Seminar 1

What can be learned from national and regional variations across the UK?

Venue:  University of the West of Scotland, Paisley Campus

Monday 2nd February 2009

The UK no longer has a monolithic model of social welfare delivery.  Over the last decade the region has emerged as a significant level of delivery and governance for the Celtic nations.  In addition, within England a regional infrastructure is now in place for the discharge of central government functions.  These developments have contributed to the formation of what has been called `multi-level governance’.  Multi-level governance is an important concept with which to think about changing economies of welfare.  It refers to negotiated, non-hierarchical exchanges between institutions at the transnational, national, regional and local levels, as well as to a vertical `layering’ of governance processes at these different levels.

There are numerous examples of mechanisms and resources at various spatial scales intended to improve interactions between government and the third sector agencies (defined to include social enterprises, as well as community organisations and charities).  All this potentially has profound implications for communities and for individuals including service users, paid workers and volunteers.

Seminar 1 was about tendencies towards divergence and convergence of policy and practice across the UK. Each of the presenters has been involved in national or international activities and research on aspects of the third sector and volunteering in different jurisdictions and cultures. In the morning session the emphasis was national and regional governance, and the responses of Third Sector organisations to change. In the afternoon the focus turned to volunteers, and ways in which organisations involve them to build capacity and extend services.  
Link to seminar report (document, opens in a new window) and abstracts