8 Conclusion
160. The
substantial change expected to result from the Big Society project,
namely the devolution of power to communities and citizens will
not occur overnight: if successful, as witnesses suggested, it
will take a generation. The Government's Big Society statements
have, so far, failed to communicate this point effectively. There
is public confusion with the policy agenda, eighteen months into
this administration. Confusion also still exists among many service
providers. Early examples, such as the Work Programme, have caused
the charitable sector to express serious reservations about the
implementation of the Government's ambitions in practice.
161. To bring
in charities and voluntary groups to deliver public services,
the government must take steps to address the barriers they experience
in the contracting and commissioning system, which means developing
a plan to address roles, tasks, responsibilities and skills in
Whitehall departments. We recommend:
a) A single Big Society Minister,
who has a cross-cutting brief, to help other Ministers to drive
through this agenda once they begin reporting progress against
the aims of Open Public Services White Paper, from April 2012.
b) An impact
assessment, applied to every Government policy, statutory instrument,
and new Bill, which asks the simple question: "what substantively
will this do to build social capital, people power, and social
entrepreneurs?"
Unless this is done, the Big Society
project will not succeed.
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