I’ve been trying to find time to write this blog for the last week or so. But I’ve been busy – helping out at school serving breakfast before sports day, counting the money and doing the end of year accounts for the PTA, and fitting in my full time job aswell.
Not only am I heavily involved in the PTA (or Friend’s group, as we are officially known – because there are no teachers in our PTA, they don’t have time), but I’m also a school governor. School governors form the largest volunteer workforce in the UK with around 370,000 governor places nationally. And do you know what, there just aren’t enough people with time to fill all the school governor places. About 10 -15% of these places are always vacant, and the vacancy rate rises to 30% or more in some inner city areas where many positions have been unfilled long-term.
This blog is about the big society though, so why am I talking about my busy week, and about the problems in recruiting school governors? Because we already have a Big Society. We already have many busy, caring, people helping out in their communities. In our village, a group of about 10 people organise a large carnival every year, raising over £13,000 for the sports centre, for the use of the whole village, and communities beyond our village. These things are already happening, and we don’t need Dave to tell us to get involved in our locality.
So what is this Big Society idea? It fell a bit flat during the election campaign, because no one could describe it. And it isn’t being well described now.
Many are suspicious of it – its being suggested by the Tories and therefore must automatically be bad. Some have suggested it is privatisation of services by the back door. It seems clear that it is a way of ammeliorating some of the effects of government cuts. That it will involve charities and volunteers doing the work of government on the cheap.
But who is going to do this volunteering? We already struggle to get enough people to help out in the PTA. There are school governor vacancies. People are worried about their jobs, and working many hours. Single parents will have to go to work when their children start school. We struggle to get people involved in the Big Society we have already, even in nice middle class villages. And the problems are worse in inner city areas.
And what will be the quality of the services? A nice OAP may be willing to man the library desk, but a library needs a qualified librarian. If volunteers take on social services, such as social care, who is going to monitor the quality of that service? And what about the agendas of those providing the service? Do you want the Church of Scientology providing mental health support?
Big Society
July 23, 2010 by puddlepie
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I hate all this Big Society crap- I have stopped listening to R4 on the way to work because I’m becoming so stressed and ranty about it all. To summarise why it drives me so bonkers:
1 because, as you point out, working in a library / post office / family centre etc, is not merely a case of stamping books / weighing parcels / squishing playdough- they are actually complicated and skilled rolls (some involving handling very large amounts of money) that are being wholly belittled by this notion that any old Joe off the street could pop in and take over for free.
2 what happens to the people that are currently being paid to do these things? So many public sector workers will be out of a job soon already, without laying off everyone that works in these places (or asking them to voluntarily give up their wage). There’ll be so many unemployed people in this country, who will pay the taxes we need to fund these people’s JSA?
3 I’m sure if this policy was implemented in my sleepy little Tory heartland Oxfordshire market town, no one would know much difference really- there’d be plenty of retired well meaning types, busy-bodies and people with too much time on their hands to run our local services, and probably do it very well. But what about the more deprived communities. Plenty of the communities I visit regularly have to work very hard to keep services afloat already and libraries suffer with theft and vandalism etc. I can’t see how they will be run by local volunteers and this means that kids in those areas will have even less access to books / computers etc than they do already.
4 if volunteering is such a grand thing, why doesn’t David Cameron give up his wage and be a voluntary Prime Minister, using his inherited millions to provide for his family?
I started writing a Big Rant about the Big Society, but I’ve decided to save it for another time. I have a feeling this story is going to run and run.
For now, I’ll just say this: when David Cameron’s son sadly died, he gave many interviews, just like this one http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article5821504.ece where he applauds the professionals involved in his son’s care.
SENCO’s, Occupational Therapists, Social Workers, teachers, these are all PROFESSIONALS who spend years training in their area of expertise, and while they may love their jobs, they also have families to feed and mortgages to pay. I don’t want an amateur teaching my child any more than I want a volunteer replacing my grandmother’s hip!
While we’re talking about disability, we already have an army of carers (I hate that cliché but I’m going to use it regardless) who care for disabled relatives and friends, children with special needs, people with mental health problems etc. They do this at financial and emotional cost to themselves, and it is estimated by actuaries to save the state the equivalent of the NHS. The Tory flagship borough, Hammersmith and Fulham is currently withdrawing support services for carers: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/jun/15/hammersmith-fulham-carers-centre-closure which shows how much value they actually put on the Big Society when it comes down to it.
The Big Society is a Big Con!
Oh, and I love the idea of a Volunteer Prime Minister. Except it’s not a joke, it’s fine to swan about withdrawing services when you have the means to provide them privately.