The Big Society - What is it?



The Big Society- Does he get it?



The Tories in opposition and also now in government have had the Big Society as a main plank of their social and economic policy. Citizens will participate fully in society by contributing their time and effort for free to run services and help each other.In a recent speech David Cameron stated that this is not "add on" but a central part of what the government wishes to achieve. HM Treasury's Green book on option\project appraisal will be revised to include the "social value" of projects as well as their economic return. Quite how "social value" will be measured is still a bit unclear, I remember from my university days examining cost benefit analysis of large public sector schemes,the analysis was far from value free and it really did depend on how you defined and measured costs and benefits to determine whether a project was socially justifiable. I suspect the same will apply here. Having strong and socially responsible communities is extremely desirable,but realistically,in the light of the most severe public spending cuts since the end of WW2, how easy will that be to achieve? Many third sector organisations depend, to a large degree,on public sector funding,therefore it is difficult to estimate how many of them or indeed how many professionals, will take over local services under the localism agenda. There is a danger that under the open public services agenda large non local organisations will take over these services with little local responsibility unless such moves are restricted by any forthcoming legislation.



I am a person who has done his fair share of charity work and know how rewarding it can be, but it also takes up a lot of time as well. Social enterprise is part of the solution,businesses that are run at a profit offering the community valuable products and services,however the profit motive is not the overriding factor;social objectives of the business are equally important e.g. re-investing in the business itself and the local area and community,providing the community with employment, providing employment to socially marginalised and disadvantaged groups.these are also important as well.

Philip Blond in his book "Red Tory" envisaged a society where local\regional firms and institutions were strong and non-speculative community banks supported local industries\firms. Society would not be dominated by large monopolistic firms and institutions which would stifle local initiatives -- I haven't heard these ideas being considered in the Tories" vision of the Big Society. There is much more to the notion of the Big Society than we constantly hear being debated in the media. We need to take a wider view of what it does mean.