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."
Showing posts with label big society. Show all posts
Showing posts with label big society. Show all posts
Wednesday, 14 December 2011
Friday, 7 October 2011
Big Society drive to boost local social action begins
This from the cabinet office
The £80 million Community First fund, which will provide small grants to community groups and local social action projects, was opened today by Nick Hurd Minister for Civil Society.
This comes in the same week that the first of 5,000 people to be trained as Community Organisers took up post. These are two flagship Big Society initiatives which together will encourage people to do more to help each other out and give them the tools they need to make a difference.
A Community First website has been opened today which invites people to sign their community up to receive support. Funding will be handed out by panels of local people so communities decide what’s important to them.
The fund is divided into two strands. £30 million will be used to provide small grants. The remaining £50 million will be used to match private donations invested in community endowment funds which will pay out money for small grants well into the future.
The first Community Organisers took up post this week. They have begun a twelve month training programme based in local community groups in eleven places in England supported byy Locality, the Government’s national partner.
They are learning the skills they need to identify local leaders and bring people together to act on what matters to them, including using new powers devolved from government to citizens. They will play an important role organising communities to take advantage of Community First funding. A total of 5,000 Community Organisers will be trained from now to 2015.
The £80 million Community First fund, which will provide small grants to community groups and local social action projects, was opened today by Nick Hurd Minister for Civil Society.
This comes in the same week that the first of 5,000 people to be trained as Community Organisers took up post. These are two flagship Big Society initiatives which together will encourage people to do more to help each other out and give them the tools they need to make a difference.
A Community First website has been opened today which invites people to sign their community up to receive support. Funding will be handed out by panels of local people so communities decide what’s important to them.
The fund is divided into two strands. £30 million will be used to provide small grants. The remaining £50 million will be used to match private donations invested in community endowment funds which will pay out money for small grants well into the future.
The first Community Organisers took up post this week. They have begun a twelve month training programme based in local community groups in eleven places in England supported byy Locality, the Government’s national partner.
They are learning the skills they need to identify local leaders and bring people together to act on what matters to them, including using new powers devolved from government to citizens. They will play an important role organising communities to take advantage of Community First funding. A total of 5,000 Community Organisers will be trained from now to 2015.
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Big Society-Councils should support local charities MP tells conference
Lake District MP Rory Stewart has told a fringe event at the Conservative Party conference that smaller charities should be supported rather than big national ones.
Councils should respond to the government’s emphasis on social value in public service commissioning by supporting small, local charities rather than large national ones, according to Stewart.
Speaking at a fringe event at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, he said: "We find increasingly that big national charities are moving into areas where small local charities used to be. We should use the social value argument to say councils should support the small local charities."
Stewart said many criticisms of the government’s big society agenda had been "misguided". In his constituency, he said, the local community had played a significant role in a local pub buyout, in the design of new affordable housing and in campaigning for broadband internet.
"For us in Cumbria, the big society is about communities rather than charities or the third sector," he said.
Also speaking at the fringe meeting, the decentralisation minister Greg Clark said the Localism Bill, currently before parliament, presented important opportunities for local communities and voluntary groups. "Every public service should have the ethos that it is open to working with the voluntary sector," he said.
Asked by Kevin Curley, chief executive of the local infrastructure body Navca, whether the bill would be seen as a failure if its ‘right to challenge’ led to competitive tender processes that were won by large, for-profit companies rather than charities and community groups, Clark said: "When local authorities consider a challenge, they can consider social value. This is very much a community right to challenge."
Source The Third Sector
Councils should respond to the government’s emphasis on social value in public service commissioning by supporting small, local charities rather than large national ones, according to Stewart.
Speaking at a fringe event at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, he said: "We find increasingly that big national charities are moving into areas where small local charities used to be. We should use the social value argument to say councils should support the small local charities."
Stewart said many criticisms of the government’s big society agenda had been "misguided". In his constituency, he said, the local community had played a significant role in a local pub buyout, in the design of new affordable housing and in campaigning for broadband internet.
"For us in Cumbria, the big society is about communities rather than charities or the third sector," he said.
Also speaking at the fringe meeting, the decentralisation minister Greg Clark said the Localism Bill, currently before parliament, presented important opportunities for local communities and voluntary groups. "Every public service should have the ethos that it is open to working with the voluntary sector," he said.
Asked by Kevin Curley, chief executive of the local infrastructure body Navca, whether the bill would be seen as a failure if its ‘right to challenge’ led to competitive tender processes that were won by large, for-profit companies rather than charities and community groups, Clark said: "When local authorities consider a challenge, they can consider social value. This is very much a community right to challenge."
Source The Third Sector
Friday, 23 September 2011
Cameron's big society will be swept away by civil service inertia says report
Unless the government can rapidly develop and implement a comprehensive plan for cross-departmental reform in Whitehall, the Government's wider ambitions for public service reform, the Big Society, localism and decentralisation will fail.
That's the verdict at least of the Commons Public Administration Select Committee (PASC)in a report out today.
In a stinging attack on the culture of civil servants,the report,"Change in Government: the agenda for leadership", highlights the lack of specialist expertise and other key skills,as well as institutional inertia and complacency within Whitehall.
Its findings include the premise that the traditional model of Civil Service reform through gradual change will not be sufficient for circumstances where the Government proposes rapid decentralisation and reductions in departmental budgets.
The report calls for the Cabinet Office to take charge of Whitehall reform, saying that without a "comprehensive change programme" there would be "little of the real change which was the watchword of David Cameron's manifesto for government".
That's the verdict at least of the Commons Public Administration Select Committee (PASC)in a report out today.
In a stinging attack on the culture of civil servants,the report,"Change in Government: the agenda for leadership", highlights the lack of specialist expertise and other key skills,as well as institutional inertia and complacency within Whitehall.
Its findings include the premise that the traditional model of Civil Service reform through gradual change will not be sufficient for circumstances where the Government proposes rapid decentralisation and reductions in departmental budgets.
The report calls for the Cabinet Office to take charge of Whitehall reform, saying that without a "comprehensive change programme" there would be "little of the real change which was the watchword of David Cameron's manifesto for government".
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