Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said that “civil society in all its many iterations is absolutely critical to the success of our country”.

Speaking at a Civil Society Council event at the King’s Trust last week Burnham said that charities and other civil society organisations provide a vital contribution to UK communities adding, “if you start where people live, with organisations they trust, all kinds of things are possible”.

Partnership between charities and government is particularly important in tackling youth unemployment, he added, ahead of a 10-year plan on the issue to be published later this year.

As an example of this collaboration, he pointed to the Live Well in Greater Manchester initiative, in which charities worked with policy makers as equal partners to help people access support.

Evaluation from this is to be fed into government plans to create neighbourhood health initiatives, with funding from the Department of Health and Social Care.

The Civil Society Council is chaired by NCVO chief executive Kate Lee and has been set up to improve links between charity leaders and Whitehall, as part of the government’s Civil Society Covenant agenda.

Also speaking at the event was Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, who said that charities should “be a respected and trusted partner of government at every level, with a critical role to play as devolution is accelerated”, according to a 10 Downing Street readout from the event.

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