Bubb's Blog

To be or not to be...

2012-01-31T09:53:00.000Z

On holiday , that is ? I am away for a week's break in Cyprus. The hound is holidaying in Bromley with sister Sara. The question is do I turn off the blackberry? Ignore all emails? Not take calls? It is a question many CEOs ask when they go away. Of course I'm sure ACEVO will manage most effectively without me , but I'm addicted to my blackberry. Love looking at my emails. Doing my blog ( as I am now sitting on a balcony looking at the Mediterranean ). And armed with my iPad I can even listen to the Today programme and catch on the Archers. Sad but true.

And my ever energetic Director Filippo Adarrii has even contacted 3 civil society leaders here to meet me. But I'm not complaining. It will be interesting to meet them and here about the state of the sector in the island. One of them is planning a major conference on social enterprise and wants our support , which they will get.

But that's enough. I'm off on the bus into Larnaca. There is a famous church here, St Lazarus. The chap who was raised from the dead by Christ and apparently made his way here and became a Bishop !

Look forward to photos in tomorrow's blog.

Lansley is right!

2012-01-30T13:38:00.001Z

Andrew Lansley has hit the spot when he wants the NHS to provide a 7 day a week service and when he states the scandal of worse health care at weekends has to stop.

Our hospitals have state of the art technology that enable the detection and treatment of ill health. The scanning equipment and the theatre kit these days are a marvel to behold.

Recent evidence that deaths from heart failure have dropped dramatically demonstrate the major advances of medical science and the power of early detection through scans.

But developments in medical practise and behaviour still lag behind. Why is it that all these expensive pieces of medical kit lie idle at weekends? People are now waiting longer for tests and operations. So why not open up all of the hospitals on Saturdays and Sundays?

And why is it that still most doctors surgeries are not open in the evenings and weekends?

It is both a disgrace that people have to wait for treatment and an inefficiency not to maximise use of hospitals and doctors surgeries.

Many hospitals have now started to do routine work on Saturdays but not enough. So rather than leaving plant under utilised why not hire it out? Another sensible reform being considered by Lansley is to lift the arbitrary cap on hospitals private work. Rather than leaving expensive equipment underused a deal with, say Circle would bring in money for the NHS and they could be contracted to do work to clear waiting times so benefiting patients.

Or alternatively a new social enterprise set up by a group of nurses, consultants and doctors could take over the hospital at a weekend and run a full service with the profit going back into developing that hospital. It is a model crying out to be developed!

Recently I went for an eye check at John Radcliffe in Oxford. It was a Saturday so I did not need to take a day off work. But I was struck by how empty every where was. What a waste. I am also glad to say,needing to have some further tests , I discover they have a contract with the independent Nuffield hospital to undertake these so that I did not need to wait too long for that. As an NHS patient I was glad to get an early date; I wasn't worrying it was in a private hospital. What matters is what works, not who delivers it.

It is time we moved the debate on " privatisation" forward. We need a proper regulated system that maximises the value of the private and third sectors to the patients of the NHS. I regret that the position of many like Andy Burnham MP and those who support him put ideology above choice and the best interests of patients and citizens. It is a shame that the debate on the health bill cannot now move on to deciding how best to implement reform in the interests of the users of the NHS and explore how to best make use of the work of the other 3 sectors to advance medical care and the prevention of ill health.

Board on Friday!

2012-01-27T14:20:00.000Z

I know you will be sympathetic: a euclid board meeting on a Friday evening. Perhaps less so when I tell you it is in Venice!

The beauty of this city is indescribable though many have tried; and January is a great month to be here. Few tourists yet clear blue skies. Great deals on hotels! We meet in the European Centre for living technology on San marco Square and then Prof David Lane, attached to said,takes us to his favourite venetian restaurant for post board discussion . But my day started with Mass in the Basilica of San Marco- around the supposed but venerated body of said Saint and a visit to my favourite venetian chirch, Santa Maria del Miracoli, a masterpiece of the Italian renaissance. And lunch!

Pre board preparation you might say; and there are a few contentious issues to discuss. It is always fascinating to observe the cultural interplay between our board members- the approach of the swedes versus the french, the albanians versus the italian and so on. You realise how important it is to use language carefully for although our meetings are conducted in the world lingua franca ( english) it is easy to cause difficulty through misunderstandings over language.

Euclid has come far in a few years. Now well established with the European Commission we are seen as one of the key stakeholders on civil society finance and how to develop social finance and innovation. In particular my director Filippo Addarri is a familiar figure in the many and long corridors of power in Brussels. Better known than even the Secretary General; but then long Brussels corridors are not exactly my thing. Long may that continue! Now for culture...

Cuts and independence

2012-01-27T10:15:00.000Z

The first systematic review of the real impact of public spending cuts on local authorities has been published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation . It finds that the most deprived local authorities have been hardest hit by the cuts. It also finds conflict within local authorities over whether the needs of vulnerable people should be prioritised.

Serving deprived communities in a recession looked at 25 local authorities and provides an early insight into how local government in England is coping with the severe contraction in grant income implemented after the 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review. Analysis of the patterns of spending cuts show greater cuts (in both proportionate and absolute terms) in the most deprived authorities, compared with the most affluent.

I think it is interesting , and alarming that this points to conflict over whether the needs of vulnerable people should be prioritised. Only half the sample had adopted 'protecting the needs of the most vulnerable client or communities' as a principle guiding budgetary decision-making and just two suggested that 'protecting deprived neighbourhoods' was a priority.

The report suggests that the consequences of the cuts for disadvantaged people in the poorest areas will also quite possibly be overlooked. Local authorities are struggling to assess the impact of the cuts they make to services, due to lack of capacity. The authors believe that the cuts made by local government in future should be monitored to ensure that the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable people are addressed.

This points to a continuing and growing role for our sector in highlighting the damage to the most marginalised and getting something done about it. I'm pleased to say that many are doing just that. For example the big national children's charities have been at the forefront of protests about potential damage to vulnerable children. And to those pundits who say that contracts have dulled independence I say look at the work of Barnados , Action for Children and the Children's Society. They have large contracts with the state. It does not stop them from speaking out. Indeed one could argue they have been more vocal than the NSPCC who derive most of their income from donations.

The problem with the debate on independence is that it is often conducted by armchair philosophers in an evidence free climate. I would argue , as does Victor Adebowale ,that involvement with service delivery has increased the efficacy of our campaigning because we know sharp end how contracts are working for our beneficiaries.

But whether it is local third sector bodies or national charities it is our role to speak truth to power. And we have the evidence from this report to do just that. ACEVO itself will not shy away from arguing for civil society and pointing to Emperor's no clothes; trenchant but I hope always with an alternative solution. Whinging without remedies is the preserve of the playground.

Annual Meeting highlights

2012-01-26T13:09:00.001Z

Some AGMs are tedious. Some difficult. ACEVO is lucky. Our AGMs are excellent affairs. And rather fun. We had over 100 there, and that's not a bad record for chief execs turning up for such an event.

I gave a farewell to 2011 and my Chair welcomed 2012. We started off with a rousing speech from Nick Boles MP. He had been one of the Commissioners on the ACEVO Big Society Commission and he spoke about that and the vital role our sector plays in his constituency.

Sometimes AGMs can be opportunities for nit picking or whinging. Not so last night. I guess that's because we are all CEOs! A good debate on issues like our potential role in challenging corporate greed , how we promote more service delivery by our sector but in ways that protect us in commissioning. And that great guy Jon Davies who leads the Wikipedia charity paid tribute to the ACEVO linked in group. This is a marvellous 900 strong group and Jon said how helpful colleagues had been in helping him in his new role at a new charity. So if you are an ACEVO member and not on this then join!

We also announced the results of our recent elections. 4 people elected to the ACEVO Board. They are;

Virginia Beardshaw – ICAN (current ACEVO Board member, re-elected for 2^nd term)

Cath Lee – Small Charities Coalition

Alison Agius – Catalyst Stockton

Paul Martin- Lesbian and Gay Foundation

Finally let me recall the quote I ended my speech with. I like a good quote. And it needs to be from a Leader. So Catherine the Great ;

" A great wind is blowing and that gives you either imagination or a headache ".

That's the leadership challenge in difficult times!

Old and new. One of our founders Mike Whitlam with our newest member of just 3 weeks, Gary Forster, CEO of Transaid

Gaudeamus Igitur : 25 years of sector leadership

2012-01-25T13:45:00.001Z

Yes. Let's celebrate. 25 years of ACEVO, but more importantly 25 years of the voice for CEO leadership.

This month's issue of " Network" , our ACEVO leadership journal carries a fascinating article by Baroness Hayter who was one of the great 10 who founded acevo ( acenvo then) back in 1987. Read it here.

We have grown. Developed. Undoubtedly now a strong voice for sector Leaders to Government, to business and to our own sector. Now a national presence and a regular in the media promoting our sector leaders.

The core purpose remains as it was then; a network for CEOs to share and to provide mutual support and encouragement and to give collective voice for our sector's leaders.

And in austere times it's good to have a reason to celebrate. In February my chair and I start a series of meetings around the country to review and reflect.

Yesterday was a blockbuster day; starting off with breakfast with the Big Society Network and then onto the Riots Panel enquiry. I listened to a presentation by Gracia McGrath of ChanceUK. A brilliant charity run by a wonderful ACEVO member ( who I have forgiven for stealing one of my treasured staff! ). She talked about their experience of dealing with excluded kids and how damaging it is for kids to be removed from school and education - particularly if this is happening at primary level. She said it was noticeable that 30% of those arrested in the 10-17 age range had been excluded from school. And she pointed out the real lesson. Her programmes cost 4k a year to run but save the country millions.

And then onto chair the Boards of the Social Investment Business and the Adventure Capital Fund. I managed to do that in the alloted 2 hours we have given ourselves to conduct business. I'm a strong believer that meetings that drag over 2 hours lose impact and value. With discipline and firm chairing you can do what you need to do in that time and we always agree up front on what the strategic issues we need to discuss are and then spend proper time doing that, rather than extensive discussion on the minutes or signing bank mandates and the like.

There are those who seem to think there is a linear relationship between time and scrutiny- so a 4 hour meeting must be better than 2 hours. Clear nonsense. A 4 hour meeting has been badly chaired and is less effective because people get tired and irritable.

As chair you need to do 2 things well; ensure effective oversight of the executive ( though not doing their job) and ensuring strategic direction for the business. And last night , despite a packed agenda, we had a great discussion on the future funds and loan schemes we might develop. There was also a discussion on what are charmingly termed C4C ie "cause for concern". That means organisations heading for the buffers and so not paying us back. Crudely speaking. And that may not be their fault but wicked councils withdrawing contracts. The issue for us is how far do we bail out or extend loans. Whilst each case is different and we have an engaged investor approach we have to be rigorous in expecting organisations that take a loan to pay it back cos that's the system. We aint a grant maker! Loans not paid back mean another organisation denied a new loan.

And finally my younger sister Lucy and I are having fun organising our aged parents' Diamond Jubilee. As Mother was born in Union Hall , Ireland we are going over there and will have a gathering of the Limrick clan to celebrate. We are staying at The Castle, Castle Townshend, a beautiful spot in a charming village with many historic anglo- irish links. I'm corresponding with the Townshends and I reckon Anne Cochrane- Townshend , current chatelaine of the Castle is something like my 7th cousin ( the anglo- irish are all related in some way!) My Somerville Great Grandfather x 5 was the Vicar here and our gathering will no doubt be graced by the ghosts of ancestors past.

Much to celebrate. And later our AGM and annual reception in the Commons will reflect on the challenges for leaders that lie ahead...

Reform our boardrooms

2012-01-24T12:27:00.001Z

Hot on the heels of the various speeches by our political leaders on responsible capitalism, we now have Vince Cable's plans on top pay etc.

I have blogged before on the unacceptable face of boardroom pay as evidenced by the arrogance of top bankers. But if they are to get big bonuses again , then let them donate those to charity. And make that public. As Clare Tickell said to Stephen Hester of RBS it is a big shame that top earners in the UK do not have a culture of major giving and publicising this as they do in the US.

But more importantly, as Vince Cable says , we need a "change of culture " in our boardrooms.

And one way to do this would be to make boards more diverse. As I argued when I was on the Tyson review of corporate governance back in 2000 having more third sector leaders on our Boards would inject a strong voice for an ethical and sustainable business approach. And as our leaders are themselves more diverse in gender and race terms this would also help address the heavy pre dominance of older rich white males on boards.

So I would encourage Vince to look at a much stronger push towards diverse boards. He is proposing 2 people on boards who have not been on boards before. This in itself will achieve little unless he says more in terms of other sectors and diverse backgrounds.

It's what Tyson argued but frankly her report had bugger all effect as companies sailed on regardless.

I wrote a rather splendid pamphlet on this whole issue back in 2004 " And why not" is still topical. And correct.

As the boundaries between our sectors get more flexible and blurred and the third sector works more closely with commerce then the case for board reform gets stronger.

But let's also be clear our own governance arrangements are not always transparent or accountable. I know from the stories of my own CEOs that trustee boards can be of variable quality. And not always diverse! However I suspect there are significantly more businessmen on our boards than vice versa!

Reclaim the parks

2012-01-23T11:35:00.001Z

A weekend in London so a tour of the South London parks with the Hound. Brockwell Park, Dulwich and Ruskin. But somehow they all exude an air of municipalism. Can we not do better? The worst was definitely ruskin where whole sections are fenced off with nasty signs saying " no dogs". The Hound rightly ignored such fascist instructions.

The shame! The missing Hepworth sculpture in Dulwich Park. Give it back

Here is a prime case for the third sector to take over. I have already told Steve Reed, Leader of Lambeth Council , if he really believes in a cooperative council give me Brockwell Park.

As I told him I already actually own it. A little known fact but Brockwell Park was purchased out of the Charitable funds that resulted from the Charity Commission reorganisation of the endowments of the City of London Parishes. In those days we had a robust Commission that believed in radical steps to reform and reorganise charities when it was obvious they were not fit for purpose ( why they were even known to close down public schools when they broke their charters by educating rich kids when their founders said they had to educate the poor! ).

And in those days they even made visitations to charities on horseback. I'm sure Suzi and Sam would look great in jodphurs!

But back to the point. I think a partnership between a number of local and national charities and social enterprises ( like BTCV- Tom is up for it ) could revitalise Brockwell. So Steve ; bring it on.

The work programme has come in for some adverse publicity in recent weeks. I have my criticisms, which I won't shy from making. But we also need to be constructive about making it work and arguing to change it for the better . So ACEVO is working with ERSA and NCVO to develop a good practice guide on supply chain relationships within the welfare to work arena. We are looking for case studies of good practice, so click here (http://www.acevo.org.uk/document.doc?id=1917) to find out more details about the guide, express your interest and submit case studies.

And now I'm off to DWP to talk about this. A good day to do that with the Bishops lining up in the Lords today. The Children's Society have produced some compelling evidence on the potential effect of change on child poverty. They should be listened to. I know IDS cares about such things and he will listen and , I believe, changes will be made.

Intimations of mortality

2012-01-20T12:31:00.000Z

3 times this week. Yes, that's the number of times I was offered a seat on the bus and tube; once by a lady in her 20s. Surely I'm not looking that old! And I certainly don't feel it....

Still, I was in the right place last night if there were any problems. Guys Hospital; for a reception of the Guys and Tommies charity. Its the largest of the hospital charities in the UK. And saved from the grab of the state in 1947 by the Charity Commission , showing unusual determination they said Bevan could not nationalise the hospital endowments because they had been given for public benefit , not state aggrandisment.

I like to think of Guys as mine; because it is my local hospital and I have used it, and because I was a non exec for the 2 hospitals and because for over 500 years it was a charity hospital !

Paul Corrigan , that health radical , was speaking. The charity does huge good in supporting research and in making grants and loans locally. Yes, they do loans, so showing foundations can be radical!

Paul Corrigan

Up late this morning so heard Paul Johnston on desert island discs. He used to be a radical editor of the New Statesman. Now in his eighties he is a pompous old buffer defending dictators. He likes Pinochet and Nixon. Does not like Mandela. Apparently Nixon was good because he was always wanting to learn. So Paul, that's alright then, subvert democracy and lie but if your learning that's OK then. Humph. I know it might be said my views have mellowed over the decades but if I ever get that bad I must be taken out and shot. And that is not a hint Robin.

Age does not excuse ignorance. It should encourage wisdom. And I'm now off to dispense some to my staff!

Responsible Capitalism

2012-01-19T14:08:00.001Z

Trek to the Westminster Hub- a rather cool centre for budding social entrepreneurs and charities - to hear the PM talk about responsible capitalism. An interesting speech. I always like it when politicians ground their thinking and policy in historic roots so enjoyed his link with the reforming zeel of Peel and Disraeli ( corn law and factory acts ).

He was roundly quizzed on bonuses, a topic on which we will all be hearing so much more over the next weeks !

It was good that when it came to time for questions I didn't need to introduce myself because the PM did that for me. I suggested that whilst corporate social responsibility was good it could often be patronising; kindly business leaders telling us charity and social enterprise folk how best to run our organisations. In fact they could do with the wisdom and experience of third sector leaders in running ethical business and in motivaitng staff.

So I made 2 suggestions to him.

#1. tell business to put more third sector leaders on their boards

#2. let the bankers take their bonuses but tell them to donate them to charity or invest them in social enterprise.

Whilst the PM replied by saying they were most interesting proposals as he expected from me I didn't get specific agreement. He did however absolutely agree that CSR must be more root and branch and that indeed business can learn from us.

It was a shame he didn't take up the idea of encouraging bankers to donate. He was challenged on that by the FT. I hope we can make a strong case over the next few weeks to encourage those about to take hefty bonuses to give to charity. And to tell us they have.giving by rich people in this country is lamentable. They could set an example.

So I am looking to Stephen Hester in particular. If you do get a bonus at the level the press are suggesting; how fantastic if you said you would give it to charity or loan it the social investment business so we can loan it to great new third sector enterprises.

The truth, the whole truth and nothing but....

2012-01-19T06:00:00.000Z

It's the Commons Select Committee meeting on the health lottery today. The Gambling Commission will have to justify their decision to give licences to a national health lottery set up as 51 separate companies under a law that is supposed to prevent competition to the national lottery but allow local ones- like the many great hospice lotteries that we all support.

And ahead of this , the health lottery people had an interesting press conference yesterday. In the Savoy- that well known haunt of healthy living.

Their briefing paper was all sadly rather incoherent and rambling. In particular it rather took issue with me. I'm " out of touch with reality" apparently.

Jeremy Muller is one of the directors of the 51 CICs that manage the lottery. He says that I have " never been in business" and built my career through the unions.

Yes Jeremy. Guilty. It's true I ve never worked in the private sector.

But what an odd accusation. Are you really suggesting that only people who have worked in " business", by which you mean the private sector, are in touch with reality? So you must think all those health charities you want to support don't know anything about business too? I know from my health sector members that they very much have a business like approach to their organisation. And as many of my health CEO members have, like me, never worked in the private sector he must think they are out of touch too !

I think it is always a mark of desperation when an opponent thinks they have to attack you personally. And frankly when you look at the other allegations he makes you understand the desperation.

As he did on the Today programme he produces clearly inaccurate figures to justify only giving 20p in contrast to the national Lottery 28p.

In the year to 31 March 2011, The National Lottery returned £1,665.1 million to National Lottery Good Causes. With total sales for the 2010/11 financial year of £5,822.4 million, this works out at 28.59 pence in the pound - not 27 pence as Mr Muller incorrectly claims.

He also said that the national lottery only gave 10p to charities. Wrong again. He just does not know the sector. Much of the money for arts, sport and heritage also goes to charities. Brilliant schemes run by ACEVO members that use music to support better mental health or sport among young people that encourage community cohesion and tackling obesity . And heritage too- only this morning the Dickens Trust were on talking about their plans for the bicentenary of Charles Dickens' birth. They too are a charity and have been supported by funds from the national lottery.

The idea behind the good cause allocation by the national lottery is that it will support all the causes that the British people give money to. An entirely noble idea. I object to being told there is a hierarchy of giving or charities. Snide comments about opera or the Olympics should not obscure the simple fact that the health lottery gives only 20p not 28p away. And it has been set up to compete with the national lottery, so if it draws people away from the national lottwery our sector overall will suffer.

And let's face it , anyone who has seen their advertising knows they are competing head on. A big full page advert in the Star recently ( guess the proprietor of that paper! ) said " 7 times more likely to win our top prize".

Today the Gambling Commission will have to justify their extraordinary decision to register the health lottery using legislation designed to promote local society lotteries like hospices.

Frankly gambling Commission folk; if it looks like a duck and quacks lie a duck then it probably is one. So why have you decided its a pigeon?

Something's not right here. And so I was not surprised when you refused my request to see the papers on your decision making process.

The task for the Select Committee is simple. Force the truth out about how the Gambling Commisison made this decision. And if it shows there is a loophole then the Government must urgently amend the legislation.

In the meantime Mr Muller and Mr Desmond: you can sort this argument by taking a cut in profit and giving 28p in the pound to our marvellous health charities.

REVOLUTION ? What revolution?

2012-01-18T15:33:00.000Z

The Government have been committed to a revolution in rehabilitation. Goodness knows it's needed. We know prison does not work. We know the majority of those in prison are back there in a year. In opposition we worked with the Tories in particular on the need for a radical new approach.

So ACEVO set up a taskforce to see where it is all going. Published today we are calling for urgent and radical reform of the criminal justice system.

With prison population figures at record levels, reoffending rates stubbornly high and the Ministry of Justice facing a 23% budget cut, our members argue that as an economy and as a society, we simply cannot afford to continue with the self-defeating status quo.

ACEVO’s Reducing Reoffending taskforce is therefore urging Government to re-energise their commitment for a genuine Rehabilitation Revolution and work with the third sector to make sure it does not fall off track.

Back on Track, the Taskforce’s final report, launched today, encourages Government to be progressive and bold in their vision for reform. This means facing up to resistance from those committed to the “throw away the key” approach, and close a number of prisons in order to free up significant resource to invest in rehabilitating offenders far more effectively.

The report makes a series of practical recommendations to Government to help implement the Rehabilitation Revolution and succeed where previous administrations have not in tackling the engrained problem of reoffending.

The report urges Government to work with the third sector more. The full report can be seen here
It was chaired by the admirable Rob Owen- profiled only yesterday in my Blog.

So Ken. Take on the vested interests. Stand up to the entrenched voices in probation ( incidentally it used to be run by us- time for it to return! ). We know you want to do this.

Members, anniversaries and the BBC

2012-01-18T10:38:00.003Z

How great to hear that the St Giles Trust is to have Prince William as its patron. The CEO is the dynamic reformed capitalist Rob Owen who has been an active member of ACEVO for years. He is a real pace setter for our sector; his work on impact assessment is a classic. More on the the taksforce Rob has been leading for us later today.

And they celebrate their 50 th anniversary. I'm into anniversaries this year as ACEVO celebrates 25! Mondy night Michael Burton was celebrating 25 years at the Municipal Journal. He reminded us this was the year ( 1987) of Duran Duran and Bon Jovi....now there's an idea for the ACEVO reception. After all, we have done the Beatles!

Lunch with Tom Flood at the British Museum. Here is Tom looking none of his 65 years! Rather trimmer than me I thought grumpily. What's he on I wonder?

Tom is stepping down from BTCV as CEO in July. He has worked there for 25 years. And they have also got their 50 th anniversary this year. They have a new Chair, Rita Clifton who is as charming and effective a Chair as one could hope for. An expert on branding, she, Tom and I are meeting to look at our very own ACEVO brand soon. A breakfast brainstorm.

Tom is another of our sector's trend setters. On our ACEVO Board , he will carry on supporting us by chairing ACEVO solutions, our very own social enterprise. Lunch was splendid. The BM has a great restaurant and eating there means you are supporting the third sector. And we did do some splendid gossip. Were your ears burning?

I had to scurry off to get to a Commons meeting with Chris Williamson MP one of Labours' shadow DCLG team. Wanted to know my take on local government : I said outsource more to the sector- that's the progressive agenda! Then a dash to the BBC for a pre record for " You and Yours" for Thursday on the subject du jour the health lottery.

Can the BBC cope with much more of Bubb? On Today on Wednesday. On the Big Society documentary on R4 on Sunday ( worth listening too incidentally; its a 3 parter with the last on this Sunday at 1.30pm) and now You and Yours. Can you ever have enough of a good thing!? Bit like a fine wine. Bring it on, as Ed Miliband is fond of saying.

And incidentally, it would be immodest to report on the comment of one Cabinet Minister I bumped into on Monday who said I had been " truly magnificent" on " Today". Yes, I know it's naughty to trumpet this but in difficult times we need a strong voice for the sector and if I , and others, can do what we can to put our case across effectively then I'm happy I'm doing my job.

Surrey!

2012-01-16T16:45:00.002Z

A great day in Surrey; although in fact it wasn't as it was the London Borough of Kingston! I was speaking to the senior managers and directors and members of Surrey County Council at one of their lunchtime leadership sessions. And the HQ of Surrey CC is in Kingston. Once, of course a while back that was indeed in Surrey. Indeed my own dear Borough of Lambeth was in Surrey ( hence Surrey county cricket is at the Oval! ) some 100 years ago.

I was talking to a senior group of directors, to managers and members about how the third sector can deliver more services and how partnership working has to be the way forward. A very positive and constructive response. They are interested in taking the debate forward and were particularly keen to talk about the potential for loans to the sector.

Inevitably they raised the need for the sector to get its act together. How we don't cooperate or coordinate and how we sometimes assume we are good simply because we are the voluntary sector.

I had to agree. We sometimes lose good friends and allies locally by bad behaviour. It's why I abhor the sillyness around small v large national v local. It does not help our case in promoting the sector and the work we do with our beneficiaries. And it is no good pretending all we do is always brilliant and that funding streams must continue for ever without change.

We can do so much more with a professional approach and I intend to follow up this lead in Surrey and see ACEVO and the SIB can join forces and promote a greater partnership working.

And then to cap off my local council day it was off to the Lords ( if I spend more time there they will think I am one, Robin !!! )For a reception to mark 25 years of Michael Burton's editorship of " Municipal journal" the lead in house mag for local councils. Blog readers may not have spotted this but I write a weekly column in that journal on their third sector page. Always worth a read I suggest. And it's worth marking anyone's 25 years in a job....I have a lot of catching up to do. And 25 years is such a short space of time to really get a grip on a job.

Working with councils; let good work prevail!

2012-01-12T16:28:00.006Z

I've been writing to local council CEOs, along with my colleagues in ncvo and navca, to remind them about the role of the sector and decisions they will make on the 2012-13 budgets. We all know it will be tighter than ever.

I have been getting some interesting responses. One, from Stockton on Tees ;their CEO Neil Schneider tells me they have established an annual investment fund- including a loan element, so that the local third sector can bid for capacity building and sustainability projects. There is also a community fund put into a single endowment to get a higher RoR on investment.

This is exactly the type of work we need to encourage. I was delighted to see the loan project. I talked to Sir Merrick Cockell on this and I wonder if we can encourage more local councils to do this. We are pursuing that and I see the CEO of Barnet council next week who is ahead of the field on these ideas.

Southend on sea said the budget for our sector was one of the few they had agreed they would protect, and in 2011-12 they had made a modest improvement the CEO tells me he has personally been meeting with the CEOs of the local TS organisations.

So not all is bleak on the council front! But just how all the others will react , we shall see! And for the less progressive folk let's rmember the example of Derby council and their folly in not treating ther sector properly.

Sixteen charities have had their grants from Derby City Council extended after challenging the local authority using new statutory guidance.

The extensions were made after Community Action Derby warned council representatives that they had not followed the Communities and Local Government department’s Best Value Statutory Guidance.

Let Councils remember this guidance, introduced in September , says local authorities should consult organisations when planning to decommission services. It was issued after my friend Eric Pickles, declared that councils should not make cuts to their voluntary sector funding that were proportionately larger than cuts to their own budgets.

So I'm naming and praising. And shaming. I'm looking for many more responses of the praise sort. You then get a Bubb badge of approval. And punishment will surely follow those who choose the wicked path.

The Archbishop of York - talking about the Children's Society new report last night

Earlier this week I splent a pleasant day in Oxford. Lunch at Hertford College with my nephew Alexander. Will Hutton is now the Principal there so obviously popped in for a chat. He is enjoying his new incarnation and was keen to tell me how different a style of leadership is required. He is not a Chief Executive but more of a " speaker" type, chairing meetings where the fellows decide in " collegiate" style. No top down orders. Suggestions and prompting.

But I suspect that many charity and social enterprise CEOs have to have a little of that style as well. And I have been known to be collegiate myself though I'm generally more impatient as a CEO and like things done to my desires! Prompting can take just so so long....

Will has been a great thinker and polemisist. He says he is not writing another book but may have a lengthy essay on the way forward as a nation . I suggested something on how Ed M might take a grip to lead! He demured.

But he readily accepted an invite to come and speak at an ACEVO learning with leaders lunch. That will be fun.

Today

2012-01-12T10:53:00.003Z

I'm not an early morning person! So it was a trial having to emerge at 6am to get to the "Today " programme. But as this is my favourite radio show ( along with The Archers! ) I was happy to do that and to take battle on behalf of charities who may face a loss of income from the competition of the health lottery against the national lottery.

Of course it is too early to say whether the competition is damaging national lottery sales but only recently there were big ads in the Desmond outlets with raging headlines saying" 7 times more likely to win our top prize". So he is clearly taking on the National Lottery and wanting people to switch. If they do , then only 20p goes to charities not the 28p from the National Lottery.

And this is not about arguing health charities should not get money. They face huge challenges and deserve more support. They need it , so if they get grants from the health lottery that is good. But it is not good if that has resulted in an overall drop in income to our sector.

The guy opposing me in the studio talked about what money they have given out in grants. This is good. But in 2010 alone the National Lottery gave £270m to health charities- dwarfing the amount Mr Desmond has promised at £50m.

And it was rather a cheap shot for my opponent from the health lottery CICs to say that in " my illustrious career" I had worked for the National Lottery. I haven't. I worked for the Charities Board which was the organisation giving the money away, not raising it. And proud I am of the work I did there. I ran the first grant round for health charities when we gave away £300m in our first year to health charities . A silly point and obviously I didn't rise to it!

I got a good crack of the whip on this and hope it went down well. Next Thursday the Commons Select Committee will look at this. ACEVO will give a briefing to them.
We are not happy with how ther Gambling Commission gave permission to an obvious rival to the National Lottery when Parliament clearly intended local lottery legislation not to allow for a rival to the National Lottery. And as a loophole has been exposed in the legislation the Government need to close it. Pronto.

The health lottery are holding a press conferencve next tuesday at the Savoy. Let's hope Mr Desmond uses that as an occasion to announce he will cut his profit margin and give more to health charities by at least matching the 28p of the national lottery. We shall be watching!

It was also good to bump into my old friend the Archbishop of York in the BBC studio. I shall see him later at a lecture with The Children's Society on their Good Childhood Report in Church House.

Support The Lords!

2012-01-12T09:57:00.003Z

I am glad to say that the charity campaign against plans to means-test employment and support allowance (ESA) payments for disabled people after only a year were rejected by peers.

The means test would have applied to cancer patients and stroke survivors, and was denounced by Lord Patel, a crossbencher and former president of the Royal College of Obstetricians, ( they are acevo members) as an immoral attack on the sick, the vulnerable and the poor. "If we are going to rob the poor to pay the rich, then we enter into a different form of morality," Patel said.

The other defeats in the Lords were over plans to time-limit ESA for those undergoing cancer treatment, and to restrict access to ESA for young people with disabilities or illness.

I would urge the Government to rethink. There is no popular support for these particular changes. I really hope the Prime Minister and Ian Duncan Smith will review this and support the changes made by the Lords. It is the right thing to do.

The Work Programme and Windsor Castle!

2012-01-09T14:29:00.006Z

As I read in Kaye Wiggins' coverage in Third Sector yesterday:

Charities and other groups delivering the Work Programme have signed up to a contract that says they will "not do anything which may attract adverse publicity ".

The terms of the agreement also say prime contractors "shall not make any press announcements or publicise the contract in any way" without approval from DWP.

The adverse publicity clause has been passed to some charity subcontractors through a condition added by some primes that all terms in their own contracts with the DWP also apply to groups in their supply chains.

The contracts between the DWP and the prime contractors also contain a requirement that primes take steps to ensure their subcontractors do not make press announcements or publicise the contract without the department’s approval.

A spokeswoman said the department did not adopt a heavy-handed approach and had not censured charities that had publicly criticised the Work Programme.

Julian Blake, a partner at the law firm Bates Wells & Braithwaite, which specialises in private, public and third sector contracts, said: "Contracts often have a publicity clause, but they don’t always go as far as to say you should not say anything that will produce adverse publicity. This seems like it has gone a bit further, and it does cross the line about what the right balance should be in principle.

I'm pleased to say my ebullient Director of Policy was forthright about all this in his comments .

" Ralph Michell said it was not clear how many charities had been deterred by the clauses in the contract. He said, however, that they should be free to criticise the Work Programme publicly if they thought this was reasonable and in the best interests of their beneficiaries.

"The principle that charities should be able to bite the hand that feeds them is completely sacrosanct," he said. "Whatever is in the contract, charities have a moral duty to speak out on behalf of those they serve."

I'm blogging from Windsor Castle! It's ironic that I'm at consultation at St George's House on " Inequality: moral obligations and economics ". And amusing to report , my bedroom is just next to Brendan Barber of the TUC. How useful . I can give him some helpful late night advice on pensions!

Here is the view from my rather splendid room under the eaves in a room on the ramparts!

Clearing out!

2012-01-06T10:45:00.005Z

I don't know what it is about the New Year but I always have this desire to tidy up and throw stuff out. I have been having a major clear out in my somewhat untidy office. I tend to keep things for longer than I should so it's always a rather interesting time when I come across old papers or momentoes. Sometimes I can't bear to throw them out so I redistribute to grateful staff and suggest they will be educative!

My extensive collection of photos is expanding around the office. I have a great new crop from Perth CHOGM. And an African wooden Chiefs stick which is a symbol of authority and makes a good gavell for me to hammer on the table when my Directors start getting unruuly at our weekly DG meetings.

But it has also been diary planning. Over the next 3 months I have a major programme of meetings with my ACEVO members. I want to pick up on the challenges our Chief Executives are facing on the ground. It's a good way to celebrate our Silver Jubilee!

And in the New Year spirit here are 2 fun photos from my recent Bubb clan visit in Devon.

Doing Leadership!

2012-01-05T10:54:00.002Z

A fascinating documentary on King George V on Tuesday. No one would claim George as a great intellect. He was a terrible father and more interested in shooting animals than reading books. He was however an incredibly good Monarch. Why?

His leadership style was based on a sound common sense approach and a gut instinct in handling difficult situations. These are , in fact, key leadership attributes. I've often been struck by how important a role instinct plays in making decisions as a CEO.

I can point to a number of occasions when the logic or advice I received pointed to a particular decision but I knew it wasn't quite right. Sometimes I bowed to the advice- only to find my instinct was right. Other times I plowed ahead on my instinct and found I was right. But sometimes wrong so it's not an infallible guide to success. But then the leadership job is made up of these types of challenge.

Now this is not to suggest you ignore all advice or press ahead regardless but it is to suggest you must be bold , not cautious and trust your own judgement.

Now I'm off to see Sir Merrick Cockell, the new Chair of the Local Government Association. Councils face huge challenges but its my job to tell him he should face them with us not by cutting us! Far too often councils think we are easy prey for cuts without thinking of the damage they can do to the more vulnerable and marginalised in our communities. I suspect ACEVO is going to have to be on the front foot defending our members against bad council decisions as we go through 2012. But ACEVO is never afraid to speak out when our Chief Executives are being threatened!

A suitable subject for reform!

2012-01-04T13:46:00.004Z

That's our health service. We all saw the reports from the Care Quality Commission about the appalling standards of care for old people in some hospitals. We now have a report from MENCAP which suggests that enduring "institutional discrimination" among doctors and nurses has contributed to the deaths of 74 vulnerable patients.

The 74 patients' deaths over the past decade were either caused or complicated by mistakes in hospitals and decisions by staff who failed to treat them properly and displayed ignorance or indifference to their plight, according to Mencap .

Inquiries by Mencap into the deaths raise searching questions for the NHS, which has been criticised in a series of recent reports for providing poor care, especially to older patients. The parliamentary and health service ombudsman, Ann Abraham, has already ruled that four of the cases highlighted were avoidable deaths and found serious failings in eight others. Inquest verdicts also confirm failings occurred in several cases.

Frankly, only with a radical redirection of resources from acute hospitals into the community can that change can happen. That means a radical programme of hospital closures. And a major investment in third sector delivery.

It is high time the NHS got serious about the sector. There is a lot of lip service paid to more delivery through the sector but the facts show that it is just lip service.

Do you know how much of the NHS commissioning budget is spent by PCTs on the third sector? It's 0.6 %. Yes. That's less than 1%.

When we know that care provided in the community or at home is what often works better and is what people need then this shows just how far the NHS is failing to deliver.

And finally. To cheer you all up on this first week back in the office here are the 2sector knights looking jolly at a recent sector reception.

And a thought from my local wine merchants, " Planet of the Grapes" at Holborn,

" January is the month for quality not quantity ".

Looking forward to 2012

2011-12-31T18:45:00.002Z

A Happy New Year to you all. Let's hope the jubilee year of 2012 will prove more propitious for our sector.

Let's face it , 2011 has been difficult! The signs for a more prosperous year are not good. We know that councils plan more cuts. We know the health service is cutting back. Recession will bite harder. So the leaders of our sector will be tested more harshly. And our beneficiaries will continue to bear the brunt of the recession , as unemployment rises, cuts hit deeper for citizens and communities. Their voice must be heard. Their plight recognised. So our role as the " voice of the voiceless" becomes more crucial.

But this will also be the time for us to show innovation and resolve. To take advantage of opportunities to deliver more services and to make the case to councils and health commissioners that we cam provide more focused services . Let's not be victims but make the case for change.

And there will be many occasions to celebrate next year. The Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics. And , of course , our very own ACEVO silver jubilee. Back in 1987 a group of Chief Executives got together at the local government Social Services conference and took the decision to set up a support network that they called ACENVO. The rationale was clear. The CEO job is a difficult one and it is often lonely at the top so who better to turn to for advice and counsel than your peers? The idea took off and the organisation grew. I joined in 2000 and was only the second CEO. The founding CEO was Dorothy Dalton. A major change tool place when the members decided to turn into ACEVO ,in other words to represent CEOs of all third sector bodies and not just national organisations. And I was appointed specifically to give the organisation a representative role; speaking for the sector's leaders to Government and more widely. We have become a powerful advocate for leadership and are recognised as a force for the CEO role.

So we shall celebrate 25 years of CEO leadership next year. We start with a series of meetings around the country so that me and the ACEVO Chair can hear from CEOs about the challenges they face. We start in Birmingham on the 9 th.

So let's gird our loins! I'm down in Devon ( at Hope Cove) with the Bubb clan to see in this new year. It's a blustry day but that did not deter us from our annual walk up on the cliffs ( third sector cliffs , of course , as they are National Trust ! )to the Port Light , our favourite Devon pub! And champagne for my Mother's 82nd birthday !

I shall raise a glass to all my Blog readers tonight. I wish you all a very Happy New Year!

Happy Christmas!

2011-12-23T10:00:00.000Z

Well , I've packed up , tidied up after a fashion and left for Charlbury. I'm looking forward to the break and all the festivities. I hope you all enjoy a good Christmas. It's a time to recharge batteries. Enjoy fine wine. Good food. Bracing walks. The hound is salivating at the thought of all that left over turkey!

Let me leave you with a thought. I went to the Festival of 9 Lessons and Carols at my London Church, All Saints ,Margaret St, this week. The following words were part of the bidding prayer.

I dedicate it in particular to all our politicians when they come to budget making soon.

" because this of all things would rejoice his heart ,
let us at this time remember in his name the poor
and the oppressed ; the sick and those who
mourn; the lonely and the unloved; the aged and
the little children . "

As recession bites more harshly in 2012 these sentiments need to be written above the door of HMT. Have a great Christmas all.

Have a healthy Christmas!

2011-12-22T10:00:00.000Z

Great meeting with John Craig earlier this week. He is working on a project between the Innovation Unit and NESTA.

It's called the " People powered health programme and aims to investigate how people can better manage their health care?

Did you see an important report last week about Diabetes? This indicated that up to 24,000 diabetes-related deaths could be avoided in England each year, if patients and doctors better managed the condition.

The first-ever audit of patient deaths from the condition said basic health checks, a good diet and regular medication could prevent most of them.

Diabetes UK said it was vital the 2.3 million sufferers had top quality care.
The Department of Health in England said shocking variations in care and an unacceptable death toll were evident.

About a third of people in the UK affected do not realise they have the condition.
It means their bodies cannot use glucose properly. If they do not manage it, they can develop potentially fatal complications like heart or kidney failure.

The report, by the NHS Information Centre, compared information about people with diabetes in England with data from death records.

The data
In England in 2008/09:
• 75,000 deaths occurred in people with diabetes
• 24,000 of those deaths were classed as avoidable
• About three quarters of excess deaths were in people aged 65 and over
• A small proportion - 104 - were in men and women aged between 15 and 34 (about two excess deaths a week)
• Of the 104 deaths, 52 were in women
• Because younger people in general have a low risk of dying - the absolute numbers are very small, but represent a nine fold higher risk compared with other age groups
• Source: NHS information centre

Around 70-75,000 diabetic patients die every year.The study estimated that a third of them were dying from causes that could be avoided if their condition were better managed.

That includes basic health checks from doctors, and patients taking medication and keeping to a healthy diet.

For patients with Type 1, the risk of dying was 2.6 times higher than it was for the general population.

With Type 2, the risk was 1.6 times higher.But in younger age groups, the risk was far greater. Women between the ages of 15 and 34 with Type 1 diabetes were nine times more likely to die than other women of the same age. Men in the same age group were four times more likely to die if they had the condition.

It is the first time there has been such a comprehensive assessment of the number of affected people dying. The National Diabetes Information Service said the number of people with the condition was rising, so if nothing was done, the number of deaths would increase.

Yet another indication of the need to move resources from cute hospital care into the community amd to third sector organisations. When will the NHS start listening?

David Cameron is right!

2011-12-21T09:54:00.002Z

David Cameron spoke at my old college in Oxford last Friday about the important role religion must play in national life. He was speaking at a service to mark the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. I very much agree with his stance. Politicians should not avoid talking religion , though I would hate if we ever found ourselves landed with the hypocrisy of the American religious right that so mars politics there.

But we should celebrate the contribution that religion makes to our civil life and to a better community. It is very clear that people of faith play a great role in our sector , both in terms of giving and volunteering. The injunction to giving is something that unites Muslims , Christians and Jews .

But I hope it is always in the spirit of tolerance. There is something nauseous about the strident voices of those who denounce others who have different views or approaches to life , whether on the issue of abortion or on homosexuality. You will not be surprised to know I prefer the gentle tolerance of the dear Church of England , much derided but actually rather splendid. Much like the glorious king James Bible! A former Vicar of Charlbury was one of those involved in the translation of that Bible , as marked by a plaque in the Church placed there to mark the 300 th anniversary. And my parents gave me a copy of that original 1611 Authorised version to mark my knighthood. Appropriate eh!

And at the risk of sounding like a reactionary old buffer I was appalled to hear of 2hideous crimes this week. On Monday my mother goes down to open up the Parish Church in her village Orsett and discovers it has been broken into. Not content with stealing whatever they could ( not very much as it happens ) they let off 2 fire extinguishers and cause a lot of damage. And this just before the Christmas celebrations. You do have to wonder what is happening when whoever did this shows such disrespect. So as you can imagine my mother was also much in approval of Mr Cameron and his views!

And then there is the news of the robbing of the Hepworth sculpture in Dulwich Park. This is a great work. I often walk the hound here. She has peed close by indeed. My favourite walk is to trek through Brockwell Park , down Half Moon Lane into Dulwich , with a nod towards that brilliant picture gallery ! It beggars belief that anyone could be so ignorant as to steal this for scrap. I felt very " colonel of Tunbridge Wells" this week!

And as I'm on the rant can I mention email Christmas cards. Ridiculous. I loved the one from the Chair of the Big Lottery Fund. But did Peter Ainsworth realise that his " Merry Christmas" was rather spoilt by the message that appeared immediately below the festive picture.

It said , " This email is confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed.The contents of this message will not be in any way binding upon the Big Lottery Fund. "

Charming. And similar sentiments came with email greetings from the Cabinet Secretary and Crispin Blunt MP , to name but 2.

I think this nasty mass email faux Christmas greeting should be outlawed. But the contents of this Blog are in no way binding on ACEVO!

Yes, things are tough out there

2011-12-19T11:47:00.003Z

Yes,things are tough out there ; my ACEVO North Director , Jenny tells me she was speaking to a CEO in Manchester today whose organisation provides summer play schemes in some of the most deprived wards in East Manchester. They usually run 10 schemes in the 6 week period, this year funding was cut which meant they could only provide 3. The effect was noticeable in the communities with more children playing on the streets and just hanging about.

He thinks it unlikely they will be funded to run play schemes next year at all.The cumulative effect of these decisions across the country mean a significant impact on both social cohesion and the life chances of many citizens. Our sector is at the fore front in tackling these problems but our hands are tied behind our backs by spending cuts.

And one difficult and damaging aspect of all this is that I see CEOs neglecting leadership development. It's understandable that when CEOs are stretched and there is little money that they will put off personal development . That is a mistake. In fact when times are hard it is when you need to look to external support including development. I spent this morning talking to the Chartered Management Institute . ACEVO has strong links and their CEO is a member. We are looking at ways we can jointly support cost effective development.

One of the issues I raised in my FT Profile article on Saturday was the way in which DWP are carrying out their assessments of people on sickness benefit who have mental health problems.

This is a serious problem. Half of all people with mental health problems are living below the poverty line, according to research by the charity Mind.

Three quarters of the 900 people surveyed regularly avoid opening bills and admit to feeling confused about their finances.People with mental health problems are three times more likely to be in debt than the general population. Three quarters of those participating in Mind's Still in the Red survey said their illness had made their debt worse.

The charity is urging people to seek help from its free Money and Mental Health guidebook available in GP surgeries, Citizens Advice Bureaus and online.

So it is time for DWP to review how the reform of sickness benefit is going. This was reinforced for me by the move last week by the UKs cancer charities.

More than 20 of Britain’s leading cancer specialists have written to Iain Duncan Smith warning him that thousands of their patients will be plunged into poverty by his welfare reforms. The clinicians say they are “gravely concerned” that benefits are to be taken away just as people need them most.

Under the Welfare Reform Bill, which is in its final stages in the House of Lords, employment and support allowance (ESA), the main new sickness benefit, will be paid for one year only to those unable to work because of their illness.

After a year, claimants unable to work will be eligible only for means-tested income support. Anyone whose partner earns as little as £149 a week will receive nothing. There is particular anger over the issue because ESA is a contributory benefit, meaning that claimants have paid for it specifically through national insurance contributions over the years.

The letter, which is also signed by 24 cancer charities warns that in many cases a year is too short to recover from gruelling chemotherapy and other cancer treatments. It also questions comments from the Government suggesting that to allow people with cancer to claim the benefit for longer than a year would erode their will to work. “Cancer patients want to work. They haven’t chosen to give up the safety of employment,” the letter says.

“The assertion that providing hard-earned benefits at a time of greatest need encourages a dependency by seriously ill cancer patients on benefits is utterly without foundation.”

No FT , no comment

2011-12-18T09:43:00.003Z

Well, an early morning start on Saturday ; off to " News and Things" our local newsagents in Charlbury. to secure a copy of the FT. Page 2 glories in a rather splendid photo of me in Bloomsbury Square leaning against a tree. It's a profile headed " Stephen Bubb, standard bearer for charities and still an iconoclast" , rather flattering , he says immodestly. My brother emails me to point out that in the picture , the tree is leaning right ! A good interview with Sarah Neville , the Public Policy Editor though rather too much use of the vernacular for Mother's taste.

I don't know about weather forecasts; it all sounded very gloomy on the news but up here in West Oxfordshire it was a glorious winter day, sharp cold and brilliant sun. The hound and I headed off to our favourite pub , the Plough in Finstock. This trek involves crossing the Cornbury estate where once Queen Elizabeth I hunted stag among the oaks of the Wychwood Forest. A lovely meal and 2 pints and I fell asleep in front of the fire! And this morning the hard frost across the fields looked beautiful as I made my way to early morning Mass in the Parish Church. And because it's another fantastic day I'm off to the pub for Sunday roast. The Hound is fond of beef.

Team ACEVO...

2011-12-16T10:08:00.007Z

Well, it was a jolly affair! Our staff lunch was preceded by a Quiz on our membership and our sector and , because Seb Elsworth was organising it , geography !

The photos say it all ( whatever that is.... )

We had a "secret santa" present giving. My present was a book " Improve your self-esteem ". Much needed obviously. I will study the chapter on " Increase your self esteem through assertiveness" carefully.

But the jollity for me had to be kept short as I had a meeting of the Public Chairs Forum where we were listening to Sir Gus O'Donnell and Francis Maude MP on the challenges for the future year. I might have needed an extra drink as we contemplated that, but I was being abstemious !

From there it was off to the Commons for my Lambeth constituency MP's ( Chukka Umunna ) annual Christmas party. All very Christmassy...

Here he is looking very suave.

Members and Tesco

2011-12-15T10:03:00.007Z

A trip to ncvo on Tuesday- but this time not to check how the plumbing is going but to speak at one of my members meetings. Anita Kerwin-Nye is the Director of the Communications Trust which raise awareness of the importance of speech, language and communication across the children’s workforce and enable practitioners to access the best training and expertise to support all children’s communication needs.

Here is Anita with Brian Lamb at the meeting:

I was speaking about public services and we had a lively debate. But I think this debate has moved on in the sector and there is broad support for us doing more service delivery. There were understandable concerns about the role of the private sector but my view is that although there are worries about the Work Programme there is strong scope for partnerships and alliances with commercial companies. But the key is getting the terms of the partnership right.

And it was great that Anita was keen to encourage other CEOs to be in ACEVO! Here here.

Lunch yesterday with ACEVO member Javed Kahn, the impressive CEO of Victim Support. We lunched third sector; in the British Museum restaurant( much to be recommended)! Victim Support is a large national charity, professional staff working with some 6500 volunteers. He made the rather telling point that volunteering costs them. They need support, training and management. He said "volunteers can be quite demanding!"

They spend £1m on their training because it is so essential to how volunteers can provide that support for people dealing sometimes with the most traumatised.
He is also building alliances among the victim support networks. I didn't know this but there are 558 charities here. He has built a partnership of most of the 40 charities working in the area of manslaughter. This is a very sensible approach and shows the power of large national charities to drive change.

Which leads me neatly to the Report launched today by the Public Administration Select Committee which has been looking at " Big Society".

A good report, which particularly looks at the important role we can play delivering public services. It makes a range of sensible proposals, such as extending the VAT exemption that the public sector enjoys in delivery to our sector. This creates a much closer level playing field in tendering for us. I argues this strongly with Justine Greening MP when she was at the HMT. I hope the Government will look closely at this.

It is a shame that Bernard Jenkin MP, who chairs the Committee chose to make gratuitously offensive remarks about large charities in his press release. He said,

" PASC has yet to see how the government will engage these charities and voluntary groups who wish to do so to deliver public services: the ‘little society’ rather than big business and ‘Tesco’ charities"

And worse, he repeated this charge at the ncvo- All Party Parliamentary group on the voluntary sector Christmas party at the Commons . He mentioned " tesco charities" twice! My Chair ( Lesley-Anne Alexander , the CEO of RNIB) was there. Her disapproval of his comments could be heard around the room. Rightly so.

Bernard, please remember that bodies like the National Trust, RNID,Leonard Cheshire, RNLI , Guide Dogs, Barnados , Mencap , RSPCA , Unicef, Age UK , Oxfam, Marie Curie...I could go on...employ thousands of staff and have millions of volunteers and supporters. You insult them all by this slighting reference. We need the strength and power of national charities. They are able to speak up for citizens and communities without fear. They campaign and deliver services. They make Governments tremble. They kick arse when arse needs kicking( Fiona Reynolds you are a star! ). And they help and support the local sector and localities. They are national treasures. And so are the local community groups and small voluntary organisations we also represent . Our diversity is our strength. So never ever again do I expect this slur to be repeated Bernard.

And it was particularly galling for my Chair because I know that in the last few months RNIB have given financial support to 3 local blind charities who were facing going under. RNIB enabled them to survive. Not sure I know of Tesco funding the local shop? And RNIB's strength gives power to all blind people. Long may they continue.

Many national charities play a similar role. And as Martyn Lewis, the Chair of ncvo pointed out to Bernard, even the biggest charities are small fry compared with many in the private sector!

But to end on a positive note - the Commons do was also the launch of the 2020 Leadership commision looking at our sector's leadership. The Chair, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson spoke abouit the report which ACEVO has supported.

One of the recommendations is that more needs to be done in the sector to develop futre CEOs and we are working on this. Already ACEVO has an annual conference for " next generation" CEOs and we do some work to support our affiliate members who are aspiring CEOs. We must do more.

Now I must get ready for the staff Christmas party. A chance to show appreciation to team ACEVO. Highly talented staff who are dedicated to promoting the CEO leadership role. They deserve a treat!

No Debra!

2011-12-14T11:09:00.003Z

Loans are an important new tool in supporting and expanding our sector's work. And needed more.

You are wrong to assert in your recent Third Sector article that we must avoid debt as a sector . ( Article, this weeks' Third Sector by Debra Allcock Tyler).

You are right however to urge caution.

A loan will not fit or suit many third sector organisations. It won't help campaigning charities. A loan must be repaid and so no organisation should go into a loan unless they are absolutely clear on the obligations and responsibilities that a loan brings. You should have weighed up the different options. But in some cases a loan makes financial sense and is a good option.

It is also the job of social lenders like the Social Investment Business ( who now have 7 years experience of loans to over 300 organisations) venturesome or Charity Bank. In fact they are very careful to only lend to charities or social enterprises that have a clear business plan that means they can pay back.

I really enjoy Debra's company and enjoy the lively discussions we have, so it won't be a surprise to her that I believe she has been peddling this unhelpful line for some time. She needs to speak to organisations that have had loans or read the 2 independent research reports that have been produced by Sheffield Hallam and London Metropolitan on social finance.

http://www.adventurecapitalfund.org.uk/images/stories/files/reports/acf_finalreport_july%202009.pdf

http://www.thesocialinvestmentbusiness.org/fileadmin/futurebuilders_evaluation_summary.pdf

And let me pose this question: What would you have said to the group of parents of kids with autism who had the vision of taking their kids out of crap state provision and building their own school that could cater to the special needs of their children. A school they would run and guide.

We supported their vision with a £5m loan, which they used as leverage. They have built the school: the Treehouse in North London. It's superb. It has developed as a centre of excellence for the teaching of kids with autism across the UK and internationally. They could not have done this without a loan. I challenge Debra to go and tell them to their faces that they have made a mistake and shouldn't have taken the loan.

Should they have taken Debra's advice and refused to take a loan and spent years trying to get the money through raffles and grants, Perhaps never making it? Their experience was exactly that- which is why the loan was such a deliverance.

In fact they had the guts and determination to get it going through a loan and a superb professional plan to pay that back.

So I'm with Treehouse on this. And the other bodies that have gone for loans to support their work with beneficiaries. At a time when our sector faces ever more challenges we need more diverse income streams. Of course we must be careful about funding - whether that is a grant that makes you overly dependent on the funder - or a loan.

And finally I say to my friend Debra, you like me may have a mortgage? Or have had one. That's a loan you took to buy a home because that suited your circumstances. So why do you want to deny that opportunity to third sector bodies who may decide they want a loan to buy a property to turn into a youth centre, for example, because that makes more sense than renting? Why not take a loan for expansion because you know you can make a payments by results contract work and that is the only way you can take part in a contract you know you are the best to deliver for your beneficiaries ?

The only reason the sector is relatively debt free is because for ages we have simply been denied access to capital. We can't actually get loans even when there is a superb business case for them. The point of social finance is to correct that injustice. To get us access to capital to grow. Of course it is not for everyone. But to suggest it should not be available for anyone in our sector is the height of presumption.

Curley jibe!

2011-12-13T12:21:00.002Z

Kevin Curley says Bubb is, " in a sense the sector's Jeremy Clarkson". How very dare he! I have never ever suggested anyone should be taken out and shot in front of their family......yet.

Singing our way through!

2011-12-13T12:01:00.004Z

A rather poignant story in Third Sector magazine. The Charity Environmental Protection UK went under last week as local councils pulled their funding. It has a fabulous history. Started in 1898 as the Coal Smoke Abatement Society it campaigned against air pollution. It was largely responsible for the clean air legislation. Its Treasurer coined the very phrase smog ( smoke plus fog! )

This demonstrates the long and honourable history of our great sector and its proud history of campaigning and advocacy. I suspect that in its day there were plenty of backwoodsmen MPs frothing at the mouth about this charity- much as today we get MPs on the backbenches ( and even in the Public Administration Committee ) fulminating about campaigning charities. The " charities should be seen but not heard" view has also a long and dishonourable history. But whenever there is injustice or wrong , there will be people and communities who will campaign to put it right. So we salute them. And regret that now we are in a recession there will be more casualties to come.

Last night I was singing carols! My younger sister Lucy has a superb singing voice ( just what you need if you are auditing health accounts for Deloitte! ). She is a long standing member of the Royal Choral Society - the country's greatest voluntary choral society. Last night was their annual Carol service at the Royal Albert Hall, so the Bubb clan took a box to cheer on sis. Fabulous carols. And I was in fine voice myself. As many know ( or perhaps not! ) I was the head chorister at my local Parish church in Kent. Very angelic I was too.

Support the Archbishop

2011-12-11T14:06:00.002Z

The Sunday papers report on the letter the Archbishop of York has written to the PM and " fellow taxpayers. It is worth repeating in full.

" At a recent Symposium held here at Bishopthorpe Palace, those who attended agreed that I write an open letter to you and to all my fellow taxpayers.

A time of economic crisis is a moment, not for social and economic retreat, but to build for the future. Her Majesty’s Government has rightly recognised the importance of building the economy in its recently announced National Infrastructure Programme. But we also need to strengthen the bonds that bind our community together, especially at a time when these are under particular strain.

A new social covenant is needed which – on the basis of an honest assessment of the respective roles of the State, voluntary associations and individual citizens – assures the weak and vulnerable of proper protection and gives all of us confidence that we are committed to building the conditions necessary to assist human flourishing.

Two groups – at either end of the age spectrum – deserve our particular attention. These are the young – whose nurturing, education and opportunities for employment are a particular concern, as on our success in securing these depends the quality of our community tomorrow –and older people, who form an increasing proportion of our population. In this letter to you, I want to focus on how we care about and for older people.

A society’s capacity to innovate is not independent of its capacity to understand and respect its own recent past. Older people are important connecting links to a world that still shapes our opportunities but which we can quickly fail to comprehend. The value we are seen to place on their wisdom and the concern we show for their care are important litmus tests of whether we can build a caring as well as a confident society in the 21st century.

In particular, the current adult care funding system in England is widely acknowledged to be unfit for purpose and to need urgent and lasting reform. The report of the Commission on Funding of Care and Support, chaired by Andrew Dilnot (the Dilnot Commission), published earlier this year, has shown us the way forward. Whether or not the political parties can come together to implement the Commission’s recommendations will be an important signal of our confidence and ability to build for the future of our society as well as of our economy, at this time of particular social as well as economic difficulty.

Valuing Older People
Each one of us – at every age in our life – is uniquely and equally precious in the sight of God. But what we each contribute to the richly hued tapestry of humanity will differ at different points of our life.

Medical advances mean that many older people today are able to remain active for longer. What those who are still active need is constructive occupation - not necessarily paid employment (which may come at the expense of the young) – through which they can both contribute from the wisdom of their experience and sustain a sense of being useful to others, and therefore of purpose.

What is most important in the actual experience of growing older is the slow change from an age of action to an age of reflection. While there is no evidence that other cultures care for older people more than we do, African and many non-Western societies more visibly care about older people. They value the wisdom of old age. That valuing is reflected in the Book of Proverbs: “The glory of young men is their strength, the splendour of old men is their grey hair” (Proverbs 20:29).

A failing of today’s society is to set the old over and against the young, in a state of mutual incomprehension. In fact, the old need the young and the young, the old. An integration of the generations is critical to a mutually supportive society.

A truly caring and Christian society is therefore one that sees older people, not as a growing and irrelevant burden, but as a rich treasure store of energy, experience and wisdom to be placed at the service of the young and of its future. Ensuring the conditions under which older people can make the special contribution of which they are capable is key to releasing this treasure. Providing a sustainable long term funding arrangement for the care of older people is a vital part of ensuring those conditions.

Why Reforming the Funding of the Care of Older People is Essential
Some key facts from the Dilnot Report, which will I know already be familiar to you:

a) In 1901 there were 61,000 people in the UK over the age of 85. Now there are almost one and a half million.

b) By 2030, the proportion of the UK population over 65 will exceed 20%.

c) Public expenditure in England on older people’s social care is not keeping up with demand.

d) Care costs for any one individual are uncertain and can, in some circumstances, be very high indeed.

e) The current system of funding individual care in England, which requires people with more than a very modest level of capital assets to use those assets to cover the cost of their care, leaves many in fear and uncertainty as they approach one of the most vulnerable periods of their life.

What is needed is a system for funding care which enables the risk to any one individual to be pooled, through taxation or insurance or, preferably, a mix of them both.

The Dilnot Commission has shown the way forward. It proposes a system under which the individual will be responsible, on a means-tested basis, for the costs of his or her care up to a suggested level of £35,000, after which the State would pick up the cost. The current asset threshold for those in residential care would also be extended, from £23,250 to £100,000.

Such a system will provide sufficient certainty to enable people to plan ahead, and allow the financial services industry to develop insurance and other products to help them with their planning. It will also help the poorest in our society the most.

The Commission estimates the cost to the public purse of its proposals at less than £2 billion. This is a large sum and I fully realise that, especially at a time of severe economic constraint, finding it will not be easy. But it compares with total annual Government expenditure of just under £700 billion. Moreover, if this investment in establishing a fairer system is not made, the cost of caring for older people falling on the NHS and other parts of the national budget is likely to go on increasing.

The Commission also recommends other sensible reforms, including a major information and advice campaign to help people plan ahead; better information and needs assessment for carers; and better integration of health and social care. These will be essential too if we are to strike the right balance between individual responsibility and publicly funded provision.

A Call to Action
We stand at a moment of serious social as well as economic crisis. At such a time, leadership of a particularly high order is called for. You, Prime Minister, and Her Majesty’s Government have shown your wish to provide such leadership, a leadership which is seen to address positively and constructively, in the wider interest, the fundamental issues facing our society. Reforming the system of funding the care of older people is one such issue. Dilnot has shown us the way forward. It is a call to action which our country cannot, must not ignore.

My fellow taxpayers, let us all back this clarion call to act now.

There will be many in our third sector who will support these sentiments , and the call to work with our voluntary sector. As the recession get ever more problematic for communities the Government need to act on this call.

Heading South

2011-12-10T10:21:00.002Z

A glorious evening. As the gale wrecked and howled the trees around Craigendarroch we sat and drank a glorious bottle of champagne and tucked into Balmoral chicken. That's a confection from the Queen's butcher in Ballater ; a chicken breast stiffed with haggis and wrapped in bacon. Just the ticket for watching the semi finals of Master Chef !

It was a lovely end to our Highland idyll. But not without incident. The Hound and I had been on a wind swept walk to an isolated and ruined Church on the Dee. Just after we had passed down the track , a tree was felled by the wind and blown onto the very track we had traversed. But the journey was worth it. An atmospheric graveyard. One of the most interesting graves is that of Fr Lachlan McIntosh , for 64 years until dying in 1846, the faithful pastor of the catholic souls of Balmoral and Ballater. You can find his grave with ease because his gravestone is set facing West. All priests are buried in the opposite direction to the laity whose heads lie East. This is so that at the Final Call the Priest can arise , facing his parishioners and lead the Faithfull to Paradise (don't say my Blog is not educative! ).

It was an evocative spot and a good place to remember the anniversary of the beheading of my ancestor Sir Edward Neville , who met his end this day in 1538 at Tower Hill for refusing to renounce his Faith. I like to think speaking truth to power is a family trait! Though not one leading to beheading thank you very much!

We have now seen the results of the next financial settlement for local councils. More pain for our sector. Tony Travers is warning of serious cuts to children services. What this means to our CEOs is illustrated by the tale of one of our members who has turned to us for help and advice.

The CEO reports that they have lost 60 % of their funding, from LAs and contracts. They have reduced all staff hours, including hers. She
Has negotiated reduced rent and made all cuts they can achieve. They are working closely and collaborating with others as they are committed to retaining the services they provide at the high level of quality they provide because they have such huge commitment to their beneficiaries. The
CEO is constantly pushed to provide " answers" by staff, board, authorities and service users. She says that she turns to ACEVO to provide support for her sanity !

Many more tales like this will be coming.

But now I head back to Yorkshire for the weekend!

Irritating stereotypes!

2011-12-08T17:23:00.004Z

Rosamund's article this week in Third Sector was the cause of much amusement in the office, but I must admit nevertheless to being irked by the stereotyping. So certain she clearly is of her own charmingly romantic notions she totally overlooks the absurdity of her own position as a highly paid lawyer lecturing full-time voluntary-sector workers on the need to discover what it's like in the real world. And as it is blowing a gale up here in the Highlands I thought might give Rosamund some helpful advice as unusually , she had not worked her brief too well before putting pen to her third sector paper.

She suggests , "For example, Sir Stephen Bubb, chief executive of Acevo, promotes larger charities that provide services to the state.”

This is factually wrong. 47 percent of ACEVO’s members lead charities and community organisations with a turnover of less than £1m. We run regular CEO forums in the North which bring together a richly diverse representation of ACEVO's members who provide very local services. These are an incredibly important sounding board for deciding ACEVO's priorities and I consult them regularly. Only this week we brought these members together in Leeds at one of their offices to do just this.
We may well be much louder about the work we do in campaigning for the role of our members in Public Service Delivery but this does not mean by any means that we are here to support only those members who do so. In fact much of the support that ACEVO provides its members in advice and legal help goes to CEOs of those smaller charities. So yes Rosamund , as part of my job I regularly meet with my members in smaller, local as well as larger national organisations.

The charge that we only represent charities that provide services to the state is also factually incorrect. You only need to scan our membership or come to an ACEVO event to see how diverse ACEVOs representation of the sector is; from leaders of campaigning organisations including Action on Smoking and Health and Autism Cymru to chief execs of professional associations like the British Humanists Association, the Open Spaces Society, the Girls School Society and the Association of Directors of Public Health.

We have a wide range of faith organisations including the CEO of the Church of England and the Churches Conservation Trust as members. And the royal colleges , from the surgeons to the GPs to the Obstetricians .

We’ve members who run grant making organisations like the chief executive of Pharmacist Support who I met in Manchester only last week and the Architectural Heritage Fund. Members who work with the environment like Walworth Garden Farm and the London Sustainability exchange and leaders of local infrastructure organisations including CVS’. And this is just a flavour!

Rosamund says ," I'd like to send all the sector leaders off for six months. I'd send Bubb to run a community development project ".

Actually Rosamund I founded a local charity in Lambeth which in its early stages I did indeed run and then became Chair . I continue to support a local community organisation on the Blenhiem estate in Brixton. So no Rosamund , I don't need to spend time with a local group to know what motivates them.

Of course I'm sure the Government would be delighted if I disappeared off the scene for 6 months. But I suspect what the sector needs at the moment is a champion who is prepared to stand up for the sector , to speak out about cuts and to work for a better deal for our sector's leaders. I suspect my talents are best used doing this than burdening a community group with me for 6 months!

Using the third sector to improve our health!

2011-12-08T10:00:00.007Z

Andrew Lansley MP spoke at Guys Hospital yesterday, ( founded as a charity in Southwark in the 16 th century incidentally ) about improving results for patients. It's worth repeating key points from his speech :

"Today, we are making it clear that the NHS is about one ambition and one ambition alone - improving results for patients.

"And that is the change that the NHS Outcomes Framework that we’re publishing today, will bring about. It sets the direction for the whole NHS. Orienting the NHS back towards the people who really matter: its patients.

"And it sets out how we will hold the NHS to account for improving the results that patients get.

"But to realise my ambition -- I must realise the ambitions of the near one million patients that come into contact with the NHS every day. To give patients genuine options over their care
to give patients the tools they need to decide with their doctors the right way forward. To ensure decisions are only taken by doctors, nurses and patients together - genuinely sharing in the decisions made about their care.

"My ambition for patients is, quite simply, this: ‘No decision about me, without me.’

"And let me tell patients - remember that in the NHS - it really is all about you."

His insistence on a policy of , no decision about me , without me is spot on. And to help deliver that we need to commission the third sector more. Not just as service delivers , important though that is , but also because we act as advocates and advisors to citizens and champions of better health and campaigners against abuse.

There was a wake up call from that great charity Cancer yesterday. It's British Journal of Cancer review just published, showing how many cancers are the result of lifestyle and environmental factors - 'the most comprehensive' report of its kind, according to the charity. The report finds that more than 100,000 cancers – equivalent to one third of all those diagnosed in the UK each year – are being caused by smoking, unhealthy diets, alcohol and excess weight. Smoking is far and away the most important lifestyle factor causing 23 per cent of cancers in men and 15.6 per cent in women (nearly one in five cancers). Overall the review shows that 45 per cent of all cancers in men could be prevented – compared with 40 per cent of all cancers in women.

So we know that for cancer and for all long term conditions action to support people in managing conditions and in prevention is key to better health for all. So who is best placed to do this? It's not our hospitals but brilliant charities like Cancer UK and the long term condition charities like Diabetes Uk , Asthma UK and the British Heart Foundation. So we must call for a major expansion of the "any qualified provider" policy. We need GPs to commission the sector to carry out preventative work and to encourage more integration of social care and health.

I know from my own personal experience of Diabetes type 2 that my management of this condition is more important than tablets or trips to the doctor. In fact the support from the NHS for anyone with Diabetes type 2 is minimal. An annual test with a doctor saying you need more exercise is not going to do the trick. But organisations like Diabetes UK ( of which I am a paying and enthusiastic member ) can provide the advice and support and peer networks that will work. More effective for me is the fact that i get shouted at by my staff if I so much as look at a cake indeed I was forced to bin a croissant I had inadvisedly taken before my last Board meeting.

Dog walking not leg chopping is a policy the NHS badly needs to implement. And divert resources away from hospitals to community care and support. So Andrew ; be bolder on shutting hospitals and putting resource into our third sector. Personal budgets for long term conditions so people can buy dogs and gym membership if needed.

So as you can imagine my long walks in the Scottish Highlands are just the ticket. Though I'm afraid the heavy snow and biting winds today did curtail that somewhat! Even the Hound looked cold , despite her hunting tartan.

View from my window:

The Highland Journal, Part 2

2011-12-07T12:19:00.004Z

A three hour trek round the craggy shore of Loch Muick is a treat the weary , care worn CEO needs! The Loch stands at the cap of the Glen Muick under the shadow of the dark Lochnagar. It has been snowing but the sun was out and the skies blue. We lunched at the bothy that was built by Queen Victoria as a retreat after Prince Albert died. Glas all Sheilt is a picturesque spot , as you see:

And clearly the Hound has discovered Scottish roots , see MacSparkles resplendent in her MacSparkle hunting tartan.

My own date back somewhat to my many times great grandfather , the Rev Thomas Somerville , who was evicted from his Anglican Church in Carnwath in 1692 by the wretched Presbies and fled with his family to West Cork , Ireland ( where they rarely have snow it has to be said!)

I'm far too old to climb Lochnagar , famed as it is by the poet Byron ( not Shelley !). He wrote,

" Away,ye gay landscapes,ye gardens of roses !

In you let the minions of luxury rove;

Restore me the rocks,where the snowflake reposes,
Though still they are sacred to freedom and love;
Yet, Caledonia beloved are thy mountains,
Round their white summits though elements war;
Though cataracts foam 'stead of smooth flowing
fountains,
I sigh for the valley of dark Lochnagar. "

A Highland Journal

2011-12-06T16:17:00.005Z

Well, the journey to the Highlands nearly proved eventful as we skidded in the car crossing the Grampians in a snow storm ! But it certainly looked scenic.

We are staying up the Dee from Balmoral and you can well see why Queen Victoria loved this part of Scotland. The views from the mountainsides of the Dee valley are spectacular. World beating vistas I say! And the Hound is having an excellent time. There was a scary " Fenton" moment when she went off chasing deer a la richmond park you tube clip, but a masterful CEO command brought her back ( well, eventually).

The mountain behind us is Craigendarroch and surrounded by ancient oaks and red scotch pine. And covered in a light coating of snow is all most agreeable. Anyway here are the pictures to bring some festive cheer!

Singing in the rain!

2011-12-02T11:48:00.001Z

Amidst the gloom what a joy to listen to Debbie Reynolds singing on the Today programme and reminiscing about the film star greats she knew! She is selling her vast collection of film memorabilia. ( If I had a few quid I'd get a Marilyn Monroe dress !)

Yesterday was ACEVO Board day- discussing the results of a Board appraisal evaluation! A good discussion, especially on how we can improve on new trustee induction. But it meant I had to miss the Learning with Leaders lunch with Lord Freud at Farrers. Apparently a glittering affair. Packed out to listen to David in his top acerbic best. Not afraid to chastise the sector; he said delivery was variable and those that complained loudest might not always be the best. Umm. These Leader lunches are one of ACEVO's hidden treasures. We limit them to a max 25, Chatham house and a proper lunch with wine ( none of this buffet curled sarni stuff!). And we rely on our wonderful corporate partners to host so that they don't drain member resources but do provide conviviality and comradeship.

Today we see the publication of the annual CAF giving statistics. Over a million more give to charity, yet total donations stay flat. So its a mixed picture.

Figures show that over that over the year (2010/11) the UK public gave £11.0 billion to charity. An additional 1.1 million people donated money to charity, however, the average amount given per month fell from £12 in 2009/10 to £11.

Despite more of the public deciding to support charities, in real terms the total value of donations (£11bn) remained the same as the previous year. In real terms, donations are now worth £900 million less than the amount given in 2007/08, the year before the UK entered recession.

People are clearly being generous but the reality is we need giving in real terms to increase if we are to meet the demands of people and communities in a recession.

But now it's the weekend. It' sunny. I'm about to head off for a glorious week in the Highlands. So I'm singng in the sun!

Brand

2011-12-01T09:57:00.002Z

Well, the lunch with JP Morgan turned out to be most agreeable . They have recently published a report on impact investing. It is clear that the mainstream financial sector are beginning to notice the third sector and instead of patronising us , think we may be the sort of social business that they can invest in. It's early days, but the Social Investment Business now has a successful 7 year track record of making loans to sector enterprises. Our story and experience is there to be mined.

I followed that with an early evening drink with Rita Clifton, the branding guru , CEO of Interbrand and the new Chair of BTCV ( Tom Flood their CEO is one of my members ). Formidable yet charming , and a real passion for our sector and how we can do better. Had a really interesting discussion on the ACEVO brand ( watch this space! ).

We are both on exactly the same page on branding. Your brand as an organisation is integral to your success. It is a core role for any CEO. Protecting and enhancing brand is vital- just as anything that damages brand can undermine your task. Yes, this is about logos and design but also much more. How your name conveys what you do. How what you present shows your culture and value. In the past there was a rather silly view that we should not " waste" money on brand. Indeed for some, the worse the presentation the better; it showed that we were " voluntary " sector. Branding was commercial and therefore nasty. Crackers! As ACEVO CEO I've always had an eye on the brand. I want it to convey impact and edge, professionalism and passion. The ACEVO brand is very noticeable. Bold. Says what we do " third sector leaders". But is the term third sector getting less understandable out there? What should we use instead. A brainstorming session in the new year awaits....

She also told me a tale about 2 acronyms for how Government should work: is it DAD or EDD ?

Decide, Announce, Defend ( the usual government way )

Or

Engage, Decide, Deliver

Think forestry. Think planning...I could go on.

And continuing the " competition is not a disease" theme of recent blogs , let me tell you about ACEVO member Di Thomas who is the CEO of the Horder Centre - a charity hospital specialising in orthopaedics.

In Dr Foster’s ‘Hospital Guide’, published this week, they were rated amongst the best performing hospitals for knee operations in the country. The Horder Centre, as a good performing provider, have fewer long stay patients, lower emergency re admissions and lower revision rates. A triumph for the third sector over state provision.

So let's commission them more!

Gloom

2011-11-30T14:20:00.001Z

Watching the news is no fun. I even found myself doing a calculation on my pension last night. And the good news ( for me at least) is George has not stolen another year off me.

But the reality that we are in recession and face at least 5 years more of gloom is depressing. What does not come through is all the economic analysis is the effect of all this on the citizens and communities our sector serves.

And for the sector CEO , already stretched by trying to cope with declining income and growing demand there seems little light at the end of the tunnel.

But there is no point in wallowing in the doom. We have a job to do. What any sector CEO knows is that we are often at our best when facing down difficulty.

And in thinking through new ways to raise funds or to innovate I thought it was unhelpful of Kevin Curley of NAVCA , in his last conference speech( as reported in Third Sector ) , to criticise relationships that have developed between the third and private sectors. He suggested some partnerships with companies appeared to be at odds with their purpose in tackling disadvantage ie the work programme.

This sub prime marxism is really not a helpful contribution to our future. Clearly we must ensure that whatever partnerships we pursue, whether with the public or private sectors meet our objectives. We must have tight contracts and CEOs need to be vigilant a out their terms and monitor outcomes. But the idea we should not engage with companies simply because they make and maximise profits is nonsensical. We live in a capitalist system. We engage with it on behalf of our beneficiaries.

If we can make partnerships that help create jobs, as many of our members are doing in the Work Programme then that is furthering our mission. What does not help our beneficiaries is abstract theological or ideological debate on engaging with companies because they wickedly maximise profit.

He asks should we be " helping G4S and A4E to maximise their profits?".
This is a nonsensical question. No third sector organisation in their supply chains agreed to that other than to help hard to reach people back into work.

The real questions are;

* does the deal help people into work we couldn't help otherwise?
*does it further our overall mission
* are the terms and payments such that we do not make a loss ourselves and we are not being exploited?

Somehow I don't think ACEVO members out there wake up in the morning thinking how they can help a company make a profit. But they do desperately want to help people back into work. No one has been more upfront in criticism of the WP than ACEVO. See Blog yesterday. But let's ensure our critique is right, not ideology.

In wider terms I think developing partnership working with others in public or private sector organisations is a good way forward for a CEO thinking how to survive the recession.

Anyway that's enough rant. I'm off for a lunch with J P Morgan wearing my SIB hat. We have to engage the finance sector in the social finance market. Until making loans to our sector becomes part of mainstream banking we can't advance the way in which we access capital as organisations.

I may detest the way they pay themselves bonuses ( as I said to Stephen Hester of RBS last week ) but not engaging in constructive dialogue is not sensible. So sorry Kevin, I'm supping with the devil. But that's what a CEO sometimes has to do to advance our cause.

George speaks

2011-11-29T14:29:00.001Z

All attention in ACEVO Towers is on George's statement. We prepare a note to all our members on the key aspects that affect our sector.

I'd had a heads up on one important piece of the announcements; VAT on shared services. A somewhat esoteric subject I admit but the operation of the VAT regime in doubling charging on shared services make cooperative ventures between charities very problematic. Its an issue ACEVO has been on about to the Treasury for years.

As always details need to be sorted HMRC have a habit of making these things to complicated! However I have to credit George with doing a number of small but really useful changes that have benefited the sector, such as on the gift aid regime and giving.

One interesting example of how a cooperative approach can work is provided by one of my ACEVO board members Virginia Beardshaw. She runs the impressive national charity I CAN.

The Department for Education has recently announced that I CAN is leading a strong consortium of third sector organisations to deliver an Early language development programme in Children’s Centres. Partner organisations are Action for Children, the Children’s Society, the Pre School Learning Alliance, Elklan CIC, and the Office of Public Management. .
This £1.3 million funded programme will support the foundations of good communication development in young children who are most at risk of language delay. It will give early years practitioners and parents the skills and knowledge they need to support speech, language and communication development in young children. The programme will particularly target 0-2 year olds and their families in England’s most disadvantaged areas.

Third sector organisations have campaigned long and hard for early intervention in speech and language and so it is gratifying that the Department is backing a consortium of ACEVO members to take early language development work forward.

Work Programme...

2011-11-29T10:14:00.006Z

A rather late start to the day ( a jolly birthday party at my brother's yesterday !) speaking at the conference of ERSA- the employment related services association on the Work Programme.

I was in a gloomy mood. It reflects the views we are getting from ACEVO members in this area. We recently reviewed how its going. The survey showed;

- only 8% of respondents thought that the Work Programme would meet its minimum performance levels;
- only 9% thought that the differentiated payment system was sufficient to help the hardest to reach.
- furthermore, third sector still bearing significant risk

- some evidence of sector still being used as bid candy as well as only 18% of respondents thinking that their prime had softened their payment profile (ie made it less outcome based - bit more money upfront or along the process rather than just the end)

Experience shows a huge variance in referrals of job seekers.

For the Work Programme to work it must reach very hard to help groups like the homeless. So it is particularly important for the very specialist providers who are having a very hard time and receiving (seemingly across the board) negligible numbers of clients.

I said that Government needs to;
* make the whole system more transparent (DWP are not allowing performance data to be published until about this time next year) to enable the spread of best practice, better continuity planning and more effective competition

* Ensure that DWP monitor how the work programme is/isn't working for the hardest to help (e.g. refugees, homeless etc)

* Ensure that Merlin and the arbitration board are in place asap and DWP must have a communications drive around what these mean and (more importantly) what they don't mean ie if you have signed up to a crap contract, it won't protect you from your crap contract

Against a background of the coming recession and massive unemployment times do not look good. And this is all the more reason to be worried about how welfare benefit reforms are rolling out.

And such a shame that politicians can't admit to mistakes. If we still had the Future Jobs Fund there would have been a strong vehicle for creating jobs for the young unemployed. Indeed not only does the Government not admit to a mistake it continues to make tendentious claims about the scheme. Only on Friday did I hear Clegg claiming that the FJF had not created permanent jobs. Yet last week Allison Ogden- Newton pointed out that of the scheme Social Enterprise London had taken 500 young people. 74% of them had gone into long term jobs. And David Orr, the CEO of the Housing Federation said that many of the housing associations that had taken part in the scheme had also created long term jobs for youth.

What a shame that the Government cancelled the independent evaluation of the scheme that had started and then they would have had that real evidence. In the meantime perhaps the slurs on the many third sector bodies that took part in FJF could cease.

A rather arsy questioner after our session had ended got the rough end of my tongue! He was suggesting we shouldn't be promoting one sector over another! As I said that's the whole point of my job and in any case it is only the third sector that can actually reach the hardest to help communities. So if the third sector thinks the Work Programme isn't working properly then it probably isn't.

Fortunately ACEVO has the great Lord Freud speaking at one of our exclusive learning with leaders lunches on Thursday. We shall have a frank interchange. We can't afford to get this wrong. We all want the Work programme to be successful and we are here to make that happen. The architecture of the scheme is good, but operationally there are clear problems.

And after a week where I was out every evening it was a joy to spend a night at home. The Archers and Corrie; goodness I must be getting old!

Health and Leaders

2011-11-25T09:05:00.011Z

So I started the day with the Deputy PM and ended it with the PM! As I blogged yesterday Clegg was talking about Scarman. Cameron was at the NHS chief executives annual conference to round off the day after Andrew Lansley had spoken. I had been invited to represent the sector in a sea of NHS CEOs!

Lansley spoke about the importance of the "no decision about me, without me" policy. He said that we should welcome the extension of choice and competition because we need to put patients first. He is right. The NHS is too dominated by a professional approach that assumes we, the "patient" are the passive recipient of health care, rather than a citizen entitled to be advised and consulted on our care. And I know from a brilliant seminar laid on by the Health Foundation (CEO Stephen Thornton is an acevo member) in the recent listening exercise that enabling people to take part in decisions on their care improves health outcomes.

But perhaps the most interesting contribution came from David Nicholson, the NHS chief executive. He had earlier greeted me warmly "competition is not a disease" he declaimed!

He said that he had felt that it was his duty to be the best leader he could be and to pay attention to his own professional development. It was a good point and well made. He talked about a 360 degree appraisal where staff had been asked to comment in a sentence on their overall view of him. "we love you, you evil bastard" was the response!

It's worth reflecting on this; I suspect many third sector CEOs have felt that as times get harder they should set an example and not go on a development course or event. Not go to a conference. This is not a good approach, and it's important to consider how we carry on development that may be less expensive. Not all development is an expensive leadership course.

David Cameron made an appearance at the end of the conference and set out his 3 priorities for the service. Interesting to ask when is a target not a target? When it is a priority! He said waiting times and lists must be brought down. He is right. It should be a target to reduce it!

Think it is a pity he can't drive the choice and competition agenda with more strength. The problem is that the Lib Dems vetoed stronger action. But they should reflect on recent evidence on the value of competition.

David Nicholson

Andrew Lansley

David Cameron

Independent Sector Treatment Centres (or ISTCs, set up under Labour, have been accused of being dangerous and of “cherry-picking” (siphoning off the easiest cases while dumping the complex cases back into the NHS). A serious academic study published in the British Medical Journal blows this out of the water. Compared with patients treated in NHS centres, it finds, patients who had surgery in ISTCs had “better outcomes in terms of severity of symptoms, health related quality of life, and post operative complications”. It found no evidence of "cherry-picking”.

This is a big deal for anyone who prefers evidence to ideology. In 2002, the Department of Health started the procurement of ISTCs in England to reduce waiting times, give patients more choice, and encourage innovative models for the provision of non-emergency services. It was a sensible programme. There are now about 30 ISTCs operating, most of them providing common elective procedures, such as hip and knee replacements, cataract surgery, hernia repair, and so on. Only 2 per cent of elective activity is carried out in the independent sector, a tiny proportion by international standards. The scare stories put out by the various vested interests in the service should take note.

I rounded off the evening by giving a Lecture at the Diawa Japanese Foundation. An event chaired by my old friend Baroness Angela Smith. ACEVO has strong links with what is called the NPO sector in Japan. We helped in the formation of JACEVO, the Japanese third sector leaders body. It was a great evening. I spoke with a member of the lower House of Councillors in Japan, Akiko Kamei . She is a leading member of the People's New Party. We were debating the role of charities and the state in the UK and Japan. I spoke of the dual role of our sector on campaigning and delivering services to our beneficiaries.

Back to Scarman

2011-11-24T11:08:00.002Z

Back to Scarman

A short trip down Brixton Hill to the Loughborough Estate and the community centre to a Lecture marking the 30th anniversary of the Brixton riots and the subsequent Scarman enquiry.

Nick Clegg gave the Lecture. A strong showing from both the local community sector and from third sector organisations nationally. Andrew Barnett (Director of the UK Branch of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation) was there and spoke. Julian Corner from a newly merged grant foundation Lankelly Chase, Nick Wilkie of London Youth ( soon to step down to be a full time dad')and Julia Unwin of Joseph Rowntree. ACEVO members all !

Darra Singh was also there. His riots report is due out next week. That will be fascinating.

Having lived in Brixton for nearly 4 decades I saw the riots and was involved in the rebuilding of the community that went on after those riots when I was elected to Lambeth Council in 1982. A fascinating 4 years!

One key lesson for me was how the Council needed to work with black community organisations. The Council provided White led public services for largely White communities. So the large black community in Brixton developed their own organisations and developed their own services. The Council realised that regeneration depended on working through community organisations , not against them.

As we confront the challenges of recession let's not forget the role the third sector must continue to play in community cohesion and in delivering citizen focused public services.

An interesting lecture from Clegg. But i found it extraordinary he did not talk properly about youth unemployment. The link between the events of 1981 and 2011 is that we have now returned to the drastic levels of youth unemployment we saw then. Over a million young unemployed. A quarter of them for over a year. So it was odd he talked about the wage disparities suffered by many because of race and gender and failed to talk about what the Government is doing about it. He said that he was going to do this tomorrow! We shall see!

Let's mark the 30th anniversary of the Scarman report by getting to grips with youth unemployment and to put a stop to disastrous cuts to community amd third sector organisations like those we had today in the Loughborough estate .

Europe gets behind social investment

2011-11-23T10:11:00.004Z

It's not often you find yourself sat next to the President of the European Commission- Jose Barroso! I was at a major conference on social enterprise and social innovation at the Commission on Friday. They were announcing their new policy to support civil society across Europe together with a new social investment fund.

Euclid and the SIB were closely involved in the lead up to the announcement and the planning of the day( it was chaired by Paul Adamson who sits on the Euclid board). The UK leads the field in the development of social finance and Ronnie Cohen made an impressive and impassioned speech about the power of loans to transform our sector.

A lot of the top brass were there. 2 commissioners; Barnier ( internal markets) came over for a chat. He said " I know you" which made me wonder if MI5 had passed on the file!

The European Invesment bank is also launching a new social finance fund of funds. At long last Europe seems to have got behind the growth of the third sector. Whilst the actual policy document is confused and opaque in a way only the EU Commission can manage its a strong start and a firm indication that the EU sees this as a major plank to develop.

Nick Hurd spoke on behalf of the UK government. He was almost Churchillian (obviously been on a FCO briefing!).And, as if you can't get enough of Nick, I was making a speech with him on monday morning at the launch of the Transition Institute ( I'm a board member). This is an exciting new initiative , thought up by the dynamic Allison Ogden-Newton of Social Enterprise London.

Then in the afternoon I was speaking with Nick on Europe and the sector at an event organised in Europe house in Smith Square. This was part of a programme that the strategic partners lead for the Cabinet Office. ACEVO and Euclid lead on Europe for the strategic partners but we work closeley with ncvo and so this was a 4 way collaboration between Euclid and ACEVO, ncvo and the OCS. A good event. Over 100 delegates talking about funding and the need for the EU to reform the processes of the structural funds.

And talking of collaboration my chair and I then went off for dinner with the Chair+CEO of ncvo. Martyn Lewis was talking about our journey together at our ACEVO conference last week. And no journey can begin without sustenance; so joint dining will lead to more joint work!

And yet more dining last night; the Guardian Public Sector awards. A glittering occassion when public services are celebrated and awarded. It was great that the overall winner of the awards was a third sector organisation! I was there to give the award for volunteering. It went to Hull Fire and Civil Defence Authority. A splendid body of folk who have really ramped up volunteering and given professional support to it. Allison Ogden-Newton texted me to say "was this the first time Bubb had been up on stage, in the spotlight before hundreds of folk and not said a word?"

And , thank goodness, unlike the many third sector award ceremonies this one ended at the civilised hour of 10.30 so a quick taxi back to Brixton meant I got my usual beauty sleep and refreshed for battles ahead.

Commissioner Barnier

Hester, Caan, and our Annual conference ....

2011-11-18T20:56:00.009Z

A rather stellar line up at our Annual conference today. Leadership in troubling times...

Last night our annual dinner at the Royal College of Physicians (ACEVO member is the CEO Martin Else ) was relaxed and fun , despite the disgust we all felt at the news on youth unemployment. Guy Laurence , the CEO of Vodaphone gave an impassioned speech on text giving which Vodaphone have championed and invested in.

The Conference proved a mega success. An interestoing and reflective contribution from Hester. A charming and persuasive speech from James Caan, the dragons den man, a brilliant talk on governance and tips for chairs and CEOs from Bill Ryan. And a panel of Chairs and CEOs reflecting on their experiences.

I began by warning we now need to plan for recession. . Communities are hurting. With youth Unemployment rising to over a million our job as sector Leaders becomes ever more crucial. As I said " If young Britain is not working, Britain is not working ".

Professional Pay for CEOs, dinner and Andrew

2011-11-16T19:00:00.001Z

Tonight we launch our annual Pay Survey. David Fielding from attenti will be outlining the key points at the Royal College of Pysicians ( The CEO Martin Else, is an ACEVO member) where we have our annual ACEVO dinner.

Don't you get irritated by those who think that CEOs shouldn't be paid at all or take a low salary?

The topline findings from this year's survey show that

On pay

No sector has been immune to the major economic pressures we face as a country. It’s inevitable therefore that this will have an impact on the pay of both leaders and the workforce in our sector.

Whilst we’ve been making the case for professional pay for professional jobs for decades, it’s clear that the sector has made a sound decision in taking a responsible approach to setting the pay of its leaders in times of strain. Like last year the average CEO salary in the sector has risen by less than inflation (this year by 3.5% TO £60K).

Having said this, we cannot allow difficult times to set us on a backward path. We need strong and experienced leaders more than ever to steer organisations through the significant challenges ahead.

It’s clear that as organisations look to make major changes in how they operate, in many cases looking to merge, restructure or make redundancies, leaders are going to need be clear and more confident than ever in communicating their value, impact and worth as CEO.

On cuts

The findings of this year’s survey show the alarming reality the impact of cuts are having on the sector. We knew 12 months ago that things were going to be tough, but we couldn’t be sure how the cuts would fall, and whether or not our sector would be less or worse hit than others.

With 70% of ACEVO members which receive public funding experiencing a cut. Worth on average 23% of that funding, the figures clearly support the noise that’s been out there for a while; that in places cuts are falling disproportionately hard on the sector.

The impact is already taking its toll on services, organisations and ultimately the beneficiaries which the sector is there to serve with 32% reducing service levels and 41% of organisations having to make redundancies this year.

On diversity

Despite the scale of challenges the sector faces. We cannot afford to overlook ongoing issues which the sector needs to address. I’ve long been stressing the importance of diversity both at the top and throughout all levels of third sector organisations.

It’s promising to see that the number of female trustees has risen significantly this year, from 17% to 40% and that women actually outnumber their male counterparts at senior management level with 3 out of 5 positions being occupied by women.

However the gender pay gap remains of real concern. The gap has risen again this year from 10-16% with women in some positions being paid as 30% less than their male counterparts.

Ethnicity remains an issue too. With 96% of chairs coming from a white background, and 94% of CEOs.

On leadership

It’s not all doom and gloom, there is much to celebrate in the findings on our leadership this year. Despite 58% of CEOs facing an increased workload sector leaders remain passionate to the cause and 85% of CEOs are optimistic about the future of their organisation.

Visit the ACEVO homepage from tomorrow to get the findings in full.

This morning I was at the NHS Future Forum. I challenged Andrew Lansley on the " right to challenge", a key recommendation from the Choice and Competition report. I suggested you can hardly promote integrated health and social care services where citizens have a Right to Challenge the Council but denied that right for the NHS.

And now I need to get home and change for our dinner. We have the CEO of Vodaphone as our guest speaker and there are the usual clutch of VIPs to wine and dine on behalf of the members. And as I have to make a speech tomorrow introducing the CEO of RBS at our annual conference I shall not be drinking!

Yes, we are good!

2011-11-16T12:39:00.002Z

An interview with the FT , another media story , a panel appearance at the London Health Conference , not to mention a 2 hour Directors Group to grapple with budgets! Exhausted by the time I eventually get home.

And , to be honest, it was a late night. Our joint dinner with NCVO board members turned into a triumph. Shock. Horror, we got on! Both trustee boards are working for the good of the sector. Martyn Lewis , the NCVO chair and my Chair , Lesley Anne spoke about the " journey" we are on as organisations. We are moving in to the NCVO refurbished office in it's new reincarnation as a sector hub. Who knows where that will lead. Possibly not joint walking holidays with me and Stuart though wine swapping may be on the cards. Seriously though we swap views on sector developments. I regret no photos of the historic event. But perhaps CCLA will be applying for a blue plaque.

I send a note to my members saying " you told us you wanted us to work more closely with NCVO. We heard. So we are". On Thursday the NCVO chair speaks at our annual conference. Both firsts. But not lasts.

I also say it is time we put an end to silly debates about small v large , national v local. This internal sizist nonsense is of no interest to beneficiaries or people generally .

Rob Owen , who is the CEO of the St Giles Trust which works with offenders emailed me yesterday to tell me about a quality mark they have achieved. I want to reproduce his email because it illustrates the power of our third sector. And as a reminder to Francis Maude and Oliver Letwin they need to pull their fingers out and increase commissioning of the sector becuase we are good!

"We have recently undergone a review of our MATRIX standards (an external quality mark for Information, Advice and Guidance services) which, to put it lightly, was extremely positive. Coming from an external agency it really gets what we are about and applauds aspects of our work as not just best practise but “best in class”! I have attached a copy for your information which we hope will support and demonstrate our ability to make the difference so currently needed in breaking the cycle."

My personal favourite bit from the report comes in the introduction. Here it is

St Giles have as their motto ‘Breaking the cycle of offending’ and they aim to achieve this by

‘putting offenders at the centre of the solution’. These are not just words that sound good or describe an ideal; they really represent the ethos that is passionately running through the organisation and personnel interviewed during the assessment. The results of such passion and energy is clearly seen in the high rate of successful outcomes, the dedication to maintaining a ‘real’ quality framework that constantly focuses on improving the ability of staff, improving the organisation and giving people a second chance in life with a view to
ultimately improving the ‘whole’ wherever it touches.

Our success, I strongly feel happens because we can believe we are part of something exciting. Big and bold. But it’s even more impactful when external audiences also realise our potential to do things substantially different.".

Rob is a star. A former banker and arch capitalist. He saw the light amd now runs a highly professional and hugely successful organisation. An active ACEVO member. As you would expect.

An interesting week!

2011-11-14T13:52:00.002Z

Ahead. We start with the ACEVO annual Board Strategy away day; I have a good board- constructive and always wanting to build and promote ACEVO as the voice of CEOs.

And tonight we have a dinner between the ncvo and ACEVO Boards. A first. But not the last ! We have got CCLA , the financial advisors and investors for our sector to host what will be an interesting event. I shall bring you the gossip tomorrow!

Then Wednesday is the ACEVO annual dinner( at the Royal College of Physicians- a member)and the ACEVO National conference on Thursday. A magnificent range of speakers. A number of members have said to me ; why have you asked the CEO of RBS , Stephen Hester. I think we need a constructive dialogue with our financial sector but I also believe we should use this opportunity to raise issues like one of my favourites; the gross irresponsibility of bonuses.

We will be putting questions from members to him. So let me know what you want us to ask him.

And it was good to have a relaxing weekend to prepare for the week. What glorious weather we had . Charlbury was in fine fettle for Remembrance Sunday. See the photos here.

In the Pulpit!

2011-11-10T10:23:00.004Z

Yes, I was in the Pulpit last night. Chelmsford Cathedral to be precise. I was delivering the Keene Lecture on " Faith in the Community". I argued there were two strands to faith working in communities; the role of the " Samaritan " in doing charitable works and in giving , and the role of the activist in pursuing social justice . You can read it here.

And pleasant to have dinner beforehand with the Dean. It turns out he is one of the Trustees of the Churches Conservation Trust , Crispin Truman the CEO, is a long standing ACEVO member.

We have a a number of faith based members in organisations like The Church Urban Fund, Stewardship and the CEO of the Church of England amongst others. And our special interest group for faith based organisations chaired by former ACEVO Board Member Fran Beckett, is having a relaunch as of January 2012. More on this soon.

It was rather fun being up there in the pulpit surveying the contrarily below. First time but hopefully not the last. I always rather fancied being a Bishop.

Big Society Bank, Eric books and pensions

2011-11-09T18:00:00.002Z

An historic day perhaps? The first meeting of the Board of the Big Society Trust, chaired by the legendary Ronnie Cohen on Tuesday. This is a crucial body to drive forward new approaches to capital and asset aquisition by the sector. I'm proud to be there.

Baroness Pitkeithly kindly gave me a lift back to Westminster but hte journey ended in pain when I shut my thumb in the car door! Throbbing I made my way to a meeting of the Ministerial Recovery Group, looking at the aftermath of the riots. But my frind Eric Pickles does not hang around; he finished it in half an hour and I arrived as it finished. Hopeless I know! But then I was in the vicinity for a meet with the new third sector opposition Minister , Gareth Thomas MP. A lively , intelligent and committed guy- destined for higher things if Ed ever makes it!

Any membership body needs to stay in touch with what members need. We have recently done a members' survey. I know these things can be irritating- I get them for all sorts of things- so we offered a prize for completion.

Members that completed the member’s survey were entered into a draw to win a free place at the ACEVO annual conference and dinner. CEO Dean Casswell of Bag Books was drawn as the winner. Bag Books is a great cause. It’s the only organisation in the world that publishes multi-sensory books for people with learning disabilities. The organisation reaches around 18,000 people in the UK with profound and severe learning or those severely affected by Autistic Spectrum Disorder every year. I am looking forward to meeting Dean at the conference. It shows the value of a dynamic national organisation. Its good that ACEVO can promote such national bodies.

And finally pensions! It's been somewhat on my mind as I get older. The sector is hugely disadvantaged by not being able to offer the sort of pensions the public sector provide. I can understand the anger of public servants at the demands they pay more at a time when they face pay freezes and rising living standards. But the reality of many third sector staff retiring on a stakeholder pension is that current conditions are bleak for them acquiring an annuity that will provide any decent pensions for the future. And pensions pose a real issue in TUPE transfers.

There are also important pension reforms for us on the way. Pensions are boring, yes, but the pensions reform, coming into play next year, is really important for members and our sector to know about.

Guy Fawkes

2011-11-07T11:28:00.004Z

Well, they know how to do a good Guy Fawkes bonfire in Charlbury- as you can see.

And a rather pleasant birthday lunch with my 3 nephews- all conveniently up the road at Oxford ( Hertford, Keble and Brasenose (to be precise). The afternoon was comatose in front of the fire!

And it seems our ACEVO CEO support service continues to break records. Since I blogged on Thursday Jenny has had 2 further calls from CEO's in crisis. This is not going to get any better I suspect. I don't feel any sympathy for the " exhausted " Boss of Lloyds ( especially as the tales of how he drove his staff are legendary ). He was paid mega millions after all. But the job at the top can often be stressful and traumatic. It's why we argue in ACEVO that " it's lonely at the top" and why we devote time and resource to support for our CEO members. We are their " union", ensuring they can lead their organisations effectively.

The Seasons...

2011-11-04T15:39:00.005Z

It's " the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness" ( that's Shelley to non poetic blog readers ) ! And Charlbury is looking magnificent as you can see from the photos taken on my walk across to my favourite pub, The Plough in Finstock.

It's my birthday tomorrow; you can tell I'm a Guy Fawkes lad can't you ! So it's a long weekend and lunch in Kingham in the pub once graced ( disgraced perhaps more accurate) by the Chipping Norton set. I've had lots of these and not saying what my glorious age now is but I'm clearly still as youthful as ever.

The only bad spot of the day was when I went into the Charlbury Co-op. There, slap bang near the entrance was a brazen Health Lottery stand. Prominent. Unlike the minimally advertised National Lottery. An angry letter is off to the Mid Counties co - op CEO to demand change! Remember. The health Lottery gives only 20p to charity. NL gives 28p. So if the health lottery takes custom away , charities will lose out. That is not on.

Bridge over troubled waters!

2011-11-04T09:51:00.002Z

And ACEVO is that bridge! One of the most crucial services we provide is support, advice and comradeship to individual CEOs. It's core to our mission, and although less well publicised than our policy and advocacy work it can make a real difference.

It is a sign of the times that ACEVO's CEO in crisis service is experiencing a sharp rise. Yesterday, for example , Jenny Berry, our ACEVO North Director who handles this service had to deal with 4 CEOs facing major crisis. One running an organisation that is going out of business, and the others where there is appalling governance that is incapable of coping with the challenge of cuts, and where trustees are not working effectively with their CEOs ( indeed abusing them).

This is not going to get better. I met with a group of my ACEVO members in Manchester on Wednesday at the great Lesbian and Gay Foundation there ( led by the dynamic and experienced CEO Paul Martin ).

One member was facing the challenge of a reduction in her funding of 45%. This scale of cut is not just a disaster for the organisation, but more importantly will impact directly on the services provided for vulnerable people.

So ACEVO has a dual task; fighting irresponsible cuts in services and gearing up our support and advice services for individual CEOs. Organisations can be very bad at supporting their Leaders. Leaders themselves can be very bad at handling stress and looking after their health and development needs. ACEVO has a job to do in promoting strong leadership. That is why our CEO in crisis service is so vital.

I was delighted to be asked to speak at the very first national convention of Locality in Manchester . The merger of the DTA and BASSAC was a great example to the sector of 2 organisations coming together in troubled waters to better support the needs of community enterprise.

Locality is led by Steve Wyler, who I'm proud to say is an ACEVO member. Steve has a progressive and strong leadership style. He has refused to get involved in the silly and destructive debates about small is best or local always better than national. Yet he is a passionate advocate of local communities. As I said in my speech at the Convention what the sector needs at the moment is unity around essentials. We should have no truck with those who want to pursue internal theological discussions whilst ignoring the needs of our beneficiaries. So ACEVO will be woking to promote our broad and rich sector; communities of interest and of place, large and small, national and local. And we want to promote more partnership and alliances that build on the strengths of all.

I have got to know Steve well through his role as a trustee on the Adventure Capital Fund ( part of the SIB ). He has long been a key advocate for the power of loans to promote community enterprise. ACF is a brilliant example of how community organisations can have huge ambition and aim to grow. We have been able to develop strong enterprise at local level through loans. We want more of this!

But, as I said in my speech. If we want to speak truth to power then we need a sector that is fit for purpose and united on mission.

Home ...with hassle

2011-10-31T11:40:00.006Z

Well there I was. Checked in. Sitting in airport watching as HM boarded her plane and left. Mildly watching TV screens and thinking must be sod all happening if they doing an inteview with Quantas CEO. Then I notice " News Alert". All Quantas fleet grounded. But surely not planes already being loaded me thinks.

Anyway , nearly 3 days later I arrive in a cold Heathrow at 5am and 2 night time flights. By now your heart is bleeding I'm sure!

Still I had an unexpected day in Singapore. Lunch at that fantastic Raffles Hotel and the Sung Evensong at St Andrew's Cathedral.

The last night in Perth was most agreeable. A wash up and party at the Cottesloe Surf Club. Watching the sunset. Seeing the Southern Cross emerge. But not many surfers owing to the fact one was eaten a couple of weeks back by a shark.

Get back to the great announcements about the SCOPE £20m bond. Brilliant. What leadership by Richard Hawkes. Glad to have him as one of my members. This is exactly the kind of dynamic leadership this sector needs in difficult times. New sources of loan finance and investment opportunities will be essential as the cuts bite deeper. An example of a sector body that is both aggressive in fighting for its beneficiaries and innovative in finding new ways to support them when government is getting increasingly dismissive of the plight of the diabled.

Just how important this is was demonstrated by the report from ncvo on the aftermath of the riots. The next year is gearing up to be even more difficult for our sector. It is going to test our relations with Government.

Queen Opens CHOGM

2011-10-28T14:41:00.010+01:00

Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia (centre)

Me, BYC in UK and Lord Howell, FCO minister

The President of Bangladesh

President Zuma of RSA

The President of Kenya

Foreign Ministers and human rights !

2011-10-27T15:29:00.006+01:00

So today the civil society committee got to meet with the Commonwealth Foreign Ministers. I get the feeling this was not the highlight of their visit, though there were some very effective interventions ( not least yours truly- or so William Hague said to me afterwards ).

At a previous Foreign Ministers meeting yesterday a range of countries said they were opposed to the Eminent Persons Group report on a human rights Commissioner . One said their country's constitution did not allow them to support it ! Interesting constitution that doesn't support human rights eh? Another country- one with a historic struggle against racism - said the report was " too political". I'm hoping Australia, which is chairing , will pursue this. They seem to be working towards a Charter but countries are lining up against a Commissioner.

My intervention was to say that while we need a new Charter for the Commonwealth this could be merely rhetoric when what we need is the reality of protection for human rights which is why we must have a Commissioner for democracy and HR.

Kevin Rudd, chairing the meeting as the Australian Foreign Minister, awarded me the prize for what he described as the most potent and brief contribution of the meeting! It does make the point that in meetings like this less is certainly more! And I wanted this to be punchy.

William Hague took up my point and made clear that the UK was backing this recommendation. He said that the Foreign Ministers would certainly note the support of civil society for a Charter and a Commissioner. He also said that the secret report should have been published so that civil society as well as others could have discussed and come back with views for them to consider. He got a very loud clap from the assembled civil society delegates!

A little later Hague spoke at a plenary for the Peoples Forum. He said in a world of networks; the commonwealth is a superb example ; and civil society is core to those networks. He was also firm in support of the proposals to decriminalise homosexuality.

But , he said that in recent years the Commonwealth has not spoken out when human rights and democracy have been challenged. The Commonwealth should want to be seen as a standard bearer on human rights. The UK favours a Charter and a Commissioner to support that, to help refocus attention to democratic values.

A good meeting. Will they be bold? I doubt it , but at least I was able to make an intervention which I hope may have pushed the issue further.

But enough of that. At least I also got a chance to see a bit of the Commonwealth Festival, just by the WA Art Gallery. Sitting in the sun for 10 minutes listening to a band; now that's the life. And the Art Gallery has a great collection; splendid aboriginal art and good representations from 20th century English artists like Stanley Spencer and David Hockney.

And some more Aboriginal art. The first shows the legendary leader Yagan

And finally a painting showing the founding of the Swan Bay Colony. Captain James Stirling watches as Mrs Dance makes the first cut in the tree to be felled to mark the inauguration of Perth ( named after the city of the Colonial Secretary's birth ) in 1829.

Stress and Bells

2011-10-27T09:27:00.007+01:00

A bookmark I picked up from the WA Association for Mental Health has 10 tips to stress less. In my role as a CEO mentor I bring them to you;

1. Organise your day,

2. Eat healthily,

3. Go for a walk,

4. Have an early night,

5. See the funny side of life,

6. Catch up with friends,

7. Learn something new,

8. Ask for help,

9. Take time out,

10. Reach out and help others.

I'm afraid last night I somewhat broke 4 and No 2 was thrown to the wind at the Royal Commonwealth reception with all that wonderful WA sparkling wine and fat full canapes. But the RCS seminar on " silence is not an option" with Plan International (ACEVO members both! ) was excellent.

The aim was to draw attention to the need to take action on discrimination against women, for example on early forced marriages.

But Baroness Kathy Ashton pointed out that this is not just a problem for young girls- many men have been forced into marriage,including many gay men.

There was a bit of fun when we had Michael Kirby, one of the members of the EPG, talking of the " high measure of secrecy" around the report , but he said they wanted the report to be published before CHOGM so civil society organisations could comment.

This caused a bit of tension as one of he speakers was the Foreign Minister of Trinidad and Tobago. His PM , as the host chair for last CHOGM had been responsible for saying the report should not be published. He tried to defend this by saying it was a matter " of protocol". This did not go down well with an audience of civil society leaders.

Baroness Kathy Ashton

Baroness Ashton and Baroness Prashar next to the CEO of Plan International

The freemantle shipwrecks museum

The bell of the Highland Forest

Earlier I had heard a rather interesting reflection on leadership from some speakers from Africa on education. We were told that one of the top 20 best performing schools in RSA is a primary school , near the borders with Mozambique. It has no water ( the teachers bring that in ) and so no proper toilet facilities. Yet the school is so clean. And they lack many resources. But what makes the difference is the quality of the school leadership. Another speaker said he had seen exactly the same in Tanzania. An interesting thought for us when we blame the lack of resources in inner city schools for poor results!

However I did observe one rule ;no 9. I popped into the Freemantle shipwreck museum. There is a most interesting exhibit; the ship bell from the " Highland Forest ". This was a ship that the great novelist Joseph Conrad had sailed in 1889 as First Mate. It stated in Gravesend, via Rotterdam to Java. It was his first voyage and one not without difficulty. He arrived in Java sick. Later the ship sank off the WA coast and the various remains have been recovered by divers !

The sector on the world stage

2011-10-26T10:35:00.003+01:00

Civil society starts early here. Our plenary and workshops got off to a rousing start at 8.30 with a speech from the Secretary General of CIVICUS ( the world alliance for citizen participation ) Ingrid Srinath, who spoke on the global context of civil society. And a great contribution it was!

She spoke about the downside of 9/11 and the worldwide restrictions on civil liberties and restrictions on freedom of information that have been the consequence.

There has been a subversion of democracy, and worse; a "take over of mindsets" with the reduction of people to economic units.

She said we had fallen into what Gandhi had so eloquently described as the 7 social sins. These are;

# Wealth without work

# Pleasure without concience

# Knowledge without character

# Commerce without morality

# Science without humanity

# Worship without sacrifice

# Politics without principles

Governments have deemed banks too big to fail but citizens too small to matter. The financial crisis has exacerbated the transfer of power and has allowed abuses of power. They have surveyed the state of civil liberties in 90 countries around the world and found most had recently passed legislation that had laws that constricted rights.

There is also a growing criminalisation of protest. So Civil Society is disheartened and faces growing threats.

Yet on the up side , the "arab spring" has shown the power of citizen movements. These peoples movements are challenging established order. Our power as advocates and innovators remains as strong as ever.

The survey also looked at trends in civil society. They found a volatile environment, unsatisfactory government- sector relations and where economic situation and funding has got worse. They also suggested that most success in civil society comes through networks but there is not enough of these. So how do we support what she described as " Joining the dots between networks and movements ". We can do much more. A message that resonantes strongly with ACEVO as it is core to what we do!

We then heard from Sir Ronald Sanders who was a member of the Eminent persons group and part author of the secret report we are not allowed to see but have. I'm glad to say that today's Times has a full report on this so read it!

He could not have been clearer; without reform the Commonwealth will die. Why; the overwhelming point was that the Commonwealth was becoming irrelevant to people. They don't see that the Commonwealth stands for values when many ignore them. Violated a on daily basis but no action taken again them. So a hypocritical organisation. That is why a Commissioner for democracy and human rights is now essential.

He deplored the fact that the report has not been made public. Result is speculation on it. Some governments say new Commissioner is a " policeman " but the idea is to stand behind human rights and to help countries to bring into compliance with C values. It cannot be right that dissent gives you a jail sentence of 20 years in some countries. This is the core issue for the CHOGM!

He wants a charter to set values but wants it fully consulted by civil society organisations. So he wonders why some governments fear these?

There must be greater people participation ; unless this happens, the Commonwealth is totally irrelevant to people. The Commonwealth can be an organisation that can serve humanity. One problem , he said was that some governments see civil society organisations as an opposition that they distrust. If the 14 core recommendations do not get accepted then his group will have failed. The key items are;

# a commissioner for democracy and human rights,

# a charter for Commonwealth values,

# educate people on homosexuality in all C countries,

# governments must repeal laws that criminalise homosexuality ,

# end to discrimination against women,

# a Commonwealth youth fund

# work on environment- an expert group to look at which countries are in greatest danger from global warming- and how to support them ( eg Maldives and parts of Caribbean ).

I was able to take up some of these themes in my subsequent speech in the seminar that followed. I suggested a simple proposition; if you want a thriving democracy you need a thriving civil society and that means strong leaders. We have to invest in leadership in our civil society organisations. If you want to hold countries to account then it is not just good enough to target Governments , you have to ensure strong organisations on the ground who advocate and campaign and support those who are oppressed.

Plenty of meat for thought in all this I'm sure you will agree.

Europe can be good for you!

2011-10-26T10:29:00.000+01:00

The European Commission has just published proposals to promote social investment.

Measures to improve the access to funding for social businesses such as:

• Setting up a European financial instrument of €90 million to improve social businesses' access to funding (operational from 2014).

• Introducing an investment priority for social enterprises in the regulations ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) and ESF (European Social Fund), as proposed in the regulatory package on the Structural Funds 2014-2020.

see http://www.euclidnetwork.eu/data/files/sbi__frequently_asked_questions.pdf
and http://www.euclidnetwork.eu/data/files/press_release_1.doc

This provides a concrete focus in terms of capital allocation and timescales for the work of our task force over the next two years. Those who attended the launch event in Krakow will be aware that the EIF is finalising €30-50 million from the EIB that, together with match-funding, will be used to finance a pilot programme from 2012.

This is much welcome !

Youth , Polio and HM !

2011-10-25T14:48:00.006+01:00

Part of the CHOGM extravaganza is the Youth Forum; and who should be running this but our very own John Loughton. John has been involved with our ACEVO young CEOs and leaders special interest group. He is now a Director at Relate- ACEVO member Clare Tyler is the CEO. Here he is resplendent in his tartan!

One of the expected announcements from this CHOGM is an initiative to finally eradicate polio. And so on Friday evening there is an" end of Polio " fundraising concert with various bands etc who may well be well known but how would I know! I shall be there - looking for the Bootleg Beetles!

I met the guy who has been organising this; Michael Sheldrick , who is the campaign manager for the Global Poverty project. A dedicated and dynamic young person, involved in the Youth Forum and using his skill and talent to good cause.

Bumped into one of my members who quipped this may well go down as the " content free" commonwealth!

Reflecting further on the behaviour of the Conservative government in WA in increasing support for the sector by 25% it contrasts with the behaviour of our own UK DWP. DWP want to limit the amount of time you can draw the new ESA to one year , even in spite of the compelling evidence that cancer sufferers, for example , often need support for longer.

The heroic CEO Richard Hawkes of SCOPE has been tireless in highlighting the in equities in the new system and how these will impact adversely on many disabled people. Good luck to him and all his colleagues.

Meanwhile The Queen continues her tour to great acclaim and massive crowds: she is going down a bomb here and the poor Oz republicans are well and truly stuffed. Hers a photo from the front window of a Perth bookstore advertising a new book , " Our Queen".

Australia setting an example, openings and wine!

2011-10-25T09:36:00.005+01:00

Traditional greeting from the Noongar elders

The Commonwealth's People's Forum opened today with a special event hosted by the Australian PM and Premier of Western Australia. The event was organised by the nattily named WACOSS- the WA Council of Social Services- the peak body for the sector here. Led by Sue Ash , the dynamic CEO .

Sue Ash- WACOSS

Julia Gillard spoke about the Commonwealth as its people, but frankly you would hardly notice. It's one of those throw away phrases speech writers shove in PM orations. She did pass on a monarchical quip however. Apparently The Queen suggested the Commonwealth was the original world wide web. Julia continued by saying diversity is its strength-commonwealth values are shown trough civil society and by their ability to bring light to bear on some of our most difficult problems. True, but regrettably some of the Commonwealth countries here don't actually like civil society!

Julia Gillard - PM of Australia

She said that Australia has some 600000 nfps - each making a difference. Driving change. But she did get down to business when she said the time has come to renew and refresh the Commonwealth - the secret EPG report ( which nudge , nudge , some of us have under the counter ! ) offers chance for reform. Importance of human rights. We should support it!

However the highlight was the speech of The Premier of WA Colin Barnett , who said we needed to tackle difficult problems . He talked of the role of the third sector as crucial to that. And , music to my ears, he said they have a model of engaging with the Third Sector through the delivery of services. It began in WA with disability services. 70% of government funding now goes trough third sector organisations. This is now being replicated in mental health. They have even appointed a Mental Health minister with budget. They take pride in partnership with the sector and have been leading on funding. They set up a forum with the sector and recently announced a staggering . Increase in funding for the third sector of 25 %. Yes 25%. That's an increase George Osborne and David Cameron please note!!! And he is a conservative! Goodness makes you want to move here!

And we had entertainment form the local Uni student. A Fantastic Medley of Aussie songs. But led by " Advance Australia Fair". Here here I say.

Advance Australia Fair

And now its reception time. More opportunity to enjoy the richness of Australia's natural resources; its wine!

Let culture rule!

2011-10-24T15:03:00.005+01:00

The meeting ended, it was time to sample the major cultural events that have been put on for CHOGM.

Perhaps one of the most interesting is in the Convention Centre where the CHOGM opening events take place. It's a celebration of the aboriginal story as seen through the Canning Stock route , a cattle drover's track from Perth northwards that went through the aboriginal lands; stunning display of paintings as you see here.

Then from there to the Western Australia Museum of Art , where there is an exhibition of " Princely Treasures", european masterpieces drawn from the collections of the V+A.

This opened today. The V+A has an amazing collection but it is somewhat overwhelming. The advantage of this exhibition was the carefully selected treasures that made this a real treat. But the treat was not over , because from there I was invited to the reception to mark the opening tomorrow of " Extraordinary Stories from the British Museum".

Again, carefully selected items and treasures, some are priceless objects that have not travelled out of the UK before. But carefully selected like the famous Ife head-bronze from Nigeria and the Saxon Snettisham great torc. I rather liked a more contemporary piece called the " Throne of weapons , made in 2001 and composed of weapons that were used in the Mozambique civil war - made by Mozambiquan artist Canavato. It represents both the tragedy of a war that claimed 1 million lives and the triumph of those who achieved a lasting peace.

I upbraded Neil MacGregor, the Director of the British Museum for stealing one of my staff; Katherine Hudson ! And had a long chat with the Chair of the Museum fundraising foundation - they are not facing the challenges we are in the UK. Indeed the economy in WA is thriving.

And one other highlight; the Devil's Lair Chardonnay served at the reception! Fantastic wine from the Margaret river. Puts the plonk you get at UK receptions in the shade...

Get back to hotel to an email from Robin Osterley , CEO of Making Music, ACEVO Board member and Chair of our acevo arts and heritage special interest group. The SIG have had a meeting at DCLG to discuss the lack of references to culture in their strategy. A lobbying issue for acevo.

It is sometimes forgotten that our third sector includes the incredible work of the arts. One of the many disgusting aspects of the Desmond Lottery has been to try and belittle good cause money given to arts as though health charity work is somehow more important and money spent on art wasted. We know that the health of the mind and soul is as important as the health of the body. Indeed, interesting work has been done on the value of arts and music in recovery from ill health and coping with illness. Its important therapy for mental health.

Anyway , that's enough culture for today!

Civil Society in the Commonwealth?

2011-10-24T10:02:00.003+01:00

Met as a civil society committee yesterday in the evening and again this morning to talk about our role in the whole CHOGM and Commonwealth forum process. The official Opening ceremony for the Commonwealth People's Forum takes place tomorrow, opened by Julia Gillard, the much embattled Australian PM.

The big row here is over the Report of the so called " Eminent Persons Group" and the fact it has been kept secret ( see previous Blog from last week ). I have made a fuss about the fact that the civil society committee has not been given a copy even though it refers to the rose of civil society and we have finally got a copy ( unofficially if you know what I mean! ). Interesting bedtime reading!

Although there is a lot of good stuff and strong recommendations on human rights and the need for the Commonwealth to be firmer on Governments who abuse people's rights ( having a Commissioner for HR for example ) but the section on civil society is pathetic. We are going to draw up a response ourselves.

I have always thought the Commonwealth could play a much bigger role in supporting and developing the infrastructure for civil society organisations. The lesson of all ACEVO's work is that if you develop the leaders of civil society you support the development of healthy and thriving democracy.

It is clear that the Commonwealth is becoming much less relevant and yet it could have a role in promoting civil society as a counterweight to oppressive regimes and to support organisations supporting oppressed minorities in countries like Sri Lanka ( and their treatment of the Tamils) or the many Commonwealth countries with oppressive laws on homosexuality ( for example, what is happening in Uganda is a disgrace! ). I remember at the last CHOGM there was a lot of mealy mouthed nonsense about what was happening in Uganda on the proposed new laws which meant a death sentence for acts of sodomy.

If the Commonwealth has a point it should have been condemning Uganda and telling their Government not to go ahead. But that did not happen. So a Commonwealth HR Commissioner could be a strong way forward. But it's no surprise that some governments will oppose that! Amazingly 41 of the 54 commonwealth countries criminalise homosexuality. Time for change surely!

Meanwhile the Queen is going down a storm over here! An incredible example of duty and public service. Hope I'm still going strong at 85; though not perhaps as CEO of ACEVO ( retirement at 75 I think? ).

Social Enterprise celebrates!

2011-10-21T13:18:00.005+01:00

I think it is a safe bet to say that Luke Lancaster is ACEVO's youngest member! 16 year old Founder and CEO of young people’s charity Young Pioneers, Luke has been awarded the prestigious World of Children Youth Award. Often referred to as the “Nobel Prize for child advocacy”.

This is the first time that the accolade in this category has been given to a British recipient since the awards were launched in 1996.

As the winner of the Youth category, Luke will receive his award at a ceremony in New York on November 3rd 2011.

He founded Young Pioneers at just 12 years of age and has dedicated his teenage years to developing accredited educational initiatives and programmes that enable young people with the skills they need to lead personal and social change. Much of the work the charity does focuses on vulnerable and disadvantaged young people , building confidence and enabling young people to overcome adversity.

Young Pioneers programmes are delivered across the UK and its Tomorrow’s Leader’s programme will be rolled out soon.

And this is not the only award our ACEVO CEO has received! In 2010 Young Pioneers was awarded the Third Sector Engagement Award and Luke , the Children and Young People’s Champion Award .

I'm always unhappy at the idea that" Social enterprise" is somehow different and apart from the third sector as a whole. It isn't. Some of the great social enterprises are in fact charities. What's in a name? It's the attitudes that matters. Having a professional and business like approach where you aim to make a profit you can plough back into the organisation.

So ACEVO's latest Special Interest Group, the Social Enterprise SIG , met in ACEVO's offices this week, led by two of our dynamic members; Kate Welch, CEO of Acumen who is Chair and Allison Ogden-Newton who is Vice-Chair.

Kate shared with the group her organisation's latest new concept 'Reap and Sow', a horticultural enterprise run by prisoners, and currently being piloted in the North East.

So the weekend draws near. I'm intending spending it with friends on the beach down at Mandurah , and a visit to a great little boutique winery, the Peel Estate. Named after Thomas Peel ( 2nd cousin of the great Robert Peel ) who was one of the founders of the Swan Colony back in the 1820s and who owned massive estates here though he died poor having failed to tame the wild countryside. I went to his grave this morning at the 150 year old church- and believe me- that's old here!

Beach at Mandurah

Falcon Bay

Winery in the Swan Valley

Teaching!

2011-10-20T09:43:00.003+01:00

An unlikely scene I know: me and 70 kids at school! It was Year 6+7 of the Halls head Primary School and I was talking to them about CHOGM, the Royal Family and knights!

A bright bunch. I rather enjoyed myself and they were a lot more lively and enquiring than some of the voluntary sector gatherings I have been to in England! They asked me what was my favourite charity and I told them, but at risk of offending my 1999 members who I didn't mention I better not say. Just a hint; a previous ACEVO Vice Chair is its CEO !

It was a very interactive session which may surprise those who have sat listening to various of my Lectures. Perhaps the example of my sister Sara is rubbing off. She has written 14 books on teacher training and induction; all very interesting I'm sure...

The Commonwealth

2011-10-19T12:15:00.004+01:00

When I was a kid we were taught about the Commonwealth. I even remember several trips to the Commonwealth Institute on Kensington High St; a truly beautiful building.

I doubt the Commonwealth gets much of a look in on the national curriculum these days. And like the fate of that wonderful building there seems to be questions about the usefulness of this modern day Commonwealth of Nations.

I've arrived in Perth. ( That's Perth Australia not Scotland ! ) for CHOGM; the bi-annual gathering of the heads of the Commonwealth- 15 of them with the Queen as Head of State. I'm here as part of the Commonwealth's civil society Committee which organises a big world wide civil society gathering and people's forum. I'm speaking on UK developments in civil society ( not sure the big society idea travels but we shall see ! ) And as well as taking part in the seminars I'm meeting Australian civil society leaders.

This year there is controversy because Commonwealth leaders are sitting on a groundbreaking report prepared by their own advisory group that has concluded the 54-nation organisation will lose international relevancy and moral authority unless it institutes key reforms.

The warning comes from the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group, an 11-person panel appointed by Commonwealth leaders at their last meeting in 2009.

The group was tasked with raising the profile and influence of the Commonwealth. After a major review that included public consultation, the advisory group submitted its final report, " A Commonwealth of the People: Time for Urgent Reform ", about a month ago.

There are 106 recommendations in the report, and its direction is clear from a statement the group issued in the spring. They are proposing a Charter of the Commonwealth, and the appointment of a commissioner for democracy and the rule of law who would keep track of whether member nations are persistently violating "core values" in areas such as human rights.

Moreover, the group advocates more initiatives to battle HIV/AIDS, a stronger collective interest in the debt challenges faced by developing countries, a firm plan on climate change and measures to ensure women are treated fairly and equally.

The Commonwealth is in danger of becoming irrelevant and unconvincing as a values-based association the advisory group warned in a statement last March.

Earlier this month , the group submitted its final report to Commonwealth leaders and requested that it be publicly released before the Perth CHOGM.

But some countries have opposed that and as a result, because the Commonwealth operates by consensus, the document is remaining secret for now.

That has perturbed some of the advisory group's members such as Sir Ronald Sanders, who delivered an impassioned speech last week in London at the Royal Commonwealth Society ( the CEO is an ACEVO member ).

The world which the Commonwealth now serves is way different than what it was 50 years ago. The largest democracy in the Commonwealth is now India. The change in the way in which people live their lives has been remarkable. The challenges of poverty , sustainability and development are overwhelming.

The organisation could play a substantial role if its goals and principles are clear instead of being perceived as an international body that works behind the scenes and has little to say for itself . But it's a voluntary association of 54 countries and 2.4 billion people and could play a bigger role. The Tories said they would place more emphasis on the commonwealth but I'm not sure anyone has noticed.

At last week's speech, Sanders - a former high commissioner for Antigua and Barbuda to Britain - said he and other members of the advisory group believe CHOGM will be a "defining occasion" for the Commonwealth.

"As a result of the decisions made there, the Commonwealth will either go forward, reinvigorated and resolute as a values-based organization intent on making a difference to its people and the wider international community, or it will limp along as a much devalued grouping to a future of disregard, deterioration and disappearance."

Sanders said the advisory group received 330 written submissions from throughout the Commonwealth, including governments, trade unions political parties and civil society groups.

"If the Commonwealth continues with its business as usual, it will lose its moral authority and international respect, providing little benefit to its member states, particularly the small ones."

Apart from instances of unconstitutional coups of governments, he said, the Commonwealth has not spoken out or taken action, "to bring errant countries into compliance. This absence of action - and the silence of the Commonwealth collectively - has severely hurt the Commonwealth's credibility. It has resulted in the accusation that the organisation is hypocritical."

"If they fail to do so, the Commonwealth might limp along for a while longer, but it will surely lose its influence within its own membership and in the wider international community in which it has played an important role in the past."

But back to my opening;my first task tomorrow will be speaking to school children in Mandurah, a city down the coast from Perth! I'm sure it will be a memorable occasion...

Small is good; Large is good! Stop being sizist!

2011-10-18T11:41:00.001+01:00

There is an absurd contention in our sector that small is good and large is not. The reality is that there are some stunning small and community charities and there are some stunning large national charities too. It's the diversity of the sector. I get cheesed off when I'm told ACEVO only represents large nationals. The reality is we have a wonderfully diverse membership.

So let me tell you about an ACEVO member to prove the point!

Eric (Education + Resources for Improving Childhood Continence) last week won the Third Sector award for Small Charity, Big Achiever for its Banish the Wee Horror campaign; an awareness month held in June last year to raise awareness of bed-wetting and childhood continence problems. Eric is led by CEO and active ACEVO member Jenny Perez. Jenny is also a member of ACEVO's Women CEO Special Interest Group.

The Banish the Wee Horror campaign cost Eric just £550 but punched way above its weight. With just eight staff behind it, Eric's campaign generated significant coverage in newspapers, magazines and on websites.

ACEVO members will recall the campaign as it featured in the ACEVO membership magazine Network earlier this year.

It's always difficult to raise awareness for tough and sometimes embarrassing issues such as bed-wetting! You can't imagine a local council doing this can you!

Congratulations to Jenny for overcoming the financial obstacles and creating an award winning campaign. More info on Jenny and her team can be found on Eric's website www.eric.org.uk

Loans developing community enterprise!

2011-10-17T11:26:00.001+01:00

I'm very proud of my involvement in developing loan finance for our sector as Chair of the Social Investment Business. From 7 years ago, when I took up the reigns as chair of the charity, adventure capital fund ( ACF ), now SIB, I have seen how loans can grow our sector and encourage dynamic and innovative enterprise.

Today a new loan scheme opens.

We are looking for six of the best, most promising examples of sustainable, community regeneration projects in England to be pioneer investees of the new era of the Community Builders Fund run by SIB.

After running the scheme Community builders since 2009 the ACF was endowed with the Fund by the Department for Communities and Local Government in March this year and is now re-opening to applications - looking for up to six exemplary projects to support from this initial funding round. The window for applications opens at noon today and runs till Friday 9 December.

The offer is predominantly loan funding - loans of between £250,000 and £750,000 will be made to the most promising examples of sustainable, community regeneration projects.

This concentration on loans is crucial to the long-term viability of Community Builders and the Fund's ability to continue to support the community sector for years to come by recycling and reinvesting repayments.

Organisations wishing to apply need to be based in England, have operated for at least 12 months and to be looking to build their long-term financial independence. Successful applicants will be able to demonstrate they are having a significant positive impact in their communities as providers of multiple services and facilities. (The full list of criteria and an online eligibility checker will be available on the Communitybuilders website www.communitybuildersfund.org.uk)

To date Community Builders has supported some dynamic community organisations - St Andrews Church in Fulham Fields, the Barton Hill Settlement in Bristol and South Holland Radio in Spalding, Lincolnshire to name just a few.

So if you are involved in, or know of, a community organisation that's looking to expand , or take on an ambitious asset transfer project, or needs a final co-funder to complete a significant funding package for their big plans then apply.

Public Schools

2011-10-14T12:28:00.002+01:00

The debate about charitable status for public schools has been rumbling along, especially since the charity law reforms brought them firmly within scope of Charity Commission regulation and inspection. Many public schoold have a good tradition of support for the community, bursaries and opening up their facilities. Some have been involved in supporting the development of Academies. Some have been expanding overseas - like Dulwich - so delivering economic benefit. But not all. All need to come up to the standards of the best.

The Independent Schools Federation had challenged the Charity Commission. The Tribunal announced its verdict this morning and it is a vindication of the actions and judgment of the Commission.

Looking at it I am pleased that this decision reinforces the need for all charities - including public schools - to demonstrate how they benefit the public, and for the Charity Commission to challenge them where they do not.

The decision was important because of the wider implications for "public benefit" and how it might be judged.

We now need all charitable private schools to do as much as they can for the communities they operate in, rather than thinking about the minimum required for a tax break. Many do. Many have looked at increasing their work in this area so they can show public benefit. That's good. And we need the Charity Commission to have no fear in challenging schools who are not doing enough.

The CC are to produce new guidance. I hope that the new guidance, in due course, will bring further clarification to the issue of fee charging charities and other charities who charge fees and public benefit.

Now that was a week!

2011-10-14T09:32:00.002+01:00

The week began with my Director's group and me at an intensive awayday looking at our strategy for next year and how to focus our work as a Chief Executives body. Next year we will celebrate 25 years of CEO leadership. But let's not doubt CEOs next year face huge financial challenges. Acevo, as their membership body has to be there supporting and advising, developing, representing and challenging.

And we are planning our silver jubilee events that both celebrate 25 years but look forward to the challenges ahead for a third sector CEO. During January to March myself and my Chair Lesley-Anne will be meeting with our members across the UK to discuss how we together tackle the task of leadership at a time of major damage to society and communities.

We were also preparing our proposals for a full Acevo Board awayday later in November. I am lucky to have a superbly talented top team. A delight to work with them. And fun too. Never a dull debate for us!

And yesterday a great lunch with Sir Bob Kerslake, the Permanent Secretary DCLG, so of key interest for us in our members work in local councils. It was one of our Acevo "Learning with Leaders" lunches where we draw together 25 of our members to discuss issues of the day over lunch (kindly provided yesterday by CCLA, The top charity financial advisor and investor).

A great discussion about the cuts the sector and local government face. I made the point that members are telling me Cuts by councils next year will be even more difficult and lead to even more damage to the vital services we provide in communities.

Then off to a meeting in No 10 on Open Public Services. I'm worried that this agenda is going awry and there is less push and dynamism from government on it. If we face continuing cuts we need a Government that pushes innovation and reform in service delivery. A Government that is saying to local councils; use the sector more. Change the way you work with communities by using third sector bodies to deliver, to act as champions and advocates. Entrench rights for citizens to challenge. extend rights to choice and redress. And look at Acevo's proposal for a "Right to voice".

Elderly people in hospital beds can't make their voice heard. So we need to give organisations representing older people the power to challenge on their behalf.

I have spent a decade arguing the case for third sector service delivery. With Blair. With Brown. Now with Cameron. I think Cameron gets the point that reform is about extending rights and empowering citizens and communities. But many Departments don't. And they are getting signals it doesn't matter and vested interests will win. Depressing. I felt like saying put me in charge of reform and I'd put a rocket under them. I am planning my rocket attack in any case!

But not depressed for long as I was off to dinner with The Zurich International Advisory committee annual dinner on which Tony Blair sits!

During the course of the meal I get one of those phone calls which mean immediate action re preparation for the press. You will see what that was about shortly!

And now its in the office for meetings with staff and then home; I'm off on leave. Every good boy deserves an occasional treat. But, fear not, I shall continue blogging and next week will reveal where I am on holiday, my trusty blackberry is coming with me!

Abusing old people

2011-10-13T09:35:00.003+01:00

The revelations about the way old people are being abused in many NHS hospitals is truly disgusting. Can there be any better case for reform and for opening up provision of services to more providers like charities and social enterprises? And what better case for strengthening the power of Health Watch?

In my report on choice and competition in the NHS I argued for the introduction of a Right to Challenge for citizens. The CQC inspection report showing one in 5 hospitals breaking the law in their treatment of old people makes the case for his new right and the need for action to put it in place.

This would give us as citizens, carers and family of patients the right to say to a hospital that is failing to provide decent standards of care that we want a different provider.

Listening to the various professionals on Today this morning was an unappetising experience; the excuses and weasly words that try to cover over behaviour that is simply unacceptable.

Let's see the NHS take action to change. And the professional organisations in the service need to stop bleating about competition and the health bill and turn their attention to stamping out this abuse. If the NHS hospitals that have been exposed here cannot provide basic standards of care then other providers should. And what better case for the many Acevo members who work in care for older people and who want to see more care in the community to expand their work. Many older people stay in hospitals for too long because community care is inadequate. Not enough attention is paid to alternative ways of providing support at home or in the community. Palliative care needs to be provided by the third sector, not generally in hospitals.

I was in the House of Lords yesterday for a Reform round table led by Baroness Cumberledge and Nick Seddon, which just followed on from the Government winning the vote on the Bill. We were talking about long term conditions, like diabetes, and the need for reform in the way we deliver care.

10% of the entire NHS budget is spent on diabetes care. 2.8m people being supported- poorly. Almost 40% of diabetes patients are in bad control. Often the patient is not in control of their care. The CQC report simply highlights the need for radical change in our care and health services which we already know from the way in which we prioritise acute care over community.

Its time we moved on from the arguments on the health Bill to addressing the fundamental issues that face our care and health service. Unless we look at a major expansion of the role of different providers I don't see how we will get the changes we so obviously need. Competition and expanding the work of the third sector is one way we can drive innovation, better care and help shake up the culture of a service that often puts the needs of the staff above that of the patients they care for.

What is the Government doing about youth unemployment?

2011-10-12T11:33:00.002+01:00

The ACEVO Commission on Youth Unemployment, chaired by David Miliband, is warning that tomorrow’s youth unemployment figures are likely to be a “wake up call” to all those concerned about the future of young people in the UK.

New NIESR research undertaken for the Commission, and funded by the Nuffield Foundation, sheds new light on young people’s experiences of being unemployed, inactive and/or NEET (not in education, employment or training).

In advance of tomorrow’s ONS unemployment figures, David Miliband MP said,

"This week’s figures are likely to be a challenge to the whole country. Youth unemployment scars people for life, particularly if it is prolonged, and at today's levels it will be costing the country millions of pounds a week. Our aim is to understand the problems we face, arrive at the right solutions, and then act. We must not let the scourge of unemployment leave a permanent mark on the hundreds of thousands of young people living through it today."

Over 100 charities, local councils, businesses and others worried about youth unemployment levels have submitted evidence to the Commission on Youth Unemployment.

But despite growing concern in the UK and abroad at youth unemployment, the broad definition of NEET - which can cover everyone from teenage mothers to those taking gap years - and reliance on point-in-time estimates has limited the evidence available on the issue.

Now preliminary results from new NIESR research presented to the Commission on Youth Unemployment yesterday shed light on how youth unemployment and NEEThood are set within individuals' wider education and labour market histories.

NIESR's work uses nationally representative survey data to classify young individuals into groups sharing similar labour market histories between the age of 16 and 21. By shifting the focus from a snapshot picture to the entire youth labour market history, the research allows us to consider the full richness of individuals' youth labour market experience.

NIESR's results suggest that:
- A group of 10% of young people are most likely to warrant policy attention
- This group can be divided into a number of categories, including:

long-term NEEThood from the age of 16 and 18;
long-term worklessness straddling unemployment and inactivity;
individuals experiencing some employment but developing only limited labour market attachment; and
individuals who appear to withdraw from the labour market following an apparently successful entry into employment.

The results also highlight the central importance of the school to work transition to successful longer term outcomes.

I believe these results will be an important addition to our evidence base on the youth labour market. They classify, in a rigorous way, young people's different experiences to help us distinguish, say, those who take gap years from those at risk of serious long-term labour market exclusion. This knowledge is an essential precondition for successful intervention. The results also highlight the importance of the school to work transition for subsequent success in the labour market.

NIESR's next steps will be to compare the characteristics of the members of each group, and in particular of those falling within groups associated with unsuccessful labour market trajectories. This will aim to uncover which individual characteristics (such as gender, skills, disability, family structure, or social attitudes) are good predictors of adverse labour market outcomes in the long-run. This work will help inform the policy recommendations of the Commission.

The key issue now is what will Government do ab out it? The various reviews and analyses of the recent riots have so far failed to draw links between what happened and underlying social and community damage. Its no good just arguing it was a bout of criminality.

There is now a very strong danger we have learnt nothing from the lessons of long term youth unemployment in the 80s. Many of those unemployed then are unemployed now. Their kids are the new youth unemployed.

Time for the Government to get a grip on this problem before it is too late. Acevo members are at the forefront of action on tackling both the causes and the consequences of youth unemployment. Yet these are the very organisations being hit by cuts and having to scale back their work. That is criminal.

Barbara Young rocks!

2011-10-11T21:33:00.002+01:00

I am a great admirer of Barbara Young , and that is not just because she is an ACEVO member! An article in the Guardian is worth reading ; extract below ;

On Barbara Young's office table is a graph. A bar chart, actually: four columns of green, purple, red and bright blue showing the progression, in England, of rates of coronary heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes over the past five years. The first two are flatlining or falling. Cancer, in red, is rising, but slowly. Trace a line between the blue bars from 2005 to 2010, and it soars off the chart.

"Diabetes," says Young flatly, "is becoming a crisis. The crisis. It's big, it's scary, it's growing and it's very, very expensive. It's clearly an epidemic, and it could bring the health service to its knees. Something really does need to happen."

Baroness Young is, admittedly, the chief executive of Diabetes UK, Britain's main diabetes charity and campaigning group. It's her job to say such things. But the figures are behind her all the way: diabetes is fast becoming the 21st century's major public-health concern. The condition is now nearly four times as common as all forms of cancer combined, and causes more deaths than breast and prostate cancer combined. Some 2.8m people in the UK have been diagnosed with it; an estimated 850,000 more probably have type 2 diabetes but don't yet know. Another 7m are classified as high-risk of developing type 2; between 40% and 50% of them will go on to develop it. By the year 2025, more than 5m people in this country will have diabetes.

The implications for the NHS, obviously, don't bear thinking about. Diabetes already costs the service around £1m an hour, roughly 10% of its entire budget. That's not just because the condition generally has to be managed with medication or insulin, but because by the time they are diagnosed, around half the people with type 2 – by far the most common and fastest growing form – have developed a longer-term complication.

Cardiovascular disease, for example, will kill 52% of people with type 2 diabetes, who are also twice as likely to have a stroke in the first five years after diagnosis as the population at large. Almost one in three people with the condition will develop kidney disease, and diabetes is the single biggest cause of end-stage kidney failure. You are up to 20 times more likely to go blind if you have diabetes.

"The cost of some of these complications, in terms of medical and social care, unemployment benefits, everything, is just enormous," says Young. "People can't work, can't drive ... And so many personal tragedies. People with diabetes have a foot amputated 70 times a week in England, and 80% of those amputations wouldn't have been necessary if it had been caught earlier and looked after properly."

Recently, Young says, she met a former ballerina. "No one had told her, when she was in her 20s and 30s, that maybe it wasn't such a good idea, might be dangerous even, to keep her blood sugar level deliberately high, for energy. She just had her heel amputated."

Nor is this, of course, a national epidemic. Around the world, some 285m people now have diabetes, a figure expected to climb to 440m within 20 years. In north America, one in five men over 50 have the condition; in India, it's 19% of the population; in parts of the Middle East, 25%. On the tiny Pacific island of Nauru, very nearly one in three people has diabetes. This goes some way to explain why some countries are taking a tough stance on health – Denmark has imposed a "fat tax" of 16 kroner (£1.84) per kilogram (2.2lbs) on saturated fat in a product, while France is adding just over 1p to the price of fizzy drinks (although zero-calorie "diet" versions are – that would contribute to raising the profile of diabetes as "an important and ghastly condition", plus a proper risk-assessment programme. She's not confident of getting the former, because this government doesn't much like big, centralised, top-down initiatives. On the latter, she says, the NHS has something called a Vascular Health Check, which people over 40 should be getting, "except most of us haven't heard of it. We screen for cervical cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure. The stroke programme's completely revamped. But diabetes is now a much bigger problem than stroke. A vascular check would help pick it up, and it's not working."

Diabetes UK has drawn up a 15-point list to help ensure everyone diagnosed with diabetes gets the care they need, including checks on blood sugar levels, blood pressure, cholesterol, eyes, feet and kidneys. "We want 2.8m people up on their hind legs, demanding they get the right care," says Young. "That has to change. Plus there are big variations in care regionally."

So good luck Barbara Young and Diabetes uk. Yet another reason why the NHS needs reform. Moving resources from acute to community care. This issue is simply not being addressed. Witness the poor quality of debate in the Lords on the Health Bill. This is the sort of issue they should be focusing on.

Healthy choices!

2011-10-11T15:26:00.002+01:00

Yes, people do want choice in our NHS- contrary to what the BMA might claim.

A new survey carried out by an independent research company on behalf of the Department of Health establishes patients do want choice. A great reposte to the BMA who have tried to claim otherwise. Its what our members working in health and social care know is right. We have been advocating more choice and more control for patients and citizens over their care.

The new survey of 5,000 people reveals that over 80 per cent of patients want more choice over how and where they are treated in the NHS and nearly three quarters of patients want more choice in who provides their hospital care.

Full results of the survey show that:

80.88 per cent of respondents want more choice in where they are treated in the NHS; 78.62 per cent of respondents want more choice in how they are treated in the NHS; 49.52 per cent of respondents were not aware that they can choose which hospital to go to for non-emergency treatment; 74.88 per cent of respondents wanted a choice over which hospital consultant is in charge of their care; 74.62 per cent of respondents wanted a choice over which hospital consultant is in charge over their children’s care.

Women and older people in particular want to see more patient choice in the NHS. Nine out of 10 people over the age of 55 want to have a greater say in how and where they are treated.

The Government need to understand this message and ensure that DH culture changes.

When Health Watch becomes as powerful as the BMA we will know things have changed. Until then Acevo members need to keep pushing this message.

The case against the Desmond Lottery

2011-10-06T17:46:00.000+01:00

I suppose the irony of the Express newspaper front page on Tuesday was lost on Mr Desmond ( proprietor of same ) . Atop the screaming headline: "New lottery to make Britain better" was a promotion involving a free chocolate wagon wheel!

And strangely, in their supposed reportage of the launch of the new lottery , there was no mention of the criticism of it.

So Daily Express I challenge you to cover this story properly. And in the meantime good luck to the journalist academic who has reported them to the Advertising Standards Authority for a flagrant breach of the ASA Code. I shall be writing to the ASA myself to back this complaint. We cannot have the Express and Star using their reportage to plug the lottery of their owner .

And an offer to the Editor of the Express. Allow me space to say why I am concerned about the new Lottery. And cover this on your front page to show you can report news fairly.

I think there is an issue about whether the society lottery legislation is properly used by an organisation trying to challenge the National Lottery. It was supposed to be about allowing organisations like the hospices to do lotteries.

The new lottery is clearly intended to compete with the National Lottery. It will have access to more retail outlets and is being heavily marketed on the back of the work of health charities.

The National Lottery gives 28p in the pound to good causes and charities across our sector including sports and arts and heritage. It also gives 12p to the treasury in tax so making a contribution to public finances.

Desmond will give only 20p to charity and pay no lottery levy to the Treasury. The rest goes in prize money , marketing and profit.

Last year the BLF gave £270m to health charities in a total of £1.3b to good causes.

So what does this mean. Say Desmond successfulIy hits his targets, making 50 mil for charity (and therefore taking 250 mil altogether). If that money comes from people not playing the lottery, it would mean £20 million less for good causes and £30 million less for HMT.

So if the new lottery is a success it will affect the overall sum going to the sector. This must be resisted. Whilst individual charities in health will be able to apply and get support ( and why should they not ) it is important that we pursue the overall case for all the sector and its funding.

The counter attack from the new lottery has been lamentable. They try to claim that much of the good cause money is going on the Olympics or art like the Opera. Shameful. The Olympics , in any case , is over next year. But the basis of the good cause distribution was to cover all the causes that the British people give their money to. People who love the arts, fundraise and support the work of the Royal Opera- a charity- for example. Many people give to heritage organisations like the National Trust.

I deeply dislike the claims being pursued by the Desmond Lottery that somehow the charities they will support are more worthy, and we should have a hierarchy of giving. Of course health charities do brilliant work; saving lives,supporting the most vulnerable. They are at the heart of giving and form a superb group of CEOs in ACEVO. But so do charities working with young people in our most deprived communities. Or those working with the unemployed. Or drug addiction. Excluded communities. And so on.

We cannot allow this to go unchallenged. I have challenged Mr Desmond to raise the amount he gives to health charities to 28p in the pound. I await his answer.

Loans work!

2011-10-05T22:59:00.001+01:00

An important publication is launched today by The Social Investment Business. As Chair, I commissioned one of my trustees – former City banker and then chair of BTCV, Dr Rupert Evenett – to conduct an analysis of the state of the UK social investment market, and to look at the record of social finance so far.

He and co-author Karl Richter have produced an important contribution to the debate about extending loan finance for our sector .

The unique element of this review being that it is written from two perspectives – from the " bottom-up" perspective of third sector organisations and entrepreneurs as well as from a financial perspective, seeking comments and insights from social lenders like Triodos and Social Finance as well as commercial financial institutions such as Deutsche Bank and RBS.

The whole project has been sponsored by our friends CityUK, who represent the financial services industry, which shows how seriously traditional commercial lenders are taking the issue of the development of the UK social investment market.

Funding for the third sector isn’t something that’s ‘nice to have’ when the economy is strong, it’s something that’s more essential than ever when the demand for the services offered by the sector is increasing.

Yesterday's news that growth has flatlined and the cuts in public spending have the greatest impact on the most vulnerable. If charities, social enterprises and community organisations are going to take on more public service delivery and more help to the unemployed and marginalised they need a robust and sustainable financial platform.

This review explains in detail the need for an integrated social impact investment market with a range of financial products suitable for the different stages of organisations’ development with a range of funding providers, bringing in traditional lenders and investors to what has so far been a niche investment area. The “sell” to financiers shouldn’t be hard, social investment has all the characteristics of a distinctive asset class – best understood as an intermediate capital market with features of both debt and equity - which, from an investor’s perspective, can offer sustainable financial return, assessable risk and the potential for diversification.

But there are still reactionary elements in the sector who are fighting the whole notion of "loans". This is deeply damaging. On tuesday I had to counter arguments being put forward by Debra Alcock- Tyler at the NW voluntary sector annual meeting that the big society capital is a bad thing. She advanced the wholly unjustified view that loans only support larger organisations. This is simply not supported by the facts if Debra had bothered to check. Loans from SIB have gone to a large number of small and local organisations nd community enterprises. Organisations that could not access grant or fundraising at the level they need to expand and acquire assets. The 2 independent academic evaluations of the these loan programmes demonstrated their power in community development. Its time debra and those who have supported this line got a grip on the evidence. I shall be sending her our new report.

At a time of huge pressure o our sector it strikes me as quite damaging not to support new ways of diversifying income streams and campaigning for our sector to have access to capital. Its a progressive cause. Let's push for it.

Next steps? Expert social investors need to start working together to launch drive growth in the market, including by launching new funds that are attractive to commercial investors – pension funds, investment banks and high net worth individuals. Markets don’t just happen, they are created – and it’s time that social investment market moved from the margins to become a mainstream option for traditional investors. The track record has been achieved by the pioneers to prove to others it can be done.

The foreword by my good friend Oliver Letwin MP calls the report “an important and useful contribution to the debate..which offers a prospectus for practical actions to help take that market forward.”

You can download it atwww.thesocialinvestmentbusiness.org/sir

At the Tories

2011-10-04T16:43:00.005+01:00

The final gig; the Tory conference in Manchester. I'm down to speak at 6 fringes and a roundtable so its hard work- and all that essential networking.

Yesterday was the last of the 3 ncvo-acevo fringe meetings. Slightly more energised than the other 2 as Charlie Elphike MP was speaking and rather roused the room with criticising CEO pay and us campaigning. He said he fully supported our independence; but surely its our campaigning that ensures that very indepencne. Anyway dame Clare Tickell took him to task. That saved me to doing this- and I had to get to a round table on welfare to work ...

I met the usual round of ministers and the like. Eric Pickles MP greeted me warmly "hello comrade" he said! And I had a brief word with the Prime Minister. (I've become "Steve" ).

The evening was rounded off rather late with dinner with my team and Richard Hawkes CEO of SCOPE. We found ourselves sandwiched between Damien Green, his wife and Nick Robinson of the BBC on the one side and Teresa May on the other. Funnily enough I knew both at Oxford!

Today I started off with a fringe hosted by NAS-UWT and Unison. I talked about public service reform. I even got clapped. It was on to the RSA and SIB fringe. I was chairing an incredible panel; Matthew Taylor and Ben Page, Jesse Norman MP and Andrew Lansley, and Jennifer Dixon of the Nuffield Trust. From there it was the NWVCS annual conference and a panel with Debra Alcok-Tyler, Kevin Curley and the opposition spokesman on the sector Roberta Blackman-Woods. I'm blogging from the panel at the moment....

Here is the panel;

And here a photo of John Low kneeling in front of Dame Clare and Nick Hurd.

And finally a photo of me at the conference.

Harvest time

2011-09-30T17:38:00.003+01:00

Recovering from Liverpool in the calm and delight of the English countryside at its most glorious: the Cotswolds. Cameron's constituency so a neat run up to the Tories next week in Manchester.

The autumnal colours, the sun and the harvest preparations! The Hound and I are out for a picnic in the woods and lanes around Ditchley Park, a fine Jacobean mansion house that once served as a Lodge for Elizabeth and James to enjoy the Wytchwood Forest stags and deer hunting.

So as we head into the weekend here are some images from our walk.

Leaving Liverpool

2011-09-29T11:02:00.006+01:00

So its farewell Liverpool. A stunning city; all the more beautiful when its bathed in glorious sun. I had a few hours before the train and as the Roman Catholic Cathedral was just around the corner from my hotel I went to visit this remarkable modern Architectural gem designed by Gibberd.

But the plan was to build something much more grand. Lutyens had designed what was to be the worlds largest Cathedral. If built it would have dwarfed the Anglican cathedral being built along Hope St. The Lutyens crypt however is complete and shows just how massive this Cathedral would have been.

Liverpool RC Cathedral

Liverpool Anglican Cathedral as seen from the RC one

Liverpool has always been home to a huge population of Irish; whether Catholic or Protestant and sectarianism was rife in the past (hence the 2 rival football teams as also in Glasgow).

I have my own links with Liverpool. My Limrick ancestors have a vault in the Church at Crosby for back in the late 18th century Thomas Limrick, my great great great grandfather's brother came here as a Doctor. 4 generations of his descendants are interred in Crosby. They were Anglo Irish, like their cousins the Chavasses and it was Bishop Chavasse, 2nd Bishop of Liverpool, who was responsible for the Anglican Cathedral, as well as founding St Peter's College, Oxford.

St George's Hall from Lime st station

At the conferences I have been talking about the power of social investment. I think that we have yet to develop a strong alliance of those porganisations in our sector who are developing this new market. I know that our new CEO at SIB wants to do just that. So good to see that headhunter extrodinaire David Fielding (www.attenti.co.uk/) is searching for someone to replace John Kingston to run CAF Venturesome, having just found Jonathan Jenkins for SIB.

They will report to that sector guru and fixer John Low (my ex Chair at ACEVO). I have always been impressed with Venturesom; it has a great reputation and been a key player in this emerging market in the early days when many in the sector were anti loans. I suspect this will be a very attractive role and given all the recent development within Social Investment, it’s superb timing for someone to come in.

We really do need to grow the strength and depth of this market.

Now I'm on a train to Manchester. I'm speaking at the ACEVO North Conference. I'm warning that the cuts our sector face from local councils next year will be worse than this year. We must not be fooled into thinking that the cuts have happened and we can relax. The local government chronicle have shown that the majority of councils they surveyed (65%) expect to make bigger cuts this year. The cuts have severley damaged our sector. Our recent acevo pay survey showed that 41% of members have had to make redundancies. So expect more next year. 32% have had to reduce service levels. So expect more next year.

We need more transparency from councils on what they spend on the sector and how budget cuts affect us, as compared with other service provision. I have written to Greg Clark to ask for this, which he has promised, to happen quickly so it is in place for the council budget round.

But most of all we need to see councils looking at the sector as part of the solution, not part of their budget problem.

You can read the full speech here.
http://www.acevo.org.uk/page.aspx?pid=2616

Liverpool : Day 2

2011-09-28T10:23:00.005+01:00

Not going to bed till 2 is not to be recommended. Especially when one is getting older. Though lots of deals, contacts and networking. Its the essence of what a third sector leader needs to do. Pushing the cause. Getting ideas. People who share your ideals and can help you in pushing your organisation. Though whether this is a healthy way to do it must be questioned. I do at least remember the golden rule; don't drink too much. And given that most of what gets served at fringe meetings is not that appetising that works for me!

I'm now at a pause; sitting in the late evening sun. By Albert dock- Liverpool is a brilliant city and the glories of our once omnipresent Empire are all around.

I was up early (far too frankly) to speak to the Leader of Liverpool City Council. The Social Investment Business has invested over £11.5m in 47 projects around Liverpool. We have generated extra funding through our loans and had a significant social impact. So we want to work more closely with the City council. I was impressed by Cllr Joe Anderson. He completely got the point of us working together to build more infrastructure and service delivery by the third sector.

We are to have a further more detailed meeting to see how we leverage funds by partnership working. It huely inmportant that we develop better relationships between councils and the sector. More cuts are on the way. Getting council Leaders to understand that they can work with the sector to deliver more effective community based services is key.

Its a message I share with Caroline Flint MP who is the shadow local government minister at a meeting after.

And I develop this at the RSA- Social Investment Business fringe meeting. Matthew Taylor is superb. He made the point that what Labour missed, and the Tories may be too, is that public service reform is not about better management. Its not, as he put it, "new public management". It is about socialising public services. Reconnecting them to people. It is about helping society solve their problems, not solving them for them.

This is absolutely right. Its what governments have missed. It is core to the third sector message. We deliver better connected services. We do that because we are not new managerialists but have developed our services to meet what beneficiaries want, not what we think they should have.

It is our time to deliver more. But does labour get this? Seems only half heartedly.

Listening to Ed's speech I like it when he said, "Take on the vested interests for the public interest.".

Yes Ed. And that means the vested interests in the health service and in public services generally.

I see Ed later at the gala dinner. SERCO have asked me to join their table with various council leaders. And amusingly it turns out that the Leader of Enfield council was one of the founding members of Acevo. I told him next year we will celebrate or silver jubilee and we will invite him to our big celebration.

Ed gives a speech which I think is much better than his set piece. Its unscritped. Delivered without those long pauses and 3 word sentences. When he does this he comes across as a really warm and committed guy. This image has still not made it to the public. It will.

Then on to Co-op reception. More dancing. I discover there is a video clip of me doing the twist. I take out an injunction to prevent it getting on You Tube!

And in between times I was doing media interviews on the "health lottery", calling on Desmond to up his giving to charities to 28p. I hammer the message home on BBC breakfast, on ITN and regional shows. I also discover the Indi on Sunday had named my blog as one of the top blogs to read- though they got my picture mixed up with someone else! And one of the news reports quotes from my blog on the lottery. The power of the Blog!!

Anyway , let me leave you with another rather lovely picture of Ed paying tribute to Blog author....

Finally, its been good doing joint work with ncvo. The joint fringes have been going well and we are now planning our joint conference on localism. It will be in Birmingham on December 9th. The Government's Big Society agenda has signalled the end of centralised, top-down decision making. Or has it? A new era of localism has been signalled, with an emphasis on empowered and engaged citizens, local decision-making and accountability. That's the policy: but what's the reality?

Knowing how to benefit from the opportunities created by this agenda is crucial for us to grow against viscous cuts.

Further details can be seen here: http://www.localismconference.org.uk/

Expect more joint events from us and ncvo. A new era of cooperation and detente. But you may have to wait for videos of me and Stuart doing the twist...

Now its Liverpool!

2011-09-27T10:12:00.004+01:00

Unpacked. Packed. Now in Liverpool. Arrived in time for another of the CityUk - SIB lunches; this time with Angela Eagle MP (although in the end she was a no show!). The lunch was in the gorgeous Hope St Hotel and on the balcony you get a fabulous view of the 2 great Cathedrals; as seen here!

Must say I prefer the Anglican!

Then into the conference, some media on the Desmond lottery (he is only giving 20p to charity- not 28p as the national lottery does, so I call on him to raise it to 28p if he really cares about health charities).

We had our joint acevo-ncvo fringe event and a fringe with Community, the union that organises in our sector but has progressive views on our empowering role in delivering public services. Later on we have our( now a great institution) third sector social. Ed Miliband MP comes and makes a marvellous speech about our sector's role, especially after the riots, and talks about the pain we are suffering because of cuts. He is most effective and talks about how he feels he is " coming home" as his first job was as third sector Minister. And he made the most charming remarks about yours truly. I wasn't blushing!

Dr Kyle spoke for the sector in saying at times of gloom we should also remember to have fun and keep our spirits up!

But the highlight was the Beatles bootleg band. Fantastic. And as one would expect of a Leader I was first onto the dance floor. But as i explained to my young team, I was around for them first time. Indeed I used to practice my " twist" with my 2 aunts! Did it better in those days I suspect. And if Stuart had been there we would have twisted together!

There are some photos circulating of the whirling Boss but I am having them censored. Our music quite outshone the Guardian Party next door and the rendition of "Hey Jude" by the assembled mighty third sector throng nearly brought the roof down.

Day2; the judging of the social innovation competition!

2011-09-23T16:46:00.003+01:00

Now where would you judge social innovation but in a 17th century church!

The judging panel

The church

There has been a star judging panel and presenters, including the vice President of the European Parliament. My good friend Oliver Rothschild has come over to join us, though he , like me , has been rather wilting in the heat.

Of course with the wonders of technology you are never far from the UK news and so spent some time talking to The Times on the disgraceful new development of the Desmond" health " lottery. He intends to only give 20p in the pound to health, whereas the national lottery, is giving 28p to good causes. So if peopole switch to Desmond from the national lottery charities will loose out. I agree with the smart quote from Nick wilkie of London youth that he is profiteering from the goodwill of the British people!

Health Lottery ‘profiteering on the back of public’s goodwill' - The Times
Charity leaders have criticised a new lottery being launched next week by Richard Desmond, the owner of Channel 5, for giving less to good causes than the National Lottery.
The new game, called the Health Lottery, will compete directly with the National Lottery. Mr Desmond plans to promote it heavily across his publications, including the Daily Express, Daily Star and OK! magazine. The draw will be shown at primetime on ITV1 and Channel 5 on Saturday nights, and the maximum prize is £100,000.
The Health Lottery will give 20.34p of each £1 ticket to good causes, just 0.34p above the legal minimum it is required to give as a “society lottery”, and it will not be required to pay lottery duty. The National Lottery, which is not a society lottery, gives 28p per £1, plus another 12p in lottery duty.
Camelot, which runs the National Lottery under licence, is permitted a maximum profit of 0.5p per £1 gambled. The Health Lottery, in which Mr Desmond is the sole investor, declined to say what level of profit it expected. In its instructions to retailers, the Health Lottery says: “When telling customers about the Health Lottery, remember the main features . . . Proceeds go to support local health-related good causes.”
If the Health Lottery meets its target of selling at least £250 million of tickets in the first year, it will give £20 million less to good causes than if the same sum had been spent on National Lottery tickets. Under the Gambling Act 2005, a society lottery can sell a maximum of £10 million of tickets a year. The Health Lottery has registered 51 society lotteries, giving it potential sales of £510 million.
While lotteries cannot be run for commercial gain, the Health Lottery can profit by acting as an “external lottery manager” for the society lotteries.
Sir Stephen Bubb, chief executive of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations, described the Health Lottery as “a pretty disgraceful development”, adding: “The Government needs to look at lottery regulations to ensure it’s made transparent to people who play that this new lottery is giving a lot less per £1 to good causes.”
Nick Wilkie, the chief executive of London Youth, a network of 400 youth organisations, said: “It seems to me that if one runs a lottery and gives away less to good causes than the National Lottery, then one is profiteering on the back of the British public’s goodwill.”
Martin Hall, the chief executive of the Health Lottery, said that he hoped to expand it into “a billion-pound business”. Mr Desmond has signed up more than 40,000 retailers to sell tickets for his Health Lottery — 12,000 more than the number of shops selling tickets for the National Lottery.
The maximum prize is £100,000, which is guaranteed for all five correct numbers. Three correct numbers wins £50 and four £500. Tickets go on sale on September 29.
Winning odds: 2 million to 1 to win the Health Lottery top prize of £100,000.
It is 14 million to 1 to win the Lotto top prize (shared, but usually several million pounds)

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article3172759.ece

Social Innovation; action not words?

2011-09-22T14:42:00.006+01:00

I've donned my Euclid hat ( it's European so lots of gold braid) and arrived in Naples for the Euclid AGM, our international innovation conference and competition.

Since Euclid ( the European third sector leaders body ) was established in 2007 by the 3 founders in the UK, France and Sweden, we have come a long way. Now established as a key influencer in Brussels on financial matters relating to civil society; it has been particularly effective in arguing for social investment support for civil society.

On Nov 18 th Commissioner Barnier and 2 of his Commissioner colleagues will hold a conference in Brussels and we expect an announcement of a new initiative on social enterprise and innovation . I have blogged previously about the work we have done as part of this process in Krakov.

It is clear that the EU are learning lessons from what has been happening in the UK , especially from the examples of the social investment business and the Big Society Bank. They have discovered social enterprise and innovation! How far this goes beyond a mere buzz phrase into real support for the sector will tested in actions.

With the support of the EU and various partners we have organised a social innovation competition to take place at the same time as our annual meeting. As one of the judges I helped sort 12 finalists who will make presentations to the judges panel tomorrow.

The conference is taking place in the rather grand Chamber of Commerce in Naples; once the home of the Stock Exchange. Photos here show the scale.

We have had the usual plethora of officials and the Mayor , but prominent among them was Mercedes Bresso, the President of the EU Committee on the regions which demonstrates that the EU may be moving to complement their grant programmes with social loans through a social investment fund for europe. Who knows?

I'm speaking on the lessons learnt from the 300 investees of the futurebuilders programme. Its an impressive record- considering the rules were that applications had to be " unbankable" our default rate at less than 5% is impressive. But it demonstrates that this is a sector that has for too long been excluded from the loan finance sector. The lesson across Europe as well as the UK is that as well as access to social finance we need to break into the mainstream venture capital market. an initiative from the EU could help in this march to a growing civil society.

Leaving Birmingham

2011-09-22T12:58:00.006+01:00

I spoke at the SIB-RSA fringe meeting- very well attended, with the witty Ben Page and frenetic Matthew Taylor and journalist Mary-Anne Seigert . I challenged the delegates on public service reform, pointing out the example of that great liberal William Beverage who regretted how far the third sector was pushed to the margins in the welfare state reforms. I suggested that reform of our public service is a great liberal cause; championing the cause of citizens and communities against the monopolistic state service. I said I was disappointed by the attitude of the Lib-Dems on health service reform and their failure to back the right to challenge. Surely it can't be right to oppose change that increases choice for citizens, and allies with traditional vested interests not communities! I seemed to get some support for this point from the meeting.

Rather disturbing news of the leaks from education about advisors in the Department sending private emails to avoid the terms of the FoI legislation. What was particularly worrying was the revelation that they were looking for ways of avoiding procurement rules in order to give money to the Free Schools Network.

It is good that Government supports the work of charities through funding, but this needs to be transparent and fair. So the strategic partnership programme from OCS was a process open to organisations to bid. This is important in order to avoid the impression of a behind the scenes deal to give state money to a favoured cause. I'm sure this recent press has not helped them.

There are also lessons here for the sector about the need for openess. ACEVO has been consulting its members on the issue of the FoI legislation. Whilst there is no desire for the legislation to be extended; that would be a huge administrative and financial burden , we ought to think about how we comply with the spirit of the law when we are asked about how we have spent public money; whether that is through a grant or a contract. Transparency is important.

With the Lib-Dems!

2011-09-20T11:39:00.002+01:00

In Birmingham for the first Conference of the season: the liberal-democrats.

"Community Futures", the liberal democrat paper on the sector raises issues about sector independence. But I wonder just how much the Party "gets" the sector. There are certainly many third sector folk in the party and traditionally the party has been strongly behind community activism.

But over recent years, as the lib-dems have grown in local government their commitment to community activism seems to have dimmed. So in the Lords they have been critical of the localism bill and the various rights to challenge and acquire assets. They have opposed the extension of the right to challenge to health. Some lib-dems have dismissed the role of the third sector in health as a "trojan horse". Hardly flattering to the hundreds of thousands of staff and volunteers who work in health and social care.

Of course there are also great advocates of our sector : MPs like Jenny Willot MP or my friend Leila Ferguson , CEO of West Berks Mencap.

Supporting citizens and community organisations against the power of state monopoly or councils ought to be core to liberalism. Our sector should be central to Lib Dem thinking. I am meeting a senior councillor, Gerald Vernon-Jackson from the LGA and Portsmouth to talk about how to develop that relationship.

Arrived in time for a splendid lunch with CityUK, the financial and banking organisation we are working with as SIB in promoting a more responsive financial sector. Lord Newby was the key speaker- he is their " spokesperson" on treasury matters in the Lords and chairs the all party group on social enterprise. Dick and I have known each other for years ; he is a good and committed politician and made clear he believes the banking sector needs to lend to the third sector and support innovation.

One of the values of attending these party shindigs ( and I'm doing all 3 ) is the people you meet; other members, lobbyists, politicos ,media and friends. So an afternoon of meetings which culminated in the event of the day; the joint ACEVO-NCVO fringe meeting on sector independence and campaigning.

This is a deliberate sign of the times. We intend to do a lot more joint meetings, events and conferences together , as Martyn Lewis, the Chair of NCVO said.

It was a good meeting: Dame Suzi Leather ,Dame Clare Tickell and Baroness Clare Tyler.

Clare Tickell talked about the balance between being sycophantic and friendly to government with being critical. How do you speak truth to power? She said that many of their supporters and volunteers are very angry about what is happening to young people in communities. So campaigning is crucial.

Clare Tyler had an interesting perspective as having been in Government and now for the last 4 years in the sector. She rightly pointed out that the debate on independence is not an either or. It's more nuanced than some pundits would have you believe. She said we can become a little too obsessive about this issue.

I had this very discussion with Caroline Slocock, Director of civil exchange, who is doing the work on the newly established panel on independence. It was reassuring! I was worried this would be too negative and critical but clearly Caroline is well up to the more nuanced debate we need in this important area.

Late to bed.....a breakfast meeting beckoning.....

Expanding social investment markets; news!

2011-09-19T09:29:00.002+01:00

I blogged on the work in Krakov on a submission to the EU on social investment. This has now been submitted. The response and , we hope, new initiative will be announced by Commissioner Barnier in Brussels on Nov 18th.

The submission from the Task Force for a European Social Investment Facility in response to the consultation on promoting Social Investment Funds as part of the Social Business Initiative.(See submission here)

And to aid the process a Social Investment Business task force is finalising a report we will launch in October.

This review has looked at the steps needed to a thriving social investment market and brings a ‘bottom-up’ perspective from organisations already using and seeking social investment, balanced with comments from financiers and policy makers .

It will be worth reading. More details in a future blog.

All this shows how much progress is being made to expand social investment markets. I'm looking forward to the first meeting of the Big society Capital Trust !

The Riots; The meeting

2011-09-15T15:58:00.000+01:00

In Bethnal Green,just nearby the famous Brick Lane for a meeting of about 100 , called by NCVO, to discuss the riots.

Good on NCVO for bringing us all together. But this was not always the voluntary and community sector at its best. There was probably a fundamental fault in assuming that only local voluntary groups know about communities so whilst there was copious representation from cvs people ( as there should be ) there were few of the national charities who have huge understanding and knowledge of the causes and solutions on riots. The children's and youth charities for example, or the health , environmental and work charities and social enterprises. But of course always a problem in our diverse sector to be both focused at such meetings as well as representative!

This led at times to an unbalanced discussion. Indeed at times degenerated into a passing resemblance of a caricature assembly of the Guardian reading left. Perhaps there are issues about police aggression , racism and bias and cuts and I'm with those who hate the Daily Mail but that is an inadequate explanation of what went wrong. And criminal behaviour has to be punished, not excused, whilst also seeking for ways to prevent it.

But enough grump.

I liked much of what IDS was saying in today's Telegraph. Early intervention strategies, targeted work with gangs through third sector organisations and old fashioned one to one mentoring and support. As he rightly says you cannot arrest your way out of riots.

And let's be clear that whilst it would be asinine to suggest the cuts caused the riots , it is absolutely true that building social cohesion and community regeneration will not be done on the back of a cut and battered third sector. The cuts are not over. Worse is to come. My ACEVO members are telling me firmly that more cuts will not just damage them but seriously impact the work they do with vulnerable and marginalised citizens and communities.

There was much criticism of how many people were sent to jail. I'm afraid I diverged with the mass on this. It was entirely right for people who robbed and rioted to be punished and indeed jailed. Exemplary sentences were needed. Clearly some of this was over the top reaction but the issue is what then happens to those who are jailed. Our record on rehabilitation is lamentable. The real worry is that those who are jailed are set on a life of re offending.

The Government promised a rehabilitation revolution. We need to ensure that rhetoric is translated to reality – the brilliant Rob Owen of St Giles Trust is chairing an ACEVO taskforce on exactly this, and they are due to report soon.

The St Giles Trust and other programmes to meet prisoners at the gate and provide mentoring must be extended. One action that the Government should commit to is a promise that every person jailed for rioting will be guaranteed a place in one of those programmes. So Ken - announce that at your conference !

There is a strong and wrong tendency in some community groups to assume communities are homogeneous, are progressive and speak with one voice. They don't.

And a big mistake to assume that because you are a community organisation that means you always speak for all the community. So when opinion polls show people wanted rioters jailed it difficult to believe community leaders who say jail was wrong.

There is also a potentially damaging view that community is just about place. It is not. There are communities of interest and don't assume they are always welcome in communities of place. Scope has recently been campaigning about how people with learning disabilities are harassed and harmed in many communities. So the role of national charities in protecting and defending communities needs better recognition. This means we need the voice of local and community groups and we need the voice of national too.

And many of our national charities have huge experience of local community needs. BTCV in their sustainability volunteering work or Action for Children in their work running Sure Start have exactly the sort of experience of what is happening in marginalised communities that we may miss out on if we just assume only local organisations know what.

I live by Brixton Prison and the noise from there over the last month has been noticeable. Yesterday I saw Nick Hardwick confirming that there have been disturbances in Brixton and Feltham where many rioters were sent. There has been an increase in gang activity inside prisons with people being recruited. He says most of those sentenced are mainly sleeping in their cells. This is a disaster.

And the latest unemployment figures are a further disaster. The growing evidence of youth unemployment requires action. The first meeting of ACEVO's Commission on Youth Unemployment, chaired by David Miliband met yesterday. A great first meeting and the talent of the commissioners drawn together was evident. This will be an important report and a major contribution to a debate that is sorely needed.

Going Dutch with Stuart!

2011-09-13T13:13:00.002+01:00

An interesting lunch! Stuart and I were invited to the Dutch Ambassador's residence for lunch with the Dutch Interior minister. He wanted to talk " big society" so we also had the great Philip Blond who held forth on the subject, amongst other things. Elegant surroundings and elegant meal but purposeful discussion. There is much interest around Europe in this idea of Cameron, but like the rest of us they are not quite sure what it means.

The " right to challenge" in health was one of the more radical ideas emerging from the Future Forum. The DH are working on the concept and how to translate into legislation- the idea would be to put amendments into the Bill in the Lords. So we had a working session between DH officials and a group of members to discuss how to do this. A really interesting session. There are a range of practicalities to be sorted to put this into law, and some issues of principle as well. Who is covered ? Do you exclude areas like A+E?

I think we ended up with some useful consensus- this new right will not just serve as a way in which communities and patients can challenge poor standards in a practical way but encourage new models of delivery and innovation.

As always, my members were on good form: practical! Raising issues in a constructive way that helped DH. And I was impressed at the calibre of the DH team too. I hope we can work out a good way to implement this new " Right"that gets parties on side and lets the new GP groups see it as a positive help, not a bureaucratic hindrance.

And to cap off the day I go to RNIB for my regular supervision session with my Chair , Lesley-Anne Alexander. The CEO-Chair relationship is cruciual to running a successful organisation. Just the right amount of challenge , backed by just the right amount of praise and always based on the proper division of the exec and non exec roles. I am lucky to have a Chair who embodies good practice. Long may she reign.

Auschwitz - Birkenau

2011-09-12T16:57:00.008+01:00

Just an hour from Krakov lies the largest of the Nazi concentration camps. Over 1.5million people , mainly jews, perished here.

The master of mercy will care for them under the protection of his wings for all time, and bind their souls in the bond of everlasting life.

God is their inheritance and they will rest in peace.

From The Kaddish.

Active Europe!

2011-09-08T14:11:00.010+01:00

I have donned my Social Investment Business Chair's hat and made the opening speech at the " Active Europe" conference organised in Krakov by the European Federation of Ethical and Alternative Banks.

But the main purpose of this 2 day conference is consulting on the submission that is to be made to Commissioner Barnier in response to the call for ideas on social innovation and social enterprise. Euclid and SIB have been leading this work but FEBEA are crucial in getting wider buy in. The consultation ends on the 14th and the proposed actions will be announced in Brussels on November 18.

It is a mark of how cut off we are in the UK that this important initiative has been almost completely overlooked. It is only SIB and Euclid that have taken up the baton and are ensuring a radical response.

And yet the UK leads the field in innovative ideas for capitalising the third sector-there is huge interest in what we are doing and so John Low of CAF and Nick O'Donuhue Of BSC are here as well.

Our idea- which I outlined in the opening plenary- is for a european wide " social investment bank" modelled on the UK idea of Big society Capital ( BSC ). This might be an institution , but preferably a fund which operates a bit like BSC and is a wholesaler- giving loan funds to partner organisations across the EU.

I was sitting next to the EU Commission representative at the opening and so asked him what the total EU budget was. He said EU 867 billion so I suggested just 1% of that as the starter fund, so 8.7bn. This would then be supplemented by the mainstream banks around the EU in the same way as with BSC.

There will be more news on this at the euclid AGM in naples shortly when we will also be announcing the results of the EU social innovation competition which the Commission is sponsoring.

I made 2 points in my opening address. The EU faces 2 crises- the obvious economic and financial one , but that is couple with a crisis of confidence in the institutions of the state. There is a growing alienation of citizens and communities from governments and state bodies.

So the response to both these problems to return power to communities and the social economy-third sector. That is the way to drive more responsive public services and empower communities.

Getting to Krakov is not as easy as you might think. There is only an easyjet flight direct. This leaves at 6am so I refused to contenance getting up that early. So I had the bright idea of flying to Warsaw and getting the train. Supposedly it takes 2.5 hours. But in fact it took 5.5. And my image of flying through the Polish countryside whilst taking a leisurely dinner in dining car were crushed when I discovered train had no food of any description- though a man appeared half way through the journey with a large rucksack full of cans of beer! Well, needs must. Still I guess I saved the airmiles?!

At least I had a few hours to look round Warsaw; a rather more attractive City than its reputation would have you believe. It was almost totally destroyed by the Nazis but has been painstakingly restored.

I went to see chopin's heart and the birthplace of Marie Curie.

A reminder of the scale of the German Nazi atrocities was brought home when I went into the Dominican Church near Marie Curie's. During the Warsaw Uprising the church was used as a hospital. When the Germans marched in they shot the entire nursing and doctor staff, then they blew up the Church , thus burying all the patients who were in beds in the crypt. It was impossible to disinter all the bodies after the war so the marble Church floor now marks the grave of those hundred poor souls.

Krakov itself is a marvellous city- now well known as the birthplace of John Paul and where he spent his years as Cardinal Archbishop.

Attacking charity

2011-09-06T23:10:00.002+01:00

Appalled to hear Nadine Dorries MP on the Today programme making an entirely erroneous and indeed libellous accusation against a charity providing abortion services. I'm glad the Today programme published a correction. She claimed,without bothering to check and without foundation, that the British Pregnancy Advisory Service only provides one hour counselling a week to people who come for an abortion. Untrue and a disgrace that she made that claim.

She should be ashamed of herself. A thoroughly reprehensible attack. I heartily recommend the recent Blog of the admirable Fab Elsworth on this subject.

It's time Frank Field disassociated himself from Dorries.

Have they no shame?

2011-09-06T12:58:00.000+01:00

Bankers that is! It has been revealed that the bosses of the banks that we, as taxpayers, bailed out now earn more than they did before the crisis. Amazing! And what an example they set. Is there no price for failure if you are a banker? Bonuses are supposedly there to reward achievement, effort and work that increases the business. Clearly not for bankers.

Oh well, I must remember that the British Bankers Association warns us they will all throw their toys out of the pram and decamp to Liechenstien if we dare to stop their bonuses.

An interesting Monday! The top teams at ncvo and ACEVO had a get together to talk about how we work more together and we had a view around our new home. I have to hand it to Stuart. The work going on at ncvo is amazing. It will turn these offices into a really terrific location- a hub for us and other sector bodies. I hope other umbrella bodies will consider moving into the new spaces being created.

Of course we really need to have a name for this new " hub " for the sector. I'm keen on Third Sector House ( we could ask the PM to open it as he is so keen on the term ) or perhaps the Bubb-Etherington Memorial home? Your suggestions warmly welcomed !

My top directors and I had a viewing of our new home on the second floor. It will be fitted out to our spec so I have marked out my office spot. I generously offered to forgo an office and go Open Plan but Dr Kyle quickly put a stop on that!

The BMA!

2011-09-02T12:06:00.003+01:00

So the BMA are launching a " kill the bill " campaign. They have reversed their position in welcoming the work of the Future Forum and the changes that were proposed, retreated back into their comfort zone and now want to kill all chances of reforming the service for the benefit of patients.

I think the time someone spoke some home truths about this union. Let's be clear on the role of the BMA. This is not an organisation that puts patients' interests first, or wants to defend the NHS. It is the doctors' trade union and has always put what is good for the doctor before anything else. No reason why a trade union should not do this. It's their job. And they have been most effective in doing it. But do not allow them to get away with the deception they are defending the NHS or have the citizens' interests at heart, because in this case they most certainly do not.

For too long politicians have indulged the BMA. The attitude is , as Nye Bevan put it in his mammoth struggle with the BMA when he was setting up the NHS , we "stuff their mouth with gold". One of the major failings of New Labour was to cave in to the BMA on doctors contracts. So we now have a situation where a very large number of doctors are paid more than the PM.

And I would not object to good salaries for highly professional and dedicated staff, but what I do object to is the lack of customer focus. Why don't more doctors surgeries open at the weekends or late evenings so those of us who work can see them without having to take a day off work? Some already do, but it should be the norm not the exception. And why is it often so difficult to get an appointment, so you are left with the impression you are being granted a favour rather than your right? And we all know of doctors surgeries that won't register " difficult" customers like the homeless or travellers or the profoundly mentally ill, all because they are too much trouble! Perhaps Hamish Meldrum, the Chair of the BMA, who writes in the Guardian today about his concern for poorer people loosing out in reforms, could turn his attention to those of his members who take such attitudes.

There are many wonderful doctors in our NHS. It is rightly why we all hold them in such high regard and trust them. I have met many of them over this last year. There are many progressive doctors who want to work with the third sector, who know reform is needed and are keen to take control of commissioning to make change happen.
But they are let down by some dinosaurs in the BMA who put sectional and vested interest before what is good for the NHS and the citizens who own it .

Yes, that’s right - citizens own the NHS and its citizens that doctors serve! And I have to say that the article in the Guardian with the BMA of all organisations posing as defenders of the poor is laughable.I was amazed by Meldrum's comments when he said we should oppose extending choice because " articulate middle class patients" will be able to take advantage and the less well off will not. What an idiotic argument. Of course less well off citizens find it harder to exercise their rights. That's true in education , welfare etc. But the answer to that is not to stop extending choice but to ensure we put resources into advocacy and support to people to exercise choice . Its a spurious argument, which masks their opposition to giving us all more choice over our health service. It is also deeply patronising to poorer communities ; assuming if you are poor you don't have the ability to exercise choice. The NHS Constitution ( which i thought the BMA supported) guarantees choice to citizens. Are the BMA now arguing these rights be removed from us?

So let's be clear when we hear their "kill the bill" demands. This is not because they are supporting the NHS; remember this organisation opposed the setting up of the NHS back in 1947. They have regressive and patronising views on the role of the third sector . They oppose competition and a greater diversity of providers , because they think it effects their dominance of the health sector.

There is a deep irony in their calls to stop "privatisation " and more competition. What is the biggest private sector involvement in the NHS? Doctors! Doctors are not public servants. They are independent private contractors. Indeed as I pointed out in my report for the government on choice and competition the role of independent private sector firms in the NHS is quite small, overall, less than 4%. Much less than doctors. So let's not allow the BMA to masquerade as defending the NHS in their new campaign .

We have been through a major review of the Bill in the Future Forum work. The Government have accepted significant change in their proposals. It would be appalling if yet further concessions were made to the vested interests of the BMA.
So my message to Lansley, Cameron and Clegg. Stand firm. Time to face down the BMA . It is no time for wimpishness. Governments have been too accommodating to the BMA in the past. Of course let's listen to their concerns. That is what the FF did. And reflected those concerns in the changes we proposed and the Government accepted. But it must be a NO to their demand to kill the Bill. It's time to show who runs the NHS and who it exists to serve.
As I said when my colleagues and I presented our FF reports to the Cabinet; the NHS belongs to the people; not the BMA.

The real defenders of the NHS are those who know reform is essential in the light of financial pressures, rising demand and the need to reallocate resources from hospitals to the community. Competition will drive more choice and move resources where they are needed. As I have said before " competition is not a disease". Don't let us allow the BMA to undermine reform, because that will, in the long run threaten the very basis of a service free and universal.

Bankers a'looting , Private Eye and Corfu!

2011-09-01T16:32:00.002+01:00

I think that the banks use a different dictionary from the rest of us. One that has excised words like sorry,regret, repentance, remorse and the like. Clearly though it goes big on greed and arrogance.

I got off the plane yesterday and picked up the morning papers ; full of the sound and fury of the banks determined to carry on regardless and trying hard to ensure one part of the coalition government don't implement what we all know is much needed reform. I'm so pleased that Vince Cable MP is determined not to let the banks rob us again.

I was delighted to hear Evan Davies giving John Cridland a hard time as the " banks spokesman" as he was described, on Today. As he so rightly said to Cridland no one in the banks has ever said sorry or expressed any remorse , or even a thanks to the British people for bailing them out. It's clear they think we owe them, not the other way round. And their quick return to bunging themselves large bonuses show that like the bourbons they have learnt nothing and "regret rien".

And as for the childish response of the British Bankers Association who are loudly telling us , like a petulant child in the playground ; " well if your nasty to us , we'll take our ball away and play elsewhere, then you'll be sorry! ". The correct response to such childishness is , " well bugger off then".

There was also an interesting report in the Indi that said that there is evidence that the behaviour of politicians etc at the top of society does influence attitudes across society. The bankers should remember that their arrogance and greed set an atrocious example to young people. Whilst I'm not suggesting bankers get involved in violence, their looting of taxpayers money together with a refusal to allow sensible reform is as bad an example as the young people correctly arrested and punished for their actions in the recent riots.

Though there is a difference. The bankers have got away with it , no punishment. No repentance. They refuse to acknowledge guilt or allow sensible reform. We must hope the Government stand firm and implement needed reform.

That was not all that greeted me off the plane! Amusingly I get a text from Harriet Baldwin MP ( my vice Chair on SIB ) to tell me, " You have achieved life's highest honour - almost a page in Private Eye! All looks good to me. "

As you can imagine , the Office went in search of copy. Its rather fun. A collection of some of the pearls from my Blogs. I'm described as ,like Woody Allen's Zelig, Sir Stephen Bubb keeps popping up in important places.....he's a chatty little chap...a world champion bore on the third sector....almost a permanent fixture in parts of Whitehall ".

It's a piss take of course, but featuring in Quentin Letts and Private Eye is an achievement of sorts!

Although the jet lag is taking its toll I go off to the Proms with my old friend Alec McGivan from the BBC and David Fielding to hear the world premier of a new Cello Symphony by Graham Fitkin.

It's good. In parts. Perhaps could do with some editing. Of course I'm aware that history may prove this work to be hugely significant , in which case my Blog will condemn me! Yo-Yo Ma on his £2.2m cello was stunning , of course. But the highlight was the Beethoven 9th. Massive choir. Full Orchestra. The magnificent noise!

Back home to my niece Miranda who was baby sitting the Hound. She tells me she was sitting at the next table to a bunch of dining Tories whilst on holiday in Corfu. Oliver Letwin and an Alan Duncan, " looking ridiculous in a djellabas.

I said did she go and introduce herself as my niece but no, she was uncharacteristically shy. And to cap it all she wasn't listening in to the conversation. Shame!

Postcard from Cebu

2011-08-30T10:36:00.005+01:00

The Blue Orchid Resort, Moalboal , Cebu island; can you imagine the palm fringed white sand beach, the turquoise of the waters over the coral reef ? And Bubb on the sun lounger by the pool with the latest superb Alan Hollinghurst !

The excellent David Fielding, head hunter to the sector , is also a top Akido champion ( just gained his 6th Dan no less ! )and his Akido partner Michael Mccavish owns this resort which he kindly asked me to visit before heading back to the UK.

And what better place to spend an English Bank Holiday than in the sun with the latest Alan Hollinhurst novel; even though at 90 degrees it's hot in the sun. But I have also been energetic and done some snorkelling. I have only a few wounds to show for my generally pathetic efforts ( coral can be quite sharp you know! ). This is one of the top diving resorts in the world and there are threats to get me into a wetsuit to try it out. Um?

But there are few things more treasured than spending a few days with no diary schedule or emails , by a pool , eating fish caught from the sea and drinking mango juice. And a light walk along the beach at low tide reflecting on , well whatever!

The resort...

But all good thing must come to an end and I'm now homeward bound!

Talking and Seeing!

2011-08-26T13:07:00.005+01:00

The highlight of the tour today; addressing the Social Enterprise Summit held at the Jesuit University ; The Ateneo de Manila University. This University is one of the foremost learning institutions in the country and is a forerunner in teaching a social enterprise course.

I was talking about " scaling up " because the key issue here is how to develop third sector- social entrepreneurship and if it is to make a real dent in rural and urban poverty social enterprise it needs to go to scale.

An interesting reflection on our own sector when there is debate about large v small. Here though they do not have the luxury of that debate; when half of Manila's citizens live in slums and some 18m people in rural villages have no electricity, then scale is urgent.

I argued that, in general terms , 5 factors are needed for scale.

# First, there clearly has to be opportunity to scale up. In the UK this is provided by public service reform and by a policy commitment to " big society".

# Access to capital is crucial for growth. This applies here as much as in the UK. And I'm glad to say there is not the same debate we have about grants v loans. Here there is a very clear understanding that loans are a crucial way of growing organisations; whether micro finance or social venture capitalists. They see the value of loans as empowering sustainable development. I talked of the Big Society Bank idea and the work of the Social Investment Business as " engaged investors".

# Government support; I argued crucial to sector development in the UK has been work with Government , advocacy and campaigning to get Governments on side. That is more tricky here; especially with a Government that has a nasty habit of not paying bills or honouring commitments and when the state officials are often corrupt. Someone told me that anyone building roads for local government will expect to put down over 50% in bribes up front. So some way to go before the Philippines Government set up an Office of the Third Sector!

# Collaboration and partnership. I argued that one way to achieve scale is through collaborative approaches across the sector between organisations and between the public , private and third sectors. I spoke about the examples of 3sc and Serco and Turning Point and Catch 22. There are already such arrangements here and this must grow, just as it must in the UK. I argued that one way to secure scale without undermining the value of localism was to develop consortia that harness scale but involve a framework of local and small scale porducers.

# Leadership; the bottom line is the quality of the people at the top of the organisation. You loan to individuals , not organisations. I also warned against getting hung up on process and models. I said the UK often got too hung up on trying to define what a social enterprise is and who qualifiers and who does not. I explained that we don't have a legal form for social enterprise and many are registered as charities. It's a verb not a noun as Liam Black was always saying.

It's the attitude that matters. Whatever form of body you are you need to have the attitude of social entrepreneurs. You need strong Leaders and invest in their training and development.

I also spoke at a dinner later in the day for members of the faculties at the university and students, especially those taking a module on social enterprise. The Q+A was lively and informative. I was even asked was the " Big Society" all rhetoric and a cover for cuts. A good question ( though I was uncharacteristically diplomatic in response! ).

But the highlight for me has been meeting and visiting social enterprises. I had an amazing brunch with the founder trustees of GKonomics, 5 dynamic and elegant ladies ( Pinky Poe, Cecile Manheimer, Divine Duran and Marivic Pineda ) who are clearly a force to be reckoned with.

Their vision is to build a new generation of producers; building enterprises which produce world class products they then bring to market.

They set up their social enterprise 2 years ago to bring to market the products produced in many isolated villages or in poor urban areas . Products that make use of natural products or recycling. So , for example they arrange for villagers to make really fashionable and snazy bags made from recycled fruit juice cartons or magazines. They are selling these at the high end of the market and have already made inroads overseas.

Earlier today I went to visit the" Echo Store". This is another social enterprise set up by a number of formidable women like Chat Juan ( interesting how the social enterprise sector here is dominated by women! ). Chat ran her own successful coffee shop company until she sold it and went into developing the Echo store concept. The store sells a range of products from their own line of organic cosmetics, coffee, jewellery made from both natural and recycled products, dog and cat products ( obviously I bought a rather nice organic dog shampoo for you know who ! ) Wastepaper baskets etc! They have grand plans for expansion and already have a farm and restaurant. They source their products from many rural or marginalised communities along both fair trade and organic principles.

You can see the range of bags here in the display in the Echo store..

My last visit of the trip was to see jim Ayala of Hybrid Social Solutions. They are dedicated to supporting rural communities that have no access to electricity or usable water by developing solar energy and water purification plants. He showed me their solar lamp which will give enough light to light a room. This proves both inexpensive but also cuts out the use of dangerous lighting methods like kerosene lamps. You can even recharge your mobile off it!

The British Council have done me proud by organising all the visits in such an efficient way. The British Council is a fine organisation. It is often forgotten it is part of the third sector and indeed Vernon Ellis their current Chair was knighted at the same time as me! They have been doing a lot of work in Asia promoting the idea of social enterprise and bringing UK experience to help in the development of social entrepreneurs across the region.

I've now finished the official part of my visit and am off to a small resort on a beautiful island for some R+R on a palm fringed beach. All work and no play make Bubb a dull boy. Which no one would ever dream of suggesting I'm sure!