Racing through Social Enterprise Day with men with moustaches

Latzo lorverly prizes at Livity, Brixton 

For the last few years, Social Enterprise Day has been a real celebration for our world. It's a day when a great many social enterprises make the effort to showcase some or all of what they do. At SEL, we did our bit with a Guardian-supported launch of Spin-out and deliver, our latest publication on new forms of public service providers that go it alone to focus on social value, and an open day at the SEL offices.

At the youth and media company and SEL member, Livity, CEO Sam Conniff had Super Mario in and some guy in a red hat from the Cabinet Office to announce this organisation has organised youth consultation across the UK with Nintendo. This will co-design practical ideas that will make a real and lasting difference to young people. Nintendo intends to start piloting these co-created solutions for and with young people in their own communities as soon as next year.

Over the other side of town, SEL Director June O'Sullivan of LEYF gave this year's Margaret Horn Lecture at the RSA on LEYF research that explores social franchising as a model to tackle the challenges of child poverty. Read her lecture: 'Child poverty: Why social franchising is a giant step in the right direction'.  This event was chaired by Matthew Taylor, chief executive at the RSA.

Spin-out and deliver at the Guardian

Our own Guardian event sparked some really good debate and Matthew Booth, Head of Policy at Ealing Council was fantastic. He explained what was happening at the council and his frank and enthusiastic approach was a breath of fresh air. Participants got stuck in and a good discussion followed that I really enjoyed. As ever Andrew Burnell of City Health Care Partnership was on great form. Andrew is on the board of the Transition Institute (TI) and is as good an advertisement of public sector spin-outs that believe they are the next generation of public servants as you are ever likely to get. He was sporting his Movember moustache which, while impressive in a challenging facial hair sort of way, was no match for the tash of Super Mario. (Movember is an initiative that encourages men to grow moustaches in November to highlight issues and fundraising around men's health.)

Andrew will also be speaking at the TI launch of Social value ethos, its first publication on Monday at GLL facilities in Marshall Street, Westminster. Nick Hurd, the Minister for Civil Society (as seen above and a person who started following me, @aogdennewton on Twitter yesterday), and Sir Stephen Bubb, CEO of ACEVO and TI board member, will also both be there.

Hearing about social enterprise

Back to Social Enterprise Day. I left the Guardian to race back to SEL offices where the staff had done a lovely job smartening us up for a social enterprise drop-in day. We had no idea how many would come, so were chuffed when over 50 social entrepreneurs came through our doors. Mei Hui, SEL's Senior Business Advisor, gave a presentation to over 30 of our guests and the rest met SEL staff and enjoyed some networking.

I had to break of to do a Live Guardian Q & A on, ironically the future of business support for social enterprise following the sad closure of our sister organisation RISE in the South West. During that discussion there were plenty of comments to the effect that everything we do should be paid for at the point of contact. Sitting in on Mei's presentation and listening to the comments from participants, I was struck by how much advice those new social entrepreneurs needed and how utterly unable the vast majority were able to pay for it. In this harsh new economic climate, it is hard to think those people are not our audience. After all, wasn't supporting community development through enterprise why we were set up in the first place?

When Mei, Jillian and I shut up shop at around 7.30pm, we congratulated ourselves on an excellent social enterprise day and wondered about next year: what would the world of social enterprise look like then?

Down but not out: Reporting from the Guardian social enterprise conference 2011

Rt Hon Nick Hurd speaking to Patrick Butler of the Guardian

Yesterday I spoke at the very well organised Guardian social enterprise conference, where some good debates were held and I got to meet up with lots of my social enterprise colleagues. Since the cuts began in earnest, events have become rare so you would expect a heightened buzz, but unless it was just me, I wasn't getting that. I think it's fair to say folk were subdued, was it battle fatigue?

Keynote speaker Nick Hurd, our Minister, was interviewed by Patrick Butler editor of Guardian Society, where he spoke of the need to create a level playing field for social enterprise, his regret that Central Surrey Health lost out to the private sector, his understanding of the frustrations many have had with the Work Programme and unhelpful public sector commissioners who still don't get it. All pretty hot topics and yet when he had finished, no hands went up for questions. Patrick had to press people for a response - that's not like us is it? Speaking to delegates I realised how measured most people have become and although there was still the usual social enterprise optimism with people pitching their ideas to one another, there was something else in the air. Was it caution?

I think it is fair to say that while public sector outsourcing is a big part of our agenda, especially in the way in which we can support those public sector workers who are looking to spin out their services as mutuals, for those social enterprises looking to tender their services into the public sector, business can be bonsai slow.

There was much talk about money being made available, with Nick O'Donohoe from Big Society Capital (formerly Big Society Bank) outlining the opportunities for borrowing there, but again this did not get the audience response he was perhaps expecting.

I spoke over lunch with another one of the big investors attending the conference who told me of the pressure he was under from his lords and masters to lend but was struggling to do so. He explained this by making a point I made in my last blog: getting the money out was a problem because potential borrowers did not have the right level of business support.

Our market is still young and, not only that, it is complex. Manufacturers have ideas that are often so innovative they look too risky to back. Contracts in the commercial sector, as elsewhere, are scaling up to take advantage of economies of scale and as such are proving too big for fledgling SMEs who can do part but not all of a potential order, and public sector spin-outs cannot borrow without an established, fully constituted asset-holding governance structure in place. And without investment they struggle to get that far.

Even for those who have spun out, public sector contracts that carry no recognition of social value and just look at price fail to recognise the added social value of social enterprise that is so integral in Chris White MP's bill which I discussed with him at the House on Monday. Without an increased understanding of the economic and societal advantage of social value - getting the disabled people employed, the unemployed young people returned to work, the environmental damage reduced, the vulnerable families supported - these will all get put to one side as government discounts are driven upward and the lowest unit price wins.

If we are not going to miss out as a society we must decide what we want our future private and public sectors to look like and then we have to invest not just capital but also expertise to create that vision. Social enterprise offers a unique blend of self-help, innovation and inspiration but as it has an uncomfortable relationship with both the traditional public and private sectors, someone has to nurture it and given the government has most to gain from its growth, that would be a logical place to start. The Japanese turned a rural economy into a leading global industrial nation in 50 years through smart thinking; we bounced back from the Second World War in 20 years because our successive governments shared a vision of a prosperous nation. The challenges we face are no less monumental and only a big vision for economic growth that leaves no-one behind will snatch glorious victory from the jaws of incremental decline.

Can social impact really be measured? Really?

Can social impact really be measured?

I've been thinking about Rob Edwards' comment on my last blog and have decided it deserves a blog of its own. In his response Rob, reflecting on Magic Breakfast's call for investment of £13 million in a social impact bond that offers £28 million in savings from the additional Government expenditure needed to address the social problems of children too hungry to learn, Rob said, "This is the whole problem with social enterprise. The returns can be somewhat ephemeral, and an awful lot of time and money goes into setting up organisations rather than actually delivering services that people want."


Is this the case? Is measuring social impact ephemeral and therefore too academic to bring into a discussion about investment? Can social enterprises miss the point and make an offer that is not really what people want?


Clearly some people think so and if we are to make any real progress, we have to address these criticisms, and not just by refuting them from the vantage point of the moral high ground, but by generating the data that proves our services are needed and our social return has been critically assessed and properly measured.  


Just after the election I had a meeting with the man put in charge of regeneration in a major Government department, he asked me, "How do we create regeneration and cut spending?"

I advised introducing social impact assessment across the whole department and insisting that the impact of cuts were assessed for their wider social impact and concomitant cost before decisions are made about what stays and what goes. Needless to say he didn't, or couldn't, follow my advice, but I am sticking to my guns, because despite a slow start, members of the Government namely, Nick, Hurd, Francis Maude, Ken Clarke, George Osborne and the Prime Minister himself have shown growing enthusiasm for social impact bonds making this an ideal time to take out the tape measure.


I do appreciate this is not easy. When I started looking into impact measurement I too was baffled and because I found it tough, I made sure SEL had the brains to work it out with people on the team like Ali Somers who devised the first social value balance score card and went on to head up the social impact unit at Goldsmiths. Also, Sabina Khan came to us from the impact assessment team in Lehman Brothers in New York and has since founded the world's leading Social Enterprise Journal, developed  SEL's SIMPLE programme – our how-to guide to assessing which tool is right for you – and launched our fantastically popular Introduction to social impact assessment training. Because SEL has been developing tools with real social enterprises working on the ground, often in the most difficult circumstances, we have come up with solutions that work for busy social entrepreneurs not just academic exercises. The goal has been to move social enterprise from being characterised as warm, fuzzy charity to one where hard evidence shows how it really works.


As times get tougher, the clamour for evidence will get louder. Occupying the moral high ground with its stunning views no longer guarantees any of us a future. Being able to produce data about the exact cost of your product or service and measure its impact will give you future contracts, boost your bottom line and ensure you offer services that, as Rob recommends, "people want". I know because we have done it at SEL and it really, really works, honest Rob.

Big Society, a great idea but you can't have 'owt for 'nowt'

Yesterday, was crazy,  I gave interviews to both the Evening Standard and Financial Times and had chats with three Local Authority leaders and our own Minister, Nick Hurd, all of which was pretty good going given I'm stuck in bed with a nasty chest infection.

Recent weeks have seen a rocky ride for the Big Society, so interviewers were eager to hear me call it game over for the Prime Ministers favourite philosophy, but sadly for the quick headline, its so much more complicated than that. Big Society has a great deal in common with social enterprise, not least that people struggle to know what it is, and like social enterprise it seeks to combine two truths, one that communities could and should get involved with the services they need, and two that the finances that support a progressive benevolent state should not all come from a single source. Bingo, Big Society and social enterprise. But that doesn't mean that you can work miracles without financial support, or innovate without investment.

The Government must feel disappointed, wondering why we think we can ask for special pleading when all about us is being cut and why we don't seem more satisfied by the Transition Fund, Work Programme and Big Society Bank.

The lack of appreciation could come from an overblown sense of entitlement, or it could be that these initiatives belong to less pressing times. My analysis is as follows, the Transition Fund is a £100 million available now for civil society organisations who are suffering as a result of the cuts. Super. Its aimed at front line organisations but the money they ask for can not go towards the services from which statutory investment has been withdrawn, instead the money is for consultancy to assist in restructuring and finding sustainability through an alternative model. Sensible if its only an interim payment, but tough too. The Work Programme is the one that gets me. Gone is Future Jobs Fund, which in our hands got 500 young people into jobs in social enterprise of which 72% are still in those jobs, so it worked, but hey, its not as if youth unemployment is critical, oh hang on it is. Instead we, and the young people we could help, have to wait for at least 12 months for an initiative that wraps all Government support up into a single package tendered out in large geographical, dare I say regional swathes, to bidders who needed a minimum £50 million reserve simply to pitch for the work. Enter the private sector, exit our lot. We are told we can be suppliers to those private contractors, but with a funding structure that makes payment with unprecedented delays it seems very few larger third sector organisations will be able to carry the risk let alone the small community based ones. Finally, we have the Big Society Bank which is a good thing, but I ask you, why terminate the existing form of lending, Futurebuilders, which at the time of closure was receiving £80 million of loan requests a month, loans being repaid with only a 2% default rate, before having a vehicle to replace it?

In the meantime the local authority cuts, cuts to the Regional Development Agencies and quangos and closure of programmes like Future Jobs Fund have all led to many of the organisation's they contracted with, that's our lot,  facing April 1st with projected deficits and potential closure. These are the same organisations that with time and a little investment could generate partnerships and consortia, attract alternative forms of finance and be in place to deliver Big Society.

So you see, its a mixed bag. We really do want to take up the challenge, we're not looking for handouts but contracts and we are willing to be frugal,  but we need time to adapt and in the next few weeks, for many fantastic community organisations, time will run out. You can hardly blame people for being angry, they were expecting cuts, not closure and so instead of a blue print for increased community engagement, Big Society, sadly, is starting to look like 'owt for 'nowt'.

And now for my next trick...

Yes its that time of year when as well as promoting social enterprise to anyone who will stand still long enough to hear me, and looking after the family, you can add Christmas fairy.

At the best of times life can be a bit circus like, hitting all the targets, making all the meetings and as I did last Tuesday picking up a winter coat for my eldest and then dragging it from venue to venue. Actually it was quite an interesting day. I had a great chin wag with government innovation leading light, Ruth Kennedy in Westminster then off to the very grand Marlborough House on Pall Mall for a reception for the First International Responsible Capitalist of the Year awards. My co-chair Sophi Tranchell, the Managing Director of Divine Chocolate was getting one of this years awards and despite the dodgy title it was a very exciting moment for Sophi and our movement, so I wanted to be there to cheer her on. Previous winners have been the CEO's of GlaxoSmithKline, Starbucks and Siemens. This was their first sortie into the social enterprise world and judging but the cheer Sophi's speech got, I hope it won't be their last. She was given her award by Vince Cable, who was a very engaged listener as Sophi's spoke eloquently of being in business to change business and ethical behaviour needing to be central to what you do not just a nice add on.

Prior to the ceremony I chatted to Douglas Hurd about his son Nick, our Minister. He spoke of Nick's enthusiasm for the brief and seemed a very proud dad, which was nice. I also bumped into Trevor Bayliss who was charming as always. We often see him in our favourite pub in Twickenham so seeing each other in such a grand setting was odd. My 12 year old is his biggest fan and wants to be Trevor when he grows up, either that or Gromit.

I then shot off late to the Guardian Public Service Awards, a dinner I needed to go to as I had been a judge this year. On the way there, I got a call from the event organiser which made my heart sink. My first thought was that I was speaking and had forgotten, after all you don't usually get a call checking if your turning up once an event has started. No, she reassured me, it was just that they had put me on the top table with the Guardian MD and Jeremy Vine and by not being there I had left an empty seat. Oops. It turned out to be a really fun table, apparently I was the only person there whom Jeremy had not had on his show and as if to make up for it he gave me quite a grilling on social enterprise, which he seemed really interested in. The awards were inspiring, its a great idea to recognise those people who often do thankless jobs in the public sector and do them really well for the benefit of all of us.

At midnight I picked up my son's coat from its third cloakroom of the day and headed home thinking about the thousand additional little jobs that need doing in the next 4 weeks. Thank god for technology. I have created my annual multiple Christmas spread sheets, drawn up my schedules and hit the internet hard. All very spontaneous. With over 50 close friends and relatives to gift, and the kids to sort as well as the house to de clutter, again, decorate and prepare for invasion, its always a lively month. Still, as a firm believer in the six p's (Prior planning prevents a piss poor performance) and as someone who needs very little sleep, I'm ahead of the game.

I tell you what I am looking forward to though, is a drink! This is Day 24 of my no-alchol regime and I can't wait for sight of the finishing post on the 16th. I can't remember why I started this nonsense, but Christmas will be a lot more fun once I jump of the bloody wagon. After all, the Christmas Fairy needs to get her spirit from somewhere.

Nick Hurd, Ed Davey and the Big Society

Everyone has heard of the Big Society and this week I have heard both our Minister, Nick Hurd and Ed Davey, BIS Minister for Employment Relations, Consumer and Postal Affairs (that's a mouth full) on the subject. They are absolutely fired up and raring to go so this is something we all need to know more about. Like all new concepts, especially those born of conversations rather than published doctrine, its taking time for folk to work out what it means. Perhaps that's the point, it can and should mean what people want it to mean to them.

The gist is inclusivity, so those of us that include are off to a roaring start. The ethos is community, so another tick there and the plan is in the making, so let's hope the wonderful organisations whom have made it their life's work to include, empower and inspire get to play in the band too.

Nick was speaking at the Social Enterprise Ambassadors send off do at Coin Street on Tuesday. The stories were inspiring, my favourite being a super, and mercifully short speech by ECOBOOTHE MD Shane Boathe, who had the snappy strap line of "putting the green back into clean". Sitting patiently through the speeches and presentations, Nick got to address us. He very kindly opened by giving SEL and me a name check, remarking at the chocolate and condoms we handed out at our pre election hustings, and adding, hilariously I thought, that the shelf life of the one considerably outlasted the shelf life of the other. He then went on to outlline his commitment to social enterprise, the Social Enterprise Coalition and heart felt support for the vision and purpose of the Big Society. He was passionate, saying that Government were determined in delivering this heightened form of community empowerment, that they wanted to enter into a dialogue with anyone who supported the concept because this was a Government, and I am quoting here, that wanted nothing less than to change the very culture of Britain. Wow.

This is Big stuff. So I was pleased to be able to pick up the discussion with Paul Twivy CEO of the Big Society Network when we met at his club yesterday evening. Despite it being a very noisy venue we managed a good chat and I have a clearer understanding of the network, and indeed the vision for #bigsoc as those of us that Tweet tag it. With my new found insight I trotted along to meet my friend Cliff Prior at UnLtd where together we worked up the idea within the context of our own work and then off to BIS where Ed Davey was Chairing a #bigsoc roundtable. I came into a facinating debate about the efficacy of accessing risk capital within community based business models, which I cheerfully waded into even though I was disgustingly late, because we the debate was in danger of concluding that shared ownership or social enterprise models could not, ever, be vehicles for signifigant investment. Whilst that is often true, it need not be the case, and Government is in a position to address that difficulty.

Ed asked me if I was challenging Government to resolve a process for social enterprise development within the public sector, and I said yes, having stuffed my oar in again to say that for those of us who have been picking our way through this minefield for years, the truth is, there is, as yet, no process. I thought the debate was a good starting point and again both Ed and Lord Nat Wei, who was also an enthusiastic contributor to the discussion, Big Society is the theme that underpins Government's approach to these issues. Take note here people.

So having had quite a #bigsoc week I was left wondering about the challenge we face. I have just had a meeting with Jeremy Robinson, CEO and John Stutchfield from Clarity, one of my absolutely favourite members (not that I have favourites of course) described by Nick Hurd as 'a pioneer of Big Society'. Clarity is a social enteprise that produces cleaning and personal hygiene products whilst also providing good jobs for a workforce with primarily sight related disabilities. I was cheered at how well they are doing in the market but I have to say outraged that they are still struggling to supply Government and large companies with highly developed CSR policies, because big entities won't unbundle their contracts. If we are to encourage Clarity and social enterprises like them who use business to address profound social need, then we really have to get a lot smarter here people.

I have sent a few emails tonight to senior folk I have met  recently who assure me of their support for social enterprise. I think purchasing your soap and hand wash at a commercial rate from a supplier like Clarity would be a fine place to start, don't you? The trick is to tell your facilities manager or cleaning contractor to seek out ethical products. Not only do you get a good product at a commercial rate, you contribute to your own social impact and you buy British. Now that's #bigsoc, isn't it?

The 100 days that rocked our world

Swapping sounds of the sea for the south circular I have arrived back in London with more than the usual thud. Things are moving from lively to red hot, every day brings radical change, loss, opportunity and even the occasional nice lunch with inspiring people like Bright Ideas Trust ceo and former Apprentice winner, Tim Campbell, what a lovely bloke.

Today marks the David Cameron's Coalition Government's first 100 days and despite predictions to the contrary, they look like they mean to go the distance.

Reading the recent interview with Nick Hurd in Third Sector I am struck by a number of things. Firstly the astonishingly dreamy photo of our Minister who looks like he could talk folk into volunteering for all sorts. Secondly the eye watering changes he, together with his colleagues, have introduced in the last 100 days. Oddly, despite having had almost all of my contracts cancelled and hearing daily concerns from members about the worst being yet to come, I remain energised. Whatever else you can say about the first 100 days, they have forced a change in behaviour that has kick started some incredibly creative collaborations.

I am thinking, in particular, of an idea I have been developing that entails working with the best minds and practitioners in the field of public sector outsourcing to create tools for walking people out of the public sector into excellent independent service delivery that maximises public investment and as importantly, social value. At SEL we have been working on outsourcing for a number of years but we readily acknowledge that there are other people with knowledge every bit as valuable as ours and we want to work with them. We had our first meeting today of some of our collaborators, and, if you like that sort of thing, which I do, it was thrilling. All will be revealed in time but at present we are building our cohort of thinkers and partners to unleash on the world our route to success. We will become the scouts that lead legions of folk across the road to a safer, inspiring and cost effective future, if they want to cross the road that is.

As a post script I add photos of Katie saying goodbye to her hermit crab collection as we left Cornwall 2 days ago. Seems like an age ago now. I love hermit crabs, but have you noticed they only ever move into bigger shells, never smaller ones?