Please tell me about this "Big Society" thing

It's not just volunteers doing the work of recently redundant trained workers that worries me.

What about the private sector? They won't be slow to seize the opportunities. So I wonder if this isn't also a way to privatise vital services.

So basically we'll have a lot of unemployed people helping each other - but with no money to buy facilities or equipment or anything they need. Well, it could work. It's called communism. Power to the people! Yay.

Why should vulnerable people have to rely on the goodwill on a bunch of volunteers?
Professional care should be guaranteed - that is the hallmark of a decent, progressive society. We shouldn't allow the rich to effectively pick and choose who they think is worthy of their largesse - cos that is what charity is, you know.
And to whoever said the deficit is the result of overspending - read a book about economics, or indeed the newspapers for the past couple of years.
We spent the equivalent of the deficit on bailing out those Tory (w)bankers who think they earn the ridiculous sums they take home just by shunting money around the city. They are the ones who will really benefit from the Big Bloody Society.
If they put as much effort into chasing billionaire tax evaders as we did villifying people who have fallen on hard times, we might make some inroads into the deficit.

'I volunteer to feed Dave and wipe his bum when he is old and frail. And Gideons '

Riven you are a saint.

ragged I totally agree with you,

"Get involved in your local community preschool committee if you want a taste of what The Big Society actually means. An arguably essential public service which 50% of the time in England is run by unqualified untrained inexperienced time-strapped amateurs. With hugely mixed results."

Using volunteers to provide essential services in education, healthcare etc is a recipe for disaster. And as another poster said, what about the unpopular causes? The heroin addicts? The very seriously mentally ill? Ex-cons?

I'm not saying that everything should be outsourced but I see no harm in looking to see if there are things that the Government currently does that voluntary organisations might be able to do better and cheaper. The current model of public service and spending is unsustainable we are spending far more than we are bringing in taxes so we must look at alternatives to what we are currently doing.

Do we not already use charitys to provide vital frontline services. If you get in trouble out at sea the lifeboat will come and get you. The RNLI is a voluntary organisation, if you get in trouble up a mountain then mountain rescue will come and try and help you, mountain rescue is a voluntary organisation.
So why not look at other things and see if the third sector can provide the service

I've done a lot of volunteering in my area over the last fifteen years. It's fun and rewarding. The trouble is that in some parts there really is a shortage of people with the skills to do some of the jobs needed. I see the same people again and again.

But I'm not sure I take the point that areas of high unemployment would have problems as a result of not having time. If they're not working they'd probably have more time than those working.

Big Society is DC getting people to do things that our taxes should be paying for for nothing. Riven is quite right, you can't send in untrained staff to the vulnerable and elderly.

And such services should NOT depend on charity or volunteers - who can just give up at will. They need to be guaranteed and funded from taxation. Only fair way.

I think there are examples of where charitys and voluntary agencys can provide services that are beeter and cheaper than the state. The citizens advice bureau is far better than the DWP helplines for example. This isn't knew either organisations like the Lifeboat and Mountain Rescue are voluntary organisations that certainly provide vital services to those in distress so I think there is some potential in this idea.

What things could charities do cheaper and better than the state at a professional standard? That's the problem, I can dredge a wildlife pond or chat with old folk in hospital to keep their morale up as well as a professional would, but I don't think the govt. is paying for that sort of thing anyway. When govts. already pay for something, it's because you need qualified people who deserve remuneration for their educational investment.

the irony of the Big Society bollocks is that the government is cutting funding to many voluntary organisations

clever

"it's implicit within our state education system that parents get involved to improve the school - always has been." If that is the case why are they harping on about it as if they have invented the idea. In fact most parents do not have the time to be in school sorting out educating their own child. If they did they might as well home educate.

Skippy - it's implicit within our state education system that parents get involved to improve the school - always has been.

But if your talking about Free Schools. Then they are not really about cost saving - more about introducing innovation and diversity into the education system.

Riven why shouldn't volunteers do it if they can do it to the same level.

perhaps but it should cover education, shouldn't it ? However, we have been told if schools are not good enough to go in and sort it out ourselves.