The Big Society: Opportunity or Threat

1
The Big Society Opportunity or Threat

• Pete Alcock
• University of Birmingham

2
Labour Government Legacy

• Third Sector
• Partnership
• Strategic investment
• Political profile
• Growth in public support
• 2008 13 bn 36 of charity income
• (England and Wales, Charities, NCVO Almanac,
  2010)

3
Grants and Contracts2000/1 2007/8
4
General Election Campaign

• Consensus welcome third sector.
• Public service delivery
• Community engagement
• Compact
• Social Investment Bank

5
General Election Campaign

• Concerns in campaigning by third sector
• About impact of recession
• About public spending cuts
• Ambiguity over Conservatives Big Society agenda

6
Coalition Government Big Society back

• May 18 PM and DPM
• Big Society at the heart of public sector
  reform
• July 19 PM
• Liverpool Big Society speech my great passion

7
Office for Civil Society

• OCS replaces OTS - retains Cabinet Office role
• Minister for Cabinet Office Francis Maude
• Minister for Civil Society Nick Hurd
• House of Lords Baroness Warsi
• Big Society advisor (Lord)Nat Wei

8
Office for Civil Society

• Dropping of Third Sector that term has now
  been abolished, PM
• Cabinet Office priorities
• Making it easier to run voluntary organisations
• Making it easier for organisations to work with
  the state
• Getting more resources into the sector

9
Building the Big Society

• New policy agenda for OCS to deliver Big Society
• Easier to set-up and run charities, social
  enterprises and voluntary organisations mutuals
  taskforce, new Compact
• Public sector workers to create employee-owned
  co-operatives - right to provide, right to
  challenge

10
Building the Big Society

• Remove red tape market prices for public
  sector contracts (level playing field)
  OCS/BIS taskforce
• Big Society Bank from dormant bank accounts (up
  to 400m)
• National Citizens Service for 16 year olds (pilot
  schemes in summer 2011)
• Big Society Day workplace volunteering (from
  civil service to civic service)

11
Building the Big Society

• Train new generation of 5000 community
  organisers, to become self-funding
• Devolve power to local government and drive
  down to neighbourhoods and communities
• Four vanguard communities Liverpool,
  Windsor and Maidenhead, Sutton, Eden Valley
  (Cumbria)

12
Building the Big Society

• But other commitments dropped
• Futurebuilders
• Capacitybuilders
• Commission for the Compact
• Or cut
• OCS Strategic partners

13
Big Society Discourses

• Big Society website
• ResPublica support
• Nat Wei Coral Reef analogy
• sea bed public services
• coral growth social and private enterprises
• fish citizens and communities

14
Big Society Rhetoric

• More than Third Sector reform
• a legacy to match the welfare state!
• Mending Broken Britain
• Remixing the Welfare State

15
Mending Broken Britain

• Community empowerment
• What are communities?
• Communities can be exclusive
• Engagement requires time and resources
• Engagement requires skills and knowledge
• Beware the usual suspects.

16
Re-mixing the Welfare State

• Restructuring public services
• Cuts in public expenditure (25)
• Private and third sector delivery
• Market contracting and surpluses
• Floating off worker co-operatives
• Can third sector replace public provision?

17
Re-mixing the Welfare State

• Rethinking public services
• Co-production
• Outcome based commissioning
• Total place
• Personalisation
• What does this mean for Commissioners and TSOs?

18
Third Sector Challenges

• Change in public contracting
• Cuts in public expenditure
• Loss of horizontal support
• Competition with private sector and third sector
  organisations
• Collaboration, subcontracting, and restructuring

19
Public Sector Challenges

• Cuts in service budgets
• Competition in commissioning
• Partnership and collaboration
• Co-production and shift to front line planning
• Outcome focused planning

20
Service Delivery Challenges

• Market failure
• Organisational failure
• Loss of third sector unity
• Loss of public mandate