Interesting briefing paper out from the Consultation Institute today on what the Big Society might be, and how the government needs to issue more specifics on it, which reminded me of a point I’ve been pondering for a while.
What if asking ‘What is the Big Society?’ is entirely the wrong question?
If it’s a process of devolving power to lower levels of government, or to areas outside of the state itself, including, shock horror, real everyday folk, then asking for guidance on it is like asking for guidance with something like the concept of love. There are areas around the edges that people can advise and assist with, but if you ask ‘What is love?’, then the answer’s going to be different for different people in different places and in different times.
Interesting too that the Consultation Institute briefing paper asks
How would new community led initiatives be monitored and by whom? Would local authorities need to pick up the burden of monitoring whilst being confronted by cutbacks themselves?
Later on it says;
Could it be that the government’s desire to move away from central influence could be reflected in not giving directives of this nature?
I suspect this latter point is entirely the case, especially if you look at an interview with Eric Pickles (Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government) over on Iain Dale’s blog a while back, where he relates a story of an early meeting with his civil servants.
I want to put this politely, but occasionally you do things that surprise them. For example when we got rid of the Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA), we were just talking about it. They said: “You want to replace it with what?” Nothing. “Yes, okay. But what things do we want local authorities to be judged on? What’s the regime?” Nothing. “So just to be clear secretary of state, when you say nothing, what do you mean?” Nothing. I mean nothing, absolutely nothing. It’s pointless. It doesn’t do anything. It doesn’t get a bin emptied. No sure, of course we are going to inspect children’s services but it’s going to be in terms of life threatening right through to personal liberty. Those kinds of things are going to be dealt with. But some of the stuff was pointless. You just became quite good at filling the tick boxes. Nothing actually happened.
My suspicion is that this quote gets to the heart of the issue better than any briefing paper. When asking ‘What is the Big Society?’ there is no measurable or finite answer, and that in itself is entirely the point.
It’s going to be interesting watching the different layers of government, spoonfed with directives, guidance and targets for the last 13 years adapt to this new mindset.
