The argument about the shape of public services in the future has been further fuelled with the release of a report from a leading  think tank that says people must provide their own services in future.

In a report that will be music to the ears of the coalition government, with its idea of a Big Society replacing many services now provided by the state, the 2020 Public Service Trust is calling for a “complete reconfiguring of public services around the needs and capabilities of citizens, based on the principle of social productivity”.

It argues that existing public services are increasingly unsustainable. The body has been running a series of investigations into the relationship between the state and the citizen, through its commission on 2020 public services and now wants to see “greater social responsibility and more intelligent collaboration between citizens and public services”.

The report says fundamental reform of public services is needed to address the impacting of an ageing society and rising inequality, which, it says, could add the equivalent of an extra 4%-6% of GDP onto public spending in the next 20 years.

It proposes three major shifts in public services policy:

• Local people should set up mutuals and cooperatives to run public services, including parks, leisure centres and libraries. The report says school curriculums should be “community-determined”.
• There should be a radical shift in power from central government to the most local level. “Where possible, citizens should commission services themselves using individual budgets and choice advisors. Neighbourhoods should control their own integrated services.”
• Public finances should be more open, transparent and understandable to citizens, with an “online statement of contributions and benefits … available to everyone”.

But the report does not provide unqualified support for the government’s Big Society ideas. It says public service reform will be unsustainable without up-front investment and will also require strategic, locality level commissioning and local accountability. Otherwise, it acknowledges, reforms in health, education and elsewhere could “unwittingly entrench existing service silos and undermine efforts to integrate and streamline public services”.

The report says there are a number of factors that will help change public services, with technology the foremost driver.

People’s ability to get far more information, far more quickly, about services, together with the ability to deliver more services online, is changing rapidly the relationship between the state and its citizens, argues the report. It also notes a “new understanding about place” and the paradox that increased global mobility has made more important the places where people choose to live and work.

Speaking on the BBC’s Today programme, Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the RSA, where the trust is based, said public services will in future be judged by whether they help people be more resourceful.

While the report chimes with the government’s ideas on increasing co-production of public services, many politicians remain sceptical that there will be enough volunteers to run local services.

A copy of the full report can be obtained from click here

Extract from The future role of the third sector in social and economic regeneration: final report

3.10 Larger community based social enterprises which often own or manage assets can also have a unique role in building and strengthening communities, acting as an anchor in the community for the provision of services and facilities for the rest of the community sector as well as generating wealth for the community, as set out in paragraph 3.24.

3.11 Building on the consultation and this evidence gathered during the third sector review, the Government is proposing a new strategy for building stronger and more active communities through investment in a thriving community sector and community activity and volunteering. The primary responsibility for strengthening communities lies with Local Government, and over the coming years it will be critical that Local Authorities continue to build on the principles of Local Compacts and the Local Government White Paper to develop relationships with the third sector. To support this work, the Government will also make several strategic investments to build the environment to enable community based organisations to thrive and to work with Local Authorities and other local statutory bodies.

3.12 The strategy therefore contains the following mutually reinforcing elements:
• work to further build relationships between the local third sector and Local Authorities;
• investment to improve the level and quality of small grant funding available to community groups;
• investment in community anchors to enable greater enterprise and sustainability;
• continued investment in building a culture of volunteering and mentoring and, capacity building – investing in provision to support smaller community based organisations and volunteers.

Author: Susan Smith, TFN

A MAJOR fund of at least £200m is  needed over the next five years to ensure  that Scottish communities benefit from  the dramatic growth in the renewable  energy industry, heralded by first minister Alex Salmond this week.  The investment could generate a net annual income of at least £20m to communities, such as declining towns and villages in throughout Scotland.

The move would also help to boost Scotland’s diminishing rural population and ensure that Scottish people benefit from the huge potential of renewable energy.  As the First Minister this week heralded  the growth of Scotland’s renewable energy  industry as a “turning point in human history”, national bodies supporting community ownership and voluntary organisations urged the govemment not to repeat the mistakes made with North Sea Oil.

The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) and Community Energy Scotland (CES) demanded the government ensures that ordinary Scots as well as  big businesses benefit from the renewables  revolution.  Alison Cairns, SCVO’s rural development manager, said: “We are concerned  that the current predominance of the private  sector energy industry is short sighted and  means that many more long term, sustain-  able opportunities for the people of Scotland are missed.

“Broadening and deepening the opportunities for Scotland’s existing voluntary sector to own the production of  renewable energy (on shore and off  shore) offers multiple outcomes. It simultaneously builds greener energy,  achieves greater public buy-in and  , helps strengthen communities and  public services.”  In cases where communities have  joint or full ownership of renewable  installations such as Gigha, Eigg, Fintry and Neilston, the financial benefits  are regenerating and empowering their  communities.  Profits have been re-invested in  community organisations and activities that include infrastructure and key  services for vulnerable groups.

These  include building affordable housing,  community transport schemes, keeping a petrol station or local shop open,  even funding and expanding meals on  wheels, befriending, care and child-  care services in their communities.  The First Minister announced late  last week that the government was  aiming for 80 per cent of Scottish electricity consumption to be generated by  renewable energy by 2020.

Following the announcement,  Nicholas Gubbins, chief executive of  Community Energy Scotland, high-  lighted that it is currently supporting  140 community groups across Scot-  land to develop their own revenue generating wind and hydro projects.  “Eighty per cent of electricity consumed is a big target reflecting the  scale of the Scotland’s renewable energy resource,” Gubbins told TFN.  “The enthusiasm and voluntary commitment of Scotland’s communities is  another great resource but communities need help to build their confidence, skills and capability to engage  and develop projects.”  He said existing community plans:  “Will require investment of over  £200m over the next 5 years but if successful could generate a net annual  revenue of around £20m. This will be  transformational income for Scottish  communities – reaching places that  public services cannot normally  reach.”

Speaking at this week’s Low Carbon  Investment Conference in Edinburgh,  rural affairs minister Richard Lochead  said the government would consider  introducing a loan scheme to secure  community ownership of renewable  energy schemes.  “It is vital that Scotland can unlock  the huge potential this country has for  the local ownership of energy production which would reap such great community benefits,” said Lochhead.

“This Government is determined that communities should share in the opportunities opening up before us and we will be consulting shortly on a range of options to ensure these benefits are secured for the people of Scotland.”
 

A study of the CSR policies of 12 of Scotland’s largest listed companies, found that spending year on year on corporate good citizenship increased in defiance of the tough economic conditions. They included Standard Life (+12%), Weir Group (+8%) and Wood Group (+5%), even though the latter two companies were found to be among the least active in the area relative to their size. Cairn Energy, Alliance Trust, Aberdeen Asset Management and Stagecoach all also claimed to have maintained or increased spending. This came at a time when spending on advertising in the UK plunged, down 12% between 2008 and 2009.

Jane Wood, chief executive of charity Scottish Business in the Community, said the findings were reflected across the board. She said: “Around 70% of chief executives say the recession has resulted in sustainability becoming more important.”

She said ethical behaviour was becoming increasingly important to consumers, especially in the wake of the banking crisis, and that businesses would in future be penalised for not taking their responsibilities to the communities in which they worked seriously.

The study revealed that consumer-facing companies put more effort into CSR than business-to-business companies, suggesting that the general public is more swayed by corporate behaviour than business clients.

Wood said the rising importance of CSR meant it had a role to play in the UK Coalition Government’s controversial vision of a Big Society, stepping in where the public sector would have to retreat in the wake of the coming cuts. She said: “Where you go into a local authority area and they maybe need to do a project with schools such as mentoring or interview skills, we can get the private sector to deliver it.

“There’s environmental work, supporting charities, community engagement. We are missing the role that employers play in getting their employees to contribute to stronger societies.”

Professor Jan Bebbington, a specialist in accounting and sustainable development at St Andrews University, disagreed. She said: “Why should a publicly-listed company do the job of government, and where’s the democratic accountability if they don’t do it? It’s unfair and unreasonable to expect these companies to make it part of their duty to do good.”

She also questioned the CSR sector’s logic that 1% of profits should be spent on it – a level that Cairn Energy exceeded among the surveyed companies that provided data.

Bebbington said: “If business does a good job of fairly paying people and producing products that are good for society, why would you expect that they giv e 1% of their profits to charitable purposes? Surely they pay taxes and then the Government decides what to do with the proceeds? I am not sure we should be outsourcing that duty to the private sector.”

JOINT working, on a level never seen before, is the only option facing the voluntary sector as austerity measures loom, a conference has heard.

But this strategy will present more opportunities than ever before and could lead to a stronger more resilient sector able to adapt and withstand change.

The new third sector interfaces, organisations created from the formation of CVSs, volunteer centres and social enterprises, were told at their annual conference this week they face challenges ahead and that new partnerships with local authorities and the voluntary sector would not mean a loss of independence but increased opportunities to change communities for the better.

In a cross party discussion with Labour MSP Johann Lamont, Gavin Brown of the Scottish Conservatives and voluntary sector representatives, delegates were told that the funding crisis meant voluntary groups could be in a better position to show how well they could run services, especially if they were already involved in joint initiatives such as interfaces.

However, Johann Lamont said the current economic climate combined with changes in the way the voluntary sector engages with government should not divert from helping individuals and communities.

“There is a danger we get wrapped up in too much technical detail and forget about who we are actually supporting,”

“Changes to the way voluntary organisations operate, whether through mergers or interfaces, must serve the purpose intended – namely to help the communities and individuals they serve.”

The conference heard that relationships among interface organisations were still being forged with some still at a tentative stage.

It did, however, offer a model as a way forward as funding cuts necessitated new relationships between voluntary groups.

This was also true of the Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs) which Lamont said were not as effective as the Social Inclusion Partnerships they replaced.

“The idea was good but the practice is something different,” she said. “We have the structure but not the intent to actually deliver to communities.

“Let’s not forget that this is all about empowering communities, giving people the ability to make decisions for themselves, to allow them to spend their money how they wish. That has so far not proven to be very effective under the CPP model.”

Harriet Eadie, director of the Edinburgh Volunteer Centre, said new ways of working meant voluntary groups had to influence the agenda by forging new relationships with all key partners.

“We bring to the table an expertise and knowledge that no-one else has so we have to show how that can be used to the best advantage,” she said. “There’s an opportunity here for us not just to contribute but to lead. We should take that opportunity.”

The two day conference, held in Glasgow, was the second national conference for Interfaces organised by the CVS and VC Networks.

Mai Hearne, chief officer of the Angus Association of Voluntary Service, issued a warning for the sector, saying it should not be so worried about disappearing budgets as disappearing people if predictions on the austerity measures to be taken by the government were to be believed.

“People will be leaving our communities while we are still sitting in ivory towers discussing the issues,” she said.

“We need to invest more in people, in community activists and those who go the extra mile to make their communities better. Without them the voluntary sector won’t be able to deliver, no matter how much money we are given.”

Paul White, SCVO director of Networks, praised delegates for contributing to the event, saying it was a unique way of hearing the views of the sector, especially during a period of change.

“Organisations are facing massive challenges over the next year and this event provides an opportunity to hear how they are facing up to these.

“Despite these challenges we have also heard how organisations are flourishing through being innovative in their approach to new ways of working and there’s also optimism that they can achieve much through forging new partnerships.”

http://www.takeoneaction.org.uk

Take One Action is Scotland’s global action cinema project celebrating the people and movies that are changing the world. Our programme is developed by film lovers, artists and socially-committed volunteers and professionals based in Scotland who believe that cinematic experiences can inspire change at the highest and deepest levels.

Since 2008, we have engaged more than ten thousand people with hundreds of world-class films that comment on issues of global concern. From rare and reimagined screenings to UK and Scottish premieres… through debate, Q&As and workshops… our events bring together communities, filmmakers, politicians, businesses and artists, united by the simple desire to connect around common stories and shape their unfolding.

To find out more, sign up for our enews or check out the calendar and visit us in the cinema. You can also download our 2009 annual review here. Take One Action Film Festivals is a UK limited company (no. 376976) with charitable status in Scotland (SC041430).

This year’s festival is divided into three strands: The Millennium Development Goals focuses on the challenge to eradicate extreme poverty within the next five years set by the UK and other governments back in 2000. Green Shoots pulls in the most inspiring and eye-opening films of 2010. And Visiones Alternativas highlights the vision and debate around Latin America social and ecological action past and present.

What people say about us

Take One Action’s focus on empowering communities to engage with contemporary global issues is unique in the UK. … This work is really, really important Ken Loach and Paul Laverty, Patrons

An exemplar in relation to true audience engagement… A festival whose medium is as important as the message Creative Scotland

The UK’s first major film festival celebrating the people and movies that are changing the world The List

I liked both films that I came too and the activities afterwards were really good, especially the after “Born Into Brothels” because the audience got really involved and lots of different people spoke. I really enjoyed the Active Inquiry workshop as well, everyone had lots of energy, and it was great to share stories about ‘taking action’…  2009 audience member

Take One Action celebrates the people and movies that are changing the world.

Our festival is Scotland’s annual showcase of the most inspiring new and classic international films shining a light on issues of global and environmental concern.

http://www.takeoneaction.org.uk

Author: Rosie Niven

Connected Communities:  A report by the RSA

Building links around highly connected individuals can help to tackle isolation, unemployment and antisocial behaviour more effectively within a community, according to a report.

The success of UK government plans to train 5,000 community organisers and increase the membership of community groups depends on identifying the most influential people within any given community.

Analysis by the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) of a community network covering more than 1,000 residents and organisations across New Cross Gate in London reveals two-thirds of people don’t know anyone who works at the local council, a third don’t know any employers and 40% don’t know anyone working in the local media.

But the research also shows the ‘most networked individual’ within a community is not always the usual suspect such as the local MP, councillor or community activist. Within New Cross Gate, one of the most networked individuals is the local pub quizmaster.

‘Familiar strangers’ such as postmen and dustmen appear to be under-utilised community resources, with more people recognising and finding value in who delivers their post than their local councillor.

Social network analysis can reveal opportunities to connect those who are disconnected, and ‘spread’ constructive social norms through these individuals whose behaviour is more likely to be imitated by those in their network, the report says.

Connected communities argues policymakers should have a better understanding of how social networks operate when making decisions that might reduce inequalities, combat isolation and support the development of resilient and empowered communities.

The RSA plans to test its findings over the next six months through small-scale projects and activities designed to take account of these networks.

Chief executive Matthew Taylor said: ‘From community safety to getting a job, social networks are the infrastructure of the Big Society. If we understand and exploit those networks then we can meet the challenge posed to us by austerity – achieving better social outcomes with static or falling budgets.’

The report’s author Steve Broome, director of research for the RSA’s Connected Communities team, said: ‘Visualising communities as networks helps us to see the assets they contain and how best to make use of them. We can make connections where there are none, and make better use of them where they exist.

‘And in replaying networks to people in communities we are better able to see our interdependencies, opportunities to collaborate, and realise that we influence a surprisingly high number of people directly and indirectly through our attitudes and behaviours.’

www.theRSA.org

Author: Simon Jenkins, Guardian

As TUC delegates swap dark scenarios and public approval of the coalition falls, it’s time for councils to join the ‘big society’ too

A tidal wave of protest is rolling towards the coalition government, roaring, foaming, darkening the sky, sucking every political argument into a lethal wall of water. This week delegates to the TUC, freed from decades of impotence, joyfully surfed its crest. Their boss, Brendan Barber, gleefully hailed “a darker, more brutish, more frightening” Britain ahead. Next month the Labour party will do likewise, chanting against the hardy hobgoblins of banking, tax-dodging and Toryism.

Each day a new cuts horror is declared by a breathless BBC. The disabled will limp down deserted streets. The sick will go untended. The Red Arrows will be disbanded. The police will be unable, they absurdly assert, to prevent another Peterloo. Britain no longer has a government, it seems, merely four horsemen from Apocalypse plc.

The argument has gone potty. If George Osborne were to achieve his entire cuts programme, total public spending will fall in real terms from £664bn today to £640bn (at constant 2008 prices) in 2015 – and actually rise in cash terms. This compares with £449bn at the end of Tony Blair’s first parliament in 2001. In other words, Osborne will take spending back no more than five years, to the mid-Blair era.

This is the measure of the spending splurge that took place under Gordon Brown at the Treasury. Osborne cannot hope to reverse all of this. Admittedly the makeup of spending must change, to reflect the soaring cost of debt (from £43bn to £66bn in five years). But even taking debt and fixed benefits out of the total, the Treasury is proposing no more than a five-year cash freeze on public services, at roughly £340bn.

Osborne’s much-vaunted 25% cuts option over five years is to protect his existing ringfenced budgets, such as the NHS. Even so, few spending departments or local councils will lose more over these five years than they won over the last. If every department froze pay and recruitment, there would be no need for anyone to lose a job. The cuts proposed by local councils, blamed on central government, are probably beyond what is needed.

For the TUC and others to portray all this as a return to the Great Depression, to an “era of unprecedented austerity” and to “fear stalking the streets” is ridiculous. The left would do better to focus attention on the 2011 VAT rise and the risk of a renewed “double-dip” recession in high street spending. The message of the cuts campaign so far is that organised labour is no longer concerned with the health of the private economy. It is a public sector lobby.

From David Cameron’s standpoint, all this is spitting in the wind. The Labour party, the TUC and many Liberal Democrats will take pleasure in blaming everything not on the past but on the present, on the Tories. In vain will Cameron plead that blame should lie with Brown and his Labour colleagues. In vain will he plead that a cut is not a cut when it is a freeze or merely a shift in priorities. His and Osborne’s post-election “softening up” is returning to haunt them. The coming winter is unlikely to see a festival of political reason.

Cameron is relying heavily on his deal with Nick Clegg to guard his parliamentary majority. The tactic has held so far, but the conference season and rising cuts hysteria will test it to destruction. The Labour movement may not be able to field big armies, but it will generate public sympathy over cuts and exploit the electoral vulnerability of the Liberal Democrats. Yesterday’s Times-Populus poll had three-quarters of respondents rejecting both the speed and the scale of the cuts, with those pessimistic about the economy rising from 8 to 33%.

The coalition needs to head for higher ground, and fast. Cameron must find some way of diverting responsibility on to others, much as Brown diverted blame for his domestic credit crunch on to “the world economy”. There is already talk of one such move. The fraud and cheating that infects social benefits is attributed to agencies having no incentive to police them. The government is thinking of handing two benefits, covering housing and council tax, to local councils to administer, with an annually declining cash budget from the centre, to force local staff to bear down on fraud.

By ending Whitehall direction, the government would insist that benefit rules and discretions would thenceforth be for local councillors to determine, such that the arrow of blame would not point entirely at ministers but be shared with local electors. The chief obstacle to such wise decentralisation remains the Treasury. Its aversion to wasteful spending is still exceeded by its addiction to control, however inefficiently administered from Whitehall.

Delegating housing and council tax benefit will do little to mitigate the coming storm. Somehow Cameron must harness a renewed stability of public finance to his belief in widening the political community, his “big society”. At present he sees this only in vague terms, with more “free” schools, social enterprises and volunteering.

If he truly means to redirect public services down to communities, he cannot avoid re-empowering elected local government, however distasteful he and his colleagues may find it. Across Europe and America, subsidiary democracy is sharing in the responsibility for curbing public spending. Only in Britain is blame entirely nationalised.

Already local councils, many of them with strong Liberal Democrat membership, have strode ahead of Whitehall in slimming their spending in anticipation of cuts. But they remain circumscribed by Treasury “silos”, preventing them shifting money between priorities. This enables them to blame the centre for even the smallest cut in a particular budget item, a blame they now broadcast with abandon.

If Cameron wants to diversify responsibility for public service cuts, he must properly uncap council taxes, as in any other civilised democracy. He must allow councils to ask their voters if, and how far, they want local services protected from cuts. If people want to keep open their museums, libraries, parks, sports clubs and day centres, that should be their local right. Cameron is foolish to accept the blame for closing them.

The hard times facing the public sector may be largely caused by Labour, but that is not how the public will see it. The acrimony against the cuts now ballooning over British politics offers Cameron little scope for his “cuts partnership” fantasy. He is going to experience hell over the coming year. He urgently needs to pluralise blame. He needs to shift it downwards.

Author: Chrisanthi Giotis , Social Enterprise Magazine

The official launch of the first Social Impact Bond pilot happened recently at the place that will make or break the concept – HMP Peterborough.

It is hoped that the re-offending rate of short-term prisoners leaving that prison will be reduced by 7.5 per cent thanks to intervention programmes run by civil society organisations, and funded through trusts and individuals who have invested in the Social Impact Bond (SIB).

Investors will only receive a return on their money, paid by the government, if the re-offending rate drops by the target amount.

Prisons minister Crispin Blunt will preside over the official launch. He said: ‘We want to actively involve individuals and voluntary and community organisations – not just in tackling crime and re-offending but in helping to keep people out of the criminal justice system in the first place.

‘This payment by results pilot is both innovative and imaginative. I am delighted to be launching it.’

Justice secretary Kenneth Clarke said: ‘As part of our radical approach to rehabilitation we are considering a range of payment by results schemes like the SIB.

‘The voluntary and private sectors will be crucial to our success and we want to make far better use of their enthusiasm and expertise to get offenders away from the revolving door of crime and prison.’

The government will be able to afford to pay investors returns of up to 13 per cent because of the money saved by keeping prison places down. The payment increases depending on how much the drop in re-offending exceeds the target of 7.5 per cent however the total cost of the project for the treasury is capped at £8m.

Social Finance, which invented and runs the SIB, expects to close the £5m investment fund by the end of the year. It has also received funding from the Big Lottery to help develop SIBs in other areas of social need.

MORI poll suggests more than half of Scots surveyed would be interested in setting up a community energy project

A new study has highlighted the appetite for community-led energy projects in Scotland.

Over half of Scots (51per cent), particularly those aged between 18 and 34, would be interested in helping to set up and run a social energy project, according to the latest MORI Poll.
 
The poll,commissioned by the Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition, also found that the majority of those surveyed (73 per cent) believe that the Government should provide financial support to firms looking to set up their own renewable energy schemes such as wind farms and hydro-electric generation.
 
Antonia Swinson, chief executive of The Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition, said: “These are significant findings, showing a real appetite for community-led projects and could have a considerable contribution to future economic sustainability of Scotland’s communities.”
 
Nicholas Gubbins, chief executive of the charity Community Energy Scotland, added: “This poll confirms our daily experience of working with hundreds of community groups across Scotland on their renewable energy projects.”

There is tremendous enthusiasm at community level. Scotland is leading the way in drawing in the benefits to communities from renewable energy.Its vital that we keep this momentum going.