It is a marriage that the Government was keen to arrange. In one fell swoop, occasional bedfellows would be transformed into committed partners. As with all relationships, however, the union between charities and the public sector could best be described as complicated and, all too often, lukewarm at best.

A prolonged campaign by the Government to involve the third sector in delivering public services, from meals on wheels to offender rehabilitation, has resulted in more statutory contracts for voluntary organisations than ever before.

Yet, as the first National Survey of Third Sector Organisations, a government poll of 47,000 charities, social enterprises and voluntary organisations published this week illustrates, all is not as it seems.

More than half the charities surveyed said that statutory bodies had had no influence on their work, and fewer than one in five rated their relationship with their local authority highly, with only 16 per cent saying they had a “positive” or “very positive” influence on their work. About 14 per cent of charities said that councils exerted a “negative” or “very negative” influence.

Jon Sibson, of PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accountant, said: “While there are some encouraging findings for public sector support, the fact that 51 per cent of respondents said that the public sector had no overall influence on their success should give pause for thought,”

One of the stickiest areas for charities that work closely with statutory bodies in delivering public services is the contracts they receive. Many find themselves required to provide details of costs of services far beyond that which a normal procurement partner would be expected to provide before a contract is agreed, Mr Sibson said. “Local authorities are still stuck in a grant-giving mentality and make unnecessary demands when commissioning.”

Under public sector contracts, charities are eligible to claim back only the direct costs of providing their service and none of their overheads. “If you think about those conditions being applied to a commercial organisation, it would be ludicrous,” he added. “There is a lot of practical evidence that the third sector finds the public sector very difficult to do business with. Short-term and onerous contracts are still all too common. The public sector still has some way to go in putting its commercial dealings with the third sector on a more sustainable and commercial basis.”

Kevin Brennan, the Minister for the Third Sector, said that more direct contact between local authorities and third-sector organisations was needed to improve charities' perceptions of working with the public sector.

“This survey gives us a starting point for change, allowing us to see where local public sector bodies have more to do. But engagement is a two-way process. We also need thirdsector organisations to ensure they are playing their part in making this partnership work.”

It appears that the Government is determined to make this forced marriage palatable to charities to this end it has pledged to spend £515million on the sector in 2008-11.

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