The WISERD stand attracted much interest from conference-goers.
Findings from WISERD’s civil society research featured prominently at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) Annual Conference at Aston University last week (10-11 September).
WISERD researchers presented a number of papers, including PhD student Amy Sanders, who shared initial findings from her research on sustaining the institutional legitimacy of a third sector-state partnership. Taking the case of the statutory third sector partnership in Wales, Amy explored the strengths and limitations of this institutional link between government and the third sector designed to promote inclusive governance.
Drawing on interviews with third sector organisations concerned with the promotion of equality of opportunity, Amy’s presentation showed how the partnership can extend policy influence to those outside government. However, the findings also point to representational challenges and issues about whose voice is heard via the partnership structures. In turn, this raises questions about institutional legitimacy.
Professor Paul Chaney (pictured above) reported on initial study findings about a new ‘experiment’ in third sector welfare provision in Wales (‘sub-state welfare pluralism’). This comes in the wake of a new law that places a duty on local government to promote the use of voluntary social care service providers (for older people, children, disabled people, vulnerable people, etc.)
Professor Chaney’s presentation examined the trade-offs between trust and transparency in policy networks, and the differential patterns and processes of citizen trust in contrasting state-oriented and third sector welfare delivery models. Details of the study can be found on our website.