Study highlights Big Society’s ‘rhetoric and reality gap’
There is a significant disparity between expectations of the Big Society and the sector’s current capacity, according to new research.
The report by think tank IPPR North claims that, without support, community and social enterprise will not be able to rise to the challenge of the Big Society and argues there are insufficient numbers of ‘enterprise ready’ organisations looking to contract with the public sector.
Highlighting the many community or social enterprises currently relying on grants and public sector funding, Growing the Big Society: encouraging success in social and community enterprise in deprived communities warns that ‘significantly more’ intellectual and financial investment and coordination is needed, particularly at a local level.
An online survey conducted with northwest social enterprises found grant funding had been the primary port of call for more than 70% of respondents in the last year.
The grant dependency indicates ‘a long way to travel’ before voluntary and community organisations could become ‘fully fledged social enterprises’, concluded IPPR North.
The report makes a series of recommendations including:
- An ‘organisational review’ for aspiring social enterprises
- Better coordination between support agencies
- A review of local authorities and other public service providers’ commissioning and procurement processes to ensure accessibility for the social and community enterprise sector.
IPPR North director Ed Cox said: ‘If we’re not careful, this drive for economies of scale will be at odds with the best intentions of the Big Society.
‘Organisations need support to make the transition from being aspirant community organisations to fully fledged social enterprises.
‘But the support on offer to them is complex, confusing and unhelpfully competitive.’
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