The government's active community unit is still unsure how to use the money allocated to it in the Treasury spending review last July to boost the voluntary sector's delivery of public services (news, page 6, 12 September 2002).

Unit co-ordinator John Routledge said that it had not been decided whether £80m of the £93m allocated for implementing the strategy would be given to the community directly or via government offices. Also it had not been agreed whether councils would receive cash to help build the sector's capacity.

In two months the unit is due to produce a draft strategy on building the capacity and infrastructure of the voluntary sector.

Routledge said it was important that councils and the sector worked together. "Unless we have some sort of agreement for local government that they will buy into the sector in terms of commissioning and planning and evaluating services then this will not work."

He added that the unit had run into difficulties finding out how much voluntary sector providers were used by other agencies. "There are problems in mapping how much the voluntary sector is used by the Department of Health because it does not keep any records," he said.