Scaling up for the Big Society

This short report, entitled an ‘NPC Perspectives’ paper, is a quick response to the issues raised by the creation of the new coalition government. The new government faces entrenched social problems and the challenge of reducing the budget deficit. Its Big Society idea seems to imply a beguilingly simple solution: use charities to fix social problems and at the same time reduce government borrowing. In this short but important paper, NPC argues that charities and social enterprises have an important role to play if this idea is to become reality. The paper also suggests ways to assess evidence of impact and social benefit, and provides guidance on what to scale up and how to do it.