We do need better public services - of that there is no doubt. However, I am not convinced that many of the prescriptions in "Better Public Services" will deliver them.

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

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.

The political conference season is one point in the year when it's quite reasonable to feel confused. So many claims and so much talk; but with what real effect, for whom?

The voluntary and community sector has always championed the rights and needs of the disadvantaged; fought for equality; and stood up for social justice. Now is the time to advocate these aims as never before. Cuts and many other government policies are taking the country in the opposite direction. Charities cannot ignore this.

Over the last few decades, there has been an increasing trend to contract businesses to deliver public services. This trend, of course, goes back decades and indeed centuries but began to accelerate during Mrs Thatcher's Government and continued at an even greater pace during Tony Blair and Gordon Brown's thirteen years.

At a recent conference for chief officers from community and voluntary sector - the NAVCA Chief Officers' Residential Event (CORE), I posed a challenge to the sector and in particular with regard to the future role of support and development organisations at a local and national level. I raised this because of my commitment to the local voluntary and community sector and my passionate belief in the vital contribution that voluntary and community action makes to society.

Tragically for those whom it is intended to assist, a programme designed in very different economic conditions and based on a belief that market incentives would drive a range of providers to secure long-term employment for those who have been inactive in the labour market for a long period may end up not delivering.

Recent conversations with colleagues in the voluntary and community sector have made me sit up and think hard about the relationship between local authorities and local infrastructure bodies.

The third sector is able to reach out to troubled families in a way that works. It works because families are not suspicious of us, they are not intimidated by our services and they are able to trust us.

Steven Nuttall is 50 years old, but he's never learned to read and write. Unemployed for the last decade, he's picked up a range of odd-jobs during his life, like selling popcorn and working on the fairgrounds, but never enough to make ends meet.

Too many young people fail to leap the gap between school and work but ThinkForward will close the chasm, enabling people like Luke to gather the skills, characteristics and contacts they need.