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.”

Google and ACEVO, Mk. 2

There was exciting news this morning as we helped launch the second Google Impact Challenge, which ACEVO is working on in partnership with NESTA.

You've got until 6 June to enter - pitching your ideas to a panel of judges which includes Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia, Emma Freud of Comic Relief and Peter Jones CBE of 'Dragons' Den' fame. They will give out a £3.2 million prize fund with the four top awards each being £500,000, for charities and social enterprises with innovative technological approaches to social change.

And even more exciting, my Director of Policy Asheem Singh is off to Google HQ in Victoria next week to film some video resources offering advice to entrants. I'll post them on the blog as soon as we have them. Stay tuned.

You can find out more about the Google Impact Challenge here: https://impactchallenge.withgoogle.com/uk2014

Soho and Glasgow

If you are ever in Soho Square, look up at the elegant Georgian town house in the SE corner. Emblazoned across the front is “House of Charity". This is the House of St Barnabas, a long standing charity providing help and support to young people, particularly to get them back into work through their academy and support schemes.

I have blogged about the wonderful developments here before. I went to see this place as it was transformed from a girl’s hostel into a club for social leaders. An inspirational CEO, Sandra Schembri (ACEVO member naturally) had the idea of turning the elegant " hostel" into a club that then provides income to support their work with deprived young people. The hostel had become outdated and inadequate for proper care and they wanted to focus on support for young people into work.

I was there hosting a dinner wearing my Social Investment Business hat. We were celebrating the new partnership we have formed with the Social and Sustainable Capital group, formed by 2 brilliant ex City lads who wanted to turn their huge financial acumen to further the reach of social finance. SIB and BSC have put capital behind 2 new funds they have established with a 20m pot for third sector organisations to apply for simple straightforward investment. It’s what the sector needs; not a lot of talk about equity and complicated social impact bonds. 

Amusing to bump into Peter Holbrook (CEO of SEUK) in the bar. He is a frequent visitor here he tells me!  ACEVO members can join St Barnabas at a reduced membership fee. I recommend it.

They even have a smart garden and Chapel (good place to marry!).

I also had a great meeting with Ciarán Devane, the CEO of Macmillan Cancer Care to talk about where we are in getting a reformed NHS. He also sits as a non-exec on NHS England so in a powerful position to influence the debate on shifting resources from hospital to community. Amusingly I flew up to Scotland afterwards to Chair some interviews for the Government and popped into the new Museum of Modern Art. In the cafe and library there I spotted this magnificent display from them. I know from personal experience that the advice and support they give to people with cancer is second to none.

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...

Polly Toynbee, Sefton, Liverpool and PA of the Year.

One of the delights of the ACEVO job is the leadership lunches we arrange for members to hear from politicians, civil servants and other opinion formers. On Tuesday we had that formidable journalist, Polly Toynbee, to a lunch at our friends CCLA (ethical investors for the sector). Not only is she an intrepid commentator, but she has written extensively about income inequality. So she had some very topical comments about recent news stories on chief executive pay in charities.

She was keen to remind us of our strength. Our sector is vital for its beneficial impact on the lives of many of Britain's and the world's poorest and most vulnerable people. And when we speak our on their behalf, people listen to us. We are a strong force, particularly when we present a united front. And a great example of that is our current campaign by over 70 charities to challenge people's attitudes to people on benefits. In a case like this administration costs are not just a negative; they're an essential component to ensure we have maximal social impact. Though I admit we have yet to properly communicate this to the public.

So income inequality remains a defining public debate for our time. But when we look at average salaries in our sector relative to their social impact - and compared to the social impact of CEOs in the public and private sector - we see they offer tremendous social value for their money. That is key, even if it won't make a Daily Telegraph headline.And that's not to even mention the fact that the average salary of a FTSE chief executive is £4.3m as Polly reminded us! 

   

Yesterday I was in Sefton to speak at the Sefton CVS annual meeting. Packed out audience sitting in the Balliol St Methodist Chapel, a magnificent Edwardian building of great architectural note. Angela White is the dynamic CEO and a strong ACEVO member active in our regional forum. She runs a thrusting CVS who help support the local sector to deliver.

I gave them a barnstorming speech; an overview of our challenges and opportunities. "Hard Times and Great Expectations" was the Dickensian theme. Of course I was warning of the difficult climate ahead. The major cuts in funding still to come: 25 billion in the next 2 years; 43 billion in the 3 years after. Don't think these hard times for our third sector are over yet!

Then there are the attacks on our civil society rights to speak truth to power and our legitimate right and indeed duty to campaign. Wisely I'm sure (in case I got criticism), I told the audience that I have 6 dead relatives buried in Sefton. Limricks; descendants of my Anglo-Irish 3-times great-grandfather. Indeed my cousin of some degree is commemorated on the Crosby War Memorial!

I apologised for not having any living relatives there...

But its difficult to be in our sector and not be relentlessly optimistic. It's in our bones as CEOs. There are opportunities; for more work with government in delivery of services like rehabilitation and health and social care. The Government wants this alongside an expansion of social finance. It is not all doom and gloom. And our sector is often at its most magnificent when our leadership is tested. 

It was very gratifying to be told by a lady in the audience that it was the best speech she had heard for decades. And as she reminded me, at 90 she has heard many!  But I must not be immodest...

I spoke about the need for reform in health and social care.  And used the examples of dementia care. I was desperately hoping no one would notice that I had come to Liverpool wearing odd shoes. One black loafer and one brown one.....oh dear. A senior moment as they say.

I also facilitated a workshop!  Haven't done that sort of thing for years. One of my ACEVO team were very worried that I wouldn't be able to run a session where I let everyone else speak. What a cheek. 

But I was not finished and hot footed it to Liverpool 8 where I was meeting Clare Dove in her lair. Clare is the CEO of a famous social enterprise that is 30 years old. Situated in the grand former home of the Lord Mayor of Liverpool it became the first girls school in Britain. Much written about by Dickens; a theme there eh! Edwina Currie was educated there too. Now, Blackburn House is a multi-purpose further education and training centre, cafe and well-being spa amongst other activities. It's pretty impressive. 

Clare is also Chair of Social Enterprise UK and a new member of the Charity Commission. As you can imagine we touched on recent developments over our lattes in her cafe!

Well, while I've been away the ACEVO office has been in celebratory mood. My PA, Leeanne Graham (who has the pleasure of posting my Blogs amongst many other lovely tasks) was awarded the prestigious "PA of the Year 2013" at the Executive PA Magazine /Hays Awards on Wednesday at a glittering ceremony in the City. Beating off rivals in the private sector, this is a triumph for Lee and for our sector. What a great honour and well deserved. Of course as I said to her that means she has to stay with me for a long time. So no poaching. You have been warned!

Rehabilitation and Brighton.

So now down at Brighton. 2 down ; 1 to go! Started of this morning with a fringe organised by Social Investment Business and Big Society Capital. Hazel Blears MP reminded us that the origin of BSC lay with Labour legislation. She is right but as I pointed out one of the good things about the social finance agenda is that it has strong cross party support. David Cameron has been a huge fan of social finance and made this one of the themes at G8. Indeed there is a G8 task force , led by Ronnie Cohen to take forward this agenda. This has been hugely beneficial. 

And on that cross party theme it was good to see support for the new plans for a rehabilitation revolution launched last week. Stuart (NCVO) and I were able to meet key officials last week to discuss the last details of the announcement. We both felt much progress has been made in understanding the special circumstances of charities and social enterprises in bidding for contracts. Much has been learnt from the Work Programme about PBR and sector tendering. And credit to Chris Grayling and his MoJ officials for the time they have spent listening to our views and our input. It has been more than the traditional "consultation”; we have been involved in the design. Now before I get carried away we have yet to see how the tenders will go and whether we get the private sector cleaning up again; a point I made at a roundtable we held down in Brighton today! 

15 Cornwall

The RNLI station in front of the 15 restaurant.

Is a charity and social enterprise which has a specific aim; to train young people in Cornwall who haven't had the best start in life to become great chefs. Started by Jamie Oliver, who is still a big influence. Since 2006 it has grown and become a big part of Cornwall's third sector scene, as well as an acclaimed spot to eat well.

It targets its potential apprentices amongst the most deprived and troubled communities. So some third of their recruits are amongst juvenile offenders and some 25% are homeless.

The charity is now being run by old friend Matthew Thomson; an ACEVO member of long standing and he offered to host one of our SW chief executive regional forums. And where better to do this than at the 15 restaurant. It's a gorgeous spot - overlooking Watergate Bay just up from Newquay.

We had a good discussion of some of the challenges our sector faces. But also the big opportunities and potential for growth. Paul Brinsley who heads the Cornwall Hospices was pointing out how little the NHS provides towards their funding, but how much they save the service, let alone the quality of this service to those at the end of their lives. Yet he was optimistic about the scope for change and he said their charity shops are doing well.

And as we ate we could see the RNLI in action; providing lifeguard cover for the beach. Whilst down here I visited a couple of their RNLI shops; very professionally run and with high quality merchandise. I'm a huge fan of charity shops generally. Small business sometimes complains about their tax exemptions, but frankly it’s the charity shops that are keeping some of our High Streets alive.

Matthew has big ambitions for growth and expansion. So he should.