We obtained the voice of voluntary action from the archives of five national voluntary organisations. Prior to submitting the proposal to ESRC we obtained privileged access to those collection which remained in private hands (including the archives of Children England, Age UK and Ambition). We have digitised selected documents from each. The documents available within these organisational archives are varied, but include items such as: annual reports, annual accounts, board papers and minutes, research report, policy position statements, and consultation responses.Discourses of Voluntary Action was a three-year research project (July 2017 – November 2020) funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (Discourses of Voluntary Action at two 'Transformational Moments' of the Welfare State, the 1940s and 2010s (ES/N018249/1)) and carried out by researchers at the universities of: Northumbria, Birmingham, Sheffield Hallam, Southampton and UCL. The publication of the Beveridge Report in 1942, and the subsequent establishment of comprehensive welfare services in the UK, has been referred to as ‘a revolutionary moment’. The same term was used to describe the context in which welfare services were dismantled in England in the 2010s. At these two transformational moments, fundamental questions were raised about the respective roles and responsibilities of the state and the voluntary and community sector (VCS) in the provision of welfare services. During the first revolutionary moment, in the 1940s, the Beveridge report proposed a series of measures to address the ‘evils’ of the time. The subsequent restructuring of welfare provision led to significant changes in the structure and focus of many VCS organisations, and a period of intense debate about the nature and extent of voluntary action. In the 2010s, as a result of major national and international events a fundamental renegotiation of the role of the state was initiated and considerable change in the ways in which welfare services were provided in England ensued, with significant implications for the role, responsibilities, funding base, voice and independence of the VCS. Through working closely with VCS partners this interdisciplinary, collaborative study addressed questions about the ways in which key stakeholders (the state, the sector and the public) articulated different discourses and narratives about the role of the VCS in the provision of welfare services and the extent to which these narratives have been contested and/or influential. Public, political/state and voluntary action narratives from a range of archival and documentary sources were compared and contrasted, within and across the 1940s and 2010s. This research was innovative through combining historical and contemporary analysis, contributing to the emergent tradition that recognises the relevance of history to contemporary policy and practice. We were also supported by an Advisory Group composed of experts from the academy and the sector. Research into the roots of the mixed economy of welfare has been hampered by a lack of voluntary organisation archival sources in the public domain, for the most part these tend to be held privately: we were privileged to have had access to the private collections of AgeUK, Ambition/UK Youth, Children England, NCVO, and NCVYS. From our findings, for the 1940s ongoing post-war austerity meant voluntary action was necessary to meet need, while volunteers and voluntary organisations were seen to humanise services. A ‘pragmatic partnership’ was secured, overcoming suspicion on both sides: a settlement of convenience. In the 2010s the state and voluntary organisations have continued to work together, but the relationship - we suggest - became one of ‘antagonistic collaboration’. Further, the notion of a ‘moving frontier’ suggests a firm, singular boundary dividing two separate spheres. Instead, our analysis has demonstrated that there are multiple, fluid, and permeable frontiers: between the state, voluntary action and forms of welfare.
We obtained the voice of voluntary action from the archives of five national voluntary organisations. Prior to submitting the proposal to ESRC we obtained privileged access to those collection which remained in private hands (including the archives of Children England, Age UK and Ambition). We have digitised selected documents from each. The documents available within these organisational archives are varied, but include items such as: annual reports, annual accounts, board papers and minutes, research report, policy position statements, and consultation responses.
