Making the 'Big Society' work

Service providers in both the private and voluntary sectors are keen to see how the new government's "Big Society" programme and its plans for welfare reform will affect their own delivery of public services. Last week, the new work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, unveiled what he described as "radical" changes to the country's benefits system. His changes will be watched closely by those in the private and voluntary sectors. Indeed, on the same day as Duncan Smith outlined his plans to reform a welfare system that he said was in danger of breaking, Stephen Bubb, the chief executive of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations, made a speech in which he warned that while the past two decades have seen a remarkable increase in the delivery of services by the third sector, voluntary organisations need to be realistic about working with the government. They need to recognise, he said "that the bulk of what David Cameron wants the Big Society to do will require not just civil action but organised civic action". Bubb said this would mean that voluntary bodies will need "capital, professionalism and business nous" in a changing world, where they are not simply delivering innovative, new services but increasingly becoming more involved in mainstream public service delivery. Voluntary bodies can't just go it alone He added that the other side of the equation means voluntary bodies can't just go it alone, and that such a shift, and the implementation of Cameron's Big Society ideas, will require a "smart, strategic state", working in genuine partnership with the sector, rather than simply becoming an administration that "retrenches and leaves us to pick up the pieces". The challenge facing private and voluntary sector providers of public services was underlined by a scathing report on the Department for Work and Pensions programme to reduce the number of people claiming incapacity benefits and help them into work. The National Audit Office said the programme was a serious attempt to tackle an intractable issue, but has turned out to provide poor value for money. So far, so bad - but the report contained worse news for those keen to prove that external providers are either more efficient or cheaper than public sector organisations. The NAO found no evidence that the Pathways to Work programme was performing better or costing significantly less in places where voluntary or private organisations are running it, than in the areas where the programme is being run by the DWP's JobcentrePlus. This will probably fail to deter the new government from expanding the use of private and voluntary providers in delivering public services, but it may give it pause for thought. Duncan Smith's plans include a work programme based on a single scheme, including allowing older workers on to a welfare-to-work programme immediately rather than having to wait 12 months, as is currently the case. He told an audience of welfare experts from the voluntary, private and public sectors that there was an "absurd" situation where some of the poorest people in the country faced huge penalties for trying to get off benefits and into work.