Introduction

Competition and outsourcing, as is evident from the last chapter, have been closely associated with an increase in regulation, detailed service specification, targeted outcomes and performance monitoring. As Chapter Two outlined, a gradual re-engineering of dominant organisational arrangements over some 25 years has produced a burgeoning of regulatory frameworks, and command and control forms of governance and management that have gradually had an impact on voluntary sector organisations (VSOs). From roughly 2007 onwards, government policies began to acknowledge an over-emphasis on regulation, professional standards and excessive performance targets and their potential to undermine the development of responsive local services. More latterly this is visible in the rhetoric of localism and criticism of big government. However, as outsourcing and contracts have expanded, the opportunities for locally designed service targets and community-level transparency in narratives around services appear more remote. There is a contradiction therefore between recent policy aspirations to reduce the burden of audit, while rapidly advancing the outsourcing of public services. The recent shifts are in how the sectors and players are being aligned in the chains of accountability.

This chapter discusses changing cultures of accountability and reporting and their effects on VSO activities. First it considers the more concrete effects of a growing performance culture on VSOs and insights that could be gained from a trust-based approach. It draws on a variety of examples from the studies outlined in Chapter Three to offer insights into ways that particular approaches to audit have become culturally embedded in expectations and organisational arrangements, posing problems for small VSOs. As the title of the chapter suggests, the chapter explores the changing nature of relationships between funders and VSOs; and using the lens of trust, highlights ways that differential power exercised through frameworks of performance management and regulation undermine open communication in inter-organisational relationships. Paradoxically, the means used to ensure accountability and manage risks for funders may increase risks of concealed service failures, while also impinging on voluntary sector (VS) autonomy. The final part of the chapter also discusses recent evidence to assess whether the rhetoric of localism and reducing the command and control culture of the state (Kendall, 2010) is bringing benefits to VSOs.