Policy paper

2010 to 2015 government policy: social action

Updated 8 May 2015

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

This is a copy of a document that stated a policy of the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government. The previous URL of this page was https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/promoting-social-action-encouraging-and-enabling-people-to-play-a-more-active-part-in-society. Current policies can be found at the GOV.UK policies list.

Issue

Social action is about people coming together to help improve their lives and solve the problems that are important in their communities. It can include volunteering, giving of money, community action or simple neighbourly acts.

Through the passion and skill of citizens, social action can empower communities, help people in need and complement public services. Taking part in social action is also associated with higher levels of wellbeing, and can improve people’s confidence and skills.

There is potential for social action to play a greater role and for more people to get involved. We’ve identified ways to help create and encourage social action – making it easier for more people to work together to benefit their community and the lives of those within it.

Actions

To encourage people to get involved in their communities, and to develop social action projects, we are:

• supporting high impact social action initiatives to grow through the Centre for Social Action: we have invested £36 million in 215 projects such as helping young people to reach their potential and supporting older people to age well and our partnerships have led to an additional £31 million investment

• putting more power and resources in the hands of communities to help them respond to issues that matter to them through our community programmes such as Community Organisers and Community First

• working to make giving money to good causes as easy and compelling as possible through new incentives such as on Gift Aid and Community First Endowment Match Challenge, and supporting innovation through our £10 million Innovation in Giving Fund

• helping young people to develop skills and make a difference in their community through the National Citizen Service, a full-time programme for 16 and 17-year-olds in England that encourages personal and social development

• supporting the #iwill campaign to increase by 50% the number of young people aged 10 to 20 taking part in youth social action: our support includes £21 million funding to create more opportunities to get involved in social action

• recognising outstanding contributions, from volunteering to philanthropy, through the Honours system, Big Society Awards, the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service and the Points of Light award

Background

For further information on what social action is, the powerful impact it can have and an update on some of our programmes to support it, read the discussion paper Social action: harnessing the potential.

Find out more about our work to promote social action:

• Giving green paper
• Giving white paper
• Giving white paper – one year on
• Encouraging social action

Appendix 1: increasing donations to good causes

This was a supporting detail page of the main policy document.

The government aims to make giving money as easy and compelling as possible.

New incentives

We introduced an inheritance tax reduction to encourage legacy giving, the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme and the Cultural Gift Scheme.

We have also provided incentives for different forms of giving through match funds. The Community First Endowment Match Challenge offers government funds to match endowment funds donated by the public. The funding pot, which is currently worth more than £110 million, is being invested and the money generated is granted to thousands of small local charities. This creates a long-term source of funding for local causes.

Supporting innovation

Our £10 million Innovation in Giving Fund, supported innovations that encourage people to give in a way that works for them. Cabinet Office was also a founding partner for the UK launch of #GivingTuesday.

Simplifying giving

We are simplifying Gift Aid and improving the Payroll Giving process.

Appendix 2: recognising and rewarding social action

This was a supporting detail page of the main policy document.

Points of Light

The daily Points of Light award recognises outstanding individual volunteers – people who are making a change in their community.

It was developed in partnership with the hugely successful Points of Light programme in the United States, established by President George H W Bush, which has recognised over 5,000 individuals and has the support of President Barack Obama.

Big Society Awards

The Big Society Awards have been created to recognise and celebrate groups or organisations doing exceptional work in their community, going above and beyond to make things better for others.

The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service

The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service is a unique award within the UK national Honours system with the same status as the single MBE. People who receive this important award are announced each year on 2 June, the anniversary of The Queen’s Coronation. To be nominated for the award, they must:

• be a group of 2 or more people who provide a highly respected service for the benefit of others in their community
• have been running the service for more than 3 years, meeting a local need not met by others
• be led by volunteers and run with a proven record of excellence and commitment to voluntary service

Find out more or make a nomination for The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.

Honours

The honours system recognises people who have:

• made achievements in public life
• committed themselves to serving and helping Britain

They will usually have made life better for other people or be outstanding at what they do.

Appendix 3: giving power and resources to communities

This was a supporting detail page of the main policy document.

We have invested over £110 million to support and empower individuals and communities to take action on the issues that matter to them.

Over 5,500 Community Organisers and volunteers have been recruited and volunteer panels have allocated £27 million of government funding to over 18,000 local causes.

Community First Neighbourhood Match Fund

Through the Community First Neighbourhood Match Fund, we have made £30 million of government funding available to 600 volunteer panels. Panels are awarding this funding to local projects, with over 18,000 already supported. Communities have matched this with over £94 million, including £17.5 million in donations and 5 milion volunteering hours.

Community Organisers

Through the Community Organisers programme, more than 5,500 organisers and volunteers have now been recruited. By knocking on doors and listening to people, community organisers act as local leaders, bringing people together to take action. Organisers have put in more than 500,000 hours and have mobilised around 30,000 people to take action.

Cities of Service

Through Cities of Service, we have worked with local authorities, encouraging people to take action on city-wide challenges. We have also invested in innovative new platforms to facilitate community action. These projects are supported through the Centre for Social Action.

Appendix 4: encouraging young people to get involved

This was a supporting detail page of the main policy document.

The government aims to provide more opportunities and encourage more young people to take part in social action. Getting involved helps young people to build important skills for adulthood, and benefits the wider community.

The Cabinet Office is supporting the #iwill campaign run by Step Up To Serve. This aims to increase by 50% the number of young people aged 10 to 20 taking part in youth social action.

We are supporting the campaign by providing more opportunities to get involved in youth social action through 3 funds:

• the £5 million Youth Social Action Fund (YSAF) offers financial support to social action programmes in 4 geographic areas: Birmingham, Middlesbrough, Lancashire and Kent
• the £6 million Youth Social Action Journey Fund supports organisations to increase the number of young people aged 10 to 20 taking part in high quality social action and encourage young people to participate in National Citizen Service (NCS)
• £10 million has been provided by HM Treasury to create the Uniformed Youth Social Action Fund from LIBOR fines. This funding is awarded to uniformed youth groups through the Youth United Foundation. The fund, over 2 years, will enable thousands of young people living in disadvantaged areas, or from hard to reach communities, to get involved in social action by joining uniformed youth organisations.

We are also helping to build the evidence base to show the impact that youth social action can have on young people and the community. Our evaluation from the Youth Social Action Fund was published in March 2015. It provides evidence that taking part in youth social action can help to build important skills for life and work.

National Citizen Service

National Citizen Service (NCS) is a unique, full-time programme aimed at 16 and 17-year-olds in England. It runs for over 3 weeks in the summer followed by a 30-hour social action project. Shorter programmes are also run during the spring and autumn.

NCS brings together young people from different backgrounds and helps them to develop greater confidence, self-awareness and responsibility. It encourages personal and social development for young people by working on skills such as leadership, teamwork, and communication. Participants also develop a social action project that deals with a local issue they are passionate about, and spend 30 hours putting the project into action in their local community.

Since its launch in 2011, participation in NCS has grown each year with over 130,000 young people having taken part so far. Consecutive independent evaluations have demonstrated that NCS is helping young people to become more confident, capable and engaged through volunteering in their communities and other NCS activities.

To find out more about the programme and how to get involved:

• visit the NCSyes website
• like NCS on facebook
• follow NCS on Twitter

Read the annual independent evaluation of NCS.