What does the new Government mean for the voluntary sector?

by Jay Kennedy, Head of Policy, Directory of Social Change

The central principle of the Conservatives’ Big Society idea – that we all need to take responsibility for our own communities, and not just expect the state to do everything for us – is a good one (and hardly the exclusive property of that party either – JFK stated it pretty well nearly 50 years ago).  Regardless of your politics, that sentiment could be a manifesto for voluntary action at its best.

But in truth the electorate didn’t seem ready for this vision, even if it was a sincere one and not just a clever-sounding fig leaf for cutting spending (which many suspected). 

Nick Clegg even called it the ‘do-it-yourself society’, which seemed to capture the reaction of many.  And there is some evidence that it didn’t go down well with the Tory grassroots either.  Since the election, these misgivings seem to have grown, not gone away.

Does this apparent lack of enthusiasm for the Big Society agenda matter?  Maybe, maybe not.  It’s apparently at the heart of David Cameron’s own personal political philosophy – it’s his ‘vision’, not just a basket of policy initiatives.  But visions can quickly change, and manifesto commitments are far from written in stone.  ‘Events, dear boy, events’ will inevitably intercede.  Recall how George Bush campaigned on a platform of ‘compassionate conservatism’ in 2000, wanting charities and faith groups to play a more central role.  An agenda largely forgotten by 12 September 2001.

So we will have to see how things play out over the coming weeks and months.  So far, we’ve been slightly surprised by the way the new Government has not just stuck with the Big Society theme, but put it front-and-centre.  They could have decided to dress up the policy nuts and bolts in some less idealistic packaging, but in fact one of the Government’s first major announcements was boldly branded Big Society.

But civil society will not flourish simply because the state gets out of the way.  When the spending cuts really start to bite, we will see just how deep the Big Society philosophy runs, and what it actually means in practice.  It’s still early days, but consider this equation:  devolution of power + crisis in public finances = further cuts to local authority grant budgets already under threat.

David Laws, the Lib Dem ‘hatchet-man’ in the Treasury, recently announced that the central grant for local authorities would be cut by £1.2bn.  To sweeten the bitter pill, the Government is promising to ‘de-ringfence’ other funds, meaning they will remove restrictions over how it is spent.  Local authorities will be happy with that, but what it will do to their local voluntary sector funding?  Any discretionary funding is already under pressure, and ‘de-ringfencing’ may increase that pressure further.

We are going to have to redouble our efforts to make the case for local grant funding and why cutting it will harm our communities and beneficiaries.  That it isn’t ‘inefficiency’, ‘waste’, or ‘nice to have’.  That it underpins so many vital services that people really depend on, often forming the basis on which local charities can organise volunteer effort.  

And don’t think contracts will be any safer – they won’t.  The first draft of the Government’s coalition agreement fired the first warning shot, stating that contracts for welfare-to-work services will be ‘realigned’.  Now is the time to unearth your funding agreements and contracts and give them a good going over (actually it’s well past time to do that but better late than never).

In the meantime, here are five things we think will dominate debate in the coming months, from a voluntary sector policy perspective: