The spending review confirmed the government's intention to engage with the sector via its Big Society agenda, but how do we get the rest of society to follow suit, asks Niki May Young.
The sector breathed out yesterday after months of bated breath awaiting news of just how deep their sector would be affected in the sharpest spending review since just after World War II.
What we learned had highs, (£470m for Big Society advancement and citizen service, and increased investment in health and international aid) and lows, (Charity Commission would feel the sharp end of cuts forcing it to lose 140 staff) but what we are left with, inevitably, is more questions.
And many of them have arisen from the Big Society agenda. Nobody seems to know quite where they lie in the scheme or things, or indeed what the Big Society means – is it a cloak for cuts? Does it simply shift the balance from big government to small government and ask us all to pick up a shovel and dig in? The parity with post-World War II is becoming all the more apparent. A nostalgic understanding of the term, where Big Society means reverting to a “golden age” where everybody pitched in, is rife.
But in all truth, we don’t exist in that golden age. Pressurised lives where everybody is expected to work, travel further distances to work because property prices are too high, be a parent, be a carer to others in your family, grow your own veg, cook your own food, socialise more because society demands it – where is the time to get stuck in to communal social action? And where would we start if we tried?
We need much better promotion of volunteering opportunities, particularly now when the UK is expected to step up, get involved, take part. At a roundtable discussion last night about sustainability of the Big Society Philip Blond dared mention that the average person doesn’t know how to engage with the sector. Scowls were exchanged by other panel members, who reminded him of volunteering centres as an entry point, but I caught myself thinking…he’s right. Until I actively searched for opportunities in the sector myself, I had no idea where those opportunities lay. I became involved with a charity simply by falling upon it on a local website. I liked the look of it and I contacted them offering my services. But I had no idea about volunteering centres, about the Charity Commission, or about appropriate ways to get involved with charities to pitch in.
The problem is there is no single access point for information on getting involved, only a series of many offering limited information. Where does someone who has never engaged with the sector go to pick the charity that best suits them, learn about the opportunities that are available, contact the right person in the organisation and become a part of, not just a donor to, civil society.
The question I think the sector should now be asking itself is how do we as an entity, as a 'movement', engage with the Big Society concept and get the whole of society to engage with us?
