Big Society or Big Gamble?

Despite the resignation of Andy Coulson last week, the Communications Office at Number 10 has managed to produce some wonderful ‘spin’.

At first glance, publication by the Centre for Social Justice of their “Outcome-based government” report should have been a huge torpedo in the hull of the administration. Until now, IDS, the founder of the CSJ has been Cameron’s ‘right-hand’ man and his suggestion that cuts are being implemented in the ‘wrong way’ will have come as a shock to senior Tories. However, deft handling by spin gurus ensured IDS’ call for a radical review of austerity measures moved from being a criticism of governmentstrategy to becoming a critique of the Big Society.

During the May 2010 election a number of Tory candidates voiced their criticism of the policy, but with the government intent on dramatically reducing the deficit, this discontent has turned from smouldering on the edges to a significant fire within the backbenches.

Senior Tories are blaming Steve Hilton, Downing Street Director of Strategy and Cameron’s “blue skies thinker” for pushing ahead with the Big Society, even though most members of the public find it “incomprehensible”. Some backbenchers’ fear the agenda is in crisis because Downing Street has been forced to deny the flagship policy may be close to collapse because of cutbacks.

Band-aiding by spin-doctors wasn’t helped by t pronouncements by Sir Stephen Bubb, of Acevo, which represents voluntary organisations, who said the nation’s charities were facing a “perfect storm” of rising costs, higher tax bills because of the VAT rise and swingeing cuts in funding. As if that wasn’t enough to reduce the gurus to tears, he added: “This is impairing our ability to support those most in need.”

On Thursday, third sector leaders will meet with Nicholas Hurd, the charities minister, who will attempt to reassure them. A large part of this restabilisation will pick up the point made earlier this week by the Prime Minister’s spokesperson that three-quarters of charities do not receive any Government money. At the meeting, Hurd will emphasise that Government proposals on the Work Programme and rehabilitation for prisoners for example, will bring significant opportunities for voluntary groups in the coming years.

Of course, this assumes the third sector will have the opportunity to play a significant role in the delivery of the Work Programme. With news today of over 200 redundancies at Framework, the housing charity, 1,400 at Remploy and news that 26% of organisations had solid plans in place to cut paid staff numbers during the next three months, the prognosis for the third sector doesn’t look good.

There are signs the government are looking at the Work Programme as a ‘cure all’, offering a mechanism to reduce unemployment, help disabled workers and fund a financially strapped third sector. It is a high-risk, ‘winner-take-all’ gamble that may well chance the face of third sector involvement in the W2W sector.
More importantly, it is a strategy that could well leave hundreds of thousands of unemployed people without any possibility of support whilst they look for work. At a time when jobs are hard to come by, that further reinforces the evidence to label the ideology of this government as ‘Uncaring Conservativism”.