"Big Society" project lacks clarity and leadership, say MPs

This article is published in today's Guardian Society:

"Big Society" project lacks clarity and leadership, say MPs 

• Civil service, charities and public confused by policy 

• Single minister must take control to avoid failure 

By Rajeev Syal 

David Cameron’s "big society" project is confusing the civil service, charities and the public because it lacks a clear plan and a leader, according to a parliamentary committee.

In a report released on Wednesday, the public administration select committee calls on the government to introduce a single minister to take control of the policy or risk seeing it flop for a fifth time.

The report follows an earlier inquiry by the same committee, which examines the role of the civil service. It found there had been a failure to apply coherent changes in Whitehall to implement the project.

Bernard Jenkin MP, the Conservative chairman of the committee, says there must be an overhaul of the way the government is implementing the policy to end widespread confusion. "Some charities and community groups have shown they can provide some public services at better value for money than those delivered by the state," he says. "The problem is they are likely to experience significant barriers to progress unless the culture and skills in the departments commissioning such services change."

The big society was a central theme of last year's general election campaign. It is intended to devolve power and to foster a greater sense of responsibility by loosening the role of the state.

In May Cameron relaunched the policy for the fourth time.

He said: "The big society is not some fluffy add-on to more gritty and important subjects. This is about as gritty and important as it gets: giving everyone the chance to get on and making our country a better place to live."

The report says that MPs cannot see how the government will engage smaller charities and voluntary groups who wish to help deliver public services without changes.

Francis Maude, the cabinet secretary, and Nick Hurd, the minister leading the policy, are singled out in the report for failing to recognise how uninformed people are about what the phrase "big society" actually means.

The report says: "The minister for civil society [Hurd] did not recognise the problem, arguing that 'people fundamentally understand it [the big society]. I think that national consciousness is one thing we have achieved.' On the evidence before us, we must disagree."

The committee says that early examples of the big society in practice such as the Work Programme have left service providers such as the charitable sector with serious reservations.

"The danger is that big contractors and the largest charities continue to dominate at the expense of small and local providers," it concludes.

The committee expresses concern about the introduction of the private sector to public services in the name of the big society and recommends greater clarity on the roles of charitable, private and public providers of public services.

"The ambition to open up public services to new providers has prompted concerns about the role of private companies which have not thus far been adequately addressed by ministers," it concludes.The report also says the Big Society Capital, the big society bank, which was set up to invest in or set up loans for projects, will not be able to provide a solution for many smaller organisations that have had their funding cut.

"Big Society Capital will not provide the solution to the 'funding gap' for many small local charities who do not wish to take out loans. The government must acknowledge that in the short term Big Society Capital is unlikely to resolve the current funding gap'," it states.

The committee concludes by asking for the creation of a single big society minister to help other ministers to drive through this agenda by April 2012.

It also requests the implementation of an impact assessment, to be applied to every government policy, statutory instrument, and new bill, which answers the simple question: "what substantively will this do to build social capital, people power, and social entrepreneurs?"

A Cabinet Office spokeswoman said that there was already a minister, Nick Hurd, who has responsibility for the project, and disagreed on whether enough has been done for grassroots projects over the last 18 months. 

"Programmes such as Community Organisers, Community First and National Citizen Service will help stimulate more social action by bringing people together in the communities they live in to solve problems and make the most of opportunities and assets. And there is a clear plan of how government will support this. The Localism Bill give power back to local communities, while the Open Public Services White Paper will empower individuals by giving them choice over services and empower neighbourhoods to take greater control over local services. In addition the Cabinet Office business plan sets out a clear set of objectives for the Office for Civil Society.

New questions over big society as tsar leaves post after a year

Following the Guardian's coverage of the latest relaunch of the Prime Minister's "Big Society" at the start of this week (see blog post Monday 23 May), it carries this news today.

New questions over big society as tsar leaves post after a year

Cabinet office insists departure does not mark scaling back of project, but Labour say flagship policy is descending into farce

By Polly Curtis, Whitehall correspondent

Lord Wei, the man parachuted into the House of Lords to lead the government's "big society" project, is to leave his post after less than a year.

Wei, dubbed the big society tsar, is leaving to work for a charity. The Cabinet Office has scrapped his role and the Downing Street policy unit will now take responsibility for the programme.

A Cabinet Office spokesman insisted that it did not mark a scaling back of the prime minister's ambitions for the big society, saying that Wei had completed the work of developing the policy so there is no need to replace him.

The news came just a day after David Cameron gave a major speech on the subject in what was widely interpreted as his fourth relaunch of the project, which has struggled to register with the public and faced cynicism from Tory backbenchers.

Cameron thanked the peer for his "hard work" while Wei said he was glad to have played a "modest" role in the project.

Labour said the flagship policy was descending into a "farce" with no one in government now responsible for it.

Wei said in February that he was scaling back his hours to spend more time with his family and earn more money. His statement caused widespread comment about the practicality of a policy that relied, in part, on the development of a volunteering culture that could clash with the realities of people's everyday working lives.

It also emerged that when Wei was asked to do the job, only at the last minute did he find out the post was unpaid.

He also had to drop his work with other charities to avoid a conflict of interest. It is understood that the government was unable to offer him a paid adviser post as it was attempting to reduce the number of such appointments.

He was given a Tory peerage – making him Lord Wei of Shoreditch – and a desk in the Cabinet Office as the "big society tsar".

Nat Wei, 34, is a former management consultant who has no private income to fall back on. He worked for Ark, one of the biggest sponsors of academies, before setting up the Shaftesbury Partnership, a social entrepreneurial company.

He will now go to work Community Foundation Network, charity that promotes "community philanthropy".

Cameron said in a statement: "Nat has worked incredibly hard over two years to help develop policies that support the big society.

"He has played an important role in delivering key initiatives like community organisers, national citizen service and the big society bank. I wish him every success in his new role with the Community Foundation Network."

Wei said: "I will always be proud to have played a modest role in helping lay the foundations here on which the big society will be built in years to come.

"I want to thank everyone, but particularly the prime minister, for giving me this opportunity and for pursuing this vision with courage and determination.

"I look forward to helping in my own small way outside government – because it is out there, in local communities, that the heavy lifting must now be done."

Tessa Jowell, shadow minister for the Cabinet Office, said: "No doubt everyone will wish Nat Wei well, but yet again the big society is descending into farce.

"Only a day after Cameron told us all to take more responsibility, it appears that there will now be nobody in his government responsible for bringing the big society into reality."