Charity Times: MPs Voluntary Secondment Scheme

Published on Mon 20th Dec 2004

As a new MP from the 2001 General Election, I was particularly pleased to be selected to NCVO's MP Voluntary Secondment Scheme. With many years' experience in local government, as a councillor, and having served as Mayor and Deputy Mayor, I had already worked closely with a variety charities who were all extremely active in spheres such as health, education, housing and disabilities all across Dorset. This experience gave me a first hand insight into the vast number of voluntary organisations often working in partnership with local authorities and central government to provide vital services to both individuals and families. As a Patron of a local children's hospice movement, I was also aware of the challenges facing smaller charities in terms of funding, project management and campaigning. For part of the time of my placement I was the Liberal Democrats spokesperson for the voluntary sector and so it was also particularly important to keep abreast of developments and on-going issues. I was interested to see first hand; the special expertise brought into the delivery of services and the operation and implications of service level agreements between the public and voluntary sector.

I was pleased to be partnered with the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) to undertake my secondment. Like everyone else, I was well aware of the RNIB and its general purpose, to support and campaign for blind people, but I had little realisation of how this presented itself in terms of legislation and lobbying government, nor how this large national charity was organised and run. Very early on in my placement I became aware that the RNIB does not simply address issues 'for the blind', but also 'of the blind' since a great many individuals with visual impairment are employed at all levels of management of the organisation and many others are involved in its governance.

The secondment scheme provided a valuable insight into the workings of one of the country's largest disability charities - with over 5000 volunteers, offices and shops across Britain and an income of £84 million per annum - the RNIB is really a tremendously powerful lobbying organisation. Moreover, the RNIB is an amazing provider of services, and it was on these operations that my secondment really focused.

The secondment began with a day of introductions at the Head Offices at Judd Street where I met with members of the policy, campaigns and fundraising teams who each outlined their priorities for the charity. Today's technology and specially designed 'audible' software makes it very possible for partially sighted people to work relatively uninhibited in an office environment - everything requring reading - emails, documents and websites - can be 'read out' at high speed by special software and listened to. I was lobbied by employees about the need for grants towards computers for people with disabilities in employment. I also became aware of the enormous number of specialist products available for the visually impaired. Development, researching and the provision of a catalogue of these products provides an amazing nationwide service. I know, for example, the Dorset Association for the Blind, is able to supply some of these products to its members.

The secondment also included a number of other on-site visits to operations centres including the 'Talking Books' recording studio in Camden and the Distribution Centre in Peterborough and one of the remaining special schools for blind children, the Sunshine School, in Northwood. I also spent time talking about transport issues with a user group.

At the 'Talking Books' studio, it was encouraging to see the advanced technology developed by RNIB in action providing the lifeline of books and magazines on tape for those who want to enjoy the literature so readily available to sighted people. Over 35 books are recorded, unabridged, each month and over 10,000 'talking books', from a catalogue of 13,000 titles, are distributed on a daily basis to any of its 40,000 members - over 2 million loans per year! Visiting the Centre in Peterborough I also saw the enormous amount of work which is still done to convert works into braille and indeed even to produce teenage magazines in braille with attractive 'touchy' covers.

Extremely welcome developments have been made in recent years enabling more books to become accessible on formats such as the 'daisy tape', most notably the Copyright (Visually Impaired Persons) Act 2002 which eased the complications previously involved in transcribing documents into alternative formats for the visually impaired. Nevertheless, only about 5% of all books are available in formats suitable for the 3 million in Britain with a sight problem or reading disability. RNIB's on-going 'Right to Read' campaign aims to change that to ensure that many more published works are accessible and available more quickly.

Clearly the RNIB's lobbying techniques are very effective and the secondment scheme is worthwhile as I was keen to be involved in the 'Right to Read' campaign and to look at education for visually impared children in mainstream schools today. This led me to address these issues in a Ten Minute Rule Bill, which I worked on with the RNIB and which I hope one day to to get enacted through a Private Members Bill. My Bill called for a national co-ordination of accessible format materials in schools, for more financial support nationally for libraries to provide more accessible formats works as well as for the lifting of VAT on audio books.

All in all, my secondment was a really positive experience for me as an individual, but also, I hope, for my future work as an MP both at constituency level and at Westminster, where I believe I will continue to work with the RNIB to campaign for better services for the visually impaired.