Is 'pear' a shape?

By Ethel Bangwayo
Strategic Engagement Officer, Herts CVS Group.

When the Prime Minister announced that 2011 was going to be a difficult year, I don’t think even he imagined just how challenging it would be. Paul Twivy, the founder of the Big Society Network and a Big Society adviser to the government, has admitted that while the fundamental ideas of the Big Society are sound, the concept is "divisive within the Cabinet" and "increasingly loathed by the public". As if that wasn’t enough, Liverpool, one of the four ‘pioneers’ of Big Society, has withdrawn its vanguard status citing the cuts as an impediment to success. Said Joe Anderson, the Liverpool council leader "How can the city council support the Big Society and its aim to help communities do more for themselves when we will have to cut the lifeline to hundreds of vital and worthwhile groups?" The words ‘pear’ and ‘shape’ come to mind...

Big Society is not the only concept that has not taken off as expected. Communities and Local Government Minister Nick Hurd has announced that the take up of the Transition Fund, which was set up to help charities that are facing cuts in public funding, has been lower than expected. This, at a time when VCS organisations across the country are being forced to cut services, make staff redundant and in some cases close down altogether. The tight application deadlines and the stringent qualification criteria may have something to do with it. Let’s play ‘spot the irony’…

In other news, according to the latest Citizens Survey published by the Communities and Local Government department, volunteering has fallen for the fifth consecutive year, dropping 7 percentage points between 2005 and 2010. Fortunately, the government recognises the importance of volunteering and is proposing, in the recently published Giving Green Paper, a volunteering match fund worth £10m per annum and an infrastructure programme of £42.5m over four years. Hopefully these will bear fruit, particularly with the Olympics on the horizon. Some sections of society are not entirely convinced, however. Retiring Executive Director of Community Service Volunteers believes that spending cuts and the government’s approach to Big Society are undermining volunteering and has said as much at her retirement do.

It will be interesting to see how the rest of the year unfolds ...