Giving and taking
The problems are particularly acute for small charities, which will struggle to survive as local authorities and other grant-making bodies have their budgets slashed. For many, mergers may represent the best chance of survival. Others will have to consider being subsumed into a larger charity, even if it involves rubbing up against their “sharp elbows”.
The risk of such consolidation, however, is that some specialist care services will be lost because they are seen as being too niche. That is the danger of the Big Society – that those on the margins are ignored.