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Big City,Big Society

Birmingham's Prospectus for the Big Society

| Birmingham’s Prospectus for the Big Society 2

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Birmingham’s Prospectus for the Big Society | 3

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1. Foreword by Mike Whitby,Leader, BirminghamCity Council

We believe Birmingham isthe birthplace of the original‘Big Society’, a philosophywhich resonates throughoutour city’s history andculture. Our forefathers,civic entrepreneurs andbusinessmen like Joseph

Chamberlain and the Cadburys, transformedour city through innumerable civicinnovations. Their efforts brought abouttangible improvements to the quality of lifeenjoyed by all the city’s residents, and madeBirmingham a place envied across the world.They truly bridged the gaps between thepublic, private and third sectors – andreinvented the rules as they did so. They werenon-conformists, philanthropists, the pioneersof the adult school movement, and they left intheir wake a new way of approaching publicservices. Today, it is only right thatBirmingham continues that proud tradition.

In fact it’s in our blood; and we know the BigSociety is about much more than

reinvigorating our social and communityrelationships. As Chamberlain showed, it’salso about creating a more dynamic andenterprising economy. Supporting businesses,building social capital and communitycohesion, exploring new ways of deliveringservices and helping the city to be moreeconomically competitive - will all enhancequality of life and increase Birmingham’scapacity to grow and succeed.

In putting together our Prospectus we havereviewed Big Society activity acrossBirmingham and have been overwhelmed byhow much is naturally taking place. From theSikh community coming together with 1000sof hours of volunteering to build Birmingham’sfirst Free School, to the sophisticated networkof 120 ward Councillors - empowered withdelegated budgets – supporting localcommunity programmes. For many people thevalue of the Government’s focus on the BigSociety has been to provide these hard-working communities with the recognitionthey deserve.



We know the emphasis of a strong Big Societyis in empowering our communities, businessesand the third sector; in a sense, therefore, it isnot about Local Authorities. Equally, however,we know that our City Council is ideally placedto bring these groups together. We have theasset base, the skills and the expertise to drivethe agenda forward. We know that if we useour influence and powers appropriately, wecan encourage a new generation of civicentrepreneurs, align the skills of business tothe appetite and inventiveness of the localcommunity, inspire communities to take moreresponsibility and empower people to makethe most of the assets that, after all, are thepeople’s anyway.

Our Prospectus, therefore, points the wayforward for the City Council and the city. Wehave a formidable base upon which to build,and in many ways see ourselves as beingahead of the game, but we want to achievemore. We believe that in recognising the futurerole of the Council, and focusing our actionsaround three key objectives: Achieving culturalchange; Creating sustainable and strongerneighbourhoods; and Promoting responsibility;over the next 12 months we will make a

further step-change. This is not about budgetsor a contraction in public sector funding, it isabout all of us coming together to do better forthe people of Birmingham.

In many ways the challenge of the Big Societyis a familiar challenge for Birmingham, and sothe national drive for a stronger ‘Big Society’ isone that we welcome with open arms. Wedon’t believe a successful ‘Big Society’ needs tobased around ‘Big Budgets’ – but we know itneeds ‘Big Hearts’, a commitment from thecommunities which can, and will, driveforward new and improved ways of doingthings. Looking to our forefathers forinspiration, building on our experiences fromthe past, using the considerable tools the CityCouncil has at its disposal, I believeBirmingham will continue to be an exemplar.

Mike Whitby, born and educated in Birmingham,has held the position of Leader of Birmingham CityCouncil since 2004. Owner and Managing Directorof a local engineering company, he is also a fellow ofthe Institute of Directors and leading board memberof the Greater Birmingham & Solihull LEP,Marketing Birmingham and the NEC.



2. Foreword by Phillip Blond,Director, ResPublica

British civil society issomething to be proud of.Our past reveals greatphilanthropic charactersand enthused civic activists,innovative entrepreneursand public servicedeliverers. Civic association

opens up endless opportunities – throughsocial networks, ‘bottom up’ local institutionsand new types of partnership between citizensand councils, genuine transformation can takeplace in our communities. Civic association isnot simply the ‘by-product’ of our economicactivities; it embodies the very core of oursocieties and acts as both architect andfoundation to social and economic renewal.

The city of Birmingham encapsulates andpersonifies this tradition. It has acted as aplatform for innovation and socialresponsibility, hosting civic pioneers such asthe Cadbury family and the genius of JamesWatt. Birmingham also has a history of strongcivic pride, cultivated particularly by its ownJoseph Chamberlain who rightly prized theimportance of start-up businesses and theinherent value of place and locality.

This legacy has clearly continued withinBirmingham today. I recently had the pleasureof witnessing this first hand, visiting centres ofcivic activism and social renewal across thecity. The joyful enthusiasm I experienced waspositively overwhelming, and indeed, deeplyencouraging for a supporter of the ‘Big Society’.The wealth of community capital has alreadymade its mark in Birmingham, accomplishingmuch for residents and local neighbourhoods.

Hutton Hall, within the Hutton Estate, offers anexcellent platform for the community, tappinginto underused skills and giving people acentral space which they can come to own andenjoy. As a community asset, its potential isunlimited and its achievements in crimereduction and education already very real.

St. George’s community hub in Newtown,Aston ward, has a parallel impact. It offerspublic space for various interactions to takeplace, but also valuable office space to host anarray of local support services. Unique to thehub is its ability to pool local resources andskills and broker relationships, allowing it –and the community – to achieve much, muchmore. In building the community around



them and creating greater social networks,Birmingham’s community hubs areundoubtedly civic pioneers of their time.

But there is clearly a role also for the localcouncil and the state. The ‘Big Society’ is notreducible to ‘volunteering’, and neither does itclaim to be a panacea for cuts. Rather, it opensup the opportunity for the state to re-shape itspublic services and broker the wealth of socialcapital and human reciprocity latent withinour communities.

Chamberlain was one of the first to positionBirmingham council as the vehicle throughwhich such relationships could be fostered.For him, philanthropy and charitablevoluntarism was not solely a matter for theprivate and personal spheres, but concernedthe very heart and agency of the local council.Whilst on my tour around the city ofBirmingham, it was clear that BirminghamCity Council had already embarked on

recreating and recasting this role for the 21stcentury. But there is still much that could bedone to extend and deepen this activity, layingthe groundwork for continuing the civicrenewal of one of Britain’s greatest cities as isclearly and innovatively set out in thisprospectus, which I both endorse and amdelighted by.

By encouraging participative practice,brokering voluntary association andincentivising entrepreneurship and businessinnovation, Birmingham City Council can onceagain pioneer an associative and grassrootsapproach to resurrect and cultivate itsinherited civic state.

Phillip Blond is the Director of the think tankResPublica and a research fellow at NESTA. Phillipis an internationally recognised political thinker,and economic and cultural commentator. He hasbeen described as a driving force behind DavidCameron’s Big Society agenda.



Nishkam Primary School

The Nishkam Primary School is one of thefirst flagship free schools which opened inSeptember with an intake of 180 pupils. Theschool is Sikh-led but at least half its placeswill be offered to non-Sikh children. Thenew school building has been transformedfrom two old nightclubs with the help oflarge teams of local volunteers.

The Sweet Project

The Sweet Project is a social enterprise thatworks with disadvantaged children, youngpeople, adults and families in southBirmingham, providing them with socialwork support. The project trains social workstudents to become better social workers bygiving them real cases to work on –delivering early intervention support. Itworks with more than 100 students everyyear and in its first twelve months hassupported more than 150 families and 300children. The project is a recent winner ofthe Prime Minister’s Big Society Award.

Community Sports Hubs

Birmingham is piloting the involvement ofcommunity groups and sports organisationsin the running of leisure facilities, to beknown as Community Sports Hubs. The firstpilot is taking place at an unattachedplaying field in Perry Barr where the groupwill coordinate activity at the playing fieldand eventually manage it under acommunity asset transfer. This has thepotential for bringing under-used sportsassets like playing fields back into operationwhilst stimulating more communityorganised sporting activity. A further threepilots are also underway.

Balsall Heath Forum

Balsall Heath Forum is a neighbourhoodgroup that has been instrumental intransforming Balsall Heath from adepressed and crime ridden area with poorcommunity cohesion to one which is green,clean and thriving with a strong sense ofcommunity. Balsall Heath has been selectedas a Big Society Vanguard piloting aneighbourhood budget. The neighbourhoodbudget aims to pool together differentfunding streams across the area, in order togive the community greater influence overhow resource is spent to tackle socialproblems and to support a more localapproach to commissioning from civilsociety organisations. Balsall Heath has alsobeen selected by Government to trialNeighbourhood Planning powers andproduce a neighbourhood developmentplan.



Birmingham’s heritage, resources andconnections provide the basis for our visionfor ‘the Big City’. The culture and traditions ofnon-conformism, enterprise andinventiveness make the city a fertile groundfor the development of the Big Society morewidely.

Birmingham City Council is firmly committedto growing a Big Society and many things we,our partners and other organisations do havealready made a significant contribution tothis. We recognise however that we are notthere yet; we need to do more to developsocial responsibility amongst our citizens, tocreate opportunities and support communitiesto get involved in finding solutions to localproblems and to give people more control overtheir lives whilst ensuring the interests of allour citizens are represented. This is reflectedin the Council’s Making a Contributionstrategic priority which is about citizens,organisations and businesses taking personaland collective action to improve communities.

We have a vision of a city that is stronger and‘bigger’ in every way – a city whoseindividuals, communities and businesses areempowered to work together to achieve bigresults. This is not just a city with morevolunteering and social responsibility –though these are key ingredients - it is a citywith a radically different approach to publicservices that can support a more dynamic andcreative economy.

If we are to help create a Big City and a BigSociety then the role of the City Council andall the local public services must change. Itwill no longer be primarily about deliveringstandard services, though many of theseremain vital elements of local public life.Instead the focus will be on increasing thecapacity of the city as a whole to achieveshared outcomes. Supporting businesses,building the capacity of community andvoluntary organisations, increasing socialcapital and community cohesion, fosteringnew markets in service provision, and helping

3. Big Society, Big City:Birmingham’s distinctiveapproach



the city to compete will all improve the abilityof the city to achieve outcomes.

This will be based on supporting thedevelopment of networks of connections bothwithin and beyond the city – connections thatcan nurture the innovation and culturalexchange that drives prosperity - extendingfrom local communities to business sectors tothe global economy.

Critically, we don’t believe the Big Society isabout budgets or contractions in public sector

spending. It is about daring to do thingsdifferently and better – something we’ve beendoing for generations, in times of austerityand times of surplus. Our driver, as witheverything we do, is about improving the livesand experiences of all Birmingham’s citizens.We know the public sector will be smaller, andthere are things perhaps which we the Councilused to do directly which others are nowbetter placed to do, but that doesn’t meanpeople will experience poorer outcomes, orthat services will stop improving.

Witton Lodge Community Association(WLCA)

WLCA is a civic society group that has beeninvolved in piloting community assettransfer and development in Birmingham.The City Council passed proceeds from landsold on the estate to the Association to buildhomes for rent. With the funds raised fromthe sale of land and borrowing, WLCA hasinvested in community assets as well as inlocal housing. It has used its physical assetbase to develop community services andactivities on the estate including apioneering Community Watch scheme andhas taken on the leasehold ownership of thelocal community centre from the CityCouncil.



Our vision is essentially about achievingbetter outcomes even with less funding. Thiscan be achieved by various means:

• Providing more choice to our residentsthrough new ways of delivering ourservices. For example: by redesigningservices to enable users to do more forthemselves, particularly through usingnew information technologies which savesmoney and empowers the user at the sametime; service users given personal budgetsand choice will often make more prudentdecisions on the use of resources.

• Handing over more power to our residents.For example through community co-production where working more closelywith communities in the design anddelivery of services can achieve significantreductions in crime and anti-socialbehaviour, litter and graffiti, expensivehousing repairs and other costs to thepublic sector. Transferring publicly owned

assets builds skills, knowledge andexperience within communities enablingthem to become stronger and moreindependent. Introducing communitybudgets with shared support services andpooled budgets can enable us to designnew and re-design existing services whichbetter meet community needs. This alsoincludes introducing measures to improveour transparency and therefore ouraccountability.

• Working with communities to preventfuture demand for services, makes goodfinancial sense. Making a radical shift infocus towards preventative activities andaway from expensive acute services leadsto healthier and stronger communities andsignificant savings.

• Developing a better understanding of anddelivering more effective support to allsectors of the city so that we can achieveour priorities together.

4. Delivering more for less inthe Big City



Community Chest

Birmingham has devolved over £115m ofbudget to local constituencies, and providedeach of the forty wards in the city with£100,000 “community chest” funding to beused on local priorities.

Ward End & Pelham Timebank

Participants deposit their time by givingpractical help and support to others, forexample taking someone shopping or doingtheir ironing, and can withdraw time whenthey require assistance. A broker managesthe exchanges between people and keeps afull record of activity. There is a strongemphasis on getting people into work asany unemployed member is supported bythe broker, who has good links with thelocal job centre, to do online, accreditedtraining and develop an employment actionplan. Timebanks are useful in developingcommunity cohesion and promotingcommunity independence.

Community Based Budgeting

Birmingham is piloting Community BasedBudgeting for families with complex needs.The City Council is working closely withfamilies, communities and other agencies todevelop a real understanding of how toachieve change and improve the lives ofthose families facing multiple and complexproblems. Families will benefit from anintegrated service model which will providea single point of contact and an advocatewho can work out with them what isneeded and coordinate a range of support.This whole system approach will alsoenable the trial of more early interventionand prevention work such as positiveparenting support that will prevent moreexpensive problems from developing lateron.



The role of the council within a Big Societywill be very different; it will be less focusedon the direct provision of services and morefocused on working with others, includingthe voluntary and community sector and thebusiness community, in an equal partnershipto improve outcomes for residents andcommunities. The council of the future must:

Provide civic leadership: Elected councillors intheir role as community leaders and withtheir unique knowledge of their place andresidents have a crucial part to play in drivingforward the Big Society and developingstronger, more empowered and more resilientcommunities. Councillors understand theproblems faced by their residents and areideally placed to bring residents, businesses,voluntary organisations and others togetherto solve problems collectively and developvery localised ‘bottom-up’ solutions. Forexample councillors can identify potentialcivic entrepreneurs in their area, canfacilitate closer working between the Counciland local communities to identify how bestto deliver public services, they can supportthe development of local groups to act as

champions on relevant issues, and they willensure that the views of all groups are fairlyrepresented.

Develop an ‘enabling’ public sector:Redesigning services so that they create theright environment and conditions for the BigSociety to flourish. This includes opening upopportunities for communities and thirdsector organizations and businesses to makea contribution; supporting individuals to takemore control over the services they use; andproviding expertise, funding andencouragement to help sustainable projectsdevelop. It also includes developing new andmore effective ways of supporting a thrivingprivate sector for example helping to fosterthe horizontal networks of support that canhelp new enterprises to grow.

Build stronger communities: supporting andenabling the community so that they canhelp themselves and others through morevolunteering and stronger communityorganizations as well as encouraging moresupport for the community from the privatesector.

5. The future role of the Council



So how do we achieve a Big Society? We takeseriously the council’s important role indriving this forward and have identified thefollowing key actions for 2011 – 12 which willbe taken forward in an action plan.

Our actions for this year, which will bedeveloped and expanded further in thefuture, focus on three critical areas:

1. Achieving cultural change – changingattitudes and relationships and the ways inwhich we work;

• We need to ensure we have a soundunderstanding of what our residents thinkand an effective means by which tocommunicate opportunities to get involved.To do this we need to make more use ofnew technology including ‘apps’ and socialonline tools, the development of which arefundamentally changing the way that thecommunity, voluntary and public sectorcan work together for productive purposesand will increasingly make a difference tohow communities self organise andcollaborate. We have already supportedon-line opportunities to get involved inlocal decision making through the “BeInvolved” website and to volunteer throughthe BVSC volunteer centre and website.

• Review our procurement processes so thatthey allow for greater diversity in the

6. Taking the Big SocietyForward

➢ Extend our review of Big Society activityin the city by using social media toinvite residents and businesses to sendin examples and develop a new CivicPride awards scheme to beginrecognising them.

➢ Complete the pilots of neighbourhoodbudgeting and neighbourhood planningand work in partnership withgovernment to begin extending these toother neighbourhoods in the city.

➢ Develop and implement campaigns onvolunteering and civic pride.

➢ Explore how to use social investmentsources to support new and expandingsocial enterprises and to encouragethem to collaborate to secure publiccontracts.



supply of public services - personalisation,trusts, mutuals, co-operatives, socialenterprises, faith groups, partnershipswith communities, employee owned co-operatives and co-production should havean increased role in service delivery. Wecan create a level playing field for allpotential suppliers by breaking downcontracts into smaller packages allowingsmaller organisations to compete and byadopting simpler processes for smallervalue contracts. We also need to considerhow our procurement can benefit the localeconomy for example by introducingspecific clauses into the contracts weaward that require successfulorganisations to employ local people andtake on apprentices.

2. Creating sustainable and strongerneighbourhoods – a new programme ofneighbourhood working;

• Support & develop neighbourhoodmanagement across the city, based onmodels we have developed where thiswork is built into existing staff roles.

• Introduce more widely community andneighbourhood budgets where local peopleand their councillor’s are given greaterinfluence over how money is spent in theirarea. This will encourage better use oflocal knowledge to create innovativesolutions to local needs. We also need toexplore how we can maximise the moneyavailable in local budgets through the use

of social investment sources, social impactbonds and other such tools.

3. Promoting responsibility which includesvolunteering and philanthropy.

• The citizens of Birmingham volunteer inlarge numbers in many different ways, weneed to explore how we can increasevolunteering further and ensure it ischannelled in ways which meet the needsof local communities. In order to do thiswe must develop a better understanding ofthose needs, identify what opportunitiesfor volunteering these needs present andknow how residents are willing tovolunteer for these opportunities. We willalso fully support the requirements of thenew Volunteering Plan for Birminghamagreed with local partners and thevoluntary sector and continue to supportthe BVSC volunteering centre.

• Create more timebanks, like the examplegiven in Ward End and Pelham, whichallow people to make small volunteercontributions to improve their own qualityof life and that of other residents in theirlocal area. Since these contributions are soflexible they are helpful in alleviatingpeople’s fear of making too much of acommitment and so encourage them tocontinue with it. We need to providesupport to more communities to introducetimebanks which will help them todevelop greater social capital and promotecommunity cohesion.



Scawdi

Scawdi is a Highgate-based communityproject which is working with unemployedgraduates to launch the Graduate & YouthOpportunities for Business scheme. Thescheme aims to help young people establisha small business by providing them withaccess to business mentors, linking them toempty properties on a rent-free basis forbetween 6 and 12 months and giving them astarter pack of office essentials eg a recycledcomputer, printer, internet access and a boxof stationery. The project leader’s work withunemployed young people and seeing theincreasing number of empty propertiesprompted the initial idea for the scheme.

Small Area Budgets

Handsworth and Lozells are leading onSmall Area Budgets which aim to giveresidents a greater say on how services aredelivered locally resulting in services whichbetter reflect local priorities. One of theinitiatives introduced as a result has beenan integrated service hub to bring togetherGPs, health workers, housing officers,neighbourhood police and communitysafety officers and school heads.

• We recognise the role that businesses canplay in growing a Big Society, manybusinesses for example have adoptedcorporate social responsibility policieswith the aim of making a positivecontribution to society. There are manyother opportunities for businesses tocontribute, some of those alreadyidentified are: developing the skills andmotivation of employees throughvolunteering; developing long termsupportive relationships eg with individualschools or looked after children; recruiting,investing and procuring locally; improvinglocal business relationships. We need towork with businesses and organisations

like Business in the Community to ensurethat we make effective use of whatbusinesses can offer in meeting thechallenges the Big Society presents.

• Finally to support growth of localeconomies we want to facilitate newnetworks between small businesses. Smallbusinesses, including voluntary andcommunity organisations, can often feelisolated and unsupported, the Council isuniquely positioned to supportorganisations coming together locally todevelop partnerships and need-ledcollaboration.

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