Ever since I invited the time banks pioneer Edgar
Cahn over to the UK in 1997, I have been fascinated by the growth of the idea
across Europe.
Then, last year, I had the huge opportunity of
writing a report about their growth and potential for the European Commission,
which has just been published.
What I found was a hugely diverse movement, from the
Scandinavian time banks (more about local barter, which is why it is being
taxed) to the Spanish banca del tiempo (an offshoot of the feminist movement,
developed increasingly by local government).
The Italian banca de tempo claim descent from the UK
ones, but actually predate them by at least five years, modelled more closely
on LETS currencies.
The UK movement is probably closest to the time banks
in the USA, and are increasingly about reforming public services by encouraging
people who are usually volunteered unto to find ways of supporting each other.
The basic effectiveness of time banks in building
supportive neighbourhoods, especially for older people, people with health
difficulties and in poorer or immigrant communities, seems to be confirmed in a
range of different projects. So is their
ability to save money, both for their members and for their partners in the
public services, by increasing the effectiveness of services (though not
necessarily by allowing them to cut services).
Their big challenge is how to use these successes for
time banks to build a sustainable future for themselves, perhaps partly inside
a range of different host organisations – which require mutual social networks
around them if they are going to be more effective. The future of time banks may be as a
technique for institutions, more than as standalone projects, though this
debate continues across Europe and the outcome is not yet clear.
In any case, to achieve that, public service
professionals need to understand more about the potential of time banking. There also needs to be more understanding of
how best to balance the technological needs and the need for a human being at
the heart of time banks if they are to reach their target markets. Those issues remain unresolved.
What I said in the report is that these key ideas
also stand out:
- Time banks and complementary currencies are a growing phenomenon, not only in number of experiences but also in their variety. The diversity of welfare system not only implies different welfare rules but also different social needs as well as work and time use patterns that influence the objectives, membership and use of time banks.
- Time bank and complementary currencies have potential to improve well-being and mental health, to enhance the effectiveness of public services, and to promote entrepreneurship and self-employed business ventures.
- The high rate of women promoting and participating in these initiatives is an opportunity, but also a question: do they really make the most of this participation?
This reflects the Radio 4 discussion I
took part in last month. But the report also
talks about the fascinating border area between social exchange (time banks)
and new kinds of money (local currencies), and both ends of this innovation are
powering ahead. There’s still a long way
to go, but – if you want to see how time banking can take a major role in
social care in the UK – just have a look at the time bank that’s now at the
heart of the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, probably the biggest social
care organisation of its kind.
What makes this revolutionary is not just that it is
cost effective, and begins to put right one of the major flaws in the Beveridge
welfare state – the gulf between exhausted professionals and the service users
who are supposed to stay passive to make them easier to process. It is also about making the most vulnerable
services users more powerful and effective in the system.
This isn’t about empowerment – a weasel word if ever
there was one – but it can have the effect of giving people more confidence in the system.
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