Following the Chancellor's pre-Budget statement, we will be publishing Partnership in Public Services: an Action Plan for Third Sector Involvement.

Third sector organisations play a number of roles in public life—from campaigning to building community cohesion and from delivering services to giving voice to their users. They have an enormous amount to contribute to our public services, both in the ways they are designed and delivered and in the ways they are improved and held to account.

The greater involvement of the third sector in delivery must not be about Government abdicating their responsibility to fund public services. Instead, it is about ensuring that, in the right circumstances, the sector can deliver services where it is best placed to do so. Many third sector organisations are already working very successfully with the public sector and there are significant areas of public service delivery where the Government are opening opportunities for the third sector. It is clear that we will not tackle the challenges of the coming years and continue to build the excellent public services to which we all aspire without the close involvement of the third sector.

Copies of the Action Plan will be placed in the Library for the reference of Members and will be available in the Vote Office.

The Action Plan will also be available on the Cabinet Office website at: www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/thirdsector