My Lords, I am delighted to have the honour and privilege of congratulating the noble Lord, Lord Wallace of Tankerness, on his thoughtful and well delivered maiden speech. I have not had the pleasure of meeting him before now, but I know that the excellence of his maiden address to your Lordships, and the progressive ideas contained in it, will come as no surprise to noble Lords who knew him in another place, where I am told that he had a strong, authoritative and much respected voice for more than 18 years. He also played a part in the development of the Scottish Parliament as a member of the steering group leading to its establishment, and he served the Parliament with great distinction as its Deputy First Minister, as well as holding other ministerial offices. I know that we shall hear from him many times in future, as he gives us the benefit of his experience and wide-ranging interests, and we look forward to that. On a personal note, I am to pay my first visit to Orkney this summer and I hope to consult him about my itinerary. I understand that the lochs, and the views from Tankerness, are not to be missed. The noble Lord's future contributions to this House are likewise not to be missed.

I, too, want to concentrate on the charitable sector, because that is what I understand "NGO" to mean. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, for securing this short debate. As somebody who has also spent a long time working with NDPBs, I should perhaps remind him that appointing processes have long been rigorous, open and well prescribed. I know from personal experience that people who work for NDPBs are closely appraised and rigorously monitored.

Anxieties expressed by noble Lords about non-governmental organisations delivering services should be taken seriously, but we must keep a sense of proportion. The vast majority of charities are small, with annual incomes of under £10,000, and do not go anywhere near the delivery of public services, concentrating on helping their client groups. It is only among the bigger charities—those with incomes of more than £500,000 a year—that you find any major involvement in public service delivery, and even then only 60 per cent are major service deliverers. None of this is new. Arguments about short-term contracts, full cost recovery, mission creep, subsidisation and additionality have been around for as long as I can remember—and that, I am afraid, is a long time.

Many charities decide that they will only be campaigning charities and will not go in for service provision. That is a decision that we took when I led the carers movement. However, others take a different view, and for good reasons. Why should we want to get NGOs involved in service provision at all? It is not just because those services are cheaper, although they often are, as noble Lords have pointed out. The best public services are those that are based and have their origins in the needs of the user. No one knows that better than the charitable sector, as the noble Baroness opposite reminded us. Groups that work on the front line, in close touch with disadvantaged groups and individuals whom they represent, know what kind of services best suit their needs. They know what works and what does not. Their creativity, their innovation and their ability to build trust in their client groups have driven improvements in public services. The whole user-involvement, personalisation agenda that is nowadays seen as so vital to the provision of public services has been led by NGOs. That is a great tribute to the work of the third sector.

In order to make best use of this quality, a new partnership is essential between public and voluntary services. The energy, creativity, commitment and experience of NGOs must be properly recognised and harnessed, as well as constantly monitored, if we are not to fall into the traps that some noble Lords have set out.

I would be the last to claim that the difficulties in this area have all been solved. However, we cannot fail to recognise how much more attention and care the third sector receives from this Government than it has ever known before. I well remember the frustration of working with previous Governments, when you might wait weeks or even months for a meeting with a Minister or officials, and when you got there you might be patronised or even treated with contempt; you were rarely taken seriously. Now it is difficult to keep track of the number of initiatives that are aimed at making the third sector an equal and effective partner in the provision of services.

By any dispassionate measure, this Government have a proud record of co-operation with and respect for the charitable sector. The sector's representative organisations, such as NCVO and ACEVO, together with many others, have a fine record, too, in ensuring that such co-operation is effective and always developing, so that, when NGOs now sit round a table with government, they have a much more powerful voice. The development of the compact, and now Compact Plus, has also helped. It may not be perfect, but it helps to ensure that contracts are properly negotiated and managed and that they are sustainably funded. We now have an Office of the Third Sector, a Minister for the Third Sector and an action plan for third sector involvement. These initiatives are well monitored and evaluated.

I would like to highlight two areas that have a great impact on the delivery of public services: commissioning and capacity building. The world in which public services are being delivered is changing and many of those who want to commission services from the third sector need to develop their skills, expertise and understanding of the sector. The National Programme for Third Sector Commissioning aims to do just that. I am sure that the training programme currently under way, which includes training not just for commissioners but also for elected members, will have a profound effect, not least on the sector's bidding capacity.

All my life, I have been sitting round tables talking about the need to develop capacity in the third sector. Through the ChangeUp programme and the establishment of the Capacitybuilders organisation in 2006, we are now finally doing that. Especially welcome are the Capacitybuilders funding programmes that target rural, black and minority ethnic communities. I have also been involved with the Futurebuilders initiative, an investment programme for third sector organisations that want to deliver public services; the initiative has loans, grants and capacity-building programmes. In a recent round of visits to funded projects, my fellow panel members and I have been inspired by the innovative work that is being carried out.

When it comes to the third sector, I am and always have been a glass-more-than-half-full person. In spite of the gloomy scenario that we hear about in some areas, I want to conclude on an optimistic note. The Government's commitment to the third sector extends far beyond their desire to see it as a partner in the provision of public services. It is important that the third sector should also be involved in the development of policy and, of course, fulfil its long-established role as a campaigner on behalf of disadvantaged groups.