Efficiency dividend to be more efficient > An increase in the Public Service Efficiency Dividend to 4 per cent. Unions, Greens condemn public service cuts > Unions and the Greens have been quick to condemn the proposed budget cuts for Commonwealth departments.The Government says the increased efficiency dividend, or savings program, can be achieved without forced redundancies. Civil Service ‘will adapt as needs change’, says top civil servant > Top civil servant calls for more … more

Accounting for the new philanthropy >  Britain’s Big Society initiatives exemplify a new regime: Rather than fund public programs directly, the state will incentivize private investment in public outcomes. After all, since markets are inadequate to meet public needs and create many “externalities” – unpaid social costs – the exchange market for private goods should be corrected by a kind of gift market for public goods. But this formula exposes a deeper problem with our … more

UK’s Public services white paper favours private sector, says UK’s Trades Union Congress > Publishing its response to the coalition’s Open public services white paper today, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) says that there is a gap between the paper’s Big Society ideals and the reality of greater private sector involvement. The TUC says that voluntary sector organisations lost out in an early example of the government’s competition plans. Thirty-five of the 40 main contracts … more

There’s little charity in the Work Programme > Charities are losing out on contracts to get people into jobs through the government’s Work Programme, and vulnerable jobseekers are being sidelined. Two separate surveys published this week by two voluntary sector umbrella groups, the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (Acevo) and London Voluntary Services Council (LVSC), reveal that charity confidence in WP is at a pitifully low ebb, just four months into the scheme.  Some … more

Youth clubs’ rescue ‘vindicates Big Society idea’ > UK government cuts funding to youth community services,  after community outrage and hours of workers’ time and efforts to apply for funding, UK Conservative government now condescends to to fund youth community services through ‘Big Society Public sector cuts: ‘I had to sack a third of my staff’ > What does it feel like to to have to make cuts of 30% in public services and tell … more

Exclusive: Rural life at ‘tipping point’ as cuts slash services > A study, by consultancy firm Rural Innovation, concludes that there is “no longer scope to continually pare down key public services” in the face of spending cuts and that the Big Society must be given an opportunity to take control. Big society urban farming project goes hi-tech > After winning a regeneration grant from Hackney council, a former shelter for domestic abuse victims has … more

Banmujer: Benefitting Over 300,000 Venezuelan Families Since 2001 > One of Venezuela’s most important public institutions created as a government run bank with the specific purpose of funding socio-productive business initiatives to assist impoverished women through micro- credit lending celebrated its 10-year anniversary last week. Banking on the Big Society > Social entrepreneurs have been lionised for a decade, but the downside is that they are now expected to shoulder a growing share of society’s … more

What Real Choice Have I Got? > while we’re all out here seeing quite clearly that privatisation made everything worse, they’re busy arguing for more private companies and greater individual choice. It’s so market-eager, so decentralised, so big society. And it’s a handily neat example that the principle doesn’t bloody work. Amid all the incoherent ‘big society’ talk, consider Christiania, a democratic Danish community celebrating 40 years of autonomy > If you really want to … more