Nurturing Big Society in the NorthWest

Sheila BattersbyOffice for Civil Society14 June 2011

Key themes of the Coalition’s programme for government include freedom, fairness, responsibility, the Big Society and big citizens, decentralisation and,

most urgently, deficit reduction

MeansValues

FreedomFrameworks that support social responsibility and civil liberties

FairnessThose who cannot, we always help

ResponsibilityThose who can, do

Decentralisation

Public Service Reform

Political Reform

A Smaller State

Deficit Reduction and Economic Recovery

A successful Big Society will deliver economic prosperity and opportunity for all, strong families and

communities, and a thriving democracy characterised by real power in the hands of every citizen.

A Big Society matched by Big Citizens

The Prime Minister’s Vision of Big Society

• The whole approach of building a bigger, stronger, more active society involves something of a revolt against the top-down, statist approach of recent years

• It combines three clear methods to bring people together to improve their lives and the lives of others: devolving power to the lowest level so neighbourhoods take control of their destiny: opening up our public services, putting trust in professionals and power in the hands of the people they serve: and encouraging volunteering and social action so people contribute more to their community

• The big society doesn’t apply to one area of policy, but many

• We are not naively hoping the seeds will grow everywhere of their own accord: we are helping to nurture them.

• This is not another government initiative – its about giving you the initiative to take control of your life and work with those around you to improve things. It has the power to transform our country. That’s why the big society is here to stay.

What does the Big Society mean for voluntary, community and social enterprise sector involvement in public services?

“We will support the creation and expansion of mutuals, co-operatives, charities and social

enterprises, and enable these groups to have much greater involvement in the running of

public services.”

The Coalition: Our Programme for Government – May 2010

What does the Big Society mean for the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector?

“We will promote the radical devolution of power and greater financial autonomy to local

government and community groups.”

“We will introduce new powers to...give communities the right to bid to take over local

state-run services.”

The Coalition: Our Programme for Government – May 2010

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What does Big Society mean for the public sector ?

“We will give public sector workers a new right to form employee-led co-operatives and bid to

take over the services they deliver”

The Coalition: Our Programme for Government – May 2010

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Growing the Big Society

Community empowerment

Examples include:

• 258 applications to set up a free school, of which 40 have been approved to business case stage and 9 approved to set up in September 2011 or 2012.

• Freeing local government from central government diktat: most local government grants will be de-ring fenced from 2011-12.

• Local Authorities required from 2011 to publish information on all spending over £500 locally, giving community activists and local enterprises a vast swathe of information about the way that money flows locally.

What’s Being Done?

Social action

Examples include:

• 12 organisations have already been appointed to run the 2011 National Citizen Service pilots, reaching over 10,000 16 year olds in England

• 5000 Community Organisers will bring a strong understanding of local needs and catalyse social action by neighbourhood groups.

• Some functions of the Big Society Bank confirmed in April 2011 – funded with £60m to £100m from dormant bank accounts in England.

What’s Being Done?

Opening up public services

Examples include:

• 141 Pathfinder GP consortia have now been set up, covering 28.6m people (more than 50% of the population)

• Right to challenge allows local VCS to express an interest in running a local authority service, and where accepted bid in subsequent procurement exercise.

• Opening up public services to a more diverse range of suppliers: 21 mutual pathfinders launched across public services

What’s Being Done?

The six essential actions for decentralisation

Big Government

Big Society

http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/decentralisationguide

Community Budgets and Local Integrated Services Pilots

• 16 community budget pilots – Blackpool, Blackburn with Darwen, Greater Manchester (10 authorities)

• Areas can pool Whitehall funding and are tackling social problems around families with complex needs – intend to roll out this approach by 2013/4

• Nine Local integrated services pilots – Blackburn with Darwen, Chester West and Chester, Tameside and Warrington in the North West

• Exploring integration of services, local commissioning, with community involvement core to this approach. Prevention and early intervention are common themes.

Community Budgets: The challenge around families with multiple problemsUniversal Services1

Education - £583m

Child benefits - £113m

GP/NHS costs - £31m

Targeted Services2

Welfare benefits - £753m

Mental health treatment - £21m

Parenting support - £53m

Drug treatment - £10m

£727m universal spend/yr

£837mtargeted spend/yr

Reactive spend3

Children going into care, hoax fire calls, nuisance behaviour costs, juvenile criminality costs, truancy costs, alternative education costs, vandalism, evictions due to ASB

£2.5bn reactive spend/yr

1 DfE 2010-11 planned pupil funding. HMRC website. NHS costs taken from NHS expenditure in England 2009, entitlement benefits HMRC, education costs taken from DfE planned educational spend 2010/112 Unit costs taken from the following sources Dept of Health supplied figures (drugs, alcohol & mental health, Home Office (Dynamic Benefits report – Welfare) all other unit costs from published research Steve

Parrott and Christine Godfrey, Family Intervention Projects: Assessing potential cost-effectiveness University of York, 2008 (unpublished).3 Unit costs from published research Steve Parrott and Christine Godfrey, Family Intervention Projects: Assessing potential cost-effectiveness University of York, 2008 (unpublished). Distribution of costs to families

based on a sample of 40 families selected by 17 authorities using a standardised methodology (DfE internal analysis)

46,000families

All of these families access universal services…

…and specialist services, (often repeatedly for many years)

but family breakdown and crises still leads to very poor and costly outcomes

NOTE: BROAD ESTIMATES ONLY - does not include costs of criminal justice services.

LIS – A Step Further

Public services

Public sector buildings

Community assets – day care centre

Pubs

Business premises

Volunteers

Charity staff

Private sector staff

Clubs + Social activities

There are still some hard questions.........

• Haven’t we been doing this for years?

• What about the cuts?

• Do people really have the time?

• Will it make any difference?

Building on what’s already there

Development of free schools

Low Carbon in Lancaster

Development Trusts Alt Valley Trust in Merseyside

Big Society developing in The North West Local Integrated Services Pilots in Blackburn, Cheshire West, Tameside and Warrington

Citizenship pilots across the region – Bolton Lads and GirlsClub

The Big Society vanguard in Eden