The Big Society: opportunity or threat? Caroline Slocock Director
1
Who said this? “If we do succeed in making a more active community, I’m convinced that there will also be other benefits – less anti-social behaviour; less crime; less of the corrosion of values that worries so many people – and a better understanding that every community rests on how much people give as well as what they take.” 2
The Big Society Audit 2012
3
Auditing the Big Society Community empowerment eg: – Strength and influence of the voluntary sector and community groups
Opening up public services eg: – Civil society has access to funding – Open access and removal of entry barriers to civil society in commissioning and procurement – Civil society involved in designing services
Social action eg: – Increased volunteering and giving 4
Key findings of the Audit • Appetite for local engagement, social action • But no partnership and lack of buy in to vision • Big Society gap between advantaged and affluent areas • Cuts damaging community infrastructure, hitting most disadvantaged areas most, and unlikely increase in donations would fill the est £3.3bn funding gap for voluntary sector • Commissioning bias toward private sector and against small, local and voluntary 5
The Big Society Gap • Trust and social capital: – Far few people say others can be trusted and people pull together in disadvantaged than advantaged areas – Similar differences between urban and rural areas and between younger and older people
• Voluntary organisations in disadvantaged areas and working with disadvantaged groups depend more on public money and cuts hitting hard • More volunteers in affluent, rural areas and donors favour certain causes 6
Commissioning bias • 82% of commissioners think procurement processes hard for voluntary organisations • Concerns from community groups about prohibitive contract sizes, overly tight timescales and bureaucracy • Work Programme and payment by results: voluntary groups forced into unsatisfactory sub-contracting arrangements because of entry barriers 7
Common challenges … • Struggling to keep going…Cuts and complexity of getting remaining funding • People queuing up for help…Rising demand as problems pushed to others or downstream • You know there’s a better way … but difficulty in finding time to collaborate
8
Potential power
9
Trust • Decline of public trust in many institutions especially national politics • At same time, trust in voluntary sector high: – 60% of population donated to a charity in last month – 65% of people volunteered in last year – 75% of people think most charities trustworthy 10
Knowledge • • • •
An understanding of diverse communities Of what matters to people Of what works Of the impact of central and local government, positive and negative • Experience across sectors
11
Building a big society… • Stronger partnership and vision • Build capacity in voluntary and community sector to work together and increase understanding of its needs • Focus resources on disadvantage: and audit impact of cuts • Make funding fair for voluntary sector: tendering bias needs to be corrected 12
And in Buckinghamshire? If you don’t like what you see… How would you reinvent the Big Society? 13
Some ideas for doing so‌ Step 1: Map strengths and weaknesses Step 2: Take power: explain how and why the voluntary sector can add value Step 3: Create alliances, set clear goals and priorities, solve the problems 14