Big Society
David Cameron announced in spring 2010 his vision for the Big Society and the sector's involvement. He said the government plans to give charities and voluntary groups access to advice from civil servants to help them run local projects and services as part of his big society agenda. A new Big Society Bank has been created, using the funds from dormant bank accounts to support the vision.
A big society ministerial group has been set up to coordinate government departments' efforts to help communities do more for themselves. Eric Pickles and Francis Maude will co-chair the group of 15 ministers.
Jo Curry, Chief Executive of VONNE welcomed the support - but warned the "devil is in the detail". In an article in the Journal she added the "big society" already existed with North East charities helping 500,000 people and employing thousands of staff.
But many were dependent on the public sector and fear having to make staff redundant as spending cuts bite. And she questioned if switching service delivery away from the public sector would save money, saying: "Given the greatest expenditure is on staffing costs, it is absolutely impossible for a charity do it any cheaper."
Here we will focus on the current thinking around the concept, along with examples of Big Society already in action in the North East.
VONNE project - Building Capacity for Big Society
VONNE delivered a project called Building Capacity for Big Society between April and November 2011, supporting voluntary and community sector organisations in the region to work with statutory partners to deliver on the Big Society principles.
Read all out about the consultation events, briefing papers and more at Building Capacity for Big Society
Big Society Summit
In October 2010 VONNE co-ordinated a series of events over a week called the Big Society Summit. You can download the reports from the events below.
Big Society in Action: North East Empowerment Partnership Forum
ippr North "Can a Big Society be a Fair Society?"
A video of soundbites from attendees on what the Big Society means for the North East was filmed at the North East Empowerment Partnership event during the summit week.
Below is a list of case studies we've pulled together of organisations in the North East demonstrating Big Society already in action.
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Latest News
21/11/2011
Laying the Foundations - a housing strategy for England
New Housing Strategy launched today 21st November 2011 The strategy includes an investment of £400m (Get Britain Building fund) for new homes which...
11/11/2011
Localism and housing event report
VONNE hosted an event to explore the impact on housing and homelessness in the region.A report is now available now which summarises the presentations...
08/11/2011
Community Organiser Website
Locality has launched a website all about the Community Organiser programme. So if you want to learn more about the host organisations or the Organisers...
03/11/2011
Big on Equality event - 29th November
A major Conference which will examine how ‘The Big Society' and ‘Localism' are supporting equality in our communities. The Assembly...
31/10/2011
Making Community Buildings Work for Us
Reports and evaluations are now available from the recent event by the Community Alliance North East. follow link
18/10/2011
Help your community become more resilient to changes and challenges
Guide to Resilience for communities from Urban Forum avalable here With the era of austerity upon us and the public spending cuts bringing greater challenges,...
11/10/2011
Volunteering in a Big Society Report
The latest news from the Volunteering in a Big Society event September 2011. Hear who was there and what was debated.
04/10/2011
Volunteer Led Charity Activity Den shares success story
The North East Empowerment Partnership sponsored the Activity Den in Stanley to produce a legagy report to share their story and good practice across...
03/10/2011
NE in the next round of pilots for National Citizen Service
Nick Hurd Minister for Civil Society praised the programmes pilots scheme " Having visited National Citizen Service schemes this summer, I...
02/09/2011
Event on Localism: Exploring the impact on housing and homelessness
The Building Capacity in a Big Society project is hosting an event to explore the impact of the localism bill on housing and homelessness in the region....
Building Capacity for a Big Society
VONNE delivered a project called Building Capacity for Big Society which supported voluntary and community sector organisations in the region to work with statutory partners to deliver on the Big Society principles.
Find out more
Briefings
Community Organisers
Community Organisers is a four year programme which aims to recruit up to 5000 senior and part-time volunteers in England. This programme is a key part of the Coalition government's Big Society initiative. This briefing gives the vision for the programme, the background to the model and how it is being implemented across England.
Community Organisers - July 2011 (PDF 191kb)
The Localism Bill - Getting it "Right"
A new proposal which will dramatically affect the way services are delivered to the public and how individuals and communities engage in public service delivery at a local level is currently going through parliament. Proposals in the bill focus on reducing bureaucracy and increasing powers and freedoms to councils and communities.
The Localism Bill - Getting it "Right" June 2011 (PDF 235kb)
National Citizens Service Programme
This new Government pilot programme is being rolled out this summer and is a key part of the Big Society initiative. Across the country a selection of 11,000 sixteen year olds are being brought together to take part in a community based volunteering scheme.
National Citizens Service Programme August 2011 (PDF 243kb)
Big Society - the programme of measures
In March 2010 the Conservatives launched "Big Society" which has emerged as a cross-cutting Government policy to support and develop the role of local communities to address local issues rather than central government. This briefing explains the program of measures which will underpin this. It details the significant measures for putting local people in control and what thsi means for the sector.
Big Society updated January 2011 (PDF 204kb)
Community Budgets
Placed based spending initiative introduced by the Coalition government in a four year pilot.
Commuity Budgets - Spending public resources collectively for the needs of an area September 2011 (PDF 192kB)
Case Studies
Big Society is in action across the North East. Have a look at these case studies to see for yourself:
Middlesbrough Voluntary Development Agency
Byker Bridge Housing Assocation
Useful Links
Cabinet Office Big Society website
VONNE blog posts on Big Society