Thread by @karlwilding

So, I am incredibly tired. Brain isn't working quite right. But my sense of today's much welcome announcements from @RishiSunak I will say upfront that I may well have got some of this wrong. 1/

This is great news for people across the country worried about whether they will have a job next week – and that includes people working for charities and not for profit organisations who are included in the scheme if they use PAYE. Thank you @OliverDowden @dianabarran. 2/

Charities are under *huge* pressure to lay people off as care, training, trading, activities - and their main sources of income (trading, fundraising) have very quickly fallen off. These are people working to support communities everywhere. This scheme helps re layoffs. 3/

We need to know much more about the scheme and how it's going to work: if I need to lay off the trainers from my social enterprise gym, can they come back and do public health work for me? I don't quite understand.
Let's get clarity and info out quickly. /4

The VAT holiday is *very* welcome. We assume that charities that pay VAT are included in this. It means that there is some relief for those organisations who have urgent cashflow problems - and VAT is a killer at the best of times. This is significant I reckon. /5

So, hopefully all good and much needed. But we are not out of the woods: many organisations are still facing serious interruptions to their income, their operations. They still have fixed costs that aren’t going to be covered by support for staff who would have been laid off. /6

Sorry Chancellor, but we will still need to see dedicated grant funding for charities that is simple, swift and substantial to help them through this exceptional period – so it was good to hear the Chancellor recognise this in his press conference. I'd say £4-6bn for 3 months /7

I want to be clear that this is not about preserving charities because we have some right to exist over and above businesses, or that our workers are more deserving. We're not. This is about people, about social protection, and helping get Britain through this crisis. /8

So, at @ncvo we now want charities and voluntary organisations everywhere to mobilise. To rise up and help society and the economy through this crisis. To share volunteers. To deploy the reserves we hold for a rainy day. Our wettest winter for some time continues. /9

We want people to volunteer safely, and also to ensure that volunteers are checked. We also want to coordinate the efforts of people who want to make a difference so that they are doing what is most needed.
When govt launches it's big campaign on Monday, we'll play our part. /10

People are already asking to help. They are helping their friends and neighbours. But is is very clear already that this needs organisation, that people need help finding out where the needs are. And we also need to make sure no one takes advantage of the nation's goodwill. /11

So we also want to see funds to help organisations that will at pace mobilise and manage the volunteer army that this country now needs for the coming days and weeks. Monday's big campaign will need structure and organisation. Let's resource that effectively and at scale. /12

So £1bn to support charities to mobilise volunteers & other positive actions in communities. This will allow orgs to redirect resources or surplus capacity where activities have stopped. This will help local communities in ways the Chancellor laid out at the end of his speech /13

All these short term measures are going to be needed. We also still need some clarity on the schemes announced earlier in the week. A payment holiday for NICs would also help charities cashflow. The principle remains: interventions need to be swift, simple an substantial. /14

Finally, it's significant that this government has recognised the role of charities and civil society. Of volunteering. It has recognised charities employ 900,000 people. It has recognised we help create wealth as well as the common good.

Let's never forget that again.
/ends