Elections special: Dominic Campbell

British Elections special: voices from civil society.

Vita Europe interviews Dominic Campbell, founder of FutureGov, which he describes as “a consultancy come social innovation incubator”. Campbell, who has advised a variety of political parties through his work, says that he will be voting for Labour on May 6. This is why. 

 

With their Big Society Idea, do conservatives have a bigger plan for civil society than the other parties?

I think that they have had to come up with a larger narrative because they have lacked one previously. 

Labour has more of a balanced approach to transitioning power from government to civil society. Whereas what the conservatives are doing with ideas like the Big Society, is more in theory about a whole scale transfer of power to civil society, as rapidly as possible. I think it is also worth pointing out that a lot has been happening through Labour in the last ten years.

Like what?

There are two things. On one extreme you have the grand funding schemes which fund around 2,000 social entrepreneurs a year. This comes out of Lottery and Nesta funding. The idea is to stimulate civil society to do things for itself and innovate outside of government. 

And then there’s the 50/50 partnership model between government and society, like Sure Start.  Massive government funding has been given to around 3,000 children’s centers over the last ten years. This is something that has often been done in partnership with voluntary organization and charities on the ground, with local communities volunteering their time. Labour is much more about a managed transition of responsibility and work, where the government still plays a role and supports that shift. 

Why haven’t Labour communicated this more?

Marketing is where the two sides differ from my point of view. Frankly, the Conservative party is much better at communicating on a national level. The only job Cameron ever held outside of politics was in PR so…

The two manifestoes are quite similar when it comes to civil society. Would you argue that the Conservatives have leapt onto the Labour bandwagon?

Yes. There is no doubt about it. There is one classic example of Labour announcing a month or so ago a move towards more cooperative type arrangements with staff who would have a stake in public services. The conservatives cottoned onto this and tried to say the same thing before Labour had a chance to announce it. 

What makes one party more credible than the other?

Fundamentally, it comes down to what the most important thing is at the heart of every party. For the Conservative party that is money and efficiencies, whereas for the Labour party it’s people and equality. 

How would voting labour in – again – help your day-to-day activities as a social incubator?

Labour is by no means perfect. They need to relinquish more power. But having said that, what they are good at are these funds and partnership approaches, which are about small bits of money that help you accomplish your goals or giving you access to people within government who can help you to develop your idea further. They are supportive and much more focused on actual outcomes for communities. 

 

www.futuregovconsultancy.com