A panel of charity experts has expressed misgivings with the Big Society agenda, but still urges the civil society sector to engage with David Cameron’s flagship policy. Vibeka Mair reports on the debate.
The Big Society is a year old, but not it seems, a year wiser. Acevo’s new report from its Commission on the Big Society finds 78 per cent of the public and 30 per cent of charities are unclear about what the Big Society is.
In response, the charity sector should grab hold and make the Big Society its own, said acting chief executive of Acevo Peter Kyle, at a panel debate on the Big Society organised by the Charity Law Conference last week.
The debate, which was chaired by Bates Wells and Braithwaite partner Rosamund McCarthy, included Kyle, Matthew Taylor, CEO of the Royal Society of Arts, and BWB partners Stephen Lloyd and Lord Andrew Phillips.
They expressed support for the Big Society rhetoric, but also voiced concerns about how the government was carrying out its agenda:
- Kyle said the government was yet to illuminate the Big Society with concise and crunchy policy, and noted that much of the Big Society’s programmes, such as National Citizen Service and Community Organisers were centrally commissioned.
- Taylor complained that government had no hard evidence that people wanted be part of the Big Society. It had failed to account for persuading citizens to engage, he said, describing the Big Society as a “sociological experiment with no empirical basis”.
- Lloyd said the Big Society theory lacked an appreciation of the power of money and markets, calling it “naïve” in an era of big financial markets, to not include them in the Big Society debate.
However, suggestions from the audience that the charity sector should withdraw from the Big Society agenda completely were not supported by the panel, with Kyle especially insisting that charities could not be absent from the Big Society debate, and had to make it their own.
Senior Labour MPs have made a similar call to their party. Shadow minister for the Cabinet Office Tessa Jowell recently said at a NCVO reception that Labour needed to take back the Big Society.
“Whatever the temptation, this is Labour territory and we shouldn’t vacate it,” she said. “Because, if truly fulfilled, the Big Society is Labour’s agenda. As an idea, it speaks to Labour’s principles of localism, mutualism and, yes, collectivism.”
Labour already appears to be acting on this. The BBC reports that “Blue Labour” could be the Labour Party’s radical answer to the Big Society.
It is the brainchild of academic and community organiser Lord Maurice Glasman and shares a similar philosophy with the Big Society, including giving power back to communities; and the forming of mutuals and co-operatives.
General optimism
The tenor of the Charity Law Conference debate on the Big Society was overall one of optimism. Despite ongoing concerns from the audience about cuts to the sector, most still seem compelled by the Big Society’s premise of community ownership and action. And panellists praised David Cameron for opening the debate - it remains to be seen whether the government will effectively translate this into concrete success.
