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!

Yes we can!

So the Lords have come up trumps! We won the amendment to remove constituency limits in the Lobbying Bill. Acevo welcomed the Government changes to the Bill but we said there were 2 remaining obstacles; staff costs (we won that one last week) and constituency limits.

It’s actually quite unusual to win an amendment at the third reading stage of a Bill. As reported by Politics Home,

"16:55 Peers vote 248-222 on #LobbyingBill 3rd Reading (tad unusual) amendt re: NGO/charity campaigning activity."

It reflects the strength of feeling across parties on this measure and the power of the cross-sector Commission on Civil Society that ACEVO helped form.

So the pressure is now on government not to try and overturn these changes in the Commons. That would be unwise and I urge them to accept the strength of feeling on these 2 issues. They are both major changes to the previous electoral regime and represent a huge barrier to charities playing their full role in the democratic process; engaging with the top national debates and ensuring challenge and scrutiny for our putative legislators. This lobbying bill has done significant damage to our international reputation and the standing of our charity sector. Good sense would point to the Government accepting this cross-party consensus. 

The wider message is one I'm going to talk about tonight at our ACEVO AGM. We faced a range of challenges last year. But we go into 2014 in an optimistic frame of mind. Our message about how democracy relies on a vibrant civil society and how our public services need more third sector delivery is gaining traction.

I got the good news whilst having dinner in Westminster with a fundraiser for social finance. I raised a glass to our wise and sensible Lords, and to the skill and sagacity of The Lord Harries of Pentagarth who has so expertly led the Civil Society Commission.

I’ll post my AGM speech later. Bet you can't wait! Which reminds me that Twitter has been alive with comments on my recent leadership article in the Guardian. Headlined "leave your ego at the door" it has divided those who got the irony and those who were outraged. It certainly got a titter round the office - though I can't imagine why? And proves the point that a great headline gets your articles read!

The NHS ignoring the third sector....

Interesting to see 2 recruitment adverts from the NHS in the Sunday Times appointments section this week.

The first was from the NHS Leadership Academy. It is calling for “experienced business leaders" to join the NHS fast track executive programme.  And I suspect in framing this advert they did not think that the charity or social enterprise sector has “business leaders”?

Indeed a news story accompanying this from the DH made the point, that they want people from the private sector. So presumably not the third sector then. And certainly I doubt any leader from our sector reading this will think an application from them is welcome.

The other is from Oxford Health, a foundation trust providing mental and community services. It is looking for non exec directors. It says it “requires an outstanding individual offering substantial senior level expertise gained in the private or public sectors". Note the exclusion of the third sector. So as this is a "requirement" presumably no one from our sector need apply. What sort of message is that Oxford Health?  Especially when they go on to say want “patient safety" experience!

There are 2 problems with this discrimination (direct or indirect it’s hard to say?).

First, it ignores the huge significance of the third sector in delivering services, promoting prevention, acting as patient’s advocates and campaigning. As we need to move resources into community and prevention it is stupid not to want experienced professionals from the third sector in leadership positions.

Second, it ignores the wealth of knowledge and experience of our sector's leaders. We know in ACEVO that many of our members come from significant jobs in the private or public sectors. For example, just recently Jane Collins took up post as CEO of Marie Curie - she was previously CEO of Great Ormond St; the famous children’s hospital.

The head of the British Heart Foundation was previously in charge of a battleship. I could go on...

 

And the leadership of a top charity needs strong “business skills". Many business thinkers believe the sort of leadership skills displayed in our sector are exactly the sort of skills needed in 21st century businesses. It’s particularly true in a health and social care service.

 Many of our top national charities are big business. They employ thousands of staff as well as volunteers, for example the Red Cross employ3000 staff and 30,000 volunteers.  They have to manage difficult political and stakeholder interface work effectively with clients and patients and manage big budgets. They have exactly the leadership experience the NHS needs.

It’s particularly extraordinary that a mental health trust has publicly demonstrated its lack of interest in recruiting to their top board people from exactly the constituency they need to work with. After all, it’s the third sector that now delivers a third of all services in mental health. So I suggest that the trust and the head hunters Veredus look seriously at changing this advert; on the assumption it was not a deliberate attempt to discriminate against anyone from our sector.

And I suggest that the Department of Health similarity look at their recruitment to the NHS Academy. They need the leadership skills of top charity and social enterprise leaders. Its just plain stupid to ignore them. 

Is this symptomatic of the culture of an NHS that, when it thinks about charities and social enterprises, thinks first of volunteers making people cups of tea, or wheeling trolleys around wards rather than a professional service that delivers for patients? 

You might think its just 2 adverts, but this is a sad indication of how little the NHS thinks the third sector matters.

Mental Health Matters

Mental health problems touch most families in our country at some time. It has certainly touched mine as I have spoken about at a MIND conference. Our attitudes to mental health have been changing - but more remains to be done - so I was glad to be able to take part in a discussion this morning with Nick Clegg MP and Norman Lamb MP (the care minister) about the Government's action plan; "Closing the Gap; priorities for essential change in mental health".

This has 25 top action points to try to achieve a change to ensure equality between mental and physical health.

Nick Clegg , fresh from having to talk about Lord Rennard rather than the mental health action plan on the Today programme,  made the point that it's still difficult to discuss mental health conditions. He paid tribute to how far the mental health charities have been able to change attitudes by their campaigning. So the charity campaign "Time to change" is crucial to an attitude and culture change. "Time to bring mental health out of the shadows," he said. Absolutely right. 

I raised the issue of how people with mental health problems interface with the State in our welfare system. That system has got so much worse, and this is not just about the behaviour of ATOS. The tighter and more punitive aspects of the system work against people with mental health problems who find it difficult to get into work, or keep a job down. The reality of employer attitudes to staff with mental health often means anyone being honest about their condition will face discrimination. The welfare reform changes have impacted seriously on claimants who have a serious condition. Attitudes at job centres and in ATOS etc. have hardened, and there is not enough understanding of why someone with a mental health condition may not have attended a work interview or finds it almost impossible to get a job interview at all. They are not "shirkers", yet that is how they get treated.

Norman Lamb spoke about the underlying need to change attitudes. There is an institutional bias in the NHS system, as elsewhere, against mental health. Mental health is a top priority for NHS England but the institutional bias to acute services will make this a challenge for them.

2 decades ago I chaired Tooting Bec Hospital - one of the Victorian mental asylums. I was Chair when we closed that hospital and moved resources into the community. Largely successful, though many battles had to be fought with the consultants at St Thomas' hospital who had other plans for the money!

The closure marked a changing attitude to those with mental health problems; not locked away from sight but supported in the community. Brixton has one of the highest rates of mental health problems in any community across the country, and I know first hand of the problems as my partner works in mental health at the sharp end. 

Time to talk about mental health Clegg said! Which would have been good this morning but one of the media lot had to raise Rennard - she got roundly booed. Rightly so. It is a sad reflection that on the day Clegg launched this important action plan he gets confronted by a media obsessed with what is little more than an internal party matter for the Lib Dems.

Alastair Campbell, yes that one, who was there and who has bravely spoken about his own battle with depression,  pointed out that it's good that Clegg talks about mental health - but to his knowledge neither Cameron nor Hunt have ever made a major speech on mental health ! A rather good point....

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.