Big Society

The Big Society, as the coalition government sees it, is a society in which citizens feel empowered to change aspects of their community for themselves rather than the government providing it.

Most people who work in this field will tell you it’s not a new idea. It has, in fact, been present in our communities for a very long time. There are around 1 million community groups, over 200,000 social entrepreneurs plus countless charities and voluntary organisations in the UK.

But what will this policy mean for the voluntary sector?

Where are we now?

On the one hand, the government is making things financially harder for the voluntary sector, which has not been spared from spending cuts. Nearly a quarter of charities in the UK are partly funded by the government, with 23,000 charities relying on local government funding for more than half of their income, according to the National Council for Voluntary Organisations. Many of these have already lost funding. The Charity Commission, which regulates and administers the affairs of all UK charities, is also facing cuts, losing a third of its budget.

Tighter budgets mean funders will need to make tougher decisions when granting money and look harder to find groups that have a larger impact.

On the other hand, the government is seeking to encourage the voluntary sector to fill part of the gap in services and encourage people to start community initiatives through a variety of new measures and legislation. Essentially, it is opening up public services to the private and voluntary sector, and getting rid of legislation and bureaucracy that it says will make starting a community group easier.

Many of these measures are still in the planning and political process, but here is what is in the pipeline at the moment:

• The Big Society Network, a registered charity, has been set up to support the Big Society vision of the government. It is intended to “generate, develop and showcase new ideas to help people come together to do good things”.

• The Big Society Bank, set up by the government, is intending to loan money to community groups, social enterprises, charities and voluntary groups, to help them get going, develop and scale up. The plan is to start investing this summer. Among its goals, the bank is to help staff leave the public service and sell their services back through social enterprises.

• Community First is a new fund intended to encourage social action through new and existing neighbourhood groups. The fund is meant for groups in areas with high levels of deprivation.

• The National Citizens Service (NSC) is a new government initiative to recruit thousands of 16 year olds to volunteer.

• 5,000 community organizers are to receive training to help facilitate local action and give support to groups looking to come together.

• The Localism Bill will reform the local planning system, which the government says will empower neighbourhoods by getting rid of red tape and regulation.

• The Government’s Transition Fund is meant to go towards charities to help them prepare for Big Society opportunities and face current challenges. Some money has already been allocated, but the rest is to be allocated after April 2011.

• A new De-regulation Taskforce aims to cut red-tape and regulation, which the Government says will make it easier to run charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises.

• Reforms are going to enable public service employees to form independent employee-owned co-operatives to provide public services.

What does it mean for the Voluntary Sector?

Less local government funding, coupled with reduced public services, will mean greater pressure on the voluntary sector and a more competitive funding application process, as more organisations compete for less money.

However, a large part of the Big Society agenda is to encourage the community and voluntary sector, alongside the private sector, to plug the gap left by reduced public services. So the measures described above, like the Big Society Bank, are designed in part to facilitate this.

Essentially, what this will mean is:

• Easier access to bank loans for the community and voluntary sector, as well as social enterprises (through the Big Society Bank)

• Less bureaucracy and regulation, so that gaining planning permission and setting up a community group or charity should be made easier and less time consuming (through the Localism Bill and the De-regulation Taskforce).

• Further structures and people in place to help facilitate community action (through the Big Society Network, the National Citizens Service (NCS), and the 5,000 trained community leaders).

Who in Government is working on the ‘Big Society’ agenda?

The Office for Civil Society, part of the Cabinet Office, works across government departments to translate the Big Society agenda into policies and provide support to voluntary and community organisations. It is responsible for delivering a number of key Big Society programmes, including the Big Society Bank, National Citizen Service pilots, Community Organisers and the Community First fund.

A new task force has also been set up between the Cabinet Office and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), to cut red tape, and reduce regulation, monitoring and reporting imposed on charities, social enterprises and voluntary organisations.

Cabinet Office links for Big Society