Prime Minister David Cameron launched his vision for the big society last month, saying the drive to empower local communities is his "great passion".
But councils including Croydon, Greenwich and Lambeth are already slashing funding to small community groups by up to 66 per cent.
CYP Now has also learned that Home-Start, the family support charity that provides home support and advice to struggling parents of under-fives, is being affected. The charity recruits about 5,000 new volunteers each year, but Home-Start UK chief executive Kay Bews said some of the 340 local Home-Start services, which each exist as small independent charities, face "dire financial circumstances".
"Many of our local schemes are reliant on local authority funding and about 20 currently face severe uncertainty over their future," Bews said. "The big society needs volunteers but they do not come free of charge. It is organisations like us that build voluntary capacity within the community."
National Council for Voluntary Youth Services director of policy Faiza Chaudary said many of its members are experiencing deep cuts as councils see the voluntary sector as an easy target for savings. "Small, community-based organisations are already delivering the big society vision and are heavily reliant on local authority funding. If this changes these organisations will be unable to deliver services needed by young people," she said.
"These organisations address the needs of vulnerable groups that statutory services do not meet, such as young people at risk of homelessness or in the care system."
Junior children's minister Tim Loughton has claimed the voluntary sector's local knowledge and specialist expertise makes it a crucial partner in the big society. Speaking at a parliamentary reception in June on investment in early intervention, he said: "[The voluntary sector] should be on an absolutely level playing field with the other public agencies in order to deliver the services where we need those services to be delivered."
National Council for Voluntary Organisations head of research Karl Wilding said the smallest charities are soft targets because they have fewer resources with which to make themselves heard. "Local authorities are currently removing funding from small organisations that often give people a chance to become volunteers," he explained. "It is that capacity that the government will need to build the big society."
COUNCIL CUTBACKS
- In Lambeth, voluntary youth organisations with an annual contract of more than £100,000 are facing funding cuts of 35 per cent from January to March 2011. Also all voluntary organisations with contracts stretching beyond 2011 will have their contracts terminated in March 2011 and will be invited to reapply under a new commissioning round so contract terms can be renegotiated.
- Croydon has slashed funding to voluntary groups by 66 per cent; 41 of 47 organisations will no longer receive funding
- Greenwich has told all voluntary organisations that grants will be cut by at least 50 per cent, with some organisations losing their funding altogether
- Seven Home-Start services are already closing due to withdrawal of council funding, including NE Warwickshire, Swindon and Rotherham
