The small society
I met the redoubtable Dorothy Runnicles at a conference a couple of months ago and have just read the report she published in February this year on voluntary groups run by and for older people. Her findings are encouraging – suggesting that there is far more community involvement than anyone officially knows anything about – [...]
The Big Society is alive and well…in Kerala
David Cameron’s idea of the Big Society seems destined for a life as troubled as its long-lost older sibling the Third Way. At its worst, the Big Society could be a flimsy fig leaf designed to cover up some of the worst consequences of deep cuts in public services. Charity, local volunteering, philanthropy, at least [...]
Grandmentors: the new idea from the Department for the Big Society
Older people are to be recruited to mentor troubled teenagers and help them get back into education, training or work under a new initiative launched today at the House of Lords. The idea is credited to Lord Freud, the former Financial Times journalist, banker and New Labour advisor, now Conservative peer and Minister for Welfare [...]
What will the coalition do for us?
The policy agreement from the new British coalition government is a seven-page summary, put together under 11 headings, in private and under pressure. Inevitably, it’s a bit thin in places – often more a statement of shared principles than specific intentions. So what does it mean for older people? And what can we infer from [...]
The key to the big society
So Britain finally has a new government, after five days in which the news has mainly been that some men were going in or out of a building. The policy positions of the first coalition since the second world war, hammered out in those meetings, will emerge over the coming days and weeks, but it [...]