The Big Society
The concept of the "Big Society" - which was a Conservative Party manifesto promise - has been adopted by the Coalition Government and included in their manifesto. A paper issued by the Cabinet Office gives more details of this.
The aim of the Big Society is to transform relationships between individuals and society, and the state. As such it is both ambitious and wide-ranging. However, because it is so wide-ranging it is a challenging concept to communicate. Indeed, the Conservative Party have admitted that it proved to be a difficult concept to get across during the election.
It is perhaps easiest to understand as being made up of a number of strands. The five strands shown in the table below are taken from the Cabinet Office document (although it is important to note that there does not appear to be five formal strands in the policy). To simplify things some of the individual items have been moved into different strands in the table.
The Big Society |
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| Government Data | | Transfer of Powers | | Planning System | | Support for the Third Sector | | Active role in Communities |
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- The Government with create a "right to data" and government-held datasets will be published on a regular basis
- The Police will publish local crime statistics every month
| | - There will be a devolution of power and financial autonomy to local government
- Local authorities will be given a general power of competence
- Regional Spatial Strategies will be abolished
- Public Sector workers will be given the right to form employee-owned co-operatives and bid too take over public services
| | - The planning system will be reformed to give 'neighbourhoods far more ability to determine the shape of the places in which their inhabitants live'
- New powers will be introduced to help communities save local services threatened with closure and to give communities the right to bid to take over local state-run services
| | - Support the creation and expansion of mutuals, co-operatives, charities and social enterprises and support these groups to have a greater involvement on running public services
- A Big Society Bank will be set up using the funds from dormant bank accounts. This will provide finance for neighbourhood groups, charities, social enterprises and 'other nongovernmental bodies'
- There will be a range of measures to encourage charitable giving and philanthropy
| | - There will be a range of measures to encourage volunteering including a 'Big Society Day'
- 5000 Community Organisers will support the creation of new neighbourhood groups across the UK
- A 'National Citizen Service' will be created for 16-19 year olds
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The introduction of the Big Society will be overseen largely by Nick Hurd and Greg Clark. Nick Hurd is the new Minister for Civil Society, but as an Under Secretary of State this is a more junior post that the post previously occupied by Angela Clarke. Greg Clark is Minister of State in the Department for Communities and Local Government and has been given the task of handing decentralisation.
For the Labour Party, Tessa Jowell as shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office will cover the voluntary sector until the election of a new leader. This follows Angela Smith's loss of her seat at the general election.
At the moment there are few details available to flesh out some of the above policies. Some details are available in the Conservative Party manifesto and while much of this has been adopted, it isn't clear if any of the details have changed.
However it is clear that the Big Society is likely to have a big impact on the work of voluntary and community groups. Many of these promises are likely to be welcomed. This seems to have been the reaction of many large national Charities and Umbrella Bodies. However, as other commentators have indicated that there are still questions to be answered, not least about the availability of funding.
In addition to the introduction of the Big Society, David Cameron has indicated his support for the Compact and his wish to renew it. However, his call for lottery distributors to limit their administrative costs to 5% of total income has led to fears being expressed that this will reduce the number of Big Lottery Awards. New Philanthropy Capital have also criticised this as being too simplistic, as measuring overheads is not an accurate indicator of performance.
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