This month’s policy roundup aims to give you a taste into what the policy and influencing team has been up to over the past month.
By Shareen Patel, policy and influencing officer.
Engaging with the new government
Jane Ide, ACEVO’s CEO together with Sarah Elliott, NCVO’s CEO had their first meeting with our new Secretary of State (SoS) at DCMS, Lisa Nandy. The conversation was engaging and the SoS was positive in her intentions for resetting the relationship between civil society and the government.
She spoke about building resilience in the communities and recognised that civil society needs to have relationships across the whole of government. She voiced that as a sector, we should celebrate when government gets things right but also criticise when we think the government gets things wrong.
We have issued an invitation to the SoS to come and meet as many of ACEVO’s members as possible. She was keen to do so. We’ll keep you updated as and when we can.
In other news, ACEVO commented on the appointment of Stephanie Peacock as the new Minister for Civil Society. You can read Jane’s tweet on X here.
Covenant/Charter
ACEVO and NCVO policy teams met with colleagues at DCMS to discuss our joint work on developing a new framework for the relationship between government and civil society. This was also discussed at the meeting with the Secretary of State, who expressed a desire to position the framework as a ‘Covenant’. We will be working in partnership with the new government and will keep you updated on any developments including opportunities to input to the development of this work.
Climate week
ACEVO is hosting its first-ever Climate week in September. Our aim is to engage our members and all civil society leaders and promote the importance of this work. Throughout the week we’ll be publishing a pre-recorded podcast, hosting an online panel event and holding a LinkedIn live. You can sign up to attend the panel event here.
There will also be an opportunity for civil society leaders to share their challenges and reflections about embedding climate action into their work and where they’re at in their journeys. We hope the week will trigger inspiring thoughts and ideas but also some acknowledgement that everyone is on a climate journey, whether you’re right at the start, middle or end. For those that haven’t started their journey yet, we hope this gives you the confidence to do so.
Home Truths 2
The feature of session 1: Why we need to move beyond diversity, is now live. In the feature, Lena Bheeroo, who was a speaker, talks about her work and her views on anti-racist action in civil society. The companion notes of session 2 of the Race Equity Series have also now been published.
Book your place to attend Session 3 ‘Inside intersectionality’, which is taking place on Tuesday 24 September 10:30 – 11:30. In this session, we’ll dive into and demystify the issue of intersectionality – where overlapping identities, such as ‘race’, gender and class, combine to affect people’s experiences of disadvantage and privilege. The event will ask some crucial questions, such as what intersectionality means in practice for anti-racist and race equity efforts. In particular, how can we have an intersectional analysis of life and at the same time focus on racism head on?
The policy and influencing team is here to help! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at policy@acevo.org.uk or with me directly at shareen.patel@acevo.org.uk.
