Last week the Big Lottery Fund (BLF) and Institute For Government (IFG) launched a joint programme, Connecting Policy with Practice: People Powered Change. Justlife's Managing Director, Gary Bishop was the guest speaker. This new programme contributes to the IFG's mission of making government more effective, by engaging senior policy makers in a practical and influential way with real projects, real places and real services.The event was held in London at the Institute For Government and had over 100 attendees.The Big Lottery Fund (BIG) is making a series of strategic investments in new ways of working, and is determined to maximise the learning from these. At the same time, the Government’s plans for open public services are changing the nature of policy making in Whitehall. The Institute for Government has partnered with BIG to provide a unique programme of events and research that brings together policy makers and practitioners from the voluntary sector to explore these challenges.Gary Bishop said: "It was a great event to be a part of, people were really interested in the work of Justlife. The Connecting Policy with Practice initiative is potentially very powerful indeed, but I was reminded again just how disconnected Whitehall is from the reality of the ordinary people who we meet every day. That ‘disconnect’ creates something of a vaccuum between policy and real life and it is in that gap that the Big Lottery Fund is working with us and hundreds of others to support those whose lives can so easily deteriorate because of ill-informed policy decisions. I came away thinking, ‘Yes, lets have more time to think, learn, discuss and strategise but we cannot afford to take our eye off serving the poor for a second.’’To read more about the programme click here.Other speakers included: Peter Wanless, Chief Executive, Big Lotter Fund; Dharmendra Kanani, Director, BIG England; Gareth Davies, Executive Director at the Cabinet Office and Lucy de Groot, Chief Executive, Community Service Volunteers.
