Big Society and church toddler groups

David Cameron mentioned the Big Society about ten times in yesterday's party conference speech, so it is clearly still alive and kicking, in his head at least.

Today I also read youth worker Jon Jolly on how the Big Society agenda is playing out in West Sussex , with council cuts leading not only to a shrinking statutory youth service but a lack of support for the voluntary sector to redress the balance.

My own impressions of the Big Society idea have been informed by my move from an inner-London borough where the majority of children's activities we accessed were local-authority run (based in libraries, museums and children's centres) to an Essex town where, it seems to me, the majority of children's activities are run by voluntary organisations, mainly churches. Every church in the town (and there really are a lot of them) seems to run a toddler group. There are children's centres of course, but there is not one within a reasonable walking distance when it is a three year old doing the walking, whereas the churches are everywhere. We checked out so many groups in our first month or so here that when a vicar asked if I had any church connections I said evasively "We have certainly visited a lot of churches".

This is fine - it's more than fine, it's excellent that there is so much going on for children. However I do think that any Big Society needs some sort of choice element. The fact that I felt the need to be evasive with the vicar shows that I felt a bit uncomfortable about accessing a group that might not have been "for me". The one we go to most regularly includes religious songs and stories; I don't mind this as although I am not Christian I am happy for my children to learn the stories and culture, but some parents are uncomfortable. You could say "It's a church group, of course they are entitled to do this", as in fact many of the posters do here (that's not the group I go to though it sounds very similar). But I suppose my point is that if churches are the main organisations providing playgroups, stay and play, or whatever they call it nowadays, is that a bit discriminatory? Should there be someone at a local level overseeing provision and saying "we need more non-faith-based stuff", and making it happen? Or is the idea that if parents don't like it they should go and start a group of their own?