RSLs invited to join Home Office focus group on role of voluntary sector

The State of the Sector panel, to be run by the Home Office's Active Community Unit, will be made up of 2000 members from the voluntary and community sector. They will fill in a questionnaire and take part in up to four 20-minute telephone interviews each year about their key concerns, such as funding, management and infrastructure.

The study follows the Treasury's 2002 review of the voluntary sector's ability to deliver services. This concluded that these bodies were effective and could expand their provision of community services. The panel will look at the barriers to achieving expansion.

The unit is particularly keen to recruit housing associations because they provide about half of voluntary sector services.

A spokesman for the Active Community Unit said that, although the panel was set up under the auspices of the Home Office, antisocial behaviour would not be its focus.

The questionnaire will be about how the sector could link into and inform government priorities

Active Community Unit spokesman

He said: "The questionnaire won't just be about affecting antisocial behaviour but issues of the sector itself and how it could link into and inform government priorities."

Jim Coulter, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, welcomed the panel, saying its acknowledgement of the range of services provided by registered social landlords' diverse role fitted well with the NHF's objectives in its rebranding exercise, Housing's Better Future.