Great Yarmouth saw the Big Society event at the Great Yarmouth Town Hall, on Thursday the 30th of September. Around 200 people attended for discussions on the new big society which is the flagship policy idea of the 2010 Conservative Party general election manifesto and forms part of the legislative program of the Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement. The aim is "to create a climate that empowers local people and communities, building a big society that will take power away from politicians and give it to people”. The plans include setting up a Big Society Bank and introducing a national citizen service.
The stated priorities are:
Give communities more powers
Encourage people to take an active role in their communities
Transfer power from central to local government
Support co-ops, mutual’s, charities and social enterprises
Publish government data.
Great Yarmouth has for sometime now been doing this within the borough and applause was given to the different groups for what they already have achieved in the borough.
Marion and Brian Hardisty from the Hopton youth club spoke about how the Hopton Youth club came about, with over a 100 members and over 60 members turning up each week. Andrew Forrest Chief Executive of the Great Yarmouth Community Trust told of how the Priory Centre had helped over 2000 people and gained employment for 70 of them, saving the government a substantial amount of money.
Lunch was provided by Great Yarmouth College which all agreed was a magnificent spread. The lunch break was used by many attendees to make new contacts and business cards were seen changing hands everywhere. This can only be good for the people of Great Yarmouth if service providers are really talking to one another.
During the break Darren and Kane interviewed Peter Kirkpatrick, Mr. Kirkpatrick had asked how is the Big Society going to get Parish groups to talk to each other when they appear to have the attitude that they have always done it this way, like it or lump it.
We put the following questions to Sarah Benioff, Richard Packham, Tom Cambell, Naomi Richards and Simon O’Leary –
1. What does the Big Society mean to you.
2. What are your feelings about the Big Society
3. When cuts come, how is the Big Society going to affect ordinary people of Great Yarmouth
4. How will the Big Society ensure that ordinary people continue to get services?
5. Do you worry that people will be left to fend for themselves?
Responses
Sarah Benioff, Deputy Director of the Office of the Third Sector.
1. Big society means getting involved with the community
2. Big society is a good idea, makes you feel good, personally and professionally.
3. Cuts are going to be tough but it will be a way for people to get involved. Great Yarmouth is good because people are already doing it.
4. Services will still be delivered.
5. No, ministers are not pulling out of everything, Ministers will still be involved in what goes on in any area
Richard Packham - Managing Director of Great Yarmouth Borough Council.
1. Huge opportunity/ shift of power, attitude, away from service uses other than providers
2. Sense of real opportunity, Excitement. Feelings of things are opening up not closing down.
3. Help deal with reductions, help better use of resources, engaging resources in the community
4. Help get services they want other than what they have to have.
5. No, just the opposite to fend as a group/community
Tom Cambell – The Den youth club
1. Local residents in Southtown want to see a better quality of life.
2. Thinks it is a good idea but need to concentrate in the right areas.
3. Depends on what cuts are made
4. By following up, ministers need to know what’s going on.
5. Yes I do.
Naomi Richards – MESH
1. More of the same as which we have already been doing for some time.
2. As long as it doesn’t put people into voluntary work instead of paid work.
3. be doing a job but not get paid
4. Give people more back up which they wouldn’t have had before.
5. No but people will be disengaged.
Simon O’Leary – Voluntary Norfolk
1. Community working together for the common good.
2. In Great Yarmouth we have been doing it for some time.
3. Massive effects, is reliant on public funding.
4. It doesn’t we can all do more and believe in it, but people need to earn a living.
5. Very much so if front line services are gone it will affect the most vulnerable.
The afternoon’s events started with a really eloquent speech by Peter Wilson, chair of Seachange Trust. During his speech Peter stressed the need for long term funding for service providers in order to deliver meaningful and lasting services to the borough. This point was reiterated by others and partly answered by Richard Packham during the panel session who said that the Borough Council also suffers from short term funding coming into the Borough which it then has to pass on to the Third Sector providers.
A panel session followed, chaired by our MP, Brandon Lewis. Michael Blank from Comeunity had already made the point during the morning that Neighbourhood Management, and by extension many other services, particularly those provided by the Third Sector, “doesn’t cost a lot, but it isn’t free”. This was a major theme of the day with the underlying worry felt by all that the coming spending review is going to cause major problems for everyone.
David Edwards, chair of Great Yarmouth and Waveney NHS, whilst acknowledging the coming cuts, said that the NHS can deliver more for less and pointed out that health is not just delivered by health services but it is influenced by all partner services, helping people get jobs, decent homes, recreational activities etc. This is something we at 96k have been promoting since the beginning of our project. If people are involved and they can influence what happens to them they feel better about themselves, if they feel better they very often are!
Nick Cheshire from Norfolk Constabulary stressed the problem of perception of crime and antisocial behaviour as opposed to the reality of crime figures. He pointed out that Norfolk is a safe place to live. Nick believes that we need to harness the strengths and talents that young people have in abundance and “we need to build stronger communities and celebrate the differences between them”.
An interesting question raised from the floor “how do we stop minorities controlling everything” was answered by Brian Horner, chair of Voluntary Norfolk. Brian stated that we need to have all agencies involved in decision making and those agencies need to involve all their service users.
96k believes that by involving more people we are actually moving away from the problem of minorities controlling everything – we see it everyday where powerful groups and individuals shape how we ‘the masses’ live our lives. It’s a cliché but ‘power to the people’.
Simon O’Leary, Voluntary Norfolk, summed the day up when he said that this had been a really polished event. 96k agrees, it really was a success – now let’s get it out to the people who matter - YOU.
Photo's of the Big Society Event
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The Big Society - What Does It Mean For You
Services Cut Or Different Providers
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96k Community reporters
