Surrey Youth Focus is delighted that our Chairman, David Hypher was awarded the OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List; it is richly deserved, and we are so pleased for both him and his wife Pam. Congratulations.
And then a very busy and interesting week on a number of levels.
On Monday, I was at a meeting at the Cathedral refectory with Surrey Community Action and the CVs chaired by the Chairman of the County Council (Lavinia Sealy) and with the Chairman of the Council's Select Committee (Cllr Stve Cosser) also present. The purpose of the meeting was to explore the real views of the voluntary sector about the Council's intention to commission and contract infrastructure support services. This is a very sensitive and controversial issue...and always has been. Suffice to say that SCA disclosed that they would be bidding for the contract outside Surrey Voluntary Action Network (the CVs) of which they are a member.
Keen fans of this blog will recall that we have a Memorandum of Understanding with SCA about co-operative joint bidding..and SYF has recently had its strategic awayday.... We have now commented formally back to SCC about the consultation document on commissioning. All very tense.
Moving on.... a second matter we discussed in the strategy day was building links to our sister organisation at West Sussex CVYS, and so on Wednesday evening I was at the WSCVYS AGM to meet with their Chair and discuss taking matters forward, which we will now do in the sense of both Chairs meeting in due course. Having huffed and puffed to get our Annual Report done and into our auditor it was bit mortifying that WCVYS and my good friend Hanna Moore (CEO) had got their Annual Report done, the Accounts audited, a "pop" version written, AND held their AGM in mid June, just 2.5 months after close of last financial year. Impressive!!
Thursday morning saw my last appearance as Chair of South East Youth Partnership (now a network only, and supported by CHYPS) which had a workshop session with Mark Price and Jane Melvin from Brighton University about workforce development issues, and the market for youth work training. The debates about "what is youth work? and Is it a discrete profession?" continue. The cost of a foundation degree in youth work is now£13,000 (not even a BA).
The afternoon was at NESCOT an FE College and meeting of a sub-group of Surrey Connects about employability and soft skills for young people. There is a complaint from employers that even if young people have particular skills - in IT for example - they lack the self-presentation/ work ethic/ work experience skills, and this is something now being addressed. My participation was in pursuance of our grant bid around Surrey Youth Enterprise.
Then that same evening, I was at the Annual Hart Browne Economics Lecture at Surrey University. For those of us who are Radio 4 Today programme fans the star speaker was Justin Urquart-Stewart, who is a frequent commentator on the programme on financial matters. He was extremely amusing with a stand up comedian's (or former barrister's) line in banter and some solid comments. His theme was about building confidence, and promoting business. He pointed to the lack of historical awareness of Government Ministers and top civil servants. One telling fact was that the USA has 45 mill people on food stamps. The problem of economic inequality in the land of the free.
Finally, this (Friday) morning I have been back in Horsham with my colleagues from WSCVYS, ESCVYS and NCVYS with our usual slightly chaotic, but valuable exchange of experiences and discussion of issues.
England v. Italy on Sunday evening: - penalty shoot out maybe?
Have fun!
Mike
Friday, 22 June 2012
Friday, 15 June 2012
40 years on
Well it has felt like a catch up week after the Jubilee weekend. We were sent brilliant pictures of Woking Sea Rangers at the Thames Pageant on the Albert Bridge and with the Sea Ranger cadets with Prince Harry - a great coup for them. The pictures are on our website.
More mundanely, I have written our Annual Report (and Accounts) for 2011/12 , so that we have the Report to hand rather earlier than in previous years to support grant bids. We will be producing a short popular version of it in colour as a marketing tool. Talking of marketing, we are delighted to announce that, subject to the approval of Trusteees on 31 July, Carol Brannigan will be joining the Board as an independent trustee, having just completed an appointment as interim Director of Marketing for KPMG Europe. Carol has a massively impressive CV and is about to cycle the Camino de santiago in Spain on a tandem with her husband. Walking the Camino is one of my main ambitions, so we have that in common. Carol will be a great asset to us, as she wants to be a "hands on" trustee. Great!
We are also pleased to say that Shelagh West has joined us a volunteer Volunteer Broker; Shelagh used to run her own IT company and then volunteered with the CAB for many years, so she is an ideal person to link between our member organisations and corporates / employers who may be looking for volunteering projects for their staff.
I had a useful mentoring session with my business mentor on Thursday morning, and this was followed by a joint meeting of the Surrey 14-19 Partnership Board with the Youth Justice Board. There were several interesting items - an Employability Plan (except that it didn't have any detail about what when, how) to encourage young people, especially NEETS into training and employment. I am convinced that our Surrey Youth Enterprise grant bid (still in progress) will hit the mark. Another intersting item was the product of focus discussions with some 100 young people about their hopes and fears, and there were some very telling remarks. For some there is a sense that if they miss out at school, they are doomed...we must not let this impression take hold. We'll put the powepoint up on the website as soon as it's to hand.
Well we have a 40th wedding anniversary lunch party in the garden on Saturday (we have a marquee up) so we hope it doesn't rain...and that England beat Sweden tonight(Friday). We have 40 family and friends coming....and lots of fizz! Have fun because I will!
Mike
More mundanely, I have written our Annual Report (and Accounts) for 2011/12 , so that we have the Report to hand rather earlier than in previous years to support grant bids. We will be producing a short popular version of it in colour as a marketing tool. Talking of marketing, we are delighted to announce that, subject to the approval of Trusteees on 31 July, Carol Brannigan will be joining the Board as an independent trustee, having just completed an appointment as interim Director of Marketing for KPMG Europe. Carol has a massively impressive CV and is about to cycle the Camino de santiago in Spain on a tandem with her husband. Walking the Camino is one of my main ambitions, so we have that in common. Carol will be a great asset to us, as she wants to be a "hands on" trustee. Great!
We are also pleased to say that Shelagh West has joined us a volunteer Volunteer Broker; Shelagh used to run her own IT company and then volunteered with the CAB for many years, so she is an ideal person to link between our member organisations and corporates / employers who may be looking for volunteering projects for their staff.
I had a useful mentoring session with my business mentor on Thursday morning, and this was followed by a joint meeting of the Surrey 14-19 Partnership Board with the Youth Justice Board. There were several interesting items - an Employability Plan (except that it didn't have any detail about what when, how) to encourage young people, especially NEETS into training and employment. I am convinced that our Surrey Youth Enterprise grant bid (still in progress) will hit the mark. Another intersting item was the product of focus discussions with some 100 young people about their hopes and fears, and there were some very telling remarks. For some there is a sense that if they miss out at school, they are doomed...we must not let this impression take hold. We'll put the powepoint up on the website as soon as it's to hand.
Well we have a 40th wedding anniversary lunch party in the garden on Saturday (we have a marquee up) so we hope it doesn't rain...and that England beat Sweden tonight(Friday). We have 40 family and friends coming....and lots of fizz! Have fun because I will!
Mike
Friday, 8 June 2012
If you can't beat them - join them
Well I enjoyed watching the Jubilee from the warmth and comfort of my sitting room in the main.. Unlike Woking Sea Rangers who were on the Albert Bridge for the River pageant on the cold and wet Sunday afternoon…and met Prince Harry, whilst Surrey Care Trust had their Swingbridge Boat in the river flotilla. Well done all – picture to follow on website and Surrey Youth News.
My excuse is that I was finalising the dissertation to go off to be bound so that it can then be submitted to the examiners..and I have done that, so it’s now all done, and I have a life back after 3 years and £4,000! Yeah I know…all self–inflicted…but great learning!! However my wife is still reflecting on what might have been done with £4K and about £500 worth of books!
It’s felt like an odd, short week, with lots of folks on leave for school holidays and the traffic much lighter.
However, we have some more bits of good news. My Chairman and I have met with the newly appointed Bishop of Croydon this morning about ways and means by which we might link more closely into that part of Southwark Diocese that extends into east Surrey – basically Reigate and Banstead, and Tandridge. We had a very good discussion and will be taking steps to improve mutual communications, and exchange of information, especially about current issues affecting young people.
Then a recent graduate in Social policy and Criminology has volunteered to be a research assistant with us, and we are delighted to have her start with us shortly to help me with the long awaited Research Report.
I have nearly finalised the Surrey Youth Enterprise project proposal this week and will be seeking funding for it from GMTs and others.
So it’s been a good week. I am now back in the gym and running again after 12 months of no sport and of course South Africa v. England (rugby obviously) has to be watched on Saturday afternoon…ignore the football (Monday pm).
And finally, against my better judgement, and my aversion to mixing work time, and home time, I have succumbed to a smartphone (Samsung Galaxy- I disapprove of Apple – shedloads of money which they do not give away to good causes)………..and I am ashamed to say….I think it’s great!
Mike
My excuse is that I was finalising the dissertation to go off to be bound so that it can then be submitted to the examiners..and I have done that, so it’s now all done, and I have a life back after 3 years and £4,000! Yeah I know…all self–inflicted…but great learning!! However my wife is still reflecting on what might have been done with £4K and about £500 worth of books!
It’s felt like an odd, short week, with lots of folks on leave for school holidays and the traffic much lighter.
However, we have some more bits of good news. My Chairman and I have met with the newly appointed Bishop of Croydon this morning about ways and means by which we might link more closely into that part of Southwark Diocese that extends into east Surrey – basically Reigate and Banstead, and Tandridge. We had a very good discussion and will be taking steps to improve mutual communications, and exchange of information, especially about current issues affecting young people.
Then a recent graduate in Social policy and Criminology has volunteered to be a research assistant with us, and we are delighted to have her start with us shortly to help me with the long awaited Research Report.
I have nearly finalised the Surrey Youth Enterprise project proposal this week and will be seeking funding for it from GMTs and others.
So it’s been a good week. I am now back in the gym and running again after 12 months of no sport and of course South Africa v. England (rugby obviously) has to be watched on Saturday afternoon…ignore the football (Monday pm).
And finally, against my better judgement, and my aversion to mixing work time, and home time, I have succumbed to a smartphone (Samsung Galaxy- I disapprove of Apple – shedloads of money which they do not give away to good causes)………..and I am ashamed to say….I think it’s great!
Mike
Friday, 1 June 2012
Behind the Scenes
This has been rather a bitty week punctuated by the dreaded IT problems and the prospect of the long Jubilee week-end looming.
But on Monday evening I went to the Boys Brigade (Cheam) annual awards evening, at which the star performers were their chess team who won the UK Boys Brigade chess competition with the finals being held in Ireland. A very positive achievement.
I then visited the Queen Elizabeth Foundation at Leatherhead to view premises for the start up of the Woking social enterprise. QEF has plenty of space and the prospect of locating the social enterprise there fits well with their strategic aim of developing the site as a community of social enterprises/charities. The only snag is that being out in the sticks their broadband connections are slow, but QEF are addressing that with a cloud based solution.
“Behind the scenes”, I had a great discussion on Wednesday with the person we hope will become our new Chairman in succession to David Hypher who has done so much for Surrey Youth Focus and many other charities. I have also been working on compiling partners and support for our Surrey Youth Enterprise grant bid, and having discussions about the invitation to tender for the County Council’s Infrastructure Support Grant that will go out to open tender in the summer. I can’t say anything further about these at present. "Sensitive".
On the national front - interesting that the Government has now dropped the charity tax…along with the pasty tax….and the caravan tax ..Hmmm…."listening" or just ill thought out in the first place?
The Monarchy is a great institution..can you imagine how ghastly it would be to have an elected president? So let’s enjoy HM Queen’s special day and have no truck with those who lament the loss of GDP – anyway every shop I’ve seen seems to have a Jubilee theme to encourage sales!
Mike
But on Monday evening I went to the Boys Brigade (Cheam) annual awards evening, at which the star performers were their chess team who won the UK Boys Brigade chess competition with the finals being held in Ireland. A very positive achievement.
I then visited the Queen Elizabeth Foundation at Leatherhead to view premises for the start up of the Woking social enterprise. QEF has plenty of space and the prospect of locating the social enterprise there fits well with their strategic aim of developing the site as a community of social enterprises/charities. The only snag is that being out in the sticks their broadband connections are slow, but QEF are addressing that with a cloud based solution.
“Behind the scenes”, I had a great discussion on Wednesday with the person we hope will become our new Chairman in succession to David Hypher who has done so much for Surrey Youth Focus and many other charities. I have also been working on compiling partners and support for our Surrey Youth Enterprise grant bid, and having discussions about the invitation to tender for the County Council’s Infrastructure Support Grant that will go out to open tender in the summer. I can’t say anything further about these at present. "Sensitive".
On the national front - interesting that the Government has now dropped the charity tax…along with the pasty tax….and the caravan tax ..Hmmm…."listening" or just ill thought out in the first place?
The Monarchy is a great institution..can you imagine how ghastly it would be to have an elected president? So let’s enjoy HM Queen’s special day and have no truck with those who lament the loss of GDP – anyway every shop I’ve seen seems to have a Jubilee theme to encourage sales!
Mike
Monday, 28 May 2012
Sunshine
Well it's been a great week - sunshine at last and the Chelsea Flower Show to watch on tv - and great at work too. We have recruited a new independent trustee with first class experience and expertise in marketing at the highest level (international blue chip company). She describes herself as a "do-er who wants to be hands-on" so she will be a huge help to us. Simultaneously, the cunning plan to arrange a smooth succession to our Chairman, David Hypher DL, is taking shape, and we have another outstanding person who will hopefully be taking on the Chair role in succession to David if all goes well. So having also recruited someone else with a strong social enterprise background to the Board we have in prospect a scarily brilliant Board!
The good news continued with the fact that Tim Loughton MP (Minister for Children and Young People) has confirmed he will be our guest speaker at our AGM on 8 November at 6.30 pm. Quite a coup for a small charity like us..big impact.
The focus this week has been on shaping the Surrey Social Enterprise bid, which I'm doing by addressing the "what's the evidence of need?" question that potential funders rightly ask. I have also been preparing the set-up for a tricky discussion between a member organisation and the County Council about the future of a particular youth centre building. I guess I should be flattered to be undertaking the brokering role, but it is at the risk of being shot at by both parties afterwards.
I was at the Surrey 14-19 Partnership on Monday, chaired by Garath Symonds Surrey CC Assistant Director for Young people. It was a good meeting. What struck me most though was the real antipathy amongst some senior educationalists to the Government's education agenda, including raising the participation age...on grounds of lack of resources to support it. Good point to put to the Minister on 8 November.
On the funding front I have drafted an "Annual report" letter to all our Patrons about 2011/12, and future prospects so that they are aware of what we're about. They are all distinguished and busy people, and so we send a good old fashioned paper letter to them.
Talking of which (paper letters) did you see the piece in the news (BBC website and The Times) to the effect that fountain pens have now become trendy? I rest my Parker Duofold case! I am either ahead of, or behind the times...so off trend that I am in fact on trend so to speak. Remember I am the theology man and used to these ambiguities!
Enjoy the sunny week-end!
Mike
The good news continued with the fact that Tim Loughton MP (Minister for Children and Young People) has confirmed he will be our guest speaker at our AGM on 8 November at 6.30 pm. Quite a coup for a small charity like us..big impact.
The focus this week has been on shaping the Surrey Social Enterprise bid, which I'm doing by addressing the "what's the evidence of need?" question that potential funders rightly ask. I have also been preparing the set-up for a tricky discussion between a member organisation and the County Council about the future of a particular youth centre building. I guess I should be flattered to be undertaking the brokering role, but it is at the risk of being shot at by both parties afterwards.
I was at the Surrey 14-19 Partnership on Monday, chaired by Garath Symonds Surrey CC Assistant Director for Young people. It was a good meeting. What struck me most though was the real antipathy amongst some senior educationalists to the Government's education agenda, including raising the participation age...on grounds of lack of resources to support it. Good point to put to the Minister on 8 November.
On the funding front I have drafted an "Annual report" letter to all our Patrons about 2011/12, and future prospects so that they are aware of what we're about. They are all distinguished and busy people, and so we send a good old fashioned paper letter to them.
Talking of which (paper letters) did you see the piece in the news (BBC website and The Times) to the effect that fountain pens have now become trendy? I rest my Parker Duofold case! I am either ahead of, or behind the times...so off trend that I am in fact on trend so to speak. Remember I am the theology man and used to these ambiguities!
Enjoy the sunny week-end!
Mike
Friday, 18 May 2012
Wisdom
Hi - this has been a catching up week having had some days off, but I
seem to have caught a cold/cough as well, which has not helped.
We had a very useful and productive discussion at our Management and
Finance Committee about the succession planning for key posts on our
Trustee Board, and David Hypher (Chairman) is going to put his
considerable diplomatic and persuasive skills into effect to approach
particular people, and we will then report formally to the Board.
We think we are a well run charity, and pay a great deal of attention
to effective governance.
And so it was that last Tuesday we met with someone who might become an
independent trustee, following an advertisement we placed; she has
outstanding experience in marketing and organisation development at the
highest (blue chip) level. David and I had a great discussion with her,
and we await further developments with fingers corossed - she would
bring a great deal to Surrey Youth Focus and to its members.
I met with the collegaues setting up the "Woking social enterprise" and
this is now moving apace - I am checking out premises next week, and then
we'll recruit staff and get trading. I'll disclose more when we're in
business as a social enterprise.
Following on from our strategy day we have begun considering what
response, if any, to make to Surrey County Council's Infrastructure
contract commissioning document. This describes the outcomes it is
seeking to achieve from infrastructure support services at county and
local level on the basis of a three year contract. We are also exploring
links to other organisations. However, becoing a contractor is completely
different from being an independent voluntary organisation, and I am
personally involved in helping to resolve some issues between a member
organisation that is a contractor and the County Council. It will be
interesting to see if open competitive contracting, as opposed to
commissioning, (with which I have no problem) remains the "received
wisdom" of the way ahead for service delivery in the public sector,
depending, I think crucially, on how it works in the NHS with the
Clinical Commissioning Groups, and as we get closer to the next General
Election. I think I am at an SCC Select Committee discussion about this
next week.
Best wishes,
Mike
seem to have caught a cold/cough as well, which has not helped.
We had a very useful and productive discussion at our Management and
Finance Committee about the succession planning for key posts on our
Trustee Board, and David Hypher (Chairman) is going to put his
considerable diplomatic and persuasive skills into effect to approach
particular people, and we will then report formally to the Board.
We think we are a well run charity, and pay a great deal of attention
to effective governance.
And so it was that last Tuesday we met with someone who might become an
independent trustee, following an advertisement we placed; she has
outstanding experience in marketing and organisation development at the
highest (blue chip) level. David and I had a great discussion with her,
and we await further developments with fingers corossed - she would
bring a great deal to Surrey Youth Focus and to its members.
I met with the collegaues setting up the "Woking social enterprise" and
this is now moving apace - I am checking out premises next week, and then
we'll recruit staff and get trading. I'll disclose more when we're in
business as a social enterprise.
Following on from our strategy day we have begun considering what
response, if any, to make to Surrey County Council's Infrastructure
contract commissioning document. This describes the outcomes it is
seeking to achieve from infrastructure support services at county and
local level on the basis of a three year contract. We are also exploring
links to other organisations. However, becoing a contractor is completely
different from being an independent voluntary organisation, and I am
personally involved in helping to resolve some issues between a member
organisation that is a contractor and the County Council. It will be
interesting to see if open competitive contracting, as opposed to
commissioning, (with which I have no problem) remains the "received
wisdom" of the way ahead for service delivery in the public sector,
depending, I think crucially, on how it works in the NHS with the
Clinical Commissioning Groups, and as we get closer to the next General
Election. I think I am at an SCC Select Committee discussion about this
next week.
Best wishes,
Mike
Tuesday, 15 May 2012
CEO Goes Missing
Hi folks, sorry I have missed two Fridays worth of blogs, but it was my wife’s birthday on Friday 4 May, so I took the day off so we could go to Kew Gradens..in the cold..and rain..I then had last week off to draft the famous MA dissertation.
I know you want to know what it’s about, and now that I have finished the 20,000 words and sent it in to my tutor, I am in a position to tell you……but I won’t yet. I will give you the full story later, at the slight risk of my Stephen Fry / Barack Obama levels of blog readers falling off a touch.
Guess what - EVEN my brother now reads this blog…and tells me that I have more readers than President Sarkozy…but I think there’s joke somewhere there.
However, I would not want you to think I had been idle on my week off, and so on the birthday 4 May I took a call at Kew from Surrey CC who have asked me to do some "honest broker" work over a particular issue they face with a member organisation of ours, and, at the risk of entering the lions den I have said I will.
(SEE you skeptics…spelt correctly by the way....I always knew there was a place for Theology…."lions den" ….Book of Daniel..geddit?? Please keep up!)
Then on Saturday 5 May (yes a Saturday) we had a very good staff/trustees awayday working on our 3 year strategy. Suffice to say, that we cannot sustain more deficit budgets, so we have a cunning plan for the 3 year development of SYF. "Failing to plan is planning to fail".
Then whilst on leave (just thought I’d get that in) I went to Surrey University to meet with a brilliant group of students in SIFE, which stands for Students in Free Enterprise – A heart for business. A Head for the world is the strapline. I went to canvass their views about our Surrey Youth Enterprise project, for which we are about to bid fro funding. The students were very quick to comment (positively) were challenging, and hugely impressive. Many thanks to them for their ideas.
So..then back to work on Monday this week (my wife thinks I never left it) but with a filthy cold acquired after 4 year old grandson’s Superheroes Birthday Party with about 20 children, and noo immunity to children’s germs.
So I was missing, but am now back- more blogging this Friday..and LOTS to say..much better than The Voice, Britain’s Got Talent, Man City (boo), Sarkozy…et al.
Mike
I know you want to know what it’s about, and now that I have finished the 20,000 words and sent it in to my tutor, I am in a position to tell you……but I won’t yet. I will give you the full story later, at the slight risk of my Stephen Fry / Barack Obama levels of blog readers falling off a touch.
Guess what - EVEN my brother now reads this blog…and tells me that I have more readers than President Sarkozy…but I think there’s joke somewhere there.
However, I would not want you to think I had been idle on my week off, and so on the birthday 4 May I took a call at Kew from Surrey CC who have asked me to do some "honest broker" work over a particular issue they face with a member organisation of ours, and, at the risk of entering the lions den I have said I will.
(SEE you skeptics…spelt correctly by the way....I always knew there was a place for Theology…."lions den" ….Book of Daniel..geddit?? Please keep up!)
Then on Saturday 5 May (yes a Saturday) we had a very good staff/trustees awayday working on our 3 year strategy. Suffice to say, that we cannot sustain more deficit budgets, so we have a cunning plan for the 3 year development of SYF. "Failing to plan is planning to fail".
Then whilst on leave (just thought I’d get that in) I went to Surrey University to meet with a brilliant group of students in SIFE, which stands for Students in Free Enterprise – A heart for business. A Head for the world is the strapline. I went to canvass their views about our Surrey Youth Enterprise project, for which we are about to bid fro funding. The students were very quick to comment (positively) were challenging, and hugely impressive. Many thanks to them for their ideas.
So..then back to work on Monday this week (my wife thinks I never left it) but with a filthy cold acquired after 4 year old grandson’s Superheroes Birthday Party with about 20 children, and noo immunity to children’s germs.
So I was missing, but am now back- more blogging this Friday..and LOTS to say..much better than The Voice, Britain’s Got Talent, Man City (boo), Sarkozy…et al.
Mike
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)