Big Society: but what about the cuts?
19th July 2010
David Cameron today announced the government's plans for the Big Society, which seeks to empower communities by involving people in running and controlling their local services. But will the Big Society falter in the face of the impending huge cuts in public spending? We are urging the government to ensure that they cut with care, and avoid hitting the most vulnerable people in our society, many of whom rely heavily on the services currently under threat.
In response to Mr Cameron's speech, our chief executive Sir Stuart Etherington said,
"It is good that the prime minister is recognising the importance of the voluntary and community sector, and encouraging people to get involved in their local communities. I am particularly pleased that all of the unclaimed assets will be used for the benefit of the sector.
"However I am very concerned about the tidal wave of cuts about to hit the sector. These cuts will have a detrimental effect on the services received by some of the most vulnerable people in our society. The government must ensure that any cuts do not disproportionately hit the most vulnerable and scupper the chances of achieving the Big Society."
We will be hosting a summit of voluntary sector leaders on August 17, to discuss the government's spending review, the results of which are due to be announced in the autumn.
Comments
It's true - the sector needs to shift from focusing on 'best practice' - a few sparse examples, and more on those that are struggling. Organisations need to have some income to survive, even if it's just to promote the work they do voluntarily. Activity requires money, if this disappears many will become passive, or just disappear. Although the Big Society bank and the social enterprise model are good ideas, often community work is not obviously profitable and such organisations may not find a way to generate their own profits. That's most evident when they start up, so the idea that more and more organisations will emerge without any start-up grant is probably wishful thinking...
If anyone's interested, I've blogged on this here: http://bevuk.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/creating-the-big-society/ and on the big society bank here: http://bevuk.wordpress.com/2010/07/19/the-big-society-new-labours-achievement/
Chris Wood (doing a PhD on these sorts of issues)
Completely agree with Stuart Etherington's resopnse here. Whilst the concept sounds attractive, certainly to the Voluntary and Community Sector, the fear is that, once again, excluded groups/communities, such as Black and Ethnic Minorities, Refugee and Asylum Seekers, Disabled groups/networks, and small locally-based volunteer groups, may get a raw deal and be passive partakers of the Big Society. It may be a case of people with the loudest voices benefiting from Cameron's vision. The 'usual suspects' so to speak, will now be in their element, purporting to representing everything that walks and talks! I think NCVO should strongly make representations for the most vulnerable groups and networks, as I have identified above, share in the 'national cake', that is the Big Society, and that they are seen and heard as equal partners.