How David Cameron's Big Society is working in Swindon

As part of a Swindon Advertiser investigation into the voluntary sector, we found one charity needlessly paying £50 to send its volunteers on a course on how to wash up.

It costs £20,000 a year to run the Broad Green Breakfast Club, which provides meals for the homeless, yet its team of volunteers had to fork out almost £300 to learn how to do the dishes.

South Swindon MP Robert Buckland, who was at the club based at St Luke’s Church Hall, described the legislation as “plainly ridiculous”.

He said: “Let’s be honest, many of these volunteers have had a lot of experience of washing up over the years, so you do wonder whether spending £50 to teach granny to suck eggs is the right way forward.”

Mr Buckland, who joined the Adver on two days of volunteering in Swindon, vowed he would do something about this, saying the Government has to remove some of the obstacles to volunteering. He said: “This is the sort of example I will be taking back with me to Westminster and using as an example of how this health and safety culture has gone too far.

“We need to re-balance between having properly trained volunteers with the money that is actually raised for these organisations going to where it is needed for breakfast or supplies for the homeless.”

Mr Buckland heard from a number of charities who are fearful how deep the economic cuts are going to bite. They are at the forefront of David Cameron’s Big Society, but there were some voices asking how can it be sustained?

Pat Winning, deputy manager of the Open Door Centre in Gorse Hill which caters for adults with learning disabilities, said she was worried about the personalised care packages which were being introduced to those in need.

She said: “The opportunities available now are limited. I think it is very, very frightening what is going to happen to our members who are adults with learning difficulty “I think a lot more people should be encouraged to go to work but that’s a bit of a joke at the moment because nobody can get a job and it is soul destroying if you are put at a sink and expected to wash-up year in, year out.

“Everybody wants a little bit more out of life. But because people deem those with learning difficulty have got no skills, there are no opportunities for them to do rewarding jobs.”

Robert Buckland told the Adver that he believed Big Society was working and that Swindon was leading the way forward.

“Swindon is ahead of the game in so many ways,” he explained.

“We are matching the best of what London has to offer.

“We have huge advantages over London because we are a growing town which is relatively cohesive and we are in a strong position to show the rest of the country how to do it.”

IT IS MESSY WORK BUT SOMEONE HAS TO DO IT

ROBERT BUCKLAND looked like an extra from the vintage TV comedy It Ain’t Half Hot Mum.

The South Swindon MP had swapped his traditional House of Commons suit for a pair of knee-length khaki shorts and an off white t-shirt which had seen better days. His smiling face was covered with specks of white paint.

“It’s messy work, but very rewarding,” admitted Robert, brandishing a rag-tag roller which then coated the wall at the Swindon Scrapstore with a bold strip of white paint.

I wasn’t looking much smarter in the fashion stakes either; my hands were caked with yellow and orange paint, the results of a mural I’d attempted to paint a little earlier at the old Farepak building in west Swindon.

For Robert and I, this was the culmination of two days’ intensive volunteering in Swindon.

With all the talk of David Cameron’s Big Society and the need for communities to work together, we both wanted to see what was happening right now in Swindon.

Can Big Society work in Swindon and, in fact, is it already working?

How much does Swindon rely on the voluntary sector, what impact do charities have on the town, and what is their future with cuts in services and funding streams declining?

Over those two days Robert and I got our hands well and truly dirty. We weren’t there to watch, we wanted to get involved.

We washed up at a breakfast club, unpacked bags and priced clothes at a charity shop and we laid tables for lunch at a centre for those with learning disabilities, taking the opportunity for a spot of pool afterwards. We spent time with patients at a hospice and we also produced Easter art at a playgroup for children with life-threatening illnesses.

While here at the Swindon Scrapstore, we joined staff from a number of local companies to paint parts of the building which the charity took over in January after their old premises in Cheney Manor was destroyed by fire.

Over those two days this was a chance for us to find out more about these organisations, speak to the volunteers, chat to those who use the services and for Robert and I to hear from those at the coal face whether they truly believe that Big Society can work.

So what is Big Society? Is it really that new?

“I would say look about you, see what is already going on, and understand the fact that Government is working in partnership with charity, not trying to take over the role of charity or leaving it all to charity,” explained Robert.

“What you and I have seen in Swindon over these past two days is what Big Society is all about.

“My impression is that in Swindon every day countless acts of selflessness are going on. They are the sort of things the people who do them do not think is extraordinary. It is what they do, it is what they like to do, it is what they want to do.

“They get great fulfilment out of it, and they don’t ask for praise or thanks, they quietly get on with it. To see if from that angle was a real eye-opener for me. I do have an understanding of volunteering.

“It really came home to me how difficult life would be without volunteers in Swindon; the amount of time and the amount of money they are saving the community by doing what they do.”

But should we be relying so heavily on volunteers? Shouldn’t it be the state’s role to provide services which are not extras, but which are vital and sit at the heart of our community?

Personally, I felt uncomfortable that there is so much reliance on volunteers. What would happen tomorrow if no-one volunteered and the whole fabric of this giving society disappeared?

The politician’s answer is two-fold. Firstly, what volunteers are doing is nothing less than professional.

And secondly, every time you create a statutory duty you put an extra burden on the public purse.

“I don’t buy the argument about this huge divide between the voluntary sector and the state as if somehow it is the state which is good and charity is bad,” added Robert.

“The two should be working together with equal validity and the two should be inter-changeable.

“It is far too easy an answer for politicians to say that the state should fund this or that, and we should take on this responsibility. Quite often the state actually does it worse than the voluntary sector because they don’t have the in-depth knowledge or the deftness of touch. They don’t have the sensitivities that a smaller organisation working in the community has.

“Big Society has been going on around us for generations.

“At the same time, we are not saying we are going to return to the politics of liberalism. The state is already engaged in so many areas of our life; in health, education in social services and in what I call the fundamentals of our society. I, for one, don’t want to see a change to that.

“But where I see beneficial development is in the work of volunteer groups and charities which, up until now, have always been seen as a fringe add-on, as opposed to one that is integral to our society as the work of the state. It is not a ‘but’, it is an ‘and’. It is not a ‘them’ or ‘us’, but both being involved with equal validity.”

Judging from how much work is going on in the voluntary sector, Swindon is leading the way when it comes to Big Society. There is a commitment and a passion to deliver in the town.

It is a point which the South Swindon MP agreed with. “Swindon is ahead of the game in so many ways,” added Robert.

“We are matching the best of what London has to offer, and we have huge advantages over London because we are a growing town which is relatively cohesive and we are in a strong position to show the rest of the country how to do it.”