IT is a question that has been on everyone’s lips: What is the Big Society? Prime Minister David Cameron has talked about it at length without actually saying anything meaningful and it has got to the point where people are even questioning whether the coalition Government knows what it means.

But in Worcester, there is a group of people who do know all about it and they are on a mission to use its ideals to boost services for children, families, younger and older people, despite the economic doom and gloom.

At a time when public sector finances are tight to say the least, those behind the Worcester Community Trust – formed following the merger of three charities CAP360, Horizon Worcester and Westside Worcester – are keen to make sure the city’s residents are getting what they want, need and deserve.

From football sessions to lunch clubs, from play groups to exercise classes, the trust is behind it, but the way initiatives like these are delivered – when, where and how – could all change in a bid to make them more accessible and provide better value for money.

St John’s Labour councillor David Candler, currently a trustee of the new charity, said: “The trust has been set up specifically to enable local people to identify for themselves what the needs of their local communities are and to give them every possible assistance to organise local activities and put them in place.

“It could be a toddlers’ group here or a pensioners’ lunch club there, perhaps a language course or computer class, but whatever it is the trust aims to be alive to changes in social needs and adapt its range of services and activities accordingly. I suppose it could be said that the Worcester Community Trust is the first major sign that the Big Society is up and running in Worcester.

“Obviously, the current financial constraints are not going to help in the immediate future but the needs and demands of Worcester residents in every age group are not going to be put to one side.

“To achieve its aims, the Worcester Community Trust will be working closely with, and seek the support of, other agencies, such as the city and county councils, but eventually it will become a fully-fledged independent body capable of setting its own priorities and seeking the funding necessary to support them.”

Worcester Community Trust runs the city’s community centres in Brickfields, Dines Green, Ronkswood, Tolladine, and Midland Road.

It runs a variety of activities for five to 12-year-olds, youth sessions for 12 to 18-year-olds, stay and play groups for young families and exercise and lunch clubs for the over-50s. It also runs courses, general training and support for people looking to develop their careers and hobbies.

Val Yates, chairman of the shadow board, said it is a “customer focused” organisation without any particular agenda.

She said the trust now wants to review the way community services are delivered.

“We are purely looking at what kind of mood is in the community,” she said.

Ms Yates said there was “a legacy of incredibly good work”, which has gone on in the past, but said the trust wanted to challenge the status quo and see if services, sessions and groups can be delivered in a different and better way while meeting peoples’ needs.

She said: “We’re not doing this because things haven’t been working in the past, but can we do things better? If we can, how can we do it better? That’s what is driving this consultation.”

Esther Passingham, services transformation officer, said they would be tapping in to social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, to get the views of younger people, while engaging with older people in more traditional ways.

“We want to really pull the community together,” she said.

Ms Yates said she wanted use this mini-revolution to help break down barriers across the city.

“There’s a perception that the Green Centre in Dines Green is for the people of Dines Green but they just happen to live there,” she said. “We want a mobile, empowered, engaged community which starts making things happen. We want them to say ‘this is what we want, it’s needed here, how are we going to do it?’”

Ms Passingham said just running events in community centres is hard. “We’re looking at how to come out of that way of working to work together as partners to deliver things better,” she said.

Ms Yates said that it did not mean the community centres, which are leased to the trust from the city council, would be closed.

She said: “It’s about expanding and developing services, not minimising them, and changing things and making sure everybody has access to them.”

Ms Yates also said the trust does not exist to save money.

She said: “In this case, the belief is this kind of organisation can do it better, more efficiently and make greater use of the facilities.”