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Big Society 'has led to misleading perceptions of big charities' 3

Governance | Vibeka Mair | 13 Jan 2012

Large charities including NSPCC, RSPCA and the Red Cross have been talking about how to alter public perception that the Big Society is all about big charities guzzling up public sector contracts.

NSPCC’s director of corporate services, Alan Wardle, revealed details about the discussions yesterday at a parliamentary event on the Big Society hosted by think tank ResPublica. He said that a problem with the government’s Big Society agenda was that it was perceived as being about big charities delivering services.

“There is a perception that large charities are guzzling up public sector contracts, against an agenda of cuts,” he said. “But, we receive less than 10 per cent of our income from the state. Discussions have been held by other big charities in a similar position this week.

“Many household-name charities are not dependent on the state. In fact they run services in parallel to the state for free,” he added.

Wardle told civilsociety.co.uk that charities such as NSPCC, British Red Cross and the RSPCA, were in the early stages of thinking about how to start a more nuanced discussion around the Big Society agenda:

"Some large charities do take lots of public contracts and we recognise that - but it's been the dominant narrative," he said. "The conversation has to become more nuanced. Large charities also have great, engaging stories to tell around social action, volunteering and innovation.

"There is early thinking about how we might start these discussions within government departments."

Collaboration needed between big and small

At the event, Phillip Blond, director of ResPublica, who is regarded as one of the architect’s of the government’s Big Society agenda, agreed there was a problem that people saw the 'big versus small' relationship as negative:  

“We need big and small in a healthy world,” he said. “We need to redefine the relationship of prime and subs. It’s dangerous for small players if there are incumbent larger partners, and larger players have more responsibility than the smaller end. 

“Big players were asked to support the smaller players. This created a monopoly form of capitalism, where dominant players squeezed others. We need a new model of capitalism, with joint-venture models.”

The controversial phrase 'Tesco charity' also cropped up at the event, which had speeches on the Big Society from Blond; Bernard Jenkin, chair of the Public Administration Select Committee; Allison Ogden-Newton, chief executive of Social Enterprise London; and Danny Kruger, chief executive of Only Connect.

Jenkin, who had had recently used the 'Tesco charity' phrase in a report on the Big Society, insisted the sector should not view the term ‘perjoratively,’ asserting that Tesco was a “very fine business” and he wished public services were run so well.

He also said the personalisation agenda would create a diverse market for public services.

“That’s why supermarkets work. You are not told what to have. Purchasing power empowers a person.” 

In response, Ogden-Newton said there was a big difference between public service consumers and commercial consumers:

“People go to Tesco because they want to,” she said. “If you go to a public service it’s often not a choice. So intuitively the sector gets offended by the comparison.”

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