shift its relationship with the sector raises opportunities and challenges, for them and the sector. More generally, it exposes the significance of funders as policy actors within the third sector.

The report offers five questions and potential strategies for BIG and the third sector to address - about engagement, transparency, intelligence, independence, and the extent to which BIG is or could be an active policy actor within the sector.

Methodology

The research explored three key themes:

• BIG’s relationship with the third sector and how this has evolved over time;
• Perceived impacts of BIG on the third sector and its organisations;
• Future priorities and directions.
• The research involved two stages. The scoping phase involved interviews with BIG staff and a literature review.
  

The main stage included interviews and focus groups with a range of stakeholders within BIG, the third sector, government and other funders, and an online survey of grant recipients in third sector organisations.

Download Publications

• Full research report (PDF, 1,376KB)
• Briefing paper (PDF, 174KB)
• Scoping report

Research contacts:

Angela Ellis Paine
Rebecca Taylor
Pete Alcock

Since the end of the last century the United Kingdom has been a less united country. Along with many areas of social and public policy, third sector policy has now been devolved to the separate administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In 1999, a separate Scottish Executive (from 2007 the Scottish Government) and Welsh Assembly Government were established, followed later by a new Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly, based on a power sharing agreement known as the ‘Good Friday Agreement’.

Research in TSRC has focused on the impact of this devolution to explore the changing national context for policy and practice. We look at the extent to which devolution has led to a divergence in third sector policy across the UK.

This research has been supported by the advice of research Reference Groups in each of the devolved administrations comprised of leading academics, policy makers and practitioners.

Working paper 2: Devolution or Divergence?

For the first part of this period Labour administrations were in power in all four nations to some extent. This period also saw government engagement with and support for the sector extend far beyond the levels found throughout much of the last century. This led to a growth in the size and scale of the sector and closer involvement of sector representatives in political debate and policy planning.

These issues are explored in more depth by Pete Alcock in TSRC Working Paper 2 : Devolution or divergence? Third Sector Policy across the UK since 2000.

This has since been published separately as a contribution to a more general review of devolution policy and practice: Devolution in Practice, Lodge G and Schmuecker K (eds), (2010) London, IPPR.

New Policy Spaces, Feb 2012

Elections in the devolved administrations led to a loosening of Labour control in 2007. This was followed by the establishment of the Coalition Government in the UK in 2010 and further elections in the devolved administrations in 2011, which resulted in different parties in power across all four administrations.

Research published in the Social Policy and Administration Journal, explored these further changes to devolution since the 2010 and 2011 elections, including the extent to which the Big Society agenda has penetrated across new national borders.

Our research finds that devolution has created an important new space for third sector policy development across the UK, but that the direction of travel in all four regimes has remained remarkably similar.

Contact
Professor Pete Alcock

• New Policy Spaces impact of devolution
• Big Society – contradiction or con trick? Reply by Pete Alcock
• Legislating for the Big Society? The Public Services (Social Value) Bill
• From Third Sector to the Big Society: the 2010 General Election
• Constituting the third sector