Regardless of how we feel about it, and how clear we are about what it means in practice, the "big society" agenda has profound implications for local government. We need to engage with it, influence its translation into our local areas and harness its potential to facilitate strong and sustainable communities.
But is it really as new an idea as the government is claiming?
I recently spoke at Calderdale inter-faith council's celebration, marking the start of inter-faith week. As I took the stage in front of 150 people, I thought about how a few months ago I would have been talking about the role of faith communities in building community cohesion. Now I am meant to be asking them to lead the way on the big society, but isn't that rather patronising?
In Calderdale faith communities already run services for vulnerable groups like the homeless through our YMCA. They promote community activity in isolated rural areas in the hilltop villages, and act as a vehicle to engage with our newly arrived communities. If local government took a step back and looked at the big society through the lens of faith communities, it would appear the big society is just replicating what is already there or worse, using the dazzle of new language to disguise the reality of harsh cuts.
From my perspective it isn't as simple as that. Like other local authorities, we are faced with the task of setting a budget predicated upon a severe reduction in funding and there have been some difficult but revelatory moments in recent months as it has become clear that local government is perceived as a potential inhibitor of local community action. However, it does not have to be that way and in Calderdale it palpably isn't, although the upshot of this is that my working environment is changing as the weeks pass.
Rather than being written out of the script, local authorities need to grasp the opportunity to become co-authors of a new script. Time is not on our side, and if we do not make this change in thought and deed now we will be faced with the abrupt decline of services, and the gap between expectations and the reality of service delivery will become irretrievable. Whether its adult social care, libraries, or youth provision we are not going to be able to deliver in the same ways that we have done until now.
Making sure that Calderdale council takes the lead on big society has meant I have recently been involved in numerous discussions that simply wouldn't have happened before. I have met with the Parish Council and the Hebden Bridge Community Association about the potential for further wide-ranging asset transfer following their remarkable success with the Town Hall.
I have met with frontline staff and managers thinking about mutuals, employee ownership and what it might mean for them. Other staff approached me at the end of one of our staff forums on our budget consultation results, asking how they could get advice about becoming a social enterprise. Even before the publication of Eric Pickles' localism Bill, I have received proposals from community groups making the first tentative expression of interest in a service, articulating how they could play an active part in its future. I have met with the other authorities in our region on the cabinet office work to blend budgets and deliver locally integrated services. And I was part of a discussion on how a former school site in Halifax could be led by a development trust.
I have learnt in practice that there is a huge resource out there, waiting for the "network effect" of seeing others doing it to untap what David Halpern has described as the "hidden wealth" within communities. I have also been able to see the wisdom of Matthew Taylor's definition of the three essential ingredients for the big society to succeed; committed leadership, community capacity and, most importantly, being in an organisation that gets it.
Not all this activity will lead to new models of service delivery, and we are looking to learn from our experiences of asset transfer to create a coherent framework to enable these roots to grow and flourish. Some proposals will fall at the outset due to lack of a viable business plan or capacity to realise the vision. Others may not deliver further on but local government has to be prepared to take some risks and not be overly afraid of failure. If we are to ever shift our mindset from the previous paradigm of service improvement to the new one of innovation Samuel Beckett's words are worth remembering, "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
Robin Tuddenham is director of Safer and Stronger Communities at Calderdale Council, West Yorkshire
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