What is a good society?
NCVO chief executive Stuart Etherington opens the discussion on how we can create a better, fairer and happier society.
We are now fewer than nine months away from a general election. Over the course of the autumn we can expect politicians to start setting out their stalls – telling us how they plan to restore faith in politics and politicians; how they will manage the economy and enable us all to cope better with the effects of the recession; and what their plans are for public spending and the public services that are so important to the fabric of our lives and communities.
I have made no secret of my view that the coming years are going to be difficult – both for our sector, and for the individuals and communities that we work with. We have had what, in many respects, has been a golden age for investment in our sector and in public services, and we have always known this would eventually come to an end. But the double-edged sword of the recession – greater need for many of the services we provide, at the same time as declining resources – means that those pressures will intensify for many.
But what has also become recently apparent is that there is a new mood in the country. One positive consequence of the past year’s economic problems is the recognition that we need to change our focus, putting as great an emphasis on individual and community wellbeing as we do on economic prosperity. There is a desire to rethink how we want our society to operate. We can see this shift in the way many people are living their daily lives – with a greater emphasis on spending time with family and friends, or the ever-growing enthusiasm for gardening. And in political circles there is talk on both sides about the need to create ‘the good society’.
This is certainly something that resonates in our sector: it is what drives our organisations. Which is why I argued at NCVO’s Annual Conference last February, that we need to rebalance the relationship between the public sector, the private sector and civil society, so that all sections of society can play their part in rebuilding our communities. These principles were also the starting point for our new civil society agenda – where we have identified wellbeing, community cohesion, financial security and climate change as the four most pressing challenges we will be addressing in the coming years.
One vision
But if we are to achieve the good society, it needs to be more than a media-friendly phrase. We need to understand and, more importantly, explain what we mean and what our vision is. The danger is that we all have our own understanding and priorities. But I believe that we can, and indeed should, find a consensus around some key principles.
Those who attended our summer reception in Parliament last July were encouraged to write their definition of the good society on our graffiti wall. The same words and themes came up time and again: active, empowered and engaged citizens; fairness and social justice; tolerant and supportive; where everyone has the opportunity and the support they need to reach their full potential; inclusive and respectful; shared visions, values and obligations. Or, simply, as one person wrote, ‘a place where people always smile’.
I want to take these themes as the starting point for a debate over the autumn: what is the good society? We need to have these conversations in our own organisations, in our communities and with our politicians. We will be encouraging these conversations in NCVO – with our own staff, with our members and with those we seek to influence. We are hosting roundtable debates at each of the party conferences. If you are attending we would love to see you there. It will form part of the discussions at our next Members’ Assembly meeting in October. And we will be running discussions on the subject on our website over the autumn. We need to know what you think.
It should be this shared vision of a good society that underpins the work we do and the priorities that our government takes forward. We have an opportunity to change our communities for the better. In the run-up to an election, we need to make sure that our starting point is always what makes for a better, fairer and happier society.
To find out more
About our work on the good society, and our priorities in the run-up to the election, email policy@ncvo-vol.org.uk or go to www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/policy.
