Respite care row drags in social enterprise

Yesterday Chris Smith from Swarm Communications wrote a really good piece in the Guardian  on the desperate need for social enterprise to communicate to those outside our cosy tent, what we are and why we matter. I would say that as he generously quotes me, and other than the rather challenging photo of me in what I now regard as dodgy earrings, I come off rather well as do SEL members Fifteen, Belu, Greenworks, Divine and our old friend Rob Greenland the man behind the fantastic Social Business Blog.

SEL staff have had some fun with the above photo today with an impromptu caption competition, front runners at the moment are "How big!?" and "This big". Feel free to join in, you can only do better.

The point Chris makes, that the wider public need to get what we do in order to join us, you might think is self evident in its urgency. He goes on to say that our recent association with the Big Society might have got us out to a wider audience but that could be tricky as the Big Society remains rather ill defined itself. Getting stories out about the smaller, newer, cutting edge social enterprises like Bikeworks or Responsible IT is the job of agencies like SEL and I hope we are doing our job well but I agree we need to do more and fast. Worth a read.

This morning the row over cuts to respite care for families of disabled children is a case in point. On BBC Breakfast the manager of the Watford MENCAP centre for respite care was interviewed and was angry at the cuts, and angry about "all this talk about social enterprise". "What was it?" she asked. "Where are the models for us to follow? How will it help us with these cuts?" she went on to say. These are all good questions and just as Government talks enthusiastically about social enterprise they must offer people support to explore the model. It is the screaming absence of specifics or resource to access expertise that leads to people getting angry, and angry with us. As Chris Smith says, social enterprise needs to communicate its story, we need to do this so that folk in Watford can make an informed decision about whether its right for them.  

Having a bad speech day

I went to the Guardian Social Enterprise Conference today which was really good, except I was speaking and was not so good. Classic school girl error, I wanted to convey a complex argument for the ways in which social enterprises need to be flexible in order to shape up to public service delivery, I used fun (?!) slides that in themselves required a little context, and I had a rigorous 5 minutes to do it and so inevitably ran out of time. Muppet. I am particularly disappointed because as the only woman speaking in any of the plenaries or key notes I wanted to give the boys a run for their money. Sorry girls next time I promise to do better. At least the podcast I did with Rodney Schwartz of Clearly So and Gordon d'Silva of Training for Life, with a contribution from Dia Powell at HCT, all SEL members, went well. We had a good rapport and I think got on to some chewy issues quite quickly which between us we were able to deal with. The difference of opinion gave issues a degree of balance.

Someone who had more to say was Secretary of State, Andrew Lansley who announced a new wave of Right to Request in the department of health, I cheered for those spinning out and those who want to and in particular our friends at Local Partnerships helping them to do so. He also threw in there was to be a new £4.5 million in the DoH's fund to enable social enterprise, investment that is as rare as hen's teeth these days. He told of a potential £1 billion of contracts open to social enterprises and to me seemed very well briefed and committed to the idea of social enterprise delivering health services.

The dishy Nick Hurd also spoke and gave a sensitive speech about there being very little anyone could disagree with in the concept of social enterprise and to see growth he recognised the need for increased investment and engagement with intermediaries. In fact he talked of the Big Society Bank only dealing with intermediaries which was clever I thought. I look forward to seeing how that pans out. I asked him a question I wanted to ask when I saw him at the excellent Good Deals conference the day before, which was wether he saw the social investment market being able to invest in public sector spin offs. I was thinking of the local authorities we are working with and wondering if they would be looking to social investment bankers or the high street? He thought they would be able to invest but perhaps it would be mixed. I agree but the people we are working with will need their money very soon and I'm not sure what and indeed how much will be available to them from social business, nor sadly how social enterprise friendly our friends for the high street will be feeling. We shall see.

SEL's lovely Michelle Richmond was brilliant in one of the breakouts on social impact, I was very proud; Ali Wilson of the School of Social Entrepreneurs was wonderfully phlegmatic when he asked us to spare a thought for the poor old entrepreneur who would need support and company on their difficult journey from grant or zero income to sustainability. In fact come to think of it there was a general dissing of grants which I think is sad. So many very good social enterprises start that way, like SEL member Colin Crooks at Greenworks who started with a grant only to become a profitable multi million pound business, recycling office furniture, providing employment to ex-offenders and getting nothing from from the state to do it. A process that took time.

One of things we struggle with in our world is celebrating one form of entrepreneurialism without criticising others.

There were lots of other great contributions too, and at both conferences it was good to talk to members and colleagues about what they're up to. All in all, and despite getting no signal to tweet and fluffing my speech, it was a good day.

The beauty of blogging

Thanks to the magical way the internet brings people together I have just read the most exquisite blog, Ngorobob House: Life from the Hill. Reading this blog you realise what a privilege it is to be able to share the intimate thoughts of those whose lives are so different from our own. This latest post, brought to my attention by blogger, Family Affairs, is shocking, beautiful and unutterably sad. You can smell the heat, taste the sweat and salty tears and feel the tangible loss.

Social enterprises are trying to make the world a smaller place, bit like the internet. They are trying to get us all to give a shit about one another, whether we’ve been introduced or not. When I think of the work of enterprises like Divine Chocolate, Global Ethics and Greenworks, all investing in Africa, I am cheered that whilst we can’t bring back Francis Mgambi we can build ethical businesses that help people help themselves. We need to try harder.

Look at the attached David Tennant film about One Water and join their World Water Day.


Yesterday was International Women’s Day and what a great day for Katherine Bigalow to win the Oscars for best director and film. Go girl. She made a relatively cheap but none the less great film about the blood and guts of war whilst her ex-husband made a mind blowingly expensive one about blue lizard people. For once substance won out over big bucks, I was cheering. As an aside I do hope this fad for 3D blows over. I took the kids to Alice in Wonderland on Saturday and although the film was good, in my view, I hated the 3D business. It made me feel sick (maybe because I’m a migrainer?) I couldn’t suspend belief and I was aware of the devise throughout. Horrid.

Finally Stephen Bubb of acevo, having read my last blog post, asked me yesterday if I really had put in my first early potatoes. Although I am the first on our allotments I checked the RHS gardening website called My Garden and others have put theirs in, so although it is risky, given the dodgy weather, I am not alone.

Social enterprise moves from CSR to supply chain - its official

I've been to a few ministerial lunches where the hand picked guests make their case on a given topic for the benefit of the politician present. Our little lunch, with private, public and social enterprise leaders upping the anti on buying from social enterprise, this Thursday, was different. For a start Angela Smith, our Minister, was totally on the money, she didn't stand on ceremony and she really got stuck in sharing her views and asking loads of questions. Secondly everyone present was equally animated, leading to the most exciting conversation on procurement you can imagine. Thanks to the LDA for supporting us in making it happen.

Angela was shadowing Sophi Tranchell from Divine Chocolate for the day, as part of a social enterprise Ambassadors Programme initative. She told me she was learning all about the chocolate world and found it really interesting. Not unsurprisingly, I suppose.

At the lunch, held at the Baltic in Southwark, we did talk about Government being a bad shopper, but much more engaging than that we heard from Ray Mills, Partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers who told us about his clients that want to spend millions with social enterprise. Our old friend Colin Crooks, CEO at Green Works confirmed that in the early days their first contract with HSBC came in at 28 times their turnover. That's unthinkable in the public sector where contracts are often a maximum of no more than 25% of turnover. So maybe if social enterprises are to grow quickly, as Green Works did, the private sector as purchaser, is the place to start.

In any event no one was talking about CSR. For the big business in the room, social enterprise was a provider, not a post divided investment in PR. That has to be good news.

I'm looking forward to a day at the allotment. Because I have had so much on I have only been able to stay on top of the garden. I sorted out my 2010 seeds last night and put my seed potatoes out to chit (technical term for sprouting shoots) and tomorrow I'll be pruning my apple trees and soft fruits. I will no doubt end the day looking like I've had a fight with a mad cat, covered in scratches, but frankly, I can't wait. My idea of fun.