SPEAKING OUT 2010SPEAKING OUT 2010

Under the spotlight – unlocking community potential Under the spotlight – unlocking community potential

Thursday 9Thursday 9 December 2010December 2010

Chair’s introduction

Susanne RauprichChief Executive

National Council for Voluntary Youth Services

Morning session keynote address followed by questions

Helen StephensonDeputy Director,

Charity and Sector Support Unit, Cabinet Office

Big Society

Helen Stephenson, Deputy DirectorOffice for Civil Society

Big Society – the VisionBig Society is about putting more power into people’s hands – it is a massive transfer of power from Whitehall to local communities.

Big Society means that the leading force for progress is social responsibility, with people coming together to solve problems and improve life for themselves and their communities.

“....where people in their everyday lives, their homes their neighbourhoods, their workplace, don’t always turn to officials, local authorities or central

government for answers to the problems they face, but instead feel both free and powerful enough to help themselves and their own communities.”

Prime Minister, 19 July 2010

The 3 PrinciplesCommunity empowerment: giving local councils and neighbourhoods more power to take decisions and shape their area

Opening up public services: enabling charities, social enterprises, private companies and employee-owned co-operatives to compete to offer people high quality services

Social action: encouraging and enabling people to play a more active part in society

Community empowerment

Examples include:

•Planning reforms will replace the old top-down planning system with real power for neighbourhoods to decide the future of their area.

•Government will de-ringfence more than £1 billion of grants to local authorities in 2010/11, promoting greater financial autonomy to local government and community groups.

•Local Authorities will be required to publish information on all spending over £500 locally, opening up a vast swathe of information about the way that money flows locally.

What’s Government Doing to Make this Happen?

Opening up public services

Examples include:

•The welfare to work programme will enable a wide range of organisations to help get Britain off welfare and into work.

•Commissioning reform will enable the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector to realise its potential role in public services.

•Public sector workers will be given a new right to form employee-owned co-operatives and bid to take over the services they deliver. This will empower millions of public sector workers to become their own boss and help them to deliver better services.

What’s Government Doing to Make this Happen?

Social action

Examples include:

•National Citizen Service will give teenagers a sense of belonging and purpose.

•5000 Community Organisers who will have strong understanding of local needs and will catalyse social action by neighbourhood groups.

•The Community First fund will encourage more social action by new and existing neighbourhood groups, targeting communities with high levels of deprivation and low levels of social capital.

What’s Government Doing to Make this Happen?

Achieving the Big Society will require a new approach to government, one that moves away from the assumption that the way to improve things in society is through central government setting targets. The key techniques that government will use are:

Decentralisation –power will need to be moved from central government to local communities, neighbourhoods and individuals.

Transparency – government wants to make more information available to people in order to hold services to account.

Building capacity – as an enabler of Big Society, government has a role in building the capacity of individuals, communities and organisations so that they can play a full part in the Big Society.

...But it’s a New Approach to Government

Presentation

Fay SelvanBig Life Group

Fay SelvanChief Executive

The Big Life group

Outcomes

• Since 2003 cared for 889 children in daycare, play groups and after school

• In the last three years cared for 4000 children in 30 different children centres

• Provided training for 715 parents, 249 getting qualifications in the last 10 years

• Trained 71 employees to gain NVQ 2&3 in Childcare and Education in the last ten years

Break

Seminar session 1

Seminar Presenter Location

Investing in young people BANG Edutainment Room 31 (Third floor)

Making voices heard Southside Room 32 (Third floor)

Culturally sensitive activities for young people

Jewish Lads and Girls Brigade

Room 33 (Third floor)

Lunch

Guest speaker

Jon NottChief Executive Woodcraft Folk

Afternoon session keynote address

Tim DaviesCo-director

Practical Participation

Seminar session 2 followed by break

Seminar Presenter Location

Young people taking control University of the First age

Room 31 (Third floor)

Get creative with your voice Young lives Room 32 (Third floor)

Involving young people with disabilities in decision making

Norwood Room 33 (Third floor)

Break

Panel discussion

Chair: Maggie Jones

Speakers: Councillor Peter Robbins, Cabinet member for Children and Young People

Jonathan Senker, Chief Executive, Advocacy Partners – Speaking Up Jasmine Medhora, Community Activist, Diana Awards

Daljit Kaur, Director of Service Development, Institute of community cohesion

Chair’s round-up

Maggie JonesChief Executive

Children England

Thank you for attending

Speaking Out is a joint project between The National Council for Voluntary Youth Services (NCVYS) and

Children England

For more information please visit: www.ncvys.org.uk or www.childrenengland.org.uk

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