Charities require further funding to recruit volunteers in order to realise the Big Society, according to Olga Johnson, managing director at Harris Hill Executive Search.

Yesterday the Prime Minister reaffirmed his commitment to the Big Society, which aims to put more power in people’s hands and transfer power from Whitehall to local communities. One of its key strands is to open up public services to enable charities, social enterprises, private companies and employee-owned co-operatives to compete to offer people high quality services.

But Johnson told Recruiter that David Cameron hasn’t done his research properly.

“A lot of charities, that are already providing what we think he means by the Big Society, are having their funding cut and therefore won’t be able to be part of his Big Society. There should be a lot more funding going to charities who are already employing volunteers to help them expand and provide more opportunities for volunteers.

“Some of my clients think the Big Society is just a way of getting people to provide unpaid labour to replace those who have been made redundant by public sector cuts but the majority think that he hasn’t thought it through. The funding cuts are a serious issue. He should look more closely at what is being provided currently and extend that rather than local authority cuts etc.

“At the moment there is probably the right labour in place to contribute to the Big Society but with the cuts there won’t be. The volunteers, however special, have to be managed. There is only a certain level to which you can train volunteers and then it becomes necessary for them to be trained by qualified specialists who are generally paid.”

John Abbey, managing director at third sector recruiter Abbey Solutions International, adds: “What we have noticed is a significant increase in CVs in our inbox and an increase in charities requiring HR assistance, particularly on issues relating to redundancy, rather than coming to us to recruit staff.

“However, I do get the impression some of the larger voluntary sector bodies see an opportunity as they will have the resources and most importantly the free cash reserves to sustain any immediate shortfall in funding while winning larger contracts at the expense of smaller voluntary bodies, many of which will sadly close down.

“We are also likely to see many more mergers and takeovers happening in the voluntary sector and sharing back office resources, similar to what is happening with councils across the country.

“As recruiters we will adapt to this new environment. For example, we are beginning to work with large private sector companies that are expecting to take on more frontline work. 

“As an organisation dedicated to civil society, we hope the Big society strategy in the long term creates more accountability and ultimately a fairer society. In the short term, without adequate government funding, the ideals of the Big Society will have to be put on hold.”