Stephen Howard on the Big Society

On Monday 19 July 2010 the Prime Minister David Cameron used his visit to Liverpool to announce more details of how social enterprises, charities and community groups will be involved in providing local services to support the delivery of the Big Society.

Liverpool; Eden Valley, Cumbria; Windsor and Maidenhead, Berkshire; and the London Borough of Sutton have been selected to receive initial help with projects. They will each get dedicated civil servants to ensure initiatives get off the ground.

At a time when many sectors are facing cutbacks, building on the existing - proven - success and experience of collaborative action, rather than attempting to reinvent the wheel will be vital.

Commenting on the announcement Stephen Howard, CEO of Business in the Community, said:

“Business in the Community welcomes this initiative for the renewed opportunity and greater momentum it offers with which to engage business leaders on the theme of creating engaged communities and active citizens.

“Our members, from the smallest SMEs to the biggest multi-nationals, are excited about the opportunity this presents to enhance and further spread the best practice that has been achieved over the past 28 years of working collaboratively on this very agenda.

“At a time when many sectors are facing cutbacks, building on the existing - proven - success and experience of this collaborative action, rather than attempting to reinvent the wheel will be vital.

“We welcome the Coalition government’s acknowledgment that no one sector can achieve the aims of the Big Society in isolation and we look forward to contributing to their vision. However the devolution of powers to local authorities and the many-hands policy means that strong leadership from across government, both nationally and locally, will be the lynchpin needed to ensure the success of this aspiration.

“Business in the Community has over 800 businesses in membership, many of them already engaged on this agenda. So we occupy a pivotal position to harness the strengths of the private and third sectors in a unique way, which has the potential to turn the Big Society vision into a reality. This may take time and it will take effort, but it is important that we can demonstrate to people as soon as possible that this vision can work in day-to-day reality.

“To that end Business in the Community will convene a Summit of its leading members, asking them to both scale up the best practice developed over the last few years and develop new ways of supporting local participation and engagement. This Summit will kick off a renewed and reinvigorated national effort to ensure support continues to get to those communities in greatest need to create sustainable and connected communities.”

Ends

Business in the Community works with businesses across the UK in the following areas of expertise to support communities and encourage active participation:

Employability: our Employability programmes include Business Action on Homelessness, Project Compass, and employing ex-offenders.

Employee Volunteering: our Employee Volunteering programmes include Give & Gain Day, Let's Get Cooking, ProHelp.

Economic Renewal: our Economic Renewal programmes include Social Housing Partnerships, Property-led regeneration, Health Inequalities.

Education: our Education programmes include Business Class, the principles of which are closely informed by the recommendations of the Business Workstream of the The National Council for Educational Excellence (NCEE) recommendations, which was led in 2008 by Dame Julia Cleverdon.

Click here to search our case study library of companies already working successfully in partnership with local communities and third sector organisations.