Do You Really Want To Volunteer?
18/10/2011 - Posted by Elinor Freestone at Tuesday, October 18, 2011
The first two speakers covered PPPs; both speakers highlighted the benefits of the private sector and the public sector working together to create better services for society yet nothing was spoken of about how we, as receivers of said services could be negatively affected (As I am sure there are some). I understand that Mr Frost and Mr Parrott were selling the idea to the audience, but I believe personally that before any action takes place where the private sector takes over key services in our society. That the full impact positivity or negatively need to be fully understood and confronted before this can be fully put into practice. Mr Falla put across an issue in which I question myself. If said private company took over a service such as the bus services and a contract was drawn up, and said PPP took over the running of this vital service. Once the contact runs out, and the PPP feels that it hasn’t gained from this and were to pull out. The public sector would be left to deal with the aftermath. Is that really fair?
While still on the topic of public and private partnership, Mr Parrot talked about Not for Profit Organisations (NPOs) and how they could help with the imbalance of our income and expenditure (deficit). One reason he acknowledged was our ageing population yet I think it is important to mention the worth of the ‘Grey Pound’, in 2010 it was said to have reached £100 billion in the UK. So while I can agree that the amount the government spends and earns do outweigh each other the reason Mr Parrott put forward is not the leading factor. So while NPOs could help with this I believe that other reasons need to be put forward if these organisations were to increase in number.
In the second half Mr Winser Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), he stated that while the States is there for service provision the private sector is mainly there for profit. Yet there is growing pressure for an employer to provide a safe working environment, maternity leave et cetera, this is all due to primary legislation (CSR). But my concern about CSR is a company promotes its CSR programme to divert unwanted attention from other parts of said business. This is already been shown internationally by companies such as BP and BAT. Another problem I have with current CSR programmes is the lack of regulation, if the government (States) were to put into place regulations in which the private sector were to conduct themselves in a manner that provides good working conditions for its employees and to prevent them harming a third-party or environment. This would only benefit society.
During questioning with Mr Falla, a question was put forward about education and whether the private sector could invest in this. Mr Winser stated that he felt that the private sector should stay out of education. Yet it was mentioned earlier in the evening about wanting to employ more local people, yet they are unable to do so. But isn’t it logical that if you were to invest in the local education that there is a higher chance of these students to succeeding even more than they are now. If more programmes were available were local students would go to local businesses and see how they run, I think that it would benefit the students of today. I know such programmes such as Management Shadowing and Young Enterprise take place. But these are just two programmes and I believe that more could take place, and many students would benefit from this.
Lastly Mr Jones talked about charities and the involvement of volunteers from the private sector. He stated that there were around 364 charities listed in Guernsey. In my opinion he correctly stated that there are too many charities for the States to support. Some charities are so specific to a certain cause that clustering some together would cause no gain for those charities. He spoke of parts of the public sector (HSSD) who give either money or advice to charities and he expressed the need for the private sector to do the same. He spoke very passionately about how charities would benefit from free advice or technical support which could be given free by businesses. During the various talks during the debate it was Mr Jones passion that really could be seen. It was his eagerness to change and help theses charities that really got you thinking
At the end of the evening Mr Falla asked for a show of hands who volunteered one hour a week, the majority did, but my question is out of those who raised their hands. Do you volunteer just to tick a box or do you feel passionate about helping that charity? In my honest (slightly cynical) opinion I don’t believe it’s the latter.
