Championing charities in Birmingham!

So the Tory Conference has drawn to a close. Last night's ACEVO/CAF civil society rally was a triumph. We launched our Blue Book of the Voluntary Sector, part of our series of essay collections looking at the major parties and their future relationship with the voluntary sector. You can read the full book here.

There was a positive debate on how civil society is central to Conservative thinking and a very good humoured and purposeful discussion. Even when the dreaded Lobbying Act was mentioned, our Blue Book authors were keen to stress their support for charities rights to campaign. I gave them a tub-thumping speech on our dual role to provide support and advocacy, linking this improbably with the harvet festival lesson on ‘righteousness’. I suggested that’s what charities do! And once again our new Minister Rob Wilson came along to speak. A good few words on how he wants to work with the sector over the next few months.

Of course, running fringes is only part of what we do at these conferences. Much of the value lies in the conversations and chats that go on around the conference halls and rooms. So I was able to catch up with the Prime Minister (who also happens to be my MP) as well as key Cabinet Ministers like IDS, Nicky Morgan and Francis Maude. I caught up with old friends like David Willetts, Greg Clark and Damian Green and I did a couple of dinners where I spoke about health and public service reform. And I even had an enjoyable chat with the journalist Christopher Hope, the chap on the Telegraph who wrote the charity CEO stories. We had a good discussion about transparency in charities, which we intend to continue over lunch.

Although conference season is a draining 3 weeks it is essential that the third sector flag is seen flying high. One of my core roles as the charity CEO leader is to be here. We argue our sector’s corner, keep ourselves visible, and make the connections and networks we need to promote our cause.

So roll on Sunday; Glasgow and the Lib Dems and the launch of the Yellow Book!

Here are a few photos from last night taken by my policy officer George Bangham.

My opening speech:

New Civil Society Minister Rob Wilson MP speaks:

Dominic Raab MP talks about his essay:

Penny Mordaunt MP discussing her work:

John Glen MP challenging Clement Attlee's vision of charities and public services:

Our packed audience:

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.”

Farageing for a civil society policy?

What do Nigel Farage and UKIP have in mind for civil society? Does Farage even know himself? Given the huge media attention on UKIP, and their success in the recent elections, this is no longer an academic question.

Some of their candidates, to be sure, have very old-fashioned views on civil society. You have only to delve into the past musings of the UKIP candidate in Newark, Roger Helmer, to discover that. He did me the honour of publishing an entire blog diatribe against an interview I did for the Times a couple of years ago, parading his view that a charity ceases to be, well, a charity, as soon as it receives money for a government contract. He claims that ACEVO’s reason of being is ‘perpetuating the right of charities to continue to suckle on the teat of the Welfare State’ Clearly, in his view, it is not so important what a charity does, but that it stays untouched by government help.

I'm sure that UKIP like the notion of charities doing good works. But our role in campaigning and advocacy, our voice in speaking truth to power, and our duty to champion the disadvantaged and marginalised – these, it seems, will be anathema. I suspect they would prefer charities to be like children; seen but not heard.

It is time that UKIP is put to the test on their view for society. If the party is to keep growing and to be presented as a credible alternative, we must look beyond their most high-profile policies. Immigration and Europe alone do not a national party make.

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

Oxford, the Lister and...

A big family occasion at the weekend; my nephew Alexander getting married. The ceremony was in the Chapel at Wadham College, then lunch at Exeter College, finishing with Indian dancing in Oxford Town Hall. No, I did not partake of the dancing

I read a lesson at the wedding- a favourite piece from T S Eliot, the last section of the final part of the four quartets (Little Gidding).

"We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time"

But as this marks a beginning I was also reminded of the end (Eliot’s poem is centred on the notion of “in my beginning is my end”) as rather sadly I had to visit my great Aunt in the Lister hospital in Stevenage. She is 101 and taken into hospital on Friday with an infection. But I have to say when I visited she was showing signs that premature expectations of end of life may be confounded. She has a strong and determined spirit. I was also much impressed with the care being given by the doctor and nursing team there.  You hear and read many stories of poor care for the elderly but no signs here. Rather the opposite. 101 is a fine age.

And finally, you might be amused by the following piece from "Civil Society".

 “The culture of celebrity comes to Regent’s Wharf

Congratulations to Leeanne Graham, personal assistant to Sir Stephen Bubb, chief executive of Acevo, who has joined the board of the Association of Celebrity Assistants, a not-for-profit membership organisation for, well, people who assist celebrities.

Congratulations to Sir Stephen, too. Any lingering doubt about your own celebrity has now been expunged."