My old Brixton friend Matthew Thomson used to be the CEO.
Now he runs the great ’Fifteen' social enterprise and restaurant, down in
Cornwall. Craig Anderson is the CEO now taking the organisation forward. An
active ACEVO member, he argues for professionalism in our approach to
fulfilling our mission, and is charting a strong course for the network.
Furniture re-use is big business now; not surprisingly
the recession has seen a big rise in demand, making the Network ever more
relevant. I'd been asked to give the opening keynote address alongside Eric
Pickles MP. Eric was good - I've known him for decades, since his time as
Leader of Bradford. I was able to pay tribute to him for pioneering the
Localism Act. I chided the sector for not making extensive use of the Rights
clauses of the Act: the right to challenge, to acquire assets, etc. And we still
have not fully used the Social Value Act to challenge commissioners.
I spoke on the theme of optimism. Though there are many
reasons to be depressed, there are also major opportunities for our sector to
deliver better services and to use our voice to challenge and advocate for our
beneficiaries. I talked of our proud history of "voice and choice".
And I'm afraid I had to chide Eric for the Lobbying Act, which has hardly
anything to do with lobbying, and a lot to do with gagging campaigning charities.
I said although ACEVO and our friends had secured much change - perhaps we got
as much as 70% of what we want - a third sector leader should never be
satisfied unless they have got 100%.
I talked about sorting commissioning. Council officials
and civil servants have not been terribly good at drafting contracts, and the
private sector has got away with serious failing. A handful of big firms mop up
most of the cash, as I said in my recent letter to the PM.
The Government needs to "get its house in order”, to
ensure the contracting-out of public services to private providers is subject
to proper scrutiny and provides value for taxpayers, MPs have warned. Public
Accounts Committee chair Margaret Hodge said recent outsourcing failures
involving firms such as G4S and Serco had exposed "serious
weaknesses" in the Government's management of private contracts. Her
committee recommended extending FoI legislation to cover the contracts.
Of course this would also mean we were covered too. I'm
not sure extending the legislation is a good idea. It would be time-consuming
and bureaucratic. But we will need to be more open on contract matters I
suspect.
Richard Johnson, former MD of Serco and an adviser to
ACEVO, told Today: “if your strongest motivation is to secure the cheapest
possible price, you are ultimately going to be driven to the largest
contractors".
Last but not least, it was very sad to wake to the new of
the death of Tony Benn. When I moved to London in 1976 I lived in Notting Hill
for a number of years, and got to know the Benns well. Tony's wife Caroline was
the Chair of Holland Park Governors, where I was also a governor for a while.
So I used to go round to their place; their eldest son Stephen is an exact
contemporary of mine. And I kept in touch.
I used to debate with Tony about public service reform,
though I’m afraid he had the view that public services were the role of the
State and charities were at the margins. I even asked him to debate the issue
at one of our ACEVO CEO Summits. He was brilliant and had the audience in the
palm of his hand. I've heard him speak on many occasions. It was always a
privilege. And his courtesy in debate would always win him admirers. His
writing was a joy. He will be missed.
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