He joined Mayor Richard Izard and WACA Chief Executive Paul Williams among many others, and was asked to discuss David Cameron’s vision of The Big Society.
He explained how The Big Society is much more than volunteering and social action, and how it is about putting power back into people’s hands with the massive transfer currently taking place from Whitehall to local communities.
He went on to highlight the three key aspects of the agenda, community engagement, the opening up and reform of public services, and social action.
Speaking afterwards, Steve said: “This is all about giving local councils and neighbourhoods more power to take decisions and shape their area. Reforming public services will enable charities, social enterprises private companies and employee-owned co-operatives to compete to offer people high quality services.
“I am also very excited about the fact we will be encouraging and enabling people to play a more active part in society, one example being the National Citizen Service, which will give teenagers a real sense of belonging and purpose.
“Contrary to what must be the most misquoted and misrepresented line in political history, we do believe there is such a thing as society- it is just not the same thing as the state. And this is not, as some would have you believe, a ‘cover’ for cuts. David Cameron has been talking about this for years, so that argument doesn’t stack up.
“This is about Government changing its role, not abdicating it, and yes, the terrible state of our national finances will help to focus minds. This idea is a state of mind, it’s about building a nation of doers and go-getters, and rather than people saying ‘what are they going to do about it?’ they’ll say ‘what are we going to do about it?’
“There are exciting pilots underway in Liverpool, Windsor and Cumbria, and I have spoken to Paul about Winchester being next on the Prime Minister’s list. I like to think that where the state ends, charity begins- or put another way, where the state ends, WACA begins.”
Pictured; The Middle Brook Centre hosted the WACA AGM
More information...Find out more about WACA via www.waca.org.uk