Bad food and MPs...

Well done to Michael Gove MP for the new guidelines on food in schools, cutting out fries and sugary drinks. High time too, as obesity among kids soars and the rise in cases of diabetes and pre-diabetes is increasing significantly. And what may you ask is our health service doing about it? 

Well, in hospitals, sweet nothing as they say. Walk into most hospitals and the tempting offers on chocs and coke from vending machines and cafes are all around. Why, Guys hospital even has a McDonalds on the premises. And at Tommies you walk in past an array of retail outlets piled to the gunwales with unhealthy food options. It's time hospitals got on message. I realise they are turning a fast buck on these outlets but I thought they were about improving our health! Could Jeremy Hunt take a leaf out of Michael Gove's book on this? And let's face it. Most elderly people in hospital for a long period emerge malnourished - Age UK has run their excellent campaign against malnutrition in hospitals for almost 10 years now. Hospitals just don't get good food, let alone healthy food. End of rant. 

We had a Social Investment Business reception at the House of Commons this week (more sticky buns on offer there; I said no!). We were introducing some of our investees to MPs and we had a good cross-section of Members from all parties, as well as Ministers and their Shadows. Nick Hurd MP gave a great speech and emphasised the point I had made about how social finance is one of those subjects where you do find cross-party consensus. The Big Society Capital started off as a Labour idea, but was taken up enthusiastically by the Conservatives, and David Cameron is a great advocate of social investment. And Minister for Civil Society Nick Hurd has been a great champion for our sector. He has a lovely approach to the role which combines an oft laconic style with wit and passion for the sector. He even went so far as to describe me as ‘an institution’. Obviously kind comments by him about me simply reinforce my view he is a perceptive chap.

The event was sponsored by Crispin Blunt MP, a former Prisons Minister and a non-exec on my Social Investment Business Board. His comments on a range of issues make great common sense, as I told him, now that he has been freed from the cares of office! But the fun of this event was in meeting the many charities and social enterprises that have taken loans to promote their ambitions. 

SIB has made over £350m worth of social investment to over 1000 organisations. This makes us the UK's largest social investor. I'm chuffed to be their Chair. And in the spirit of keeping fit I can report I spent an hour in the Brixton gym last night. Needed to after that rather splendid dinner at the Cass Business School on Wednesday.

Liverpool and local impact funds

Always good to go to Liverpool. As I reminded my audience in St George's Hall I have 8 dead relatives buried in the City!  And, as I reminded the Mayor of Liverpool, the council once offered me a job as a Director . Fortunately for them I turned it down and went to the Lottery Charities Board instead.

But enough chit chat – why was I there?  The Social Investment Business was launching its Local Impact Fund for Liverpool. The first such new fund that we hope will become a potential big new source of loan funding for our sector.  So move over social impact bonds - this is the new show in town!

There is potential to tap into funding through 39 partnerships in England, so this  new loan fund is based on a partnership model that could tap into millions of pounds of European funding to grow local charities.  And it has begun in Liverpool!

The Liverpool Local Impact Fund will use £1m of European structural funding and match it with a further £1m of private investment from our Social Investment Business.

It will award local charities and enterprises unsecured loans of up to £250,000 each, for up to five years, to help them grow. It is expected to invest in 20 organisations this year. The interest rate charged will vary.

Similar local impact funds are being rolled out in five other areas: Manchester, Cheshire, Cumbria, Warrington and Lancashire. 

Local impact funds will work by using local enterprise partnerships – which involve local authorities and businesses – to tap into a European development fund. The impact funds will then be able to use this money to help secure matched funding from other investors.

There is a ground-breaking opportunity to use local impact funds to attract more than £100m of new social investment in the next couple of years, enabling charities to create new jobs and improve services in their communities.

It was good to do this with Nick Hurd MP, our Civil Society Minister. And it was good to pay tribute to him as I introduced him in the grand surroundings of the Georgian St George's Hall. Nick has been passionate about the power of social investment and has done much to help grow the market. He was with us to endorse and support the new Fund. Nick is about to become the longest serving sector Minister. We have had a few since I persuaded Tony Blair to appoint a Third Sector Minister and since the very first one; a certain Ed Miliband!  And Nick has proved a great choice. He "gets" the sector – our quirks and fantasies as well as our ambitions and drive. He is supportive and has certainly lived up to the aim to "do no harm," as he said he would do when appointed.

Nick Hurd and Jonathan Jenkins

It was also fun to be on the platform with the Mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson. Good to have him there. As yet the Council have not put money into the Fund, but I'm sure they are looking at this. 

Then it was back on the train to attend a reception for the country's top 500 most influential people.....can't say more at this stage. Partly because I've left my ego on the luggage rack of the train...

Fun at the House

It was that time of year; the annual meeting of ACEVO and our Parliamentary reception. Last year we had snow but yesterday it was quite mild. I hope that's a reflection of a milder climate for charities and social enterprises in 2014.

"Optimism" was the theme of my speech. Well worth reading (he says without ego!). See it here

I used a fabulous quote from Proverbs to illustrate our historic role:

"Speak out on behalf of the voiceless, and for the rights of all who are vulnerable. Speak out in order to judge with righteousness and to defend the needy and the poor."

Proverbs 31: 8-10

It was highly relevant as a short while earlier in the House of Commons we had the result of the votes on the vital Lords amendments on the Lobbying Bill, proposed by the former Bishop of Oxford Lord Harries. It's a disgrace the Commons have rejected the very sensible proposals of our Commission on Civil Society on staff costs and constituency limits. Both will greatly constrain our role in speaking out for communities and our duty to promote a healthy debate in a democratic society. We will urge the Lords to stand firm. They must assert our right to campaign. And if the Government have any sense they will seek a compromise. We are more than happy to meet with Government to hammer out a sensible middle way, but compromise is the right way forward now and the Civil Society Commission will hope to have those discussions soon.

Our Parliamentary reception brought together Liz Kendall MP, the opposition health Minister, Nick Hurd MP our Minister and the CEO of CAF Bank. Peter Ostacchini.

Liz was great. A former ACEVO member when she was the CEO of the Maternity Alliance, she was very generous in her tribute to our role in supporting and briefing. She said she would "fall on" our briefings about what was going on as essential reading. And she was clear that our sector must play a major role in better public services.

It was a theme picked up by Nick Hurd. As he said: "The big question for any Government will be how do we give people better public services with less money?" And we are crucial to that answer.

He also made the point about the trust in our sector as opposed to so many other institutions. He argued that where trust goes, power flows. So whatever we might think about the challenges of 2013 on pay, lobbying or ethical investment, there is much to be optimistic about.

Good to see many of our members turning up for our AGM and then at our reception. Always fun to do that in Parliament where we can network with our legislators more informally. And, of course pick up gossip.

I'm now on my way to Liverpool where I'm donning my Social Investment Business Chair's hat to launch our Local impact Fund; a new £2m loan fund for the sector which is supported by the Local Economic Partnership and Liverpool Council. More on this later.

I always love a chance to visit Liverpool. I have 8 dead relations there, as I shall tell the Mayor!

Lobbying Bill; breaking news!

Today the government will table significant amendments to their ill thought through Lobbying bill. ACEVO and key Commission members had a helpful meeting yesterday to be told of the concessions. Good.

ACEVO resolved to help set up the Commission on Civil Society with more than a hundred civil society organisations because the charity sector works best when we work together. We now have begun to see the fruits of that engagement. Greg Clark MP (leading on Bill) and Nick Hurd MP have done a great job of listening to the Commission’s concerns.

So credit where it is due. Too often the sector can seem grudging when we achieve change. Or we turn a victory into defeat. So ACEVO is happy to acknowledge the major shift since this Bill was introduced.

We recognise that the government has listened and we welcome the amendments proposed. I thank Lord Harries of the Commission and its members (who include our ACEVO Chair, Lesley-Anne Alexander) for their excellent work in the last few months on the sector’s behalf.

Clearly, there remain outstanding issues with the bill. And we will continue to push for change. We would still like the government to consider removing staff costs from the bill’s restrictions. We must continue to make the argument against the proposed £10,000 cap on spending in one constituency by a charity or campaign group. But we believe that the commission has established a positive dialogue with government and we look forward to discussing these matters going forward.

 But our campaigners believe defeat is still likely in the House of Lords next week unless there are further concessions on the a2 key issues we have raised.

It all proves again just how much clout the Lords can wield with sufficient cross-party backing. Yesterday saw the 84th Government defeat in the Lords since 2010 (on the ‘criminalise annoyance’ plan), which given the Coalition’s increase in peers is all the more remarkable.

Our revising chamber is doing its work. And our charity world has risen to the challenge posed to our right to speak truth to power; another example of the danger that awaits any Government that attacks the charity sector. 

Lobbying Bill: the noble Lords speak sense

Lobbying Bill: the noble Lords speak sense

At last, we have it. Some sense being spoken on all sides of the House about the Lobbying Bill. It's just a shame that I'm talking about the House of Lords - which we know will always have the time and sense to discuss legislation properly - and not the Commons. The Government must see from yesterday's debate that their Transparency Bill is fundamentally opposed by Peers of all parties, plus the Crossbenchers. It remains a solution in search of a problem to solve.

Of 40 speeches made in the debate, a mere 3 were in support. Two from the Ministers proposing the Bill, and one from Lord Tyler who has been a consistent supporter ever since it appeared in the Commons this summer.

A few highlights from the debate:

The Bishop of Derby: "Very few people are members of political parties or of the professional lobbying groups that pursue political lobbying in a smart way, but millions of people are involved in charities and faith groups. ... Politics needs this political energy for the common good and all the signals—as we can tell from our e-mail inboxes —are that this source of political energy is being closed down and discouraged at the very time we are wringing our hands because the great public are not interested in political parties, elections or the democratic process.”

Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws (Labour): “This is not emergency legislation or law that requires fast-tracking. … we are concerned that lack of understanding about any new rules and arrangements might dissuade charities and campaigning groups within our communities from participating in campaigns, with the potential chilling effect on free speech and freedom of association. Reform of non-party campaigning regulation requires careful consideration and we need time for that. That is why we are recommending a pause in the legislative process, as has been suggested by other Members of this House. We are asking for more time to be allowed for further consideration of the measures.”

Lord Horam (Conservative): "It is important not to damage civil society or freedom of speech. In my view, the original Bill cast its net too wide as regards Part 2. ... I remain concerned about Clause 27 and the lowering of the threshold for registration. This seems unnecessary. The big spenders—the Bill is about them—already register and are caught by the reduced cap and the wider scope of what is to be controlled, but why go so far down the route to seek to register groups that are spending £5,000 in England and £2,000 in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?

The Earl of Clancarty (Crossbench): "This Bill has been driven by two engines, self-absorption and self-regard—self-absorption because it wilfully misunderstands and ignores both the way in which campaigning works and its meaning to society, and self-regard because it assumes that government and party politicians are more important than public discussion. I fear that the Bill will put Westminster further into a bubble."

I could quote the whole debate, which was excellent, but these comments give a good idea. They speak for themselves.

The debate made clear, beyond all reasonable doubt, that the Bill must be paused. I hope Peers will not only keep up the pressure for this, but also listen to the Report of the Commission on Civil Society and Democratic Engagement (www.civilsocietycommission.info), which will be published next Tuesday. It will take a detached and constructive view of the debates that should have been had before this Bill was introduced to Parliament. It will advise the Government as to how to improve our democracy rather than curtail it. Let's hope they listen.

And on a happier note, I had coffee at the Commons with our new shadow third sector Minister (or civil society if you prefer) Lisa Nandy MP. Always good to see someone who has had a career in our sector taking up this role. Lisa worked in Centre Point and the Children's Society so has a clear view on the role our sector can play campaigning and providing. We talked about the origin of the role and the fact that Ed Miliband was the very first Third Sector Minister (as he reminded her when she was appointed, she told me).

She clearly relishes the opportunity to get stuck in and good luck to her. Its been a strength that there is strong cross party support for our sector, and we have a Minister in Nick Hurd MP who also understands and supports us - even when some colleagues on the backbenches would like a more combative approach. I enjoyed lunch last week with Chris White MP, conservative and the promoter of the great Social Value Act and we were discussing how to maintain that support . We have always enjoyed a strong consensus across the parties about the role of our sector. We must hope that arguments about pay , campaigning or lobbying do not undermine that.