Social Action: Platforms as Gathering Places for Exchange

David Knott,

February 2015

What is social action?

The UK in numbers

£1,720bn£730bn £25,200bn

£17,600bn

£7,600bn

Social action is about people helping people – volunteering, community action, giving of money, everyday neighbourly acts

32m volunteer

once a year

74% That’s of us

75% give to

each yearcharity

~ £34bn ~ £11bn

78,000 volunteers

13m hours per year

in acute trusts in England

Around 300,000

50,000

foster families

70,000volunteer

Games Makers

40% newvolunteering

This has long been part of the fabric of British life

3m people

volunteer regularly

Across health & social care

SchoolGovernors

to

21,500

volunteer magistrates

But familiar challenges mean we need to consider how we harness assets and capability outside the State

the population of over 85yr olds

will increase by 106%

...

Between 2012 and 2032

of GP appointments50% More than

65% of outpatient appointments

Over 70% of inpatient bed days

People with long-term conditions

account for:

Challenges:

Our population is ageing

More people have long-term health conditions

Expectations of public services continue to rise

People want more responsive, personalised public services

People want more control and influence over how their local services are run

Communities are more fluid and fragmented

2

3

4

1

5

6

Our Centre for Social Action is about testing, trialling and scaling interventions to complement and reduce demands on public services

£40m investment

over 2years

185 projects

themes

6

Health, Ageing & Care Young Potential &

Social Mobility Rehabilitation Community Action Employment &

Prosperity Digital

Our community action programmes are helping devolve power and resources locally

Community FirstCommunity Organisers

Worked in

400neighbourhoods

Listened to

150,000residents

1,500communityprojects backed

Over 5,000organisers

recruited

1

2

Neighbourhood Match Fund

Endowment Match Challenge

£27mGovt fundsAllocated

projects18,000

to with£94m

match fromcommunities

£114value of

endowmentinterest10.6%

gaining£1.7m

so far for 762charities

enabling

Some examples

….

Type 1: Platforms that we have helped create that connect people who can help other people online / via technology

Type 2: Platforms that we have helped create that facilitate face-to-face exchange and volunteering

Type 3: Platforms we have helped create that serve as catalysts /facilitators of powerful social action movements

Type 4: Platforms for impact volunteering we have helped create and develop within our public services

Feb 25, 201513

More than 40 acute trusts …

… and half of all primary schools by 2018

Reflections….

Government as a Platform, or Platforms as Gathering Places of Exchange?

If it’s right that we need to (and have the opportunity to) better leverage assets and capabilities outside of the State then Government as a Platform is a very necessary but not sufficient part of the puzzle. We need to twin track with helping catalyse and support more platforms outside of Government.

Such platforms might be online, technology supported or face-to-face. They may be within public services or outside but have an impact on outcomes. Government should and will be involved in only a very tiny fraction of them.

We need to:

Better understand (and it’s mostly not a ‘tech issue’) Adapt our thinking, tools and approaches – it’ll for example be more fluid and organic, more local

and more about partnerships between public, private and voluntary sectors Be ready to shift modes and stand back

But, there remain some ‘irreducible policy’ areas that will still require very ‘traditional’ civil service policy and delivery.

Annex

Game changers?

Feb 25, 201517