Nurturing Big Society in the North West Sheila Battersby Office for Civil Society 14 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 Freedom Frameworks that support social responsibility and civil liberties Fairness Those who cannot, we always help Responsibility Those 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

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

Growing the Big Society Promoting Social Action Encouraging and enabling people to play a more active part in society Open public services Enable charities, social enterprises, private companies and employee-owned co-operatives to compete to offer people high quality services Empowering Communities Giving local councils and neighbourhoods more power to take decisions and shape their area

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 Freeing local government from central government diktat: most local government grants will be de-ring fenced from 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, 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

Terminology… Localism Decentralisation Big Society Is the ethos… Doing everything at the lowest possible level and only involving central government if absolutely necessary Is the process… Giving away power to individuals, professionals, communities and local institutions Is the vision… A society where people, neighbourhoods and communities have more power and responsibility and use it to create better services and outcomes.

The Localism Bill Helps set the foundations for Big Society by transforming the relationships between central government, local government, communities and individuals It shifts power from the central state back into the hands of individuals, communities and councils It gives local people more power over local government and over how public money is spent in their area It frees local government from central and regional control so that they can ensure services are delivered according to local needs It enables local people to drive real change, encouraging them to get actively involved in planning, housing and other local services

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 problems Universal Services 1 Education - £583m Child benefits - £113m GP/NHS costs - £31m Targeted Services 2 Welfare benefits - £753m Mental health treatment - £21m Parenting support - £53m Drug treatment - £10m £727m universal spend/yr £837m targeted spend/yr Reactive spend 3 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 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 2010/11 2 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) 46,000 families 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

Community Budgets and Local Integrated Services Attitude: Letting go and delivering less Accountability to residents Light touch oversight Practice: Participatory budgeting Ward Budgets Area Action Forums

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 Girls Club The Big Society vanguard in Eden