The public service landscape is changing and fast - and not always in ways that the voluntary and community sector would wish to see. Some services are simply disappearing and others are being altered beyond recognition.

There is no doubt that many in the voluntary and community sector are struggling to survive, to secure funding, and to honour their missions.

Mr Osborne is so busy shouting "you're wrong!" at his naysayers, he can't actually hear what they're saying.

My strategic advice to the sector, is to seek to find common cause with local government to make the case to central government to stop or at least mitigate the impact of further cuts; to expose the human and financial implications of the Government's welfare 'reforms'; and to argue for greater localism with more devolved responsibility and resources to localities.

Increasing employee ownership and engagement is clearly a good social policy, but what excites hardnosed business brains is its irrefutable impact on a company's bottom line. Employee owned businesses are known to provide higher levels of customer satisfaction, better quality services, lower staff turnover, better levels of innovation, and they are more resilient.

Collaborate will be a hub of new ideas, ground breaking policies and leading-edge practice; a centre of leadership and skills development; and a forum for conversation, debate and problem-solving between the business, social and public sectors.

Charity leaders have told David Cameron his 'Big Society' idea is going nowhere, with many charities facing crippling spending cuts and reforms coming...

The hope and confidence that the government's commitment to the 'Big Society' offered to the VCS in 2010 has ebbed away to be replaced by a cynical dismissal of what now seems to have been little more than rhetoric rather than an substantial set of policies.

The six million people in poverty in working households show that at the moment, work is not the route out of poverty - so something needs to be done to ensure that it is.

The third sector should not simply accept what is happening to it and to its beneficiaries. It has to be strong and resolute in speaking out for social justice, equality and decency - the essence of the sector.

It seems, as far as the UK government is concerned, that aid no longer forms part of a moral commitment to global equity but is merely a business opportunity.