Persistent inequalities in charity densities across UK local authorities, 1971-2021

• In Event: Comparative studies on the Third Sector

Abstract

The role and impact of voluntary action in the UK has arguably become a matter of pressing concern as a result of ongoing social and economic crises.The contribution of voluntarism to the UK's early response to the pandemic was critical, reaching deep into communities to support isolated and needy individuals (Rees et al., 2023). The current cost of living crisis, with concurrent increases in demand for voluntary services and the cost of providing these, combined with ongoing constraints on public funding, has once again reinforced the importance of voluntary action in supporting deprived communities.

The question this raises is whether there is a good match between organisational resources and patterns of need. There is a growing appreciation of adopting a spatio-temporal perspective when studying voluntary organisations and their environmental conditions (MacIndoe and Oakley, 2023). The distribution of voluntary organisations not only has direct benefits for communities, through the services that organisations provide, but also latent benefits, since voluntary organisations are a key component of the social infrastructure. A strong organisational presence can sustain the collective efficacy of communities (Sampson, 2012).
Using longitudinal data on a subset of voluntary organisations across six census periods (1971-2021), we estimate growth trajectories in the number of charities per capita for 330 local authorities across England and Wales. The spatial dataset we use takes account of changes in the administrative boundaries of spatial units, and also calculates indicators of prosperity and disadvantage in a consistent manner over time.
This paper makes a distinctive contribution by estimating and explaining the growth process that produces uneven patterns in voluntary organisation density across local areas. We examine whether there is substantial variation in the level and shape of these trajectories across local authorities, or whether there is a "national" trajectory for the development of voluntary organisations in the UK. Our findings support the latter interpretation: charity density grew rapidly from 1971-2001, followed by a noticeable plateau and decline to 2021, with this trend consistent across almost all local authorities. In addition, we reveal enduring and widening equalities in the level of charity density across local authorities, and little-to-no reshuffling of areas up or down the distribution of charity density.
This is important in the context of current policy ambitions of the UK Government to “level up” differences in prosperity across communities (as envisioned by government adviser Danny Kruger (2020)), but it has a wider significance to international debates about social infrastructures. If there is an expectation that charitable organisations can step in and provide such an infrastructure, there needs to be an acknowledgement that the contours of civil society revealed by analyses such as ours change only slowly, if at all. Our findings suggest that national efforts are needed to address inequalities in the distribution of charitable organisations, as well as reverse recent declines in the per capita density of these organisations.

References

Lloyd, C., Norman, P and McLennan, D (2023) Deprivation in England 1971-2020. Applied spatial analysis and policy, 16, 461-484.

Kruger, D. (2020) Levelling up our communities: proposals for a new social covenant. https://www.dannykruger.org.uk/sites/www.dannykruger.org.uk/files/2020-09/Kruger%202.0%20Levelling%20Up%20Our%20Communities.pdf

Macindoe, H and Oakley, D. (2023) Encouraging a Spatial Perspective in Third Sector Studies: Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis and Spatial Regression Analysis
Voluntas, 34, 64–75

Rees, J et al (eds, 2023) Covid-19 and the voluntary and community sector. Bristol: Policy Press.

Sampson, R (2012) Great American City. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

Authors

• John Mohan, University of Birmingham

• Diarmuid McDonnell, Braw Data Ltd

• Paul Norman, University of Leeds