In the news last week...
The latest happenings in the charity sector.
Boris Johnson, a no-deal Brexit and the charity sector
After Boris was announced Prime Minister on Tuesday, charity sector leaders have urged him to focus on unifying the country following the divisive 2016 EU referendum, and to engage with the sector to bridge divides within and between communities.
Jay Kennedy at the Directory of Social Change warned that a no-deal Brexit, which Johnson has repeatedly said is a possibility, would cause huge damage across the country. The following has been taken from Third Sector:
“The chances of a no-deal Brexit must now be spiking, which risks putting vulnerable people and social programmes under even more pressure,” Kennedy said.
“The charity sector is keeping this country afloat but Boris Johnson’s record on the sector doesn’t inspire confidence – his main achievement so far in this respect seems to be engineering the Garden Bridge Trust debacle.”
“Our sector simply cannot give up,” he said. “Outside the Westminster bubble there are multiple crises receiving no political attention or commitment – social care, climate change, homelessness, food poverty, domestic and sexual abuse, the list goes on.”
“Prime Minister Johnson needs to start listening to us – right now. Not in a few months or next year – now.” Read the full article here.
Mims Davies leaves civil society minister post
Mims Davies has left her post as minister for civil society and been appointed to the Department for Work and Pensions. Boris has appointed Nicky Morgan as the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, and Matt Warman, Nigel Adams, Baroness Barran and Rebecca Pow as other DCMS ministers – it is still unclear who the civil society brief will be given to. Jay Kennedy states that “It’s pathetic that once again the civil society brief is near the very end of the queue – or even completely forgotten – in the reshuffle’’.
Next month will mark one-year on from Tracey Crouch’s ‘Civil Society Strategy’. During that time, it will have been overseen by three different ministers, as well as two different secretaries of state.