Subject: The Big Society in Reality

The government has laid out the specifics of it's Big Society campaign pledge.  I'm not sure there are any great shocks here, but what do people feel about the invovations/changes?  And will these policies effect the sector?

A Conservative government will:

• Establish a new Big Society Bank, using money from unclaimed bank accounts to leverage hundreds of millions of pounds of extra finance for neighbourhood groups, charities and social enterprises;
• Introduce a National Citizen Service, a new volunteering programme to help 16 year olds develop their skills, mix with people from different backgrounds and get involved in improving their communities;
• Promote the delivery of public services by social enterprises, charities and voluntary groups, encouraging them to get involved in running things like Sure Start;
• Introduce a fair deal on grants so charities and voluntary organisations can make a competitive return when providing public services, just as private businesses already do;
• Fund the training of an army of independent community organisers to help people establish and run neighbourhood groups;
• Launch an annual Big Society Day to celebrate the work of neighbourhood groups and encourage more people to take part in social action;
• Lead by example, transforming the civil service  into a ‘civic service’ by encouraging civil servants to volunteer and participate in social action projects;
• Cut the bureaucracy and paperwork which currently stifles charities, including reforming the criminal records checks system and making Gift Aid easier to use
• Develop a new measure of well-being that encapsulates the social value of state action;
• Empower communities to come together to address local issues; including enabling parents to open new schools, letting neighbours take over local amenities like parks and libraries that are under threat, giving the public greater control of the planning system, and enabling residents to hold the police to account in neighbourhood beat meetings;
• Use the latest insights from behavioural economics to encourage people to donate more time and money to charity; and
• Restore the National Lottery to its original purpose, cut down on administration costs and make sure more money goes to good causes instead of Ministers' pet projects.