Fab piece in the Guardian today by Jane Dudman on our Transition Institute which launches tomorrow

Transition Institute supports managers spinning out public servicesNew social enterprise body will support innovative public services delivered by former public managers


The Transition Institute is a way to bring together bodies being spun out of the public sector. Photograph: James Worrell/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Image
In his Public Manager column in the Guardian on 4 May, Craig Dearden-Phillips investigates what it is like to lead a service out of the public sector.
This is particularly apposite, given the recent admission by the government that it is scaling back its plans to privatise swaths of the public sector for fear of appearing to be in favour of private companies excessively profiting from the taxpayer.
The emphasis is now firmly on services being run by employee-owned, third sector or mutual organisations and Thursday 5 May sees the launch of a new body designed to respond to this agenda and provide support for budding public sector entrepreneurs.
The Transition Institute is a new, independent centre for research jointly run by Social Enterprise London and the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (Nesta). The aim is to highlight and facilitate innovative new public services.
Allison Ogden-Newton, chief executive of Social Enterprise London, says the new institute is a way to bring together bodies being spun out of the public sector with support organisations, to enable them to collaborate and raise the quality of debate about new ways to deliver public services.
"The UK is ahead of the rest of the world in advancing the discussions around independently-run public services and first in setting up an institute to study these new models and support those who want to get involved," says Ogden-Newton. "It's a brave new era and we are thrilled to be working with Nesta to establish this groundbreaking institute."
She says the aim will be to "help give direction and establish common principles in order to support emerging leaders".
Mark Johnson, managing director of TPP Law, which specialises in advising public sector spin-outs, says there is a need for a central bank of resources, expertise and information for public sector managers if employee-led mutuals are to take off and adds that the new institute will play a "vital role" in collating and disseminating that knowhow.
One example of a social enterprise delivering a service formerly run within the public sector is Living Well, which provides support and guidance for people living with HIV and AIDS. Until recently it was a successful service run by Hammersmith and Fulham Primary Care Trust (PCT), but the organisation's ability to develop into new service areas was stifled by financial barriers, chiefly by not being able to carry financial surpluses into the following year.
Following a period of research, staff came upon the idea of forming a community interest company and 'spinning out' the service from PCT control. James Miller, who has led the process and will manage the new social enterprise, says he is enormously excited at the potential of what can now be achieved. "We are already looking to deliver contracts beyond our PCT, putting in bids for corporate sponsorship and making links with large national charities," he says. "Running our own organisation really gives us the freedom to innovate, it's enormously exciting." Miller stresses that Living Well has developed in close partnership with the PCT.
Miller's enthusiasm mirrors the finding by Dearden-Phillips that being part of a social business engenders an increase in productivity, innovation and energy among staff.
But Dearden-Philllips also warns that few councils are yet looking seriously at creating spin-outs - there is no sign as yet of the first trickle of spin-outs turning into a flood, he points out. His conclusion is that there needs to be more expertise in local authorities about how to nurture spin-out business. There are also some real financial issues that face potential spin-outs, particularly about how pensions will work, and how to finance spin-outs. "Above all, there is a real need for leaders - hundreds of them," he comments.

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Big society is here to stay and it's time to get used to it: Guardian Public 09.03.11

Photo: Murdo Macleod

Despite opposition from both the left and right on the political spectrum, and a wealth of criticism from civil society leaders, there are reasons why the "big society" is here to stay.

Making the transition to social enterprise. A 'guru's' perspective

See below for this morning's piece in Guardian Public - my take on the future of social enterprise 'in-sourcing'  - and my first outing as a 'guru'!?

Social enterprise guru Allison Ogden-Newton speaking at this year's Public Services Summit

Following the coalition government's decision to cut spending and support social enterprise, I have been talking to a lot of public sector leaders lately. Those that have contacted me want to discuss how social enterprise can help them turn a fiscal crisis into opportunity by building new services that maximise community engagement.

What they don't want to talk about is how the existing third sector or community sector or "Big Society" family, however you prefer to term us, can deliver more public sector contracts.
I'm thrilled that so many are now seeing the potential of the employee, community ownership, mutual and cooperative models encompassed in the term social enterprise, to deliver a whole new world of public services.

It is clear to me that social enterprise is about to get a great deal bigger with more public servants than ever joining in. It is equally clear, that the opportunities for existing social enterprises, particularly those operating at the voluntary sector end are grim.
If you look at this from the point of view of the harassed local authority leader or chief executive, they have upwards of 25% to take off their bottom line, and they have to cut to do it. For them the only option is to enable staff to create workable business models that deliver existing services more cost effectively. What is not helpful are third parties that want to be alternative providers, although there are opportunities for proven social enterprises that offer jobs for existing staff, cost savings and genuine community engagement.
As a strategic body the challenge for us is to work with local authorities, public health bodies and central government to create this new generation of deliverers where former workers can increase their job satisfaction.
In my discussions it is clear that it is the public service ethic that is driving people's interest in social enterprise as well as the fiscal crisis. Workers want more creative control over service delivery and they have ideas about building enhanced relationships with service users. In some ways it's far more appropriate to think of this as in-sourcing, as opposed to out-sourcing, and remember that this only works if it is approached positively and creatively.
Social Enterprise London has published Transitions, an introductory guide for public sector staff anywhere, on how they can go about establishing a social enterprise out of their existing service, with their existing colleagues. We have produced it in collaboration with London Councils, Capital Ambition and leading social enterprise leisure trust, GLL.
The guide is for local authorities who want to support staff to consider whether social enterprise might be right for any services which could include parks, children's nurseries, transport, libraries and back office functions like finance and IT. It is an exciting process and one that I hope inspires new recruits to the idea.
My only sorrow is that it is definitely preaching to the unconverted and there is little here for the choir.

Former Canadian PM pleads for UK social enterprise leadership

I am at this year’s Guardian newspaper public service summit. Obviously the talk is of cuts, up to 23% in the public sector according to our Chair, David Brindle, Public Services Editor of the Guardian, and people are wondering about the changes to come. I am here to talk about where social enterprise fits in.

I settled in to hear our key note speaker the Rt Hon Paul Martin, former Prime Minister of Canada who told us how, when he was Finance Minister, he and Treasury colleagues began the process of sorting out Canada’s rising deficit literally on the back of an envelope. He told us it was arbitrary and cold, but the fact was after 30 years of rising spending and accumulated deficit he felt it was absolutely necessary. He gave each member of the Government target cuts, allowing individual Ministers to appeal but refusing to budge on the overall bottom line.

I liked his line that when you are a finance minister it is better for everyone to hate you, rather than a few people. I wonder if that’s true for all those who have unpopular jobs to do?

I was really interested in this very bold approach but imagine my delight when he said that, in considering what the UK has done 'right', the answer is social enterprise. I was all ears.

He described it as a marriage of left and right, compassion and social entrepreneurship. He, not I, told the conference that business entrepreneurs can tap markets but social entrepreneurs cannot because they will always be hampered by their social aims when it comes to borrowing. He told delegates that the UK is leading the way with innovations including Community Interest Companies, which he wished they had in Canada.

He said 'if you can build on this growth in social enterprise, you will be ahead of everyone'. Upping the anti he told us that social enterprise improves quality of life, when ill health is often the collateral damage of the free markets. He repeated the point that in social enterprise you will be ahead of everyone, Canada, the US... in fact everyone.

I was dancing in my seat, it was all I could do to stop myself cheering. It was wonderful. He set a tone which meant that every subsequent speaker had to comment on social enterprise, building a debate that grew exponentially.

He posed the following question: “I would ask, why would the state not provide incentives for social enterprises?” He told us that the great recession of 2008/9 has done its work, it was and remains the perfect storm that has rendered getting Globalisation to 'work' the great challenge for our time. It's important to deal with it now, he told us; 'cut the deficit, regulate capital, and create Global solutions to this Global crisis'.

Leaping to my feet in questions I asked Prime Minister Martin, if he had social enterprise in Canada when he was PM, what would have been his vision for it?

He responded that his vision for social entrepreneurs now is that they really 'have a go' at capital markets. He said that in his view there are people who are social activists that are every bit as entrepreneurial as capitalists. Finally he said, “my remarks to you are almost a plea. A lot of us are looking to you for leadership in this area, we in Canada have not gone far enough, the US has gone further, none of us have gone as far as you have, we are all looking at the UK to show us the way.”

In response to ACEVO CEO Stephen Bubb's question around the need for increased social investment he said, "I think a social investment bank would be good, but to be honest access to the capital market is what you want. If the Twitter people had to go to a grant agency they would never have got money. We have a third world in Canada, Aboriginal Canadians who have a strong entrepreneurial leaning but no one will lend them money. Mezzanine financing is perhaps the answer, maybe Government should be taking a role in supporting initial investment? But what social entrepreneurs really need is access to the market.”

Finally he told us to get the public on your side, much as Philip Blond of ResPublica had told us to do at Voice on Tuesday. It was a wonderful speech.

Next up we had Rob Whiteman, CEO of Barking and Dagenham Council, who told us, that in the last decade we in the UK have improved things by investing in them and in the next decade we will have to improve things by spending less.

He told us that professionals should be on tap and not on top, that you need advice but don’t let it hamper your innovation. He mentioned working with social entrepreneurs running services such as libraries. Incidentally I have always thought public libraries are a natural home for social enterprise.

Simon Godfrey director of public sector strategy, business development and government relations at SAP, the IT and infrastructure giant was concerned that the private sector will outstrip the public sector very soon, as the population ages we need to understand that technology is key in delivering a quality life style to the aging population.

I was up next with Sir Andrew Foster, Chair of the 2020 Public Services Trust, Dame Julie Mellor, Partner at PwC in a session chaired by David Brindle.

Sir Andrew painted a picture of moving us from 'public services to powerful public' Dame Julie mentioned the work SEL are doing with PwC on dealing with the fiscal gap through social enterprise.

I had to abandon my planned speech as everyone had already mentioned social enterprise and my job was to pick up their points. I told them I was not an advocate of cuts but that I was an advocate for change. That the current crisis, described by Sir Michael Bishard, director of the Institute for Government as a burning platform, would offer change and that I felt that had to be an opportunity for my members.

I told them Government had to be a better shopper, that thinking it can both procure services and supply them efficiently was odd, that we were not services on the cheap, we were just better and therefore less costly in the long run, that social clauses in contracts are not in contravention of European law, that social enterprise blurs the line between public and private and that like the internet we are spontaneous, compelling unstoppable and of the moment. I concluded that opting for social enterprise was not a difficult choice, it was the only choice.

I was delighted when most of the subsequent questions were on social enterprise. I fielded concerns that community initiatives might lead to a post code lottery, that social enterprise might not be real engagement, or that it might be seen to be middle class (ask John Bird about that.)

I have since been asked to talk to so many delegates that I shall be busy for months getting round them all. That would be the job then.

I have snuck off to give you the heads up, both Stephen and I are blogging this one up a storm. Patrick Butler, Head of Society, Health and Education at the Guardian came up to me at lunch and said, you must be pleased. I congratulated him on organising such a good conference on social enterprise. Well done Guardian.

I will head home at the close of play today and not stay for the Gala Dinner as this is my second residental conference this week and I haven't seen the family much. This weekend I'm going to be doing some more burning and mulching at the allotment, perhaps putting in some broad bean seeds if the warmer weather holds.

I need to start thinking about our lawn. My husband is chuffed that the chickens have started laying again but I fear it is at the expence of my lawn which they have scratched to buggery over the winter. Bad chickens.

Socially speaking it should be a quite weekend with only my mate Julie popping over to debrief me on a speech she is giving to the law lords tonight on privacy law and the recent case involving a certain footballer. Julie is International Editor of a well known celebrity magazine so I should imagine they are looking forward to hearing what she has to say. She on the other hand is dreading it. She told me yesterday that's she'd rather interview Madonna. If making speeches isn't your job its hard to take in your stride. Still, to be honest, at most conferences I'd rather be in the garden. But not today, I wouldn't have missed it for the world. A great conference, and I'm looking forward to my little chat with Prime Minister Martin, we both seem to have it bad for social enterprise.