The Government must be clearer about what it wants the Big Society to achieve, a social reform charity has said.
A week after Prime Minister David Cameron re-launched the initiative,
the Jubilee Centre warned that the Big Society would be judged a
failure if all it accomplished was the proliferation of charities and
volunteers while poverty, inequality and crime remained high.
While the Big Society is intended to address some of the social
problems affecting “Broken Britain”, the centre said the desired ends
had not been spoken about enough.
Researcher Guy Brandon said: “The Big Society has been surrounded by
confusion and is widely misunderstood by the public, largely because its
ultimate purpose has not been explained.
“In part, the confusion reflects the elusive and emergent nature o f
the initiative, and a language of process rather than the targets.
“Spending cuts have also led to a focus on fears about public service
provision and the possible consequences of rolling back the state.”
The centre said that the Government should not be allowed to sidestep
its responsibilities by passing them on to third sector organisations.
“It is not just people and communities that need to ‘take more
responsibility’ and ‘act more responsibly’: the state is also expected
to fulfil its responsibilities,” it said.
In particular, the centre pointed to the need to promote religious
freedom as it warned that red tape was preventing people from
volunteering, particularly people of faith.
“In reality it is therefore highly unlikely that any Big Society
ambitions can succeed without the help of faith groups,” the centre
said.