Clare Whelan

7th Oct 2010

A fringe meeting on the theme of the Big Society—Engaging Communities was first event of opening day of the Conservative Party Conference for me.  I was delighted to chair it because it brought together three of my favourite organisations—Local Government Leadership, for which I am a Conservative Adviser, the Tory Reform Group, which I used to manage, and Groundwork, a federation of environmental charities to whose local board I belonged.

The aspiration set for us by David Cameron and the Coalition Government of a ‘Big Society’ is exciting. For Conservatives it is a natural one—societies and communities empowered to do more for themselves, with less dependency on a centralised, command and control state.

The initiative presents us with enormous opportunities, some challenges, and some questions:

• How do you engage and empower communities?
• There is already a lot of ‘stuff’ that could be described as ‘Big Society’ going but what works and how do we share it?
• What does the ‘Big Society’ mean for the future of local government?

Other questions arise. Does embracing the ‘Big Society’ mean by-passing local government or does it present a new and important role for councillors.  If so, how do we encourage talented local people to come forward to play a more active role, not just in their communities, but also in the democratic process?

To discuss these issues in a packed room three were three exceptionally well qualified contributors. They were Tony Hawkhead, the energetic CEO of Groundwork UK. Next was Cllr Sir Merrick Cockell, Chairman of the Conservative Councillors Association and champion of the Local Government Leadership ‘Be A Councillor’ project which aims to interest people who might otherwise not think about doing so, in getting involved in local politics.  The other panel member was Baroness Sandip Verma, who is the Government Spokesperson in the Lords for a number of briefs including women and equalities. She is doing a great deal to encourage community and democratic involvement.

All in all it was a lively discussion, with some challenges advanced to the new government from Groundwork to ensure that the Big Society is about setting people free, not adrift.  Sir Merrick pointed out that one of the best descriptions of ‘Big Society’ was that it was about ‘helping individuals feel less small.’ Baroness Verma persuasively put the case that government must allow people to take individual responsibility for their communities and reinvigorate the concept of ‘service to others’.