Big society seminar prof. pete alcock
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Big society seminar prof. pete alcock
- 1. The Big Society: New Direction or Empty Space? Pete Alcock University of Birmingham
- 7. Cabinet Office Policy Programme
- 14. Workforce composition
- 16. Year-on-year increases in income
- 17. Year-on-year declines of more than 25%
- 19. Where is the Civic Core?
Editor's Notes
- Hugo Young speech first major public platform – Cameron’s idea Cameron repeated Big Society ideas in April 2010 election speech But much longer roots in Conservative thinking – Deakin identified similar themes in 1980s Thatcher ministers Jose Harris paper takes the concept back to ‘Great Society’ writings of 19 th and early 20 th centuries Problem here is openness of concept – return to this later…..
- Appointment of Nat Wei to Lords as Advisor on Big Society – resigned in 2011 citing pressure of this voluntary role on his need to work! Further speeches by Cameron to repeat commitment to Big Society, plus Frances Maude (Cabinet Office lead) and (most recent) Nick Hurd (Minister for Civil Society – letter to third sector leaders Oct 11)
- Use of Civil Society challenges notion of sector – could be divisive for sector compared to partnership discourse of New Labour Civil Society has older and broader roots – and debate about whether it is a sector or a form of social interaction, see Evers… But commitments non-contentious, not new – motherhood and apple pie!
- Centre right needed new narrative to respond to recession and New Labour third way. Distance from neo-liberalism and free markets Distance from state/public sector – by associating this with New Labour profligacy and failure New narrative also able to incorporate Liberal Democrat concerns with localism and citizen rights.
- Much of rhetoric political and terminological distancing from New Labour – this will fade with time Is Big Society just ‘not the Big State’? Return to this later May depend on policy programmes that will put it into practice
- £10m fund for fledgling mutuals to reach investment readiness Linked to localism below Taskforces to come up with ideas – but not much use of existing infrastructure and expertise White paper needs more details for implementation – DWP Work Programme has excluded VCS providers ‘ I expect the Big Society Bank to become operational and start making investments in early 2012’ Hurd Nov11 Nick O’Donohoe (former JP Morgan) to be CEO.
- Localism a key Liberal Democrat priority Right to Provide and Right to Challenge in Localism Act – but not much more that procedural rights. Vanguards announced by Cameron in July 2010 speech, little preparation (Liverpool CC knew nothing!). No resources for vanguards, no clear agenda – ideas to emerge ‘bottom-up’, eg. running libraries, post offices and pubs, delivering local broadband. Liverpool CC withdrew 2 Feb 2011 – Phil Redmond (Brookside), Cameron’s champion said: no support, too top down, nothing new, not enough to build on what is already there
- Pilots for NCS this summer – only 8,500 of 11,000 places filled – 30,000 planned for next year – Princes Trust has withdrawn as provider – to be delivered by DfE after 2012. Locality training community organisers first cohort now in place. Community grants and endowments require matched funding
- Strategic Partners – all main infrastructure agencies – cut from 42 to 11 – excluded equalities organisations (Voice4Change), though they later got one-off £297,000 contract Funding cut from £12.2m to £4m in 2011 - £3m in 2012, £2m in 2013, then zero - major redundancies in NCVO, NAVCA, VE, etc £30m Transforming Local Infrastructure Fund – delivered by BIG lottery NCVO predict £2.8bn loss for sector by 2015.
- Although some innovation (National Citizens Service – but this at cost of other volunteering support, eg. V), policy direction similar to Labour – especially in expectations of sector roles OCS maintains government commitment to engage directly with sector and co-ordinate policy at centre of government – but cutting back and restructuring limits that, will it survive??
- Research evidence suggests significant changes unlikely NCVO predicts £2.8bn in lost support Work Programme puts delivery in hands of private sector primes – Hurd admits this has not led to expected role for VCS organisations
- i.e. % percentage of organisations recording an increase in income from year-to-year A few points to note relating to all of the slides 1. Date of financial records The data are based on comparing consecutive financial years. For example, 2011 on the graph is comparing: -financial year ending sometime in the period April 2010-March 2011, with: -financial year ending sometime in the period April 2009-March 2010. 2. There is a lag of about 10 months between the end of a financial year and when charities have to submit their annual return, which is why the data that we have isn’t even more recent. 3. Since these are comparing just between one financial year and the next, I haven’t adjusted for inflation here. 4. Note that the scale on the y-axis doesn’t always start at 0.
- Percentage of organisations showing year-on-year declines in income of more than 25%.
- Political rhetoric like Labour’s ‘Third Way’? Labour now developing alternative discourse – Good Society Loss of support from Nat Wei and Phil Redmond damaging
- Devolution – different policies and politics in Scotland, Wales and N Ireland Different political configuration after 2011 elections – Nationalists in Scotland, Minority Labour in Wales, DUP/Sinn Fein/etc Assembly in NI Similar policies being pursued in Scotland, Wales and N Ireland – but without Big Society Rhetoric…..
- Big Society concept is vague – this creates space for interested parties to claim that space, and develop discourses of Big Society to shape it. Labour now reconsidering its position – developing rhetoric of ‘Good Society’ National Coalition for Independent Action – self-appointed voice of ‘real’ VCS