Wednesday 14 December 2011

Big Society-No agenda,not communicated and won't happen overnight says report

Remember the Big Society?

Well it doesn't do enough to help 'the little society',without a coherent implementation plan, there is confusion over message,and smaller charities face barriers in contracting and commissioning policies.

That's the findings of The House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee NAVCA) which has published its report into the Big Society,one of the cornerstones of David Cameron's election manifesto.

The report says that the Big Society will not occur overnight, it will take a generation.

It says that the government has failed to communicate this and the public are confused by it.

The Work Programme has also caused the voluntary and community sector to express serious reservations about the implementation of the Government's ambitions in practice.

It calls for a single Big Society Minister with a cross-cutting brief, to drive through the Big Society agenda and an impact assessment, applied to every Government policy, statutory instrument, and new Bill, which asks the simple question: "what substantively will this do to build social capital, people power, and social entrepreneurs?"

The report warns that without this the Big Society agenda will fail.

Bernard Jenkin MP, Chairman of PASC, said:

"The Prime Minister has placed the Big Society project at the centre of his political agenda and it occupies a central place in the Coalition Agreement.

"However, so far, the government has not been clear enough about what the Big Society means in practical terms. There is a lot of confusion among the public and the new providers how the Big Society policies are expected work in practice. Not all public services are suitable to be delivered by charities and not all charities are willing or capable of delivering services."

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