Samaritans CEO comments on Big Society

The government’s aim of stimulating a cultural shift towards more philanthropic giving and volunteering will be tough to deliver at a time when many charities are facing cutbacks, job losses or even closure, says Catherine Johnstone.

At the heart of the Big Society concept is the aim of encouraging volunteering and philanthropy, and promoting the concept of a public-spirited service for the local community. With 57 years experience and 18,500 volunteers delivering our service, Samaritans has a great deal of experience and expertise in this area. As the biggest provider of 24-hour confidential support for people in distress, our volunteers answer more than 5 million calls each year from people who are in distress. People of all ages provide our service by phone, email, text, or face to face in our 201 branches. However, now more than ever, charities are facing ever increasing costs whilst still being responsible for providing on-going training and recruitment of volunteers.

If the basis of the Big Society vision is about encouraging people to take a more active role in the communities in which they live, then it is one that Samaritans shares – we are a volunteer-led organisation where ordinary people help save the lives of other ordinary people. We know voluntary service can be a thoroughly enriching and life-changing experience. It is critical then in the aspiration to encourage more volunteering that we do not lose the essence of mutual benefit gained by the volunteer and the beneficiary of the activity. The government’s aim of stimulating this cultural shift towards more philanthropic giving and volunteering will be tough to deliver at a time when many charities will be facing cutbacks, job losses or even closure as the spending cuts begin to bite. In particular, the significantly diminished settlement for local government in the recent Comprehensive Spending Review will soon present a challenge to the credibility of the Big Society agenda, as local authorities look to make the savings on non essential activity and the traditional funding streams for voluntary groups begin to dry up.

Samaritans has benefitted from having almost complete financial independence from government, which has given us a degree of stability during difficult economic periods. That said, if we were to pay our volunteers for their time, it would cost the organisation approximately £54 million. It is little wonder then that many smaller organisations have cautiously welcomed Big Society, as the cost implication of charities soaking up demand for public services is huge, especially when the extent of financial backing from the government at all levels is still uncertain. The third sector must be seen as largely complementary to services that are the responsibility of the government and not as a less expensive means of filling spending cut gaps.

If the coalition government is serious about developing policies for public services that work from the bottom up rather than the top down, the new plans must enable voluntary sector organisations to feed in their local knowledge and expertise. Volunteers rooted in local communities, can often be better placed to engage with people in a way that might not necessarily be achieved through central government. I would encourage the new policy makers to be cautious about creating new community networks and champions without first looking at what already exists and what could be sensibly grown or enhanced. And as the government seeks to fund voluntary sector organisations on the basis of measuring outcomes and "payment by results", it will also need to acknowledge that not all of the benefits to society that result from charitable activity are immediately recognisable or even measureable.

I would ask that Government keeps charities, like Samaritans, closely involved at every stage to maximise the impact that public health initiatives can make. With a nationally driven strategy, supported by regional infrastructure and local delivery we have been delivering our service in different community settings for a number of years – such as in schools, prisons, festivals, in the workplace, through partnerships and in the rail industry. The third sector has an excellent track record in embracing new opportunities. Many charities already offer an essential role in delivering services to the local community, but we should welcome the explicit concept of a Big Society. Although it is not a new concept for us, it promises to provide many opportunities for the third sector.

Catherine Johnstone is chief executive of Samaritans.

This article originally appeared in the February/March issue of Charity Times www.charitytimes.com