We are all pre-occupied these days with the Big Picture. People in the pub are talking about the national deficit as if it was the household budget. Mr Cameronâ??s big idea is the Big Society. Daniel Locke from NFEA argues we must focus on a "bottom up"

There may be differences of opinion about scale and timing, but there is a general consensus that firm action is needed to turn the economy around, and the new Government has embarked already on radical reform of the welfare system, and some big changes to our institutional structures, whether it’s the FSA and the Bank of England, or the Regional Development Agencies.

Of course it’s right to focus on the national picture. But we shouldn’t forget the local.  National figures mask huge disparities between our neighbourhoods and regions.

We know that the size of the public sector economy in some regions is twice that in the south east. If you drill down to street level, worklessness in the bottom decile of streets is 23 times that in the top decile. In the bottom 1% of streets, more than half of all adults are out of work and on benefits. Even at local authority level, the rate of worklessness in somewhere like Barrow is 10 times that of St Albans.

These are not just dry statistics.  A third of the children in London are growing up in workless households. This means they are growing up without any exposure to the world of work.  So we are bringing up a generation with significant disadvantages in life. And because those individuals living in deprived clusters who do well in education or employment tend to move away at the first opportunity, the concentrations of deprivation are likely to get worse, not better.

It’s the human side of eliminating the deficit: not a pretty prospect.

We at NFEA believe in tacking problems from the bottom up.  Our focus is on helping individuals and communities through enterprise. We believe that small businesses are a vital component not only of a local economy but also of our local communities.  Our core services are independent and impartial advice, training and mentoring to people who want to start a business.  Each year we help over a quarter of a million people to this end.

Our members are primarily local enterprise agencies, whose roots go back to the 1980’s when we came into existence to contribute to solving the economic problems of the time.

Small businesses are not going to solve all our economic problems and enterprise is not going to show everyone a route out of worklessness. But ours is a society which is becoming more entrepreneurial. In Britain today, 72% of our businesses have no employees. This accounts for 12.2% of the workforce. 95% of our businesses have less than 10 employees, accounting for 25.5% of the workforce.

Small businesses have been demonstrated to be an engine of innovation. They create more new jobs than big business. They are better at taking people from worklessness into steady employment. They employ more disabled people, females and older people. They offer more flexible employment and treat their employees more fairly.

It is true that many people are turning to self-employment as a response to actual or potential redundancy- it is a symptom of the latest economic cycle.  But that’s not the whole story. We believe deeper forces are at work.

So while we do have well-defined problems around worklessness and deprivation, in general, ours is a society which is becoming more enterprising.  In a fast-changing world, people are adapting to changing circumstances quicker and more effectively than ever, they are learning new skills, they are more confident to apply their natural abilities to innovate.  They are more comfortable in taking risks and eager to take responsibility from an early age.

As the attractions of enterprise and entrepreneurship increase, the attractions of employment in large organisations, be they public or private, decrease. No longer do they offer jobs for life, steady progression and a guaranteed pension.

So here is a two –pronged challenge.  Firstly, we need to support those people who are comfortable relying on their wits and their skills to provide for themselves and their families. But we also need to encourage main stream enterprise activities amongst the workless. Clearly it will never be appropriate for more than a minority, but in truth many of these people on the margins of society are already displaying considerable enterprise skills in order to survive. They need guidance to channel it in the right direction, and legitimate self-employment may be a more accessible aspiration than employment. Even if the business doe not sustain itself into the medium term, we find that the confidence and skills people acquire whilst self-employed help them into employment or further education.

Which is where local enterprise agencies come in.  As organisations with a solid base in their communities, they can speak the right language, go to the right places and provide a service that is appropriate to both the community and the individuals they meet.  This is not a “one size fits all” approach. We are comfortable dealing with diversity of all types. Some people need merely to be directed to helpful websites.  But at the other end of the scale, others need considerable work to build their confidence to reach for even the first rung of the enterprise ladder. And in the centre, lie the majority of people who, despite all the advances in technology and proliferation of websites, want the re-assurance which comes with some element of face-to-face support.

An effective enterprise economy means both economic growth and greater social inclusion. Supporting people into self-employment is a cost-effective option, even discounting the wider social and economic impacts. Enterprise support is most effectively managed and directed at local level, delivered in ways most appropriate to the local community.

The big Society starts at local level.  When it comes to enterprise, NFEA members are ready to play their part, as they have done for nearly 30 years.