Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Big Society - toxic brand or just lacking Big Citizens?
The BBC is today drawing attention to two think tank pamphlets arguing that David Cameron would do well to revive the ideas behind the Big Society.
Professor Anthony Seldon, master of Wellington College, who wrote a pamphlet for Policy Exchange, believes the Big Society concept should be resurrected with "more substance" and with a more "thoughtful" government and more "responsible" and "responsive" citizenry.
Chief executive of the RSA Matthew Taylor, who wrote their pamphlet, says the Big Society "needs big citizens", with people being more autonomous and responsible.
Amongst the ideas promoted by Policy Exchange for strengthening communities are:
- Every locality should encourage volunteering, and make it easier to link up would-be volunteers with where help is most needed. All schools to have compulsory volunteering afternoons: those children who volunteer when young are more likely to continue when older.
- Local communities to be encouraged to become more economically self-sufficient – e.g. by shopping, eating and going out locally, as in ‘transition towns’ such as Totnes in Devon.
- The arts to be encouraged more in each locality, with more local art exhibitions, lectures, concerts and theatre performances – local taxes and funds should be raised to subsidise local cultural events, e.g. a weekend of free local theatre each month.
- Greater impetus to be given to the physical appearance of each community – run down areas should be identified and addressed, with the community working together to ensure public spaces are safe and look attractive. Local volunteering should be encouraged, to remove graffiti and enhance the physical appearance of the community, for example normalising the local clean-up efforts that took place after the London riots, which showed the public’s appetite to improve their locality, given the leadership.
- Each community to make more of its own local history as a way of imparting pride and shared identity, nurturing curiosity and deepening an understanding of the past.
- Annual street parties to be instituted as a way encouraging collective action and rebuilding friendships with neighbours and streets.
- Non-political local representatives to be established, responsible for small ‘ward’ areas to act as a conduit between residents and councillors – they should enable residents to feel a personal investment in and engagement with their community.
- The elderly to be more purposefully involved in their communities – e.g. retired people should volunteer and continue to be actively involved in helping others in their communities. The focus should shift to asking how retired people can best help others.
- Communities should be encouraged to create or extend gardens or allotments – more green spaces should be made available for this purpose.
The piece on the Beeb's website has an interesting 5 minute snippet from an interview with Taylor and Seldon.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Rupert Murdoch would never go for any of this and neither would our council.
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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We do most of this already. It looks like a mission statement for HOL :)
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Permalink Reply by Ruth Cherrington on
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Exactly what I was thinking! We seem to be way ahead of fish -oops, think tanks and the likes although of course there is always more to be done to bring more people in.
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Permalink Reply by L F T Snowflake on
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AS John D, states, I think we already do this round here - which was why I returned after five years in the 'better' environment of a Hertfordshire village.
The volunteering comments are interesting. I have been a volunteer for over 30 years in a massive variety of roles and am currently writing about aspects of volunteering for a local group.
The two things to remember about volunteering are, 1, It is now one of the most difficult and dangerous things to do in this country and 2, volunteers have absolutely no legal rights of any kind whatsoever.
We make it hard by putting one big obstacle in place, namely the CRB check. If a volunteer is going to have regular unsupervised access to children or vulnerables, then they must go through the necessary checks AND also be managed properly once appointed. In addition to the CRB, checks should include gathering local references and - as many voluntary bodies do now - checking applicant's internet activity.
An example here being, if you want to volunteer for a religious organisation like the Scouts - but your internet postings reveal you as an atheist, they will (rightly) reject you.
The problem is that today,most organisations demand a CRB as a badge of honour. Government advice on school day trips is that for one-off helpers, local references will suffice. But what Head isn't going to demand an enhanced disclosure? And as the Telegraph recently reported, It has become ROUTINE in the majority of Scout Groups to CRB the parents of every child, even if they never actually lend a hand.
The danger comes - as I have seen several times - from falling foul of the checking system. That atheist for example is now someone who has been 'rejected for a post working with children'. Their CRB record must be updated and a report sent to the Independent Safeguarding Authority to decide if they should be permanently banned from working with children.
You'd better not have any police cautions either, because some organisations treat them as convictions even though legally they are not. And one of the biggest problems I have seen involves parents having a long forgotten minor conviction, showing up in an enhanced check, meaning automatic rejection and a report to the ISA because they 'lied'. 12 months ago, Nick Clegg promised to scale back what The Manifesto Club calls 'the child protection industry'. But when a volunteer coordinator I know recently contacted the ISA, she was told it was 'business as usual'. Heaven help you if you have a paid role where you need a CRB!
On the legal front, as a 2005 report by Volunteering England showed, volunteers are not covered by employment legislation, equality laws or the Human Rights Act. 'Employers' of volunteers can hire and fire them at will - as a group of bell ringers recently found out - and can set whatever terms and conditions they like. If the Scouts decide an atheist is not a fit and proper person to teach a 6 year old how to tie her laces, that's their prerogative. Not only can you be sacked at will, you don't have to be given a reason either.
So why volunteer? Well, there are some things that just need to be done. There are also some things that you care deeply about. Its also a good way to pick up valuable skills. But as I now say to volunteers, enjoy it, but go into it with your eyes open.
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Can an atheist be a bell ringer? Besides knowing the ropes and which strings to pull, are there any moral or dogmatic strings attached?
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That raises the question about whether priests, imams, rabbis etc having to be CRB checked. I guess not?
With regard to bells and ropes, no one wants to drop a clanger...
Intersting point. I love the sound of church bells just as I like carols and hymns but am not religious.
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Neither am I - but I have a best mate who is a minister, and yes, its about the skill, not necessarily what you believe, rather like a lot of church organists.
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Interesting... but I think the on-line 'fast track' CRB option is not applicable across the board... only if you are a volunteer/ employee attached to a group that is deemed big enough to apply for CRBs, and it does so on your behalf?
If you are setting up on your own, for example as a small socially-minded social enterprise (along the kind of lines that the Big Society was supposed to encourage..) it is more complicated - only certain size orgs can do applications for CRBs, or you have to locate an umbrella organisation who will do it for you, for a fee..
To get back to the article Hugh flagged up, it's discouraging - it seems very focussed on encouraging people to do things for nothing. Which is great - but not practical for everyone. Big Society had the potential to be quite a progressive idea and encourage socially minded enterprise to move services out of huge institutions (which are being slashed to bits anyway) - didn't it?
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Permalink Reply by Andy H on
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really? the Scouts reject athiest volunteers?
but a religious zealot who adheres to homophobic, sexist, doctrine is ok?
oh dear.
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Fraid so! IN fact they have a specific rule that states that 'the atheistic lack of religious belief is a bar to a leadership position'.
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That's a bit harsh accusing VR of being lazy to do online CRB check. Where I work, it has to be done the long way through the official body and can't be done online. Same in many places/charities/institutions. THere has been some speeding up but it can still be a lengthy process and yes, it can put people off volunteering- I found that when working on trying to recruit local residents for a volunteering initiative last year for Age UK.
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I didn't think for a moment that you were referring to me specifically.
As I keep saying, the time involved in doing a CRB is not the issue. Its both the concept and problems it can cause, and also the fact that in a large percentages of cases, its simply not needed. Further it induces a fear culture into normal situations.
The message 'we want you to help us, but we need to make sure you are not a perv first'. The blanket CRB checking - even of ten year olds. Crazy CRB related rules dictating that parents not being allowed into a building to collect their own children without being 'checked'. The crazy situation around photographing children that has arisen entirely out of the 'child protection industry'. Their latest wheeze is to attempt to class university students as 'vulnerable adults', thereby requiring all working with them to have a CRB. Would love to have told Boris Johnson, Harold MacMillan, Bhenizir Bhutto, Tony Benn or Michael Gove when they were President of the Oxford Union they were vulnerable adults!
And then there are the problems. A dad on his second marriage forgets about his juvenile conviction for assault - but it shows up when he offers to help at school. I have seen that happen a couple of times and cause devastation in a family. One I dealt with involved a teacher, who years before had received a caution from a then homophobic police force for snogging her girlfriend outside a well known pub. It was never a problem to the teaching authorities, but when she decided to help run her local Scouts, who interpreted it as a 'conviction for public indecency' which almost killed her career. And of course, if you are volunteering and a complaint is made against you, it is passed to everyone and stays on file until you die. AS a mate of mine in the emergency services said recently 'why risk it, when it could cost you your job'.
As I recently wrote, volunteers work for causes not cash. I still volunteer, but at least I know where I stand.
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