Budgets, Blunkett and getting old...

So, the Budget. And the missing £40m. It’s disgraceful that the Local Sustainability Fund still hasn’t been launched, more than a year after it was first announced. This idea - promoted by ACEVO and agreed by OCS under Nick Hurd - has been quietly dropped for now. They hoped quietly but I intend to ensure there is nothing quiet about this manoeuvre. Of course we suspect why this has happened. The idea that you need a ‘sustainability fund’ implies there are many charities in danger from funding cuts and rising demand for their services. This does not fit the current narrative of the ruling coalition. I suspect the hand of Lynton Crosby in excising this particular ‘barnacle’ from the budget speech ‘boat’.

So will Rob, our civil society minister, now stand up for the sector and insist on the fund going ahead? We have only a week before purdah. I’m hoping that Rob will set the record straight at our ACEVO and CAF hustings on Tuesday. He will certainly be asked what happened!

Whatever the good aspects of the budget - raising tax allowances, moves on savers, etc., it is deeply worrying for our sector what might happen on cuts. The IFS comment about a “rollercoaster of cuts to come” will have been greeted with dismay in our sector as we and our beneficiaries will undoubtedly bear the brunt.

In fact I was in the Commons after the Budget. I was having a late lunch with Nick Hurd MP, for a catch-up and an opportunity to reflect back on the 6 years he spent in the job of civil society minister or spokesman. 

As you can imagine it was a wide-ranging discussion. But with a particular emphasis on social finance and how we promote it. And then onto a reception to mark the contribution that David Blunkett MP has made to society generally and to youth charities in particular. A great and emotional occasion as he is a towering giant of a politician and a friend for over three decades. Indeed there was a gaggle of us former local government types from the 80s reminiscing in the corner - led by the brilliant Margaret Hodge MP.

Of course the danger of getting older is the huge temptation to reminisce about the good old days. But more importantly, as the population ages, as the working life extends, as many of us get older and live longer with long-term conditions we need to look carefully at the role of our sector in working and supporting older people. 

Often this subject is approached from a negative and unhelpful position. Us oldies are a burden. We soak up resources. We get too many free perks. So it’s good that today we get the report Decision Time: will the voluntary embrace the age of opportunity? It’s the final report of the Commission on the Voluntary Sector and Ageing Ably led by Lynne Berry, former active ACEVO member when she ran WRVS. 

As they say, “longer life expectancy is opening up new possibilities for individuals and communities”. It offers the potential of an age of opportunity in which the third sector could thrive. Worth reading. Worth taking up the challenge. 

This is a good approach, and certainly for those of us in our seventh decade (me and Stuart Etherington to name but two!) this age of opportunity is something to be welcomed.

Adam Boulton looks at the charity sky, and a visit to Manchester

Adam Boulton, the ace political commentator for Sky TV, came to speak at one of our ACEVO leadership lunches. These are one of the secret treasures of ACEVO: a good lunch, top class speakers and splendid food and wine to aid mental digestion. And Adam did not disappoint. 

We were lunching in the aftermath of ‘Brooksgate' - where our Minister has quickly learnt how strongly our sector defends its independence. Adam had some wise words about our positioning as charities. He said that what the media want from charities is an independent voice and to hear our expertise. They are keen for facts to back up or to make a story. For the media it is our independence that matters, and so being seen to be aligned with a party, or what may appear as 'too party political,’ will be a problem. 

Of course the boundaries here are blurred. If you campaign on poverty is that seen as aligning yourself too much with the left? And if we point to the injustice created by the bedroom tax is that seen as party political? It can be difficult for charity leaders who want to put across hard and often blunt messages. Increasingly, some seem to assume that being ‘political’ means you’re necessarily taking partisan sides - something which is never the case. Charities speak for our beneficiaries and our missions - never for political parties.

Campaigning is part and parcel of our ‘knitting'. Though I have to say this is a very odd analogy, and for that we do not have Brooks to blame - but rather one of the Charity Commissioners who clearly, unlike Brooks, does not like campaigning and gave a very unwise interview in Third Sector making this silly analogy. My mother, who is a great knitter (her knitted swimming trunks for me when I was a boy were a marvel), would thoroughly object to the analogy as she is a great believer in charity campaigning.  

I had to miss the farewell party for Hurd in Waterloo as I was speaking on the ‘Prometheus’ course for third sector leaders at the Manchester Business School. It was a great session. I talked about the complexities of leadership in challenging times, and the dilemmas we face when we want to grow our delivery role but maintain our independence  and our voice. There is much more public scrutiny of charities and we need to do better in talking about our impact. And we need to balance the need to be professional and passionate about our cause. 

I encouraged the good folk of the sector to take heart; we represent a truly great sector that historically has bound together our democracy and provided social cohesion as well as delivering services that citizens and communities need. The voice of civil society remains crucial to strong public debate and to better law making and policy development. We should not be afraid of the need to campaign hard and to be heard, but there is a skill in doing this, in knowing the balance between speaking out and talking behind closed doors. Courage, mon brave, as someone once said. 

Nick Hurd’s legacy

Well it’s been a busy week at ACEVO and in Downing Street. I had a good conversation with our new Minister for Civil Society on Wednesday. He has a strong record on finance and in charity – having founded his own charity in 2010. He is particularly interested in the power of social finance, and he will be speaking at an ACEVO fringe event on this topic at the Conservative Party Conference. At ACEVO we are keen to see progress on the role of civil society in public service delivery and I look forward to working with him on this in future.

But that said, it is sad to see Nick Hurd leave the post. He leaves OCS as the longest-serving Minister for Civil Society, and with an excellent record behind him on National Citizen Service, the Community First Fund and much more. He was widely respected on all sides of the sector as you can see from the plaudits that have come in this week.

I was interested to read Nick’s full resignation letter to the Prime Minister which conveys the range of his achievements and of his continued interest in the power of Britain’s civil society.

The comprehensive letter – which reads more like a handover note – points particularly to the importance in the next few years of making it easier for charities and social enterprises to properly participate in public service delivery. Nick recognises the crucial importance of access to social finance – which government still must improve on. He also points to the massive untapped potential of social value-based commissioning:

“There is of course much more that can be done to make it easier for social entrepreneurs and socially responsible businesses to create social value. The Social Value Act was a useful start but cannot be the end of our efforts to encourage intelligent  commissioning from a diverse market of suppliers, including charities, public sector mutuals and social enterprises. We have yet to unlock the full value that they can add in helping us tackle some of the most stubborn social challenges that undermine the  country. It is hard to see us meeting the challenge of delivering ‘better with less’ without our social economy fully engaged.”

So here is some useful advice for our sector and for Brooks as he steps in to post. Lots to develop on social value and on financing our sector’s social ambitions. And let’s not forget the importance too of protecting our right to speak out. We have just two months now before the Lobbying Act kicks in. The chilling effect is already being felt. A good letter in the Times this week by our friends at Bond put the urgency of the matter in clear terms. Its words should speak for us all.

“We and many others call for the act to be replaced by one which regulates party-political lobbying while safeguarding civil society’s right to speak out.  As it is, the Lobbying Act is a threat to a healthy democracy.”

Ave et Vale

So it’s hail Brooks Newmark and farewell Nick Hurd.

I think the fact there has been such a strong response from sector leaders paying tribute to Nick says a lot about how well he has done his job. He cared about the health of our sector, and avoided the political extremes inhabited by some in Parliament on both sides who want to relegate us to the margins.

I always enjoyed talking to Nick. I'm sure he always thoroughly enjoyed my helpful texts of advice and occasional expletives about "developments". He was a strong supporter of social finance and did much to promote it. He should also be remembered for his acts of omission. He refused to get sucked into the nonsense of CEO pay and refused to attack charity campaigning. He lived by his mantra of "do no harm".

So his final advice to me about Brooks (he'll forgive me for repeating his text I'm sure) was "Good guy. Bright. A good listener. Nice and genuine. Business background. Think you will get on despite everything I tell him about you!"

And I also had a great intro to Brooks from Crispin Blunt MP who is on my SIB Board and who also gave him a strong write up.

He said he was, “imaginative, open minded and convinced by argument. Not a zealot".

Finally, though he is relatively unknown to us at present my Deputy, Ash Singh, knows him and some of his team and he likewise tells me good things about him. Harvard and Oxford. Involvement with various charities, including one he set up.  Work in Rwanda. Treasury whip. This bodes very well.

And I speak to him today. I shall remind him of some of his illustrious predecessors. Indeed one Party Leader began his ministerial career as the first third sector Minister, so the auguries may be good for us all hearing much more about Brooks. 

Art in the Cotswolds

I had a great weekend at a sculpture exhibition set in the wonderful surrounds of Astall Manor, the former Cotswolds home of the Mitfords.

My neighbour in Charlbury, Emma Maiden, was exhibiting in their 'On Form' series. It continued the arty theme of my weekend as I had lunch Friday with an up and coming artist - Tim Patrick - who is going to do a portrait of me and my partner. A frightening thought. Unfortunately I have not yet had a request to be 'hung' in the National Portrait Gallery but surely some day...

And just in case my head was in any danger of expanding after being described by Ed Miliband as "formidable" and by Nick Hurd as an "institution", I discovered I had appeared (yet again) in the improbably named Quentin Letts' column in the Daily Mail. Clearly moved by my attendance at last week's IPPR event, he felt bound to comment how "whenever a think tank puts out a table with custard creams and name badges, springy-heeled Bubblet pops up like a kiddies' conjuror."

The Social Leaders Gathering, Part 1.

So, one year to go to the General Election. And what do our political parties have to offer us in the third sector? It’s the theme of our ACEVO Gathering of Social Leaders today, as we hear from our sector leaders and the leaders of our competing parties on their "offer " to us. 

We have just heard an insightful and amusing account of the prospects ahead from that star Ben Page of Ipsos MORI. Setting the scene and crystal ball gazing. What the polls today tell us is that no one can be certain of the outcome - who wil win or whether there will be a further coalition of some sort.

That is an opportunity for our sector to stake its claim. Its claim to a share in power on behalf of citizens and communities ill-served by the State.

I had the task of introducing our Civil Society Minister Nick Hurd MP; looking back at the coalition and what "Big Offer " they have for the future.

Here is what I said:

So, we have exactly one year to go. Grant Shapps’ election clock at CCHQ has finally got to the 365-day countdown. Ed Miliband today gives Labour HQ the one-year pep talk. The short answer, for anyone who cares to speculate, is that we have no idea who will be in government in a year’s time.
That means the third sector needs to keep working closely with all major political parties. None has a strong narrative yet for the third sector’s role in government, so over the next year ACEVO and the rest of our sector have a big task ahead.

I want to draw special attention today to the question of trust in British public life.

In general, we are losing trust in our public institutions. The same goes for traditional figures of authority – we are no longer a deferential society.

Associational life itself – be it churches, youth groups, football matches etc. – has declined precipitously. Political party loyalty has changed so that while in the 1950s 97% of electors voted Labour or Tory, in 2010 the two main parties only received 65% of the votes cast.

The British Social Attitudes survey shows that over the last thirty years trust in institutions like the police, press and banks has fallen too. The press and banks are particularly notable; trust in the press has halved to 27% of people and for banks it’s fallen from 90% to 19%.

And I’m not sure that more than around 20% of the public have ever trusted politicians on the whole. 
But despite all that, the third sector is still highly trusted – by the general public.

In the wake of last summer’s Chief Executive pay furore, a YouGov survey showed that 49% of the public still trust charities to lobby government for the benefit of society – compared to under 30% for trade unions and under 20% for private companies.

Likewise, an nfpSynergy survey earlier this year, looking at people’s trust in charities to campaign politically, showed that 58% supported our sector’s right to be able to campaign to change laws and government policies relevant to our work. The public seem not always to have a clear awareness of how our organisations work in practice, but they trust that we are doing the right thing on behalf of our beneficiaries.

This is in marked contrast to our political class. Now, no-one ever trusts politicians very much, rightly or wrongly. It’s unfair to comment on that. But what worries me more is that politicians are out of kilter with the public in their view of charity. This same nfpSynergy survey found that a significant number of MPs were unhappy with charities doing ‘political’ activity: 78% of Tories, 23% of Labour and 38% of Lib Dems.

I would argue that it’s this disconnect between MPs’ and the public’s views of charities that has recently produced unpopular legislation like the Lobbying Bill.

So now to the year ahead. I mention trust because, as a trusted sector, charities are essential to the success of the programmes of all potential governments after 2015. With one year to go to the election, our sector’s enormous reservoir of trust we have built up from the public gives us a duty and an ability to speak out and raise the interests of our beneficiaries in an otherwise narrow and quite nasty election debate – focused on immigration, welfare and the economy.

Looking ahead to today’s talks, I would like to thank Nick for his excellent work as Minister for Civil Society for the last 4 years – the longest serving holder of this post, in fact. We like what he has done. He has overseen some effective support for social finance and for third sector organisations providing public services. He has been an understanding colleague to our sector.

But I’d like also to set him a challenge. Our sector is trusted. We are central to the wellbeing of many of our society’s most vulnerable people – giving local communities and communities of need valuable services and a voice in the public sphere.

Yet the Government has provided relatively little support for capacity-building of third sector organisations. Recently Nick announced the £40 million Local Sustainability Fund, to help support medium-sized community organisations struggling to keep afloat in the wake of local authority cuts. The Cabinet Office are currently consulting on it, but the fund will only kick in in 2015.

In the meantime many organisations will struggle or collapse due to falling funding from all sources.
And they will be restrained in their ability to speak out for beneficiaries by gagging clauses in public service contracts, and the terms of the Lobbying Act which comes into force on 19 September.

My challenge, then, is to Nick and to the Government, to ask what lessons they have learnt and what they would do differently if they remain in power after 2015.

I want to leave you with three messages for now:

1. Take our sector’s work seriously – and integrate our work in planning across government like the national infrastructure plan (as ACEVO called for in our representation to the 2014 Budget).

2. Take note of our potential to make a reality of political attempts to devolve power away from Westminster and Whitehall (I’ll talk more of that in my speech before Jon Cruddas this afternoon).

3. Give our sector a ‘Big Offer’. We were central to the Big Society in 2010. I did pronounce it to be dead last year but I hope to be surprised by the public debate in the coming year. There is much to do, not least supporting sector infrastructure that has been decimated by years of cuts.

So without further ado: Thank you for coming Nick, and welcome. I look forward to a constructive year of dialogue in the run-up to the election.

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. 

Hurd and Grit

I'm not sure I quite understand why Nick Hurd's comments on lack of grit among younger people has been controversial.

Looking at what he said, he was making an obvious and indeed important point about the need for younger people to have so called “soft skills" as well as formal qualifications.

He said,

 “…but  just as important to us are so-called soft skills, character skills, the ability to get on with different people, to articulate yourself clearly, confidence, grit, self-control..."

This is right and indeed many would argue schools are not as good at developing those soft skills as they are at teaching for formal qualifications. That is exactly the sort of “offer” you get from involvement in the third sector through volunteering. Many young people do get involved in volunteering, or involved in the many projects and out of school activities that charities organise. And often it’s that show of involvement or commitment that marks out young people when they do look for work.

So he is right. Where however the Government need to do more is in tackling the scourge of youth unemployment. The ACEVO commission on this, headed by David Miliband showed the way. It highlighted the fact that this has been a persistent problem under all governments and more determined, targeted action is needed. It’s surprising that youth unemployment has not become more of a national issue. But that may change. It certainly ought to.