Big society: actually, it's achieved a great deal (no, really...)
Cuts have devasted the government's flagship social policy, a report said this week. But ministers beg to differ. Tell me what you make of the big society's supposed "key achievements".
Big society is failing: savaged by cuts and undermined by a collapse in trust in the government's flagship social policy by the very people expected to cheerlead for it and drive it forward.
Those were the findings of a report published on Monday by think tank Civil Exchange, coupled with a Guardian survey of the social entrepreneurs invited to the original launch of the policy in Downing street nearly two years ago.
But the minister for civil society, Nick Hurd, begged to differ. He stopped short of saying big society had been an outstanding success: but he did argue that the government had "done a huge amount" to make it a reality.
To back his assertion, his office sent me a list of what it sees as the Coalition's "key achievements" in the big society.
I publish the list below partly in the interests of balance, but partly to widen the debate around the government's record on civic renewal and the voluntary sector. I'm interested to know to what extent the claims listed in three categories below are: (a) true or fair; (b) demonstrable achievements as opposed to aspirations; and (c) making a difference in the ways intended.
The first category is community empowerment. Plenty apparently going on there. But the commitment to directly-elected mayors is looking a little threadbare after the elections last week. And to what extent are the community right to bid and right to challenge powers having an impact? And is the funding - the neighbourhood match fund - as generous as it is meant to sound?
? 5,000 Community Organisers will be trained by 2015
? 115 senior Organisers are already in post
? Community First programme launched, providing:
? �30m Neighbourhood Match Fund to support social action in the some of the most deprived areas of the country;
? �50m Endowment Match Challenge, creating local endowment funds to support community projects in perpetuity.
? Localism Act has ushered in:
? Devolution of powers and a new "general power of competence" for local authorities, freeing them to act in the interests of local people
? Enhanced local democratic accountability through directly elected mayors
? Community right to challenge, enabling community groups and local authority employees to express interest in running local authority services
? Community right to bid, giving local groups the right to bid to take over assets of community value
? Reform of the planning system - neighbourhood planning will allow communities (residents, employees and businesses) to work together to say where they think new houses, businesses and shops should go.
? Whole Place Community Budgets under development in four areas. Whitehall secondees are working alongside local authority staff to redesign services around their communities instead of Whitehall siloes.
? A further twelve areas are developing Neighbourhood Community Budgets.
The second grouping is around Open Public Services. The claim around the work programme immediately looks suspect - as I've written before. And do the transition fund, social impact bond, and Big Society Capital really come anywhere near ameliorating the losses in statutory funding experiences by charities (particularly ones which don't provide specific public services)?
? Big Society Capital ? the first social investment institution of its kind in the world ? launched with up to �600m to build the social investment market
? �3.5m of investments already announced for projects that support local communities.
? First 24 Free Schools opened in September 2011
? The Government has approved 79 new, state-funded schools to open from September 2012 onwards: 55 new mainstream and 16-19 Free Schools and 13 new University Technical Colleges.
? World's first social impact bond at Peterborough prison is fully operational.
? Mutualisation of civil service pension administration ? MyCSP Ltd part-owned by its 500 staff
? 21 Mutual Pathfinders underway
? �10 million Mutuals Support Programme will provide professional support to new and developing mutuals
? �107m Transition Fund to support civil society organisations who deliver public services make the transition to a tighter funding environment.
? An additional �10m Investment and Contract Readiness Fund to help charities and social enterprises to win more capital investment and public service contracts.
? A further �16.8m provided to support the not-for-profit advice sector
? Almost 300 VCSE organisations are engaged in delivering the Work Programme.
The final category is social action. Are the any reason to be impressed by the National Citizen Service, especially in the light of widespread cuts in the youth sector? Do the commitments have much credibility given the recent decision to cap tax relief on charitable donations? Is the Social Action fund big enough - the pioneering "big society incarnate" project in Manton, Nottinghamshire I wrote about on Monday appeared to be a "proven model of social action," but was twice rebuffed by the fund and has now closed.
? �21m Social Action Fund to expand, at speed, proven models of social action
? Innovation in Giving Fund provides �10m to develop ideas that have the potential to create a step change in giving
? Over 8,000 young people took part in National Citizen Service in 2011, giving over 170,000 hours of service. Up to 30,000 will take part in 2012.
? International Citizen Service pilot began in March 2011.
? Over 1,000 young people have already taken part; a further 7,000 by 2015
? Protection of Freedoms Act brings significant reductions in the red tape burden of Criminal Records Bureau checks and Vetting and Barring.
? Join In established to build the Olympic legacy for volunteering and social action.
? Civic Service launched with a commitment of 30,000 volunteering days a year by civil servants.
? Giving White Paper sets out the Government's strategy for charitable giving
? Giving Summit in May 2012 to take forward specific areas for action.
Please let me know your views. I'm looking for evidence and personal testimonies - not so much as whether you think big society still has any political currency at all (it clearly struggles in this respect) but whether it has made any kind of practical difference to the organisations expected to drive the principles it espouses.
Have any of the above "achievements", in your personal experience, helped the community, voluntary and social enterprise sector? If not, why not? Has the government's funding support come, as Civil Exchange claimed, "too little too late"? Are there any aspects of the above list we should investigate further?
Please leave comments and links in the comments section below, or email me at: Patrick.Butler@Guardian.co.uk
state pension forecast uk state pension pension lump sum pension transfer retirement age uk
posted by pension333 @ 07:02
0 Comments
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home