526th & Last Payslip - Beer & Skittles Soon!

Well I have received my 526th and last monthly payslip, and that must be significant, along with the fact that my successor Cate Newnes – Smith has now started here as part of our pre-arranged handover arrangements. Last Blog next week. 

Very few people in future will work for big organisations as an employee for 44 years (hence the number of payslips) and it’s interesting to see the contemporary growth in self-employment. I see constant articles about how young people today (in teens and early 20s ) aspire to becoming entrepreneurs, and I think this is just brilliant.

I had lunch in a Lebanese restaurant in Woking this with week with the entrepreneur behind Surrey Youth Enterprise, the social enterprise we set up, and of which I will continue to be a director, but will be entirely detached from SYF in future.  The CiC has stalled a bit,  but there are good prospects, and it’s a very interesting project.

We concluded our work for Healthwatch about the health needs and priorities of young people and have submitted the draft report to our client who is very pleased with it. The report will be published in the next couple of weeks, and will be quite challenging to education and health/social care services. Watch this space.

We also have concluded our first year’s report on our CommUniLAB project which we are sending to our principal sponsor and project champions, Barclays Bank, and hope to sustain our relationship with them.

Next week is my last after 44 years of working and there is just one more hurdle, namely to present Surrey Youth Focus to our external assessor for the PQASSO (quality assurance)  assessment on Tuesday. After that it’s beer and skittles jollies – my lovely team have arranged a coffee and cake bash next Wednesday here at Astolat ..thinly  disguised as a Team Meeting, and then the Chairman of the County Council is very kindly hosting a  lunch for me on Thursday. Then at 12.01 next Friday, I’m gone!

I hope it’s self-evident that I greatly enjoy working for Surrey Youth Focus, and indeed for the three local authorities before that, including Surrey County Council. I have been fortunate…blessed in my career.  The work, particularly over the last 7 years,  has enabled me to learn so much  - about the fantastic work of the voluntary sector, social enterprise, governance, consortia, CommUniLAB, and young people. Working for SYF also enabled me to have the opportunity to obtain my MA Theology; it cost a domestically controversial £4,000, so I had to keep my nose the grindstone!

SO there I was last Sunday walking a difficult 23 miles on the South Downs with my full “Spanish rucksack”…. into a strong wind, miles from anywhere…musing with nature…at one with the world...composing sermons in my head…when round a corner on his mountain bike comes Ian Burks (CEO of Redhill YMCA) on a 100 mile sponsored cycle ride for his YMCA…cycling the whole of the South Downs (Winchester to Eastbourne) in one day! He and friends had started at 5.00 am in Winchester, and when we met he was well on the way. Yet another example of great commitment to the cause of fundraising to help young people.(But he did have the wind behind him!)

Best wishes to all BLOG readers…last one next week!!

          Mike