The Big Society Problem... Part One

I love my job. I work for Exeter Council for Voluntary Service as their Business & Services Development Manager. In a nutshell, it is our job to work with voluntary & community groups to help them to establish themselves, to work effectively, and to develop and flourish. We deliver consultancy, business planning advice, training, guidance on governance, and help with recruiting and managing volunteers. My job - if you like - is to get people involved and active in their communities, to promote social action.

On March 15th we will be hosting a showcase event at Exeter University's Innovation Centre  where people can come and be trained in social action, and be inspired by stories of local people who have got involved and made a difference in communities. Not just communities in Exeter - our "active citizens" have developed links to Ethiopia, Kenya, Croatia, Slovenia, Romania and more. So I tweeted a plug for our event, as we often use social media to promote what is going on at CVS.

A day later I had a reply from a local Tory activist who, flatteringly perhaps, follows me rather closely. "Social Action - the heart of the modern Conservative party" he said, "...glad we finally agree on something." I couldn't let that go. I live and breathe the community sector, I care passionately about it - I have worked almost all my career with community groups, and I know how the sector is faring under this government. Things are bad, and getting worse. 

So this post is for anyone else who ever believed that the "Big Society" vision was anything other than window-dressing as part of the Tory attempt to "decontaminate the brand". After Margaret Thatcher had so famously declared in the 1980s that "there is no such thing as society", the Tories were desperate to show that they could "talk community" as well as the next party. 

First off, no one within the Conservative party itself seems to quite know or understand what the "Big Society" is supposed to be, and they certainly do not seem very committed to it. For a "flagship policy", or "the heart of the modern Conservative party" as my local Tory follower would have it, it doesn't appear to have much "buy-in". The ministerial committee that was responsible for promoting the Big Society agenda and ensuring it was embedded within all levels of government hasn't met since March 2011. Almost a year.

The very concept of volunteering it is simply not understood by ministers. I attend the All Party Parliamentary Group for Volunteering at the House of Commons most months, and while there had an opportunity to have a discussion with a prominent West Country Conservative MP who mentioned the Big Society. "Interesting," I said, "tell me, how exactly would you sum up the Big Society project?"

"Well," he said, "...you know... it's people like you. Doing what you do. Your lot doing the good work you do instead of the government doing it."

"I see." I said, "And how will that be paid for?"

"Ah, well that's the point," he said, looking very pleased with himself, "it's free, isn't it?"

No. No It isn't. Volunteering and social action costs money to support. The community sector contributes a huge amount to our society and our communities, but it is not free. Volunteers need advice and guidance to find the opportunities that best suit their passions, their experience, their skills. The organisations that host volunteers need support to recruit them, to ensure they comply with the law. If the volunteer also receives benefits then they need advice on how to be active without jeopardising their benefit entitlement. Volunteers need training and developing. They need management, and management costs. 

In times of hardship the sector needs more investment, not less - not least because more people want to use our services when times are hard. Voluntary sector organisations can offer more "bang for your buck" than a profit-making company because - by definition - some of its outputs will be achieved through volunteering. Eric Pickles - the Local Government minister - made a plea to Local Authorities not to simply achieve their required cuts targets by cutting the local voluntary sector unreasonably. 

Nick Hurd

Unfortunately, Tory-led Nottinghamshire County Council made sweeping cuts to their charities. The Chief Executive of the National Association for Voluntary & Community Action (NACVA) called on the government to intervene - after all, Nottinghamshire had flagrantly gone against the advice of the minister. Nick Hurd, the Minister for Civil Society (in theory responsible for the voluntary sector) was asked whether the government would step in. No, he said - that was not the government's role. "Councils answer to their people, not the government." So it seems that perhaps the "guidance" from Pickles had no teeth when dealing with councils led by his own party.

Except, the following day, Pickles said he would intervene after all (if you call a stern letter "intervening"), so it would appear that one part of government is not at all clear or talking to other parts about what its stance on the relationship between national government, local government and the voluntary sector actually is.

If "social action is at the heart of the modern Conservative party", it might want to get that heart looked at...!

Eric Pickles. And a thumb. (The thumb is on the right.)

Next post we will look at how charities and community groups are faring under the coalition