Big society isn't new, but the Tories are purging the past

From today's Guardian:

Big society isn't new, but the Tories are purging the past

David Cameron thinks he has nothing to learn from Labour. The hard-won experience of creating community is being lost

by Polly Toynbee

On Monday, David Cameron will again try mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on his "big society". It took another near-death blow from this week's report by the Commission on Big Society, which found 78% of voters say they have no idea what it means. What began as a clever replacement of Margaret Thatcher's notorious "no such thing as society" has eluded both popular imagination and real-life substance. Lord Wei, its standard bearer, has retreated somewhat. His inability to define it flummoxed officials, as he issued nothing but stirring anecdotes of good citizens – of whom, thankfully, there have always been many. The Third Sector Research Centre says a steady 25% of people volunteer at least once a month, with twice as many in prosperous areas.

But 5 May 2010 was Year Zero to Cameron's government. Nothing good ever happened before, with nothing to learn from the last decade. Soviet-style, the past is eradicated. The very names of policies that worked well have been airbrushed from the record. For there is nothing new about the big society. Labour embraced communitarian ideas, influenced by Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone call for social capital in an atomised society, and with Richard Sennett's call for mutual respect in poor communities. Neighbourhood renewal schemes were a hallmark of Labour policy, but you would think Labour's "V" initiative for young volunteering or Volunteering England never existed.

Instead, here come the National Citizens Service and a new bank holiday for volunteering – though the commission's report found 80% unlikely to use their day for community activity. Around 2,500 community organisers are to be trained – but the contract was carefully not given to Citizens UK because it is too good at this, and in danger of organising against the cuts. Meanwhile, Timebank, mobiliser of 300,000 volunteers, has been axed by civil society minister Nick Hurd – a great surprise. I chaired its 10th anniversary debate where Hurd praised it to the skies and tweeted a congratulation for "countering the cynicism of the big society". But even it fell in the purge.

Next week I'm summoned to give evidence to the public administration select committee's hearings on the big society. Of course, I'll start by saying it's A Good Thing: whose heart isn't warmed by volunteers improving their own and others' lives? But Cameron's big society words are hollow when he strips the voluntary sector bare. Peter Kyle, acting head of Acevo, the charity CEOs association, says £1.4bn government funding has been cut from charities this year, rising to £3.1bn by 2013 – replaced with a paltry £100m "transition fund". Thousands of applications rushed in and each charity had to prove it had suffered at least a 30% government cut.

In search of big society ideas, I will urge the committee to look at the New Deal for Communities, the boldest initiative ever tried. This week I visited Aston Pride, the NDC that topped the 39 schemes Labour created in the nation's worst areas. Each was given about £50m to spend as local people chose over 10 years. That committed funding drew together communities weary of half-hearted previous attempts, always abandoned when money ran out. The 17,000 inhabitants of this multi-ethnic, high-unemployment patch of Birmingham had 17 often fractious mosques and six diverse churches, but slowly and with difficulty they came together and transformed the place.

A shabby, underused park was renewed, now with beautiful sports grounds; a local museum refreshed; a new health centre reaching people the NHS had neglected; schools springing to life through bringing headteachers together, funding equipment and giving a hot breakfast to every child. The main emphasis was on training and job-finding, with money skilfully levering in funds from other partners. The results were spectacular, with lower crime than the city average, school results and youth employment that rose faster, while antisocial behaviour fell. Small businesses were supported and hundreds of volunteers took qualifications.

Perfect? No. But the change is remarkable. When Aston Pride ended this March, local people were mortified at receiving no recognition, not even a junior official from Eric Pickles's Department for Communities to visit, or a letter of praise for being the top NDC after all those years of giving so much and overcoming such obstacles. Simon Topman, a local manufacturer who took over the chair of Aston Pride after it ran into early trouble, expresses his disappointment, afraid that with all support gone, the area may start to slide back again.

But above all, he is indignant that the government does not want to learn how it was done. This really is the big society, creating new local champions, bringing people together in the hardest places, levering in outside help. Cameron would not like to know the truth: it only happened with money so local people could employ their own chosen professional support – and those things are not free. In Witney, people have time and money – but in places like Aston, with no resources, nothing happens. This is not a little light volunteering in the library – this is heavy-duty hard grind, often quarrelsome, and the people who made it work really are local heroes, whose own lives were changed. But that's all erased from the record. All that hard-won experience in creating community is lost.

However, the big society can still sound great. David Brooks, the currently fashionable US guru, author of The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character and Achievement returned from a London visit to eulogise the big society in the New York Times on Friday. Though a journalist by trade, he seemed to have swallowed Cameron's press handout whole, without inquiring into the truth of any of it. Just about every word of this short article is misleading (including views he attributes to me). He says: "The [big society] legislative package has been a success." There is no such thing as yet. He praises Cameron for decentralising, for giving local communities money to "run things themselves" (what money?) and says "Cameron's reforms are fostering the sorts of environments where human capital grows". Where has he been to see that? He concludes, "No other government is trying so hard to tie public policy to the latest research into how we learn and grow." Or, sadly, how we deliberately forget and shrink. Let's hope New York Times readers are not so easily deceived by travellers' fairytales – so far British public cynicism is rather better grounded.

Read this article (along with reader comments - and the opporotunity to make your own) on the Guardian website:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/21/big-society-tories-david-cameron?INTCMP=SRCH

Birmingham council's plan to cut care for disabled ruled unlawful

From today's Guardian:

Birmingham council's plan to cut care for disabled ruled unlawful

High court judge describes move as potentially devastating and says cuts failed to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act

By Helen Carter

Birmingham city council, the UK's biggest council, acted unlawfully over a decision to cut its provision of care for disabled people, the high court has ruled.

The judgment, involving four severely disabled people who brought a test case against the council, has widespread implications for local authorities.

Mr Justice Walker said councils had to take account of people's disabilities, even where that involved treating disabled persons more favourably than others.

The Tory-Liberal Democrat authority in Birmingham had proposed the cuts as part of a plan to save £212m by limiting council-funded social care only to those assessed as being in "critical" need.

But the judge described this move as potentially devastating and found that the cuts failed to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act. All public bodies had a duty to follow the disability discrimination law, while acknowledging that that placed "significant and onerous" obligations on local authorities, the ruling said.

The council said it would rerun the consultation and make fresh decisions on adult social care in accordance with the ruling.

Disability campaigners welcomed the ruling, though some feared the government could try to create a law allowing councils to make such cuts.

Karen Ashton, who represented three of the four families in the case, said the ruling gave disabled people a voice in law; the proposed policy would have had devastating results. "In cash-strapped times such as these, the public sector must do more to avoid the consequences of cuts falling on those who are least able to bear them. What this case demonstrates is that this may be not only a moral obligation but also a legal one. Local councils, and all other public authorities, must learn this lesson and learn it fast – otherwise there will be many more of these cases coming before the courts."

Walker said there had been a failure to take proper account of the duty to promote equality under laws on disability and discrimination. He found that, when setting its budget and altering its eligibility policy, Birmingham had not given proper consideration to the impact on disabled people and had failed to adequately consult on its proposals.

The issue the council needed to address was "whether the impact on the disabled of the move to critical only was so serious that an alternative which was not so draconian should be identified and funded to the extent necessary by savings elsewhere".

Birmingham council had failed to ask the right questions and councillors were not given the right information to answer those questions. Essential information on the plans was either unclear or only provided at a very late stage.

The judge said the consultation "had not involved any attempt to look at the practical detail of what the move to critical only would entail".

Unison said: "The council should rightly be condemned for defending the indefensible. Thousands of vulnerable people would have been put at risk if it were not for the intervention of the courts."

Kari Gerstheimer, head of legal services at Sense, the deafblind charity, who prepared an expert witness statement, said: "We think it is a really big win for disabled people and we are absolutely delighted by the judge's decision. The judgment said the council failed to consider the impact on disabled people and it sends out an important message even in the time of cuts."We hope this makes councils really think about the choices they make in a civilised society and they should not be cutting services for disabled people with the greatest need. Disabled people are the hardest hit by the cuts and its really unfair that to get out of financial difficulty we are placing the burden on disabled people."

Peter Hay, strategic director for adults and communities at Birmingham council, said: "We welcome the judgment, which has given us greater clarity with regard to the Disability Discrimination Act, and we will now need to rerun the consultation and make decisions about adult social care consistent with the need to analyse the potential impact on disabled people and our compliance with the equality principles set out in law.

"In the meantime, people will continue to receive services to meet needs that have been assessed as substantial and critical. The original dilemma between reducing services in different areas remains. There is no new money as a result of the judgment, and hard choices about meeting growing needs with fewer resources will have to be made by local authorities."

Meeting re Localism Bill

Following our Core Partners meeting this morning, we expand our number after lunch and are joined by members of REDP's Working Group for a special meeting on the Localism Bill.

This is the chance to educate ourselves about the purpose of the Bill, familiarise ourselves with its content and see how far it has progressed.

We're particularly interested, of course, in how it might impact on the Protected Characteristics as defined in the Equality Act 2010. We are also interested in the kind of responses made by other agencies, groups and organisations working in fields related to ours.

Following on from our discussion this morning about organising a regional conference on the Specific Duties flowing from the Equality Act, we decide (tentatively) to organise an event on the Localism Bill too, nearer the end of this year.


You can follow the progress of the Localism Bill, read contributions to consultation and discussion (and make some of your own) at http://www.consultation-online.co.uk/localism-blog/

Core Partners meeting

This morning, we have the monthly meeting of the Core Partners of the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership. This is usually held on the first Tuesday of the month, but our work schedule (along with most the rest of the country, it would appear) has been messed around by additional bank holidays, half term childcare, local elections - you name it!

Three out of the four Core Partners are represented here today: Leicester Council of Faiths, The Race Equality Centre (TREC) and Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living (LCIL) - where the meeting is being held today, as normal. Laura Horton, REDP Project Manager, is in the meeting too of course.

High on our agenda this morning is planning an event on the Specific Duties attendant on the Equality Act 2010. This will be held in Nottingham at the end of June. It's purpose will be to inform Voluntary and Community Sector groups and organisations about these duties, which should be performed by authorities and service providers.

We're in the process of finalising the programme, scheduling workshops, confirming speakers and facilitators. There's a lot of creative energy whizzing around - all we can say right now is, "Watch this space!"

Gay people should get the respect they deserve

This letter is published in today's Derby Telegraph:

Gay people should get the respect they deserve

Alan Walker from Stanley Common states that "unless you are gay, you do not command any respect" ("For true Christians, God's law is always God's law", Opinion, March 29). He is "sick and tired of the coverage they get on television and in the papers".

I sincerely wish the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) community did command more respect. I wish it was not necessary to continually fight our corner in the media. Mr Walker goes on to say that he has "nothing against gay people".

However, his homophobic interpretation of the Bible gives licence to gay bashers who hang around gay venues looking to enjoy their Saturday night sport.

Many youngsters, who share same-sex attraction, fearing abuse or violence, are afraid to go near these places and continue to be lonely. Mr Walker has no such problem. He will be able to enter and leave his church without any threat of humiliation.

At long last, the equality and diversity efforts of Derby City Council are trying to undo centuries of emotional damage inflicted upon a vulnerable minority. Before the election, Nick Clegg proposed all schools should be required to teach that homosexuality is normal. Some are doing that.

I agree with Mr Walker when he says "enough is enough!" If all gay people "stood up to be counted" they, like Christians, would "gain the respect they deserve!".

Narvel Annable

Dovedale Crescent

Belper

How are you feeling, Britain?

One of the regular tasks that falls upon the Core Partners of (REDP) - of which Leicester Council of Faiths is one - is to read and respond to consultation documents, papers and proposals from various agencies and organisations that impact upon areas of equality and diversity.More often than not, these are produced by this department or that within national - local (within the East Midlands) or national .

I've just made such a response on behalf of REDP to the consultation run by the Office for National Statistics on developing indicators for Measuring National Well-Being. The consultation period has been running since November and closed today. But the website remains live, so you can check it out for yourself if you wish, faithful reader.

Disability projects axed

This article is published in today's Leicester Mercury:

Disability projects axed

Four council-funded schemes for people with learning disabilities are set to close after no-one came forward to take them over.

Leicestershire County Council's cabinet will decide the future of the schemes next month and they are likely to close in September.

The schemes include the Breaking the Barriers team, in Mountsorrel; the Buffet Car project, in Coalville; Four West, in Wigston; and the Charnwood recycling project, in Loughborough. They run activities such as catering, gardening and recycling.The council had hoped that outside agencies, including charities, could have stepped forward to take over the schemes.

The closures would save £770,000 a year.

Richard Woolerton, 27, is a trainee at the Buffet Car, which gives young people the chance to earn a qualification in catering.

His mother, Jackie, 57, said: "I think it stinks that the council is closing a service that had made such a difference to people's lives for 25 years.

"Richard has a great life thanks to the Buffet Car but they're taking that away. What will happen to all of the people who use these centres? They'll be stuck at home all day."

David Sprason, cabinet member for adults and communities, said the services were not part of the council's core business.

He added: "I'm disappointed that we could not find anyone willing to take over these schemes, but we have to face reality.

"I understand people don't want them to close, but in these hard times, when we're saving £79 million over four years, we have to concentrate our limited funding on the most vulnerable people.

"They are not a core part of our business – especially when there are other agencies out there who are responsible for doing this.

"We're going to ensure that people who use these services have time to find alternatives, which may include our own day services."

However, it is also proposed that two schemes – Breaking the Barriers in Hinckley and the Greenhouse project in Wigston – could continue until September 2012, to allow more time to seek alternative funding.

Russell Harrison, 36, from Coalville, has been visiting Breaking the Barriers, in Hinckley, for three years.

The centres give vulnerable adults an opportunity learn skills such as woodwork and gardening.

Russell's dad, Jeff Harrison, 66, said: "Russell's had some of the best years of his life with Breaking the Barriers.

"I'm pleased that we've been given an additional 18 months at the centre, but we'll continue the campaign to secure its future in the long-term."

Last November, a report by the council said that the schemes had limited success in moving people into paid employment.

The council warned that unless other groups came forward, they would close, because other agencies should be providing this support. County Hall's Cabinet will discuss the issue on April 5.

For true Christians, God's law is always God's law

This letter is published in today's Derby Telegraph:

For true Christians, God's law is always God's law

Just what has happened to this once great Christian country of ours? It seems, and not just to me, that if you are not a Muslim or gay, you do not command any kind of respect.

Well, I for one am not a Muslim and I am not gay. I am a Christian that believes in the Bible. You know the book, it has God's word in it, but more importantly it has his law in it as well. The same law that the State is telling us to ignore while we teach children homosexuality is normal and OK.

Would they dare to tell a Muslim to ignore the Koran? I don't think so.

The Bible states: "You must not lie down with a male the same as you lie down with a woman, it is a detestable thing."

I personally have nothing against gay people but, like others, I am sick and tired of the coverage they get on television and the papers.

Now the State has gone one step further by banning a Christian couple from fostering children because of their religious beliefs about homosexuality, so does this mean that all Christians who will not break God's law are banned?

Does Christianity, the religion of our Queen, count for nothing in this once great nation of ours?

There is also the question of how you can be a minister of the church and be gay – I thought that ministers of the church were supposed to teach from the Bible.

You cannot cherry-pick pieces that suit the individual. If you are a true Christian, God's law is God's law, which, if they minister to a congregation, they should be. Can anyone go to our ministers of justice and proclaim I don't accept that law but I will accept that one because it suits me?

I think enough is enough. If you are gay, you are gay, I do not want to know about it. But when it encroaches on our civil liberties, it is time for all Christians to stand up and be counted to regain the respect we deserve.

Alan Walker

Glendon Street

Stanley Common

Signing Network

Time for a bit of well-deserved promotion for a group that has helped out at a number of events organised by REDP, including today's training session with the British Institute of Human Rights.

Signing Network is an interpreting co-operative which works closely with Leicester Deaf Action Group. It supports LDAG by donating its profits to it and assisting in setting up a letter translation service and an advocacy service, for which it provides pro bono interpreters.

In the photo above: Karen Sly and Averil Dobson of Signing Network, to left and right (respectively) of Owais Murad from Leicester Deaf Action Group.

Making the most of international human rights

REDP has arranged a training session today with the British Institute of Human Rights (BIHR) at Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living (LCIL). Training is delivered by Sonia Omar. Sonia has been here on a couple of occasions before; she tells me that the last time was two years ago. Doesn't seem like that, but it appears to be before the birth of the blog, so she may well be right there.

Sonia's style of leading and facilitating these sessions is relaxed but rigorous, authoritative without being authoritarian, intensive without being intense - as you may be able to see from the photo above (Sonia is on the left, with Averil Dobson, from Signing Network).

Attending today, we have people from the following groups:

• Age UK
• Derby and Derbyshire Race Equality Commission
• Leicester Deaf Action Group
• Leicester Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Centre
• Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living
• Northamptonshire Rights and Equality Council
• One East Midlands
• The Race Equality Centre

After lunch, we do small group work on some specific treaties and other UN tools:

• International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
• Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women
• International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
• Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of International Human Rights Law in relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

We're considering each of these on the basis of our own experience gained from working in these fields. We highlight where government has done well in relation to these conventions, covenants or principles or where they haven't been doing so well and may be liable to challenge.

In my specific are of interest, I must look up the Declaration on the elimination of All forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief. this would be particularly relevant just now as it would inform discussions with the University of Derby on the project currently looking at Leicester.

We realise that there's a clear need not only to educate the Voluntary and Community Sector about human rights, but also to foreground them in our relations with local and national authorities, service providers etc - especially in relation to mounting challenges to the effects of cuts.