Reflections

A  reflection on the state of play in the week that has seen the rethink on the NHS…… I have had conversations with people from Common Purpose in London, Guildford Diocese, Community Foundation Surrey, Children England, a couple of social philanthropists, Surrey University, and others….I fear that at central and local government there are two tendencies at present: first an ambiguity about localism, decentralization and the Big Society when confronted with the realities of politics and the (apparent) need to retain control at the centre.

Second, in consequence, a fearful instinct to focus inwardly on an agenda of cuts, reorganization, and retaining control in the face of current expenditure cuts and, courtesy of the probability of Greece defaulting and contagion spreading to UK Gov and banks, a serious risk of more local cuts additional to those we already know about. Where are the leaders through this?

I am pleased to say that in Surrey, my Chairman and the Chair of Surrey Community Action have put forward a proposal to other leading Chairs in the sector to develop ways forward for the voluntary sector.

Encouragingly, I had a great meeting with one of our member organizations, Halow, and two social philanthropists about taking forward a particular proposal and I am convinced we can make this work. We had an Open Forum meeting on Tuesday evening at the BFree café in Leatherhead (a former church) when the key speaker was Wendy Varcoe from the Community Foundation, Surrey. The CF already gives some £600,000 in grants to voluntary organizations, and is a very significant local funder.

I am running a workshop at next Tuesday’s Surrey Community Action annual conference about social finance, and lest you should think I’m daft – did you see the headline this week? – “Social impact bonds will be worth tens of billions of pounds” Sir Ronald Cohen tells MPs”. Sir Ronald pretty much invented venture capital , and now is pushing social finance.. I rest my case!

The Department of Education officials writing the forthcoming White Paper on Youth are coming down to see us in September, as an example of an organisation doing interesting things, in conjunction with Surrey CC – we will be hosting the event. Good example of our advocacy and representation for the sector.

Personal: Off on Sunday to middle son’s flat in London for Sunday lunch (Father’s day ? Don’t recognize it – just a commercial contrivance) BUT as he is a professional chef/ patron of a successful restaurant in London, we will get a serious lunch…..after I have taken Matins for Trinity Sunday in a beautiful village church in West Sussex.

Enjoy the weekend,
Mike

Uplift

Another really enjoyable and interesting week…and I get paid for doing this!

On Tuesday I was in London at an excellent NCVYS Youth Strategy Group at which there were presentations by senior people at the DfE about their forthcoming policy paper on Youth. I must confess I was not aware this was in progress, but a lot of work has been done already and published. Details are at: positivefor.youth@education.gsi.gov.uk.  The second discussion subject was work on Social Finance by the Michael Young Foundation, indicating the scale of opportunity an interest in SF. The point is that whilst contractual arrangements will continue between the sector and local authorities (the binary arrangement) there also needs to be a triangulation with the SF sector. NCVYS to their great credit are setting up a retail fund derived from the Big Society Bank to enable youth projects to be financed. NCVYS are showing great leadership in the sector nationally.

I then went to a Community Foundation Surrey business planning awayday which was again fascinating and reinforced the messages from the Young Foundation. The Community Foundation already give £600,000 pa in grants to the sector in Surrey and have a target of getting to £1 mill grants in 2015, so I am delighted that we have their Chief Executive , Wendy Varcoe coming to  our Open Forum next Tuesday evening (see website for details).

Yesterday morning I met with folks from Bourne CYI, a member organisation doing great work in the Farnham area, and we had a discussion about how they might come together with others to form a more consolidated offer to external social financiers. They are based at the very fine St Thomas Church in Farnham – an uplifting morning….

….Which continued with a detailed discussion with the County Council’s Garath Symonds about aspects of the current tender that are out. It presents opportunities and challenges for the Surrey Youth Consortium

We realized that Surrey Youth Focus, and Surrey CC are doing innovative work, so I am inviting the DfE civil servants down to a joint briefing session about our work.

Personal disclosure: Off to a Readers (lay preachers)  Conference on Saturday, so my spiritual uplift will continue!

Enjoy whatever you do this week-end.
Mike

Strength in Numbers

This has been a good week for Surrey Youth Focus.

I have said previously that we have set a deficit budget for this year drawing on our reserves, which is ok for now, but that we face challenges for 2012/13, for which we have a PLAN of action, this is now beginning to achieve results:

Cutting costs:  we have cut costs by giving up one office, and consolidating in just one room, but the bonus is that our room is being redecorated…for a modest £25 investment in paint and the work of Surrey Community Action’s Future Job Fund trainee office handyman, who is great. Our very own Future Jobs Fund trainee, Sophie, has not only completed her one month’s training to become a Special Constable with the met Police, but she has also got herself a full time job as an office administrator for a company near where she lives. I think we can all take pride in her achievement and regret the demise of the Future Jobs Fund.

Fund-raising: largely through the efforts of our Chairman we have been given a generous grant this week by a Grant Making Trust fund that is a welcome contribution to our income for both this year and next, but we still need to do more, and have several irons in the fire.

Strengthening Trustee Board: we are delighted to have a new Trustee, who has a huge amount of experience in business, and has close links to corporates in Surrey and to Surrey University . I am constantly making the point that the old binary relationship between central/local government and the voluntary sector needs to be re- shaped into a triangulation with the business and social philanthropy sector, and this Trustee will help us do that.

Collaborative working: The Memorandum of Understanding between ourselves and Surrey Community Action was approved by their Trustees this week, and will go to our Trustees on 19 July. This effectively establishes a collaborative partnership between us as independent organizations, and again is the pattern for the future of umbrella (infrastructure bodies).

So it’s been a good week , and the sun is shining for the week-end!

Have fun!
Mike

Society

Last Friday saw the launch of an important report- “Surrey’s Bigger Society” – on behalf of  the Community Foundation, Surrey. The event was held at the Lightbox (civic museum) in Woking, and was by invitation. It was chaired by Mathew Bowcock in his capacity as a Chairman of the Community Foundation Network nationally.

The launch was preceded by a totally brilliant performance by young people from Peer Productions of an extract from their latest play about Alcohol. It took the form of a musical contrasting the perspective of doctors and nurses in dealing with the drunk and damaged, and those who started off wanting a “good night out”. The production, acting and singing were all terrific.

This then led into the launch of Helen’s report (following her previous “Hidden Surrey”). The new report emphasises the relevance of social finance and social enterprises. I was asked to give a short talk about our work on social finance projects with Surrey CC.  Other speakers suggested that Surrey, of all places, is extremely well placed to take a lead in promoting social finance as there are so many people living in Surrey with the top level and financial skills, and indeed investment capacity. Lord Nat Wei was present, and I was able to have a chat with him, and others. The Chairman of the County Council, Lavinia Sealey was clearly impressed by all she had heard, and there was a collective sense of the need for a continuing dialogue between social philanthropists, the voluntary sector, and local authorities. It was an exciting time.

The sense of significant change has continued this week with a meeting of my chairman and that of Surrey Community Action to agree a Memorandum of Understanding about remaining independent but collaborating together, so, in effect forming a loose network together. I absolutely think this is the way forward for smaller organizations (and “organizations as networks” was the subject of my M.Phil. from back in 2000). This collaboration is leading to further thoughts about the leadership of the sector, about which more later….Exciting times!!

Personal disclosure: Yippee grandson for the week – end, such fun!! Manchester United to win on Saturday…hopefully!

Mike

Black Spot

This has been a quiet week by my standards with the focus being on our funding campaign.

This has now commenced with letters and a Supporting Statement being sent out to various key people, and the start of preparation of the grant bids to go forward over the next few weeks. This is crucial to sustaining our capability in 2012/13. I am very conscious of the deadline of a Trustees meeting in January 2012 by when I need to have brought in funding, or risk being “passed the black spot”- note the oblique reference to “Pirates of the Caribbean ”!!  We have a very clear funding strategy and it’s now just a matter of bashing on until we’re successful.

The Surrey Sports Strategy was launched at the Surrey Sports Board Conference at Kempton Park on Tuesday. I am a member of the Board. The Strategy is quite high level, but short, and the detail will be fleshed out by working groups. A copy is on our website. The London 2012 (Olympic) Games was much mentioned – there may be half a million spectators watching the cycling race through Surrey next year – a great marketing opportunity – 2,000 volunteers are needed on the day. It’s a great opportunity for uniformed organizations.

Delighted that Nick Wilson has been made Surrey CC’s Director of Children, Schools and Families Services.

I am off to Woking this afternoon for the launch of Dr. Helen Bowcock’s “Surrey's Bigger Society” report for the Community Foundation, Surrey . It is an important report – more on this next week.

Personal disclosure: A very quiet gardening weekend in prospect, but I have booked up the accommodation for my 80 miles in 4 days walk in late June on the (original) South Downs Way from Buriton, Nr Petersfield to Eastbourne, so the die is cast (not literally I hope!)

Enjoy what seems likely to be a sunny week-end!
Mike

Green shoots

Hi everyone,

Back to blogging after Bank Holiday leave and various events.

My Big Picture overview remains that there are two contradictory forces at work:the attrition in the voluntary sector caused by Government cuts, and yet the opportunities to be  entrepreneurial in pursuit of “The Big Society”.  At present I suggest that the former – attrition -  is the more dominant force. To be explicit one sees it evident in the spate of closures and mergers nationally, and I try to persuade myself this Darwinian struggle is positive, and will result in a more self reliant, independent and robust sector (and nation). Interesting Cabinet leak to the effect that Francis Maude is cutting back on outsourcing to the private sector,  and wants to give greater prominence to the vol sector. (See our e-bulletin)

Surrey Youth Focus is not immune from the changes- our costs are fixed (zero % pay rises for a 3rd year) but our income from grants and projects has fallen, so we have set a deficit budget for this year, like many others, and have to deploy our strong reserves – which his what they are for. However, we have now begun our funding campaign for 2012/13. We have also agreed at Chairman level, subject to Trustee approval, to have a formal collaborative agreement with Surrey Community Action.

There are other green shoots – I am delighted to be instrumental in setting up a social enterprise to provide employment for unemployed young people. The Community interest Company (CiC) is being formed now, and will start to trade in Quarter 4 this year - more later. We are progressing various social finance projects, and I do think that the way forward rests with social enterprises, and social finance as supplementary sources to the major contracts that are awarded. A time to tough it out!

I presented at a Surrey CC workshop at Denbies for our members given by Garath Symonds (Assistant Director Services for Young people). Cuts of £5 mill from a £16 mill budget must have some adverse consequences, BUT I do think that Garath has done well to mitigate the worst effects and to offer a reshaped service in which the voluntary sector has a considerable opportunity – to deliver wider services from the youth centres that are being opened up to the sector, and to be “on the menu” of the local prevention framework.  Elsewhere we are having discussions with Surrey CC about how to increase volunteering, and I am talking to the Chamber of Commerce about other links. I attended a Surrey CC 14-19 Partnership Group yesterday, about the FE sector, which is badly affected by grant cuts and the loss of EMA to young people, and yet the performance of young people is still doing well.    

Personal disclosure: completed year 2 assignments of MA Theology (just dissertation left for next academic year) and have read my first novel for a year, as opposed to a theology book. Am singing in Chichester Cathedral on Saturday – massed church choirs! FA Cup Final week –end too. Need to get fitter for speed walk with son  in late June on the South Downs Way (80 miles for us).

Have fun,
Mike

Elements

A week that has flashed by, and a worry about how to get things done in April when there are so many Bank Holidays and leave taking, including by me, and we have a Trustees/ Directors meeting on 3 May…I know, plan ahead/time management!

The week began with the Guildford Diocese’s South East Faith Forum on the subject of the Big Society . This included a quite brilliant speech by Rev. Dr Malcolm Brown (CoE Mission and Partnerships Adviser). He put the BS into a historical context: Jeremy Bentham talking about a society of strangers in the 19thC, and hence the need for State intervention, contrasted with Figgis (1910) writing about society as  “a community of communities” smaller than the State but larger than mere individuals and families, and so needing intermediary bodies – churches, trade unions, and universities to sustain and nurture them . He also mentioned Phillip Blondel the political thinker behind Cameron on the BS.

As practical examples of the outworking of the vol. sector trying to progress elements of the Big Society, I had a meeting on Thursday with Adult Care service commissioners with our member organisation,  Halow about moving a small group of young people out of expensive out county residential care into independent living. Detailed work is now to be done on the costs Surrey CC is incurring from current placements and then to see if there is scope for an initiative funded by social finance. In the afternoon, I had a brilliant meeting about the setting up of the social enterprise to provide employment for young people, which is now going ahead and the company (a CiC)  being set up. Massively positive, albeit small scale,  and an interesting test bed.

Then today a Keeping in Touch meeting with Surrey CC’s Head of Service for Young People, which was also positive for the sector.

Personal: Up to London this week end to have dinner out with youngest son, and then to support middle son in running the London Marathon. He wants to get in under 4 hours, and has raised £3,500 for a charity supporting children in India (the railway Children) who sleep on the rail tracks.

Keep fit!
Mike