Stephen Pleasants presentation Third Sector Summit

1. 1
The ‘Big Society’
What Does It Mean For Us
Steven Pleasant
Chief Executive Tameside MBC

2. 2
36%- an attempt to create an idealised version of society that
is realistic in some communities but unrealistic in others
25%- an achievable attempt to create a society where people
come together to improve life for their communities
25%- part of an ideological drive to shrink the state
9% - a way of justifying public spending cuts
2% - an idea that is not achievable
What is your attitude to the Big Society concept?

3. 3
The Message
From David Cameron
• Create a Big Society which offers “the potential to completely recast the
relationship between people and the State; citizens empowered; individual
opportunity extended; communities coming together to make lives better”.
• “The time has come for us to think of the voluntary sector as the first sector
…..No matter how difficult the problems facing our society, there is none
so difficult that someone, somewhere, isn’t already solving it through voluntary
action. The question is not whether the sector can do it, but what government
can do to help them do more of it.” – David Cameron
• “A simplistic retrenchment of the state which assumes that better alternatives to
state action will just spring to life unbidden is wrong…. But I see a powerful role
for government in helping engineer that shift (from state action to social action)”.
David Cameron, November 2009.

4. 4
Coalition Policies
Freedom, Fairness, Responsibility
Communities and Local Government (Chapter 4)
• …We will promote decentralisation and democratic engagement, and we will end the era
of top-down government by giving new powers to local councils, communities,
neighbourhoods and individuals.
Social Action (Chapter 27)
• …innovation and enthusiasm of civil society is essential in tackling the social, economic
and political challenges that the UK faces today. We will take action to support and
encourage social responsibility, volunteering and philanthropy, and make it easier for
people to come together to improve their communities and help one another.
But
• The deficit reduction programme takes precedence over any of the other measures
in this agreement, and the speed of implementation of any measures that have a
cost to the public finances will depend on decisions to be made in the
Comprehensive Spending Review.

5. 5
Government Progress
• Draft Big Society Programme (18th
May)
• Cabinet Office Structural Reform Plan (June 2010)
• PSAs gone – Big Society becomes the cross-
departmental policy agenda
• Spending Review 2010: every departmental plan
should focus on ways of supporting Big Society
and mutualism

6. 6
Encourage people to take an active role in their
communities
• Encourage volunteering
• National ‘Big Society Day’
• Encourage charitable giving
• National citizens service (for 16 year olds)
• Community running of local services and facilities
• Community Right to Buy
• Community Right to Bid
• Big Society Bank
• £470 million Capacity Fund

7. 7
Transfer power from central to local
• Greater financial autonomy for local authorities
• General power of competence – acting in the best interests
of their communities
• Abolish regional strategies, RDAs and Regional
Government Offices
• Abolition of CAA and Audit Commission
• Free schools/academies – new providers to enter the state
school system
• Abolition of PCTs/health commissioning to be given to local
GPs
• Promise of more support to co-ops, mutuals, charities and
social enterprises

8. 8
Why is a thriving voluntary and community sector
important?
Generational Trends in Civic Engagement (Education Held Constant)
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970
Year of Birth
Percentage
Voted in
Presedential
Election
Reads Newspaper
Daily
"Most People Can
Be Trusted"
Worked on
CommunityProject
Member of Group
Interested in
Politics
Attends Church
Regularly
Attends Club
Regularly

9. 9
The research tells us areas with a thriving
voluntary and community sector tend to :
• Have better outcomes for children and young
people
• Be safer and cleaner
• Be more prosperous
• Have better health

10. 10
Some facts about inequality
7.2 ratio
The number of times richer the richest 5th
are than the present
5th
3rd
The place the UK occupies on the income inequality group
league table
40% since 1974
The percentage increase in inequality in this country

11. 11
Resilience?
“The ability of an area to withstand and respond to
shocks in the external environment”

12. 1212
Index of health and social problems
•Japan
•Sweden
Netherlands .
•Canada
•Spain
•Switzerland
Italy .
•Australia
•New Zealand
Norway .
Finland .
•Belgium
Denmark .
Germany .
Austria . France .
•Ireland
•Greece
•UK
•Portugal
Low High
Worse
Better
•Japan
•USA

13. 13

14. 14
1 Elmbridge 315 Walsall
2 St Albans 316 Hartlepool
3 Waverley 317 Ashfield
4 Richmond upon Thames 318 Barrow-in-Furness
5 Mole Valley 319 Redcar and Cleveland
6 Hart 320 City of Kingston upon Hull
7 Horsham 321 Sandwell
8 Surrey 322 Stoke-on-Trent
9 Chiltern 323 Mansfield
10 South Cambridgeshire 324 Middlesbrough
Local authority rankings (top and bottom ten)

15. 15
Resilience in the North West
Bottom ten LADs in region (national rankings shown)
296 Wigan
298 Rochdale
299 St Helens
300 Oldham
301 Hyndburn
303 Blackpool
305 Pendle
307 Tameside
314 Burnley
318 Barrow-in Furness

16. 1616
Tameside Works First
Building Economic Resilience
• Grant funding to develop employment sites
• £200 million transport investment – “conurbation accelerators”
• £14 million invested in supporting local businesses
• 146 companies already helped, 661registered
• 90% invoices for SME paid within 10 days
• Tameside Business Family
• Tameside Business Summits
• Buy with Confidence – nearly 180 businesses accredited
• Meet the Buyer/Seller
• New pooled apprentice scheme
• £250 million school build programme

17. 1717
Schools for the Future
• Partnership with housing provider, local colleges, University and
local businesses
• 2010 - Record GCSE results and KS2 Results
• All 19 secondary schools - £200m BSF build programme
• On site with 10 schools
• Over £100m spent with local firms
• Local apprenticeships
• Homeless placements
• Student engagement
• FJF Placements

18. 1818
Building Community Resilience
• £3 million investment in VCS last year
• New Community Chest Fund - £250k
• New volunteer strategy – supported by LSP
• Future Jobs Fund – 700 new job opportunities
• Working Neighbourhoods Fund – supporting 3000
people into work
• Opening doors for older people supporting over 2,700
people
• Welfare and debt advice - £5.7m p.a in additional benefit
take-up

19. 1919
Building Environmental Resilience eg
• Over £10million in refitting homes and businesses
• Heatseeker Programme
• Britain in Bloom winners 2009– 5 years running
• National In Bloom winners 2010 – 1st
time

20. 2020
Building Personal Resilience eg
• Adults Service Best Performing in the Country – 3 years
running
• £250m programme to transform Hattersley – highest
residents’ satisfaction of all Neighbourhood Management
Pilots
• Award winning St Peter’s Partnerships
• Pioneering credit unions, in place since 2004 with 2,500
members
• Child Poverty Strategy – 15 new children’s centres and
early years (total place) pilot area
• Routes to Work - Park Café and Caterham Car
• Integrated offender management – 40% reduction in
offending

21. 21
Big Society
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