David Wilcox's List: Big Society

Lotsa Helping Hands was created to support family caregivers by empowering their family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, and church or synagogue members – what we call a family’s ‘circles of community’ – who are eager to help them as they manage the daily tasks that become a challenge during times of family or medical crisis, caregiver exhaustion, or when caring for an elderly parent.

I think that some of the core ideas in Big Society - like mutual support, small group action to benefit neighbourhood life, and devolution of decision making - get mutters rather than shouts of support for several reasons.
First, they produce: Yes, but many people have been doing that for years, what's new? Second, I may like the idea, but not with a Big Society label. Third, if we accept these are good ideas, and we should do more, what's the framework for action just when support organisations are losing staff through cuts?
We need some common ground of practical policies to support ideas that can get common consent.

Whatever else you might say about Big Society, it’s got people debating the kind of communities and government they want with an energy that hasn’t been evident for many years.

I was asked to say a bit at the end about the Big Society in the North and the idea of Our Society that’s developing from it. Here are a few of my thoughts:

Whatever else you might say about Big Society, it’s got people debating the kind of communities and government they want with an energy that hasn’t been evident for many years.

I was asked to say a bit at the end about the Big Society in the North and the idea of Our Society that’s developing from it. Here are a few of my thoughts:

Big Society has implications for effective commissioning, as budgets and accountability become increasingly devolved to community groups and away from councils and central government. OPM are part of the Springboard consortium delivering the Commissioning Support Programme (CSP) since 2008. Together with Kindle, CSP recently launched its own paper on the role of commissioning

New ResPublica blogpost - 8 policy principles for #BigSociety - http://j.mp/hu7MW4 #localism #civilsociety #socialcapital

Revisiting Associative Democracy draws together the ideas and thoughts of a group of people who met, discussed and developed Paul Hirst's views on Associative Democracy. Overall, there was a strong sense that our lives, our economy, democracy and public sector have for a long time been limited by an individualised, abstract and largely economistic set of beliefs and practices. We need to think about and develop more collaborative, effective and human ways of working and making decisions, and Paul's work is hugely valuable resource for doing this.

Covers:
What's the idea?
What is the Government doing to help?
What is the aim of the Big Society?
Where is the Big Society making a difference?
What is the role of charities and other civil societies?
So how can people get involved?

If #bigsociety is "in crisis" http://bit.ly/dNOAMU Andrew Adonis hs solutns http://bit.ly/hgNarF in @theRSAorg journal @thebigsociety

On the basis of the consultation, we have prioritised actions for the Government, the business sector, voluntary and civil society organisations, and Business in the Community.

Our members are saying they are willing to get more engaged directly and through their ability to influence other businesses and we will redouble our efforts to use our expertise and networks, to create an overarching framework to turn the aspiration of a big society into a reality.

The coalition government has outlined its vision of a society run at the local level, with councils, businesses and ordinary citizens working together to create more effective public services. Here, we look at some of the ways in which the Big Society is becoming a reality.

A report from the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) claims that the Coalition's plans for the Big Society could be in trouble.

NCVO, which represents thousands of charities and voluntary groups in England, claims that many charities which provide social care activities are at risk of closure due to national and local authority budget cuts, and that this places the ideal for a Big Society at risk.

The report called Funding the Future, launched by NCVO's CEO Stuart Etherington (pictured) said there were two scenarios open to voluntary organisations in the current climate with one presenting a a radically altered model of delivery through co-production with service users and totally new funding arrangements.

Chidren’s minister Tim Loughton has confirmed that the majority of funds in the Big Society Bank will be used to fund youth projects.
Loughton, who was speaking at the National Council for Voluntary Youth Services’ annual conference, said he had won the battle to keep most of the funds in the Big Society Bank for projects benefitting young people.
He added that the government hoped the bank would be up and running by June, not April as has been previously stated. 

Are you interested in young peoples' social action? Then join Catch22 in building their social action coalition to help deliver the second biggest pilot of the National Citizen Service!

Giving a generation of young people life-changing experiences is no small challenge. But with your support we can do just that, and on a scale never achieved before in the UK.

Catch22 and partners are inviting organisations of all kinds to join us in making the National Citizen Service - a flagship Government initiative – a truly inspiring experience for young people. Businesses, charities, community groups, local residents, schools, local councils, and of course young people, are all joining together to be part of this movement for change. Our social action coalition will a real voluntary, public and private sector partnership.

There is widespread feeling that young people will suffer as a result of cuts to the provision of services for young people. Children and Young People now have conducted a study surveying over 138 youth charities and 38 heads of youth services. The study found funding cuts have meant that 82 per cent of charities are having to cut youth projects. Over one third of charities surveyed said that they expect reductions of up to 20 per cent in the coming year, with one in five of them considering closing down.

The Big Society is the government agenda which seeks to give more power to individuals and communities, and make people less reliant on the state. The five themes intended to deliver this goal are to give communities more powers; to encourage people to take an active role in their communities (see trends in volunteering); to transfer power from central to local government (see localism agenda), to support co-ops, mutuals, charities and social enterprises, and to publish government data (see open data). Given the difficult funding climate the agenda is also being linked by some to cuts in public expenditure.

The Big Society Challenge brings together arange of authors to explore the issues surrounding the Big Society. It is part of The Keystone Development Trust Publications series  aimed at understanding issues in challenging policy areas that have a direct impact on communities and promoting dialogue amongst practitioners, policy makers and academics. Keystone Publications are intended to be thought provoking interventions in policy debates, as well as reportingon primary research. The publications are co-authored by academics and practitioners, often with the support of volunteer researchers and editorial assistants. Download your copy below.

Report by Colin Miller and Gabriel Chanan of PACES reviewing Big Society after six months