I’ve been following the fractious discussions about what anti-cuts campaigners should do when Labour councils make cuts.

I thought it might be worth writing up some of the learning from the local anti-cuts campaigns which I’ve been working on. Many of you will have worked on similar campaigns and may have your own ideas, proposals and experiences.

But here are six lessons I would offer anti-cuts campaigners.

Start planning early.

Our local campaigners started planning for these cuts and what our response would be more than a year ago. Councils work on long lead times when making decisions.

If anti-cuts campaigners only start work once the council has sent proposals out for consultation, it is too late to make a difference. Rather than responding to their proposals, we need to make them respond to ours.

Decide on your priorities and build alliances

We began with a listening campaign, both amongst local community groups and amongst local residents, to find out what particular things people were most concerned about. Campaigns are more effective when they are broadbased, non-sectarian and rooted in people’s concerns, rather than generic “resist Tory cuts” messages which preach to an activist minority.

One thing we probably didn’t do enough of, though, was to review these priorities as the national political scene changed. In recent weeks, we’ve been running more listening campaigns with carers and families living in poverty to help inform our campaigning and priorities for next year.

Identify key moments to open a dialogue with decision-makers

Based on this research, in March 2010 we held a local Accountability Assembly, at which we asked local councillors from all the political parties to come and respond to six demands which local people had chosen. At the same time, we drew up a ten point “Voluntary Sector Manifesto” and sent it to all candidates in the elections.

Unsurprisingly, all the main parties chose to attend a meeting of 300 people, held a month before the elections, and a majority of candidates from all parties signed up to our manifesto, which had been developed by one hundred local voluntary groups. As we know, just because a politician signs a pledge before an election doesn’t mean that they will honour it, but it at least gives a basis for further discussions.

Develop realistic, detailed proposals, and understand the pressures which decision-makers are under

If you want to be effective when opposing cuts, you need to have as detailed understanding of the arguments as the decision-makers who you are trying to persuade. One key demand which we had was that any reductions in funding for voluntary groups should be no greater than the reductions in directly delivered council services. This might seem quite modest, but unlike a demand for zero cuts, it is something which can be achieved.

It makes a big difference compared to areas where cuts to voluntary groups are 60%-70% or more. It also encouraged the council to see us as credible people to negotiate with, rather than demanding special favours and protection from cuts at the expense of deeper cuts in other areas.

Furthermore, we did detailed research into other sources of funding which could minimise the scale of the cuts, and shared our findings with the council. For example, we found out that a few years ago, the local Primary Care Trust had agreed that they would make the same changes to funding for health and social care grants as whatever the council decided. Because we spotted this and drew everyone’s attention to it, the PCT agreed to reduce the amount of cuts which they were making significantly.

Praise when decision-makers do the right thing, be critical when they don’t, and always keep lines of discussion open.

One early victory last summer was when the council agreed to delay any cuts to voluntary groups until October 2011 at the earliest. This gave all groups an extra six months to plan and identify other ways of delivering and funding services. When the council agreed to this, we praised them publicly, which encouraged them to see the benefits of negotiating further with us.

Equally, when some of their initial proposals were not in line with what we felt was fair, we were prepared to point out that this was a breach of the manifesto commitments which they had made. They were quite upset by this, as they felt that we should understand how difficult their position was, but they did make changes to keep to their manifesto commitments.

Just because you can’t stop all cuts doesn’t mean you can’t make a difference.

The negotiations might still all collapse, and they still involve a 30% reduction in funding overall for local services over three years. But our campaigning has meant that:
- overall there will be no reduction in funding to voluntary groups over the next year
- there is more money going into local services based on research we did
- services for adults with substantial social care needs will be maintained and not cut,
- funding to support people who experience domestic violence and abuse is being increased, as are advice services for people on benefits and debt.

I would be furious if our Labour councillors took the advice of the Labour Representation Committee and other lefties and refused to set a budget, which would undo all of this local work and lead to deeper cuts in these areas and many more.

Unfortunately, the time to influence this year’s council budgets is basically over, unless you are part of an already established campaign.

But we also need to start think about planning for next year’s budgets, developing and sharing ideas, and building relations with potential partners.

Reader comments

1. Liberal Conspiracy

   Six lessons for campaigners fighting local council cuts http://liberalconspiracy.org/2011/02/24/six-lessons-for-anti-cuts-campaigners/

2. cowan88

   RT @libcon: Six lessons for campaigners fighting local council cuts http://liberalconspiracy.org/2011/02/24/six-lessons-for-anti-cuts-ca …

3. Don Paskini

   RT @libcon: Six lessons for campaigners fighting local council cuts http://liberalconspiracy.org/2011/02/24/six-lessons-for-anti-cuts-ca …

4. Robert Dale

   this is worth sharing >> from @LibCon: Six lessons for campaigners fighting local council cuts http://ow.ly/42rQK #localgov

5. Andy Oddy

   RT @robandale: this is worth sharing >> from @LibCon: Six lessons for campaigners fighting local council cuts http://ow.ly/42rQK …

6. Kelvin John Edge

   RT @libcon: Six lessons for campaigners fighting local council cuts http://liberalconspiracy.org/2011/02/24/six-lessons-for-anti-cuts-ca …

7. Tim Swift

   To be welcomed – practical and effective advice for anti-cuts campaigners. http://bit.ly/e6FLC9

8. liberalideals

   Six lessons for campaigners fighting local council cuts | Liberal …: Many of you will have worked on similar c… http://bit.ly/gkbvt9

9. sunny hundal

   Six lessons for local campaigners fighting council cuts, by @donpaskini – http://bit.ly/eCT7OL

10. Martin Deane

    RT @sunny_hundal: Six lessons for local campaigners fighting council cuts, by @donpaskini – http://bit.ly/eCT7OL

11. Mike Rowley

    RT @sunny_hundal: Six lessons for local campaigners fighting council cuts, by @donpaskini – http://bit.ly/eCT7OL

12. Stephen Lintott

    RT @sunny_hundal: Six lessons for local campaigners fighting council cuts, by @donpaskini – http://bit.ly/eCT7OL

13. Richard Horton

    RT @sunny_hundal: Six lessons for local campaigners fighting council cuts, by @donpaskini – http://bit.ly/eCT7OL

14. Pucci Dellanno

    RT @libcon: Six lessons for campaigners fighting local council cuts http://liberalconspiracy.org/2011/02/24/six-lessons-for-anti-cuts-ca …

15. redinsussex

    RT @sunny_hundal: Six lessons for local campaigners fighting council cuts, by @donpaskini – http://bit.ly/eCT7OL

16. Bern O'Donoghue

    RT @sunny_hundal: Six lessons for local campaigners fighting council cuts, by @donpaskini – http://bit.ly/eCT7OL

17. Rachel Hubbard

    Six lessons for campaigners fighting local council cuts | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/W3YtopZ via @libcon

18. athena25

    How to fight the cuts. I'm going to pin this to my desk at work. http://snipurl.com/24uxik

19. realviktoriya

    RT @athena25: How to fight the cuts. I'm going to pin this to my desk at work. http://snipurl.com/24uxik

20. Why we should resist not implement Tory cuts | Liberal Conspiracy

    [...] should be supported in making cuts, because they will make them more fairly than any other party. Don Paskini recently wrote on this site: “I would be furious if our Labour councillors took the advice of the Labour [...]

21. sunny hundal

    @thewarmjets think you're assuming a uniform approach where there isn't one. @donpaskini interacted lots with anti-cuts http://bit.ly/eCT7OL