Big Society Capital Review

Big Society Capital review

Last month we took the decision to respond to the independent review of Big Society Capital (BSC) from the perspective of the Diversity Forum. The Big Society Trust was commissioned to undertake an independent, quadrennial review of Big Society Capital with the overall brief of examining the latter’s effectiveness and to ensure that it is being true to its mission. We felt that the Diversity Forum should feed into this review in order to provide our thoughts about how issues relating to diversity, equality and inclusion should be considered by BSC as it looks to its future strategy.

We have decided to fully publish our response to this review as part of our mission to be transparent about the work we are doing here at the Diversity Forum. For the review, whilst welcoming BSC’s commitment towards addressing this issue we believe more needs to be done. Some of the areas that we discussed included:

  • BSC to apply a diversity lens on all aspects of its work

  • BSC to demand more from intermediaries that it invests in to do more on diversity, equality and inclusion and use its influence to bring about change at the intermediary level

  • BSC to share data on diversity from the investments it has made and the funds that it has supported with its funding

  • Developing more equitable products and structures

We welcome this review to highlight Big Society Capital’s key achievements and identify strategic issues where further consideration is required for sustained success in delivering the organisation’s published goals. Here at the Diversity Forum we look forward to the findings of this review and the opportunity to work with BSC on the issue of diversity, equity and inclusion. You can find the Diversity Forum’s response here.

Amir Rizwan is Senior Adviser at Comic Relief

Kunle Olulode is Director at Voice 4 Change

Gemma Rocyn Jones is Head of Financial Resilience at the National Lottery Community Fund

Ebru Buyukgul