Coalition's first 100 days offer opportunities for civil society organisations

This blog post first appeared in Civil Society.

Jonathan Lewis, chief executive of Social Investment Business, reviews the first 100 days of the coalition government

During its first 100 days, the Big Society vision has been at the forefront of the plans unveiled by the coalition government. Amidst the announcement of widespread spending cuts, we’ve also heard more about the Big Society Bank, the Communities First fund, and the new Office for Civil Society.

The news with the most potential to transform the sector is the opportunity and encouragement for civil society organisations to be at the heart of public service delivery. While public service delivery is just one approach civil society organisations can explore, such contracts do give organisations the opportunity to earn money from service delivery. Profits can make them more sustainable and robust and enable them to do more to help the communities and individuals they were set up to support. We helped to set up 3SC, which bids for large government tenders on behalf of the sector and then brings together a consortium of community organisations of all sizes, including small ones, to deliver the services. This kind of model will be vital to enable civil society organisations’ involvement in public service delivery and to compete with private sector providers.

The creation of the Big Society Bank shows a commitment to transforming the way the sector is financed, loan finance being one part of this. We have found that our unique model of mixed investment – grants, loans and expert business support - has enabled organisations to become sustainable for the long term. Grants have an important role, however it will be interesting to see how the sector may adapt to other more sustainable forms of investment.

The Big Society agenda has been set, and to meet the challenges ahead the sector needs to organise itself, so that those who have an interest and ability to deliver public service contracts can do so on a larger scale than ever before. While there will be economic challenges ahead, the early signs are encouraging. It is up to us as a sector to make the most of these opportunities.