‘Open for All? The Changing Nature of Equality under Big Society and Localism’ was published in January 2012.
The report into the impact of Government policy on Equalities Groups in the North West finds that:
- Reforms have come at a cost
- New forms of representation are weak and exclude equalities groups
- Spending cuts are damaging voluntary sector capacity to deliver big society
- The new policy framework is liable to reinstate old patterns of exclusion and discrimination
- Implementation is disproportionately harming the most excluded
- The capacity of equalities groups to participate and hold public bodies to account is heading towards a point of critical failure.
The report is based on research undertaken between February and October 2011 by the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) and the Centre for Local Policy Studies (CLPS) at Edge Hill University. Commissioned by Voluntary Sector North West (VSNW) and the North West Infrastructure Partnership (NWIP) the research has sought to undertake a focused review of the equalities impact and socio-economic implications of emerging government notions around localism and big society and policy reforms around welfare, health, and economic growth.
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