Friday 4 March 2011

Two of our lecturers, Marina Stott and Andy Brady, have had key input into a recently published book, The Big Society Challenge. Marina is a lecturer with the Faculty of Health & Social Care (FHSC), and Andy is a lecturer with Ashcroft International Business School (AIBS).

The Big Society Challenge

Amid calls for a new localised state, a strengthened civil society, and communities made powerful, how do community practitioners foresee the implementation of the Big Society initiatives?

Keystone Development Trust's exciting new book The Big Society Challenge was an idea initiated by Keystone's Chief Executive, Neil Stott, and represents another successful collaborative endeavour between the trust and academics from the Social Policy team in FHSC. Marina Stott, Senior Lecturer in Social Policy, edited the book and authored the introductory chapter to set the scene for the 21 chapters that follow, which
explore what the Big Society means for the rest of us and how the Big Society vision can be successfully implemented.

Voices are drawn from the 'small platoons' of voluntary associations, community practitioners and academics to comprise a collection of short and accessible papers, including case studies from DTA (1) and bassac (2) membership, which point to successful examples of the vision in action now. The papers investigate the intellectual roots and political context for the Big Society agenda and explore the implications for a range of key areas, such as housing, poverty, inequality, rural communities, the environment and how it sits alongside social enterprise and the new austerity. The Big Society is an idea that is still emerging and taking shape along the way. The Big Society Challenge is an attempt to make some sense of that idea and contribute to what it becomes.

Big Society and Social Enterprise

Andy Brady from AIBS wrote the chapter on social enterprise for The Big Society Challenge. Here he sets out some of the worries the sector has about the new world order...

Social enterprises have been with us a long time (at least going back to the Rochdale pioneers), but it was under the New Labour Government that the idea of doing business for social good rather than for private profit really took off, and the term 'social enterprise' became established in the mainstream. Interestingly, enthusiasm for social enterprise (and its potential to deliver public services, regenerate communities and boost employment) was a virus that managed to jump species, with the Conservative manifesto, and subsequent coalition legislation promising an increased level of investment finance and a widening of opportunities for the sector. The problem, as with so much of the potentially very exciting proposals at the core of Big Society, is that the financial context has meant reducing support for the sector, leaving existing, and future, social entrepreneurs, in the lurch. In our own region, the abolition of EEDA (the regional development agency) means a funding squeeze for the regional network of social enterprises, SEEE, and the closure of Business Link East will mean the end of the very popular social enterprise grants, allowing businesses to access £1500 worth of business advice.

Across the country there is a perceived disconnect between rhetoric and reality, and a growing feeling that there is no coherent strategy for social enterprise support. Only time will tell whether these nagging fears are realised, or whether social enterprise really does get the chance to deliver.

The Big Society Challenge is sponsored by the Development Trust Association (DTA), bassac, LankellyChase Foundation and Social Enterprise East of England (SEEE) and was launched at the RSA House, London on 13 January 2011. Copies are free to download.

For more information, please contact Marina Stott (marina.stott@anglia.ac.uk) or Andy Brady (andrew.brady@anglia.ac.uk).



(1) The Development Trust Association (the leading network of community enterprise practitioners)

(2) A membership body for community organisations.