Sector organisations have not been won over by David Cameron's Big Society relaunch today, with the consensus being the government is not doing enough to support the sector.

Sir Stuart Etherington, NCVO chief executive, noted his organisation supported the idea of the Big Society, but, he warned the Government needs to take swift action now to ensure that voluntary organisations survive to deliver it.

He said: "It should double the Transition Fund and broaden its criteria so more groups can benefit from it. Local government must also be supported to make long-term, intelligent decisions, to prevent the sector from being seen as a soft target for spending cuts.

"We urge the Government to prioritise reforming Gift Aid and addressing the issue of irrecoverable VAT on shared services. This would help voluntary organisations to weather the financial storm whilst continuing to provide vital services," he said.

Charities Aid Foundation
The Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) warned that the Big Society Bank will disappoint many charities and social enterprises if it focuses on financial return over social impact.

CAF said that by expecting the Bank to be financially self-sustainable from the outset and operating on a commercial basis there is a risk that it will run contrary to its mission of ensuring charities and social enterprises have access to affordable capital.

Emilie Goodall, senior investment manager at CAF Venturesome, the Charities Aid Foundation’s social investment fund, said: “The concept of the Big Society Bank and the £300m of capital being made available is good news. However, we are concerned that if the funds are only made available on a commercial basis the interest rates could be too high for many charities and social enterprises.

“The focus needs to be on social return over financial return. This is a new market and from our experience of making loans, whilst there is a very high rate of loans being repaid, there are few social projects which generate a financial profit. Their main purpose is rightly to deliver a positive social impact.

Goodall added that the emphasis of the Big Society Bank on helping charities and social enterprises to deliver public services may also exclude the bulk of the sector as most don’t do this but they still need access to capital.

"The result could be that the Bank doesn’t generate the wide-ranging positive impact that the Government and the sector wants and needs,” she warned.

The Charities Aid Foundation’s social investment arm, CAF Venturesome, is a social investment fund and since its launch in 2002 has offered over £22m to 280 charities and social enterprises.

SCVO
Martin Sime, chief executive of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, noted that David Cameron’s big idea is nothing new. "It simply describes a lot of what already happens throughout Scotland’s third sector.

"From active volunteers in communities across the country to running excellent public services, Scotland’s charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises already play a vital role in supporting some of the most vulnerable people. And we could do so much more."

And Sime warned: “Right now we’re on a knife edge. The local lifelines that so many people rely on face vicious cuts, leaving the most vulnerable without the support they need. Our sector has already made huge efficiency savings and many organisations are now making redundancies and cutting services. While David Cameron’s sentiment may be positive, it’s going to take more than rhetoric to save our services.”

V
Terry Ryall the chief executive of v, the National Young Volunteers' Service, highlighted that he and his colleagues at v believe the idea of a Big Society is a good one, but added: "It needs to be properly resourced. Not just financially with the Big Society Bank. But with input and ideas from the people on the ground who will make it a reality.

"What is really important to the vision of the Big Society, is having an active and growing base of volunteers. At v, we are experts at inspiring and mobilising young people to take action. We have already created over 1 million opportunities for young people to volunteer and are building on this work with our Big Society’s Big Mouth (www.bigsocietysbigmouth.org) initiative.

"So far the Big Society has been mainly conceptual – which makes it difficult for people to understand the role they can play in making it happen. We believe that the voices of 16 -25 year olds need to be heard loud and clear about the type of Big Society they want to be part of and help to build. It’s time to turn the Big Society from rhetoric into real action."

Communications adviser
Sush Amar, a freelance writer and charity communications adviser, added: "The £100 million transition fund has been announced at least three seperate times to date but that doesn't triple it - not that £300 million would go far even if the sector wasn't going to have to pick up thousands more pieces than it did previously.

"I don't think, at heart, this Government really understands what charities and the voluntary sector actually do - and without that fundamental understanding, Big Society ideologies will remain dead in the water."

Unite
Unite, which has 60,000 members in the sector, was the most scathing, saying that 14 February, 2011 would be remembered as the day when events converged to spell very grim news for charities.

Unite said that David Cameron’s ‘fight back’ speech today against his Big Society critics was ‘a sham’; and that the King’s Speech, with its seven BAFTA awards would not have been made without support from the soon-to-be axed UK Film Council.

Unite also noted that today was the end of consultation on the legal aid Green Paper, with the prospect of £350 million being torn out of the legal aid budget.

Rachael Maskell, Unite’s national officer for Not for Profit sector, said: "These events all coming together on St Valentine’s Day herald a massacre of the voluntary sector, not its renaissance.

"David Cameron needs to explain that if £5bn is being cut from the sector and only £400 million is being injected in the form of the Big Society bank and the transition fund, what is happening to £4.6bn funding gap facing charities?

"George Osborne needs to address the crisis facing the sector by the budget on 23 March, otherwise many charities will go to the wall which will be the death knell of the Big Society."

Unite called last week for David Cameron’s Big Society ‘fantasy’ to be investigated by the Commons Public Administration Select Committee.

Labour Party
And Tessa Jowell MP, Labour’s shadow cabinet office minister, said: "David Cameron can try as many relaunches as he likes. It doesn't change the fact that by cutting too far and too fast, and hitting the charities and community organisations that do so much to support volunteering and social action across the country, it's David Cameron who is undermining what he likes to call the Big Society."

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