Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, yesterday chaired the first Big Society Ministerial Group meeting involving representatives from across Whitehall departments.

The Ministerial Big Society meetings will be held regularly and will drive a coordinated approach to departments’ work on the Big Society.

It will progress commitments made by individual departments aimed at helping to build the Big Society, and also work together on cross-cutting issues.

Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, said: “Big Society is not about big government but about communities doing more for themselves. We want to ensure that every part of government is working together to ensure individuals and communities have the support and opportunities to change the things they care about.

“By stepping back and local people stepping up, we want to see a new era of communities coming together to make a difference in their local area.”

At the meeting ministers: discussed how each of their departments were contributing to the Big Society vision, giving examples of where communities are already in the driving seat taking decisions for themselves;

Departments committed to reporting back to the group regularly on the work of their departments on the Big Society;

Discussed the importance of the compact and considered its effectiveness;

Agreed that the remit of the group should be expanded to cover localism as well as Big Society, and that it would be co-chaired in future by Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, and Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office.

The Ministerial group also heard from the Government Advisor for Big Society, Lord Wei, who talked about how he could support each department to deliver their work on the Big Society.

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