The fault of the “big society” agenda lay in the preference for “new initiatives” (Tory denial of austerity’s impact cannot continue, Editorial, 9 August). Had those in charge really been keen on small-scale, local efforts and voluntary groups, and had a look at what was working, it might have been more successful. You say that the new “civil society strategy” is imagining “new institutions to support local communities”. Are they not aware of the thousands of volunteers, up and down the country, who still maintain village halls, run Brownie packs, drive old people to appointments, organise youth groups, staff charity shops and raise money for local schools? None of this is glamorous but it is the big society at work.

Nearer to the coalface, Home-Start schemes train volunteers who visit and support families with young children. Over the 40 years Home-Start schemes have been working with vulnerable families, hundreds of thousands of pounds have been saved from social services budgets, and many thousands of families have been rescued from crisis and breakdown. But this sort of preventative work is the first to be cut when local authority budgets are squeezed, leading to the ridiculous situation where minimal – tiny – amounts are taken from highly cost-effective Home-Start schemes in order to keep the necessary funds for “crisis care”.

Home-Start schemes already work in partnership with statutory services, as the bulk of their referrals come from health visitors and social workers, and they work hard to raise funds to continue supporting families. The government cannot expect to harness the resources of charitable sectors if there is no funding to keep them going either.

Deborah Hayter

Patron, Home-Start Banbury & Chipping Norton

• You note that one of the key objectives of this new government strategy is to make greater use of charities and voluntary organisations in tackling social exclusion (The ‘big society’ is back, 9 August). This misses the irony that some Tory-run councils are cutting funding to the very charities and voluntary organisations that this strategy is supposed to promote.

A case in point is Derbyshire county council. Chesterfield-based Derbyshire Unemployed Workers’ Centres (DUWC) is a registered charity whose principal objects are the reduction of poverty and social exclusion (the two are necessarily connected). Currently, the principal cause of these are cuts in benefits to the unemployed, the disabled and many working families, and specifically the introduction of the universal credit. Consequently much of DUWC’s activity is taken up in benefit advice work (12,000 individuals assisted in 2017-18) and especially in appeals against individual benefit cuts, where our 75% success at tribunals is somewhat higher than the national average. The total sums recovered for Derbyshire people in 2017-18 amounted to £4m, most of which would have been spent in the local economy.

Historically the DUWC’s single largest financial supporter was Derbyshire council. But the new Tory council has cut every penny of the two grants that DUWC previously received, totalling £90,000.

In spite of these savage cuts we intend to keep up our fight against poverty and social exclusion, but it will be difficult.

Dr Ian Rutledge

Treasurer, Derbyshire Unemployed Workers’ Centres

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