I give you ....... the Transition Institute

This week we launched  the Transition Institute (TI) with our partners Nesta. We had a pre-launch dinner at the Hoxton Grill, in partnership with our friend Craig Dearden-Phillips, the night before and then the official launch at the wonderfully snazzy Nesta building 1 Plough Place on Thursday.

The dinner was exceptional. It was one of those where almost everyone who had been asked accepted probably because as Patrick Butler, Editor of Society, Health and Education Policy at the Guardian said, it read like a who's who of social commentators in this field, which is persumably why he agreed to chair. I kicked off by welcoming everyone and explaining a little about the TI, its vision and our journey up to the launch.


The TI is a platform to debate, reflect and produce research, guidelines and best practice in the field of public sector outsourcing. It will not deliver support but act as a commentator among those that do. It will be the place where decision makers such as local and health authorities go to find out how to outsource effectively in a way that will maximise social value. Those that are involved in the TI and subsequently get involved hold one thing to be true: we agree that public services can be delivered more effectively through independent provision but only when providers want to maximise social value above profit.

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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2011, its all about message

Having had some interesting feedback on my 2011 blogs and a quick canteen lunch with Guardian Public Editor, Jane Dudman today I am more convinced than ever that 2011 will be all about getting our message right. As Government measures take hold and the economy reacts I think social enterprise has an unprecedented opportunity, but only if we communicate what we are all about to the uninitiated.

Whilst social enterprise has certainly gripped the imagination of the political class and an increasing number of the public have heard of what we do, few are confident in describing it and fewer still could tell you why it matters. Nothing is more important than fixing this so we recruit the general public en masse to the value of our business model. For far too long we have been absorbed by definitions, a subject that leaves potential enthusiasts cold, always an own goal in my view. We should be shouting from the roof tops stories about social enterprises like Magic Breakfast that work with companies like Quaker to deliver free breakfasts to over 5000 kids in 180 schools, every day. Without Carmel McConnell and her great social enterprise, those children would be going to school too hungry to learn. Folk need to know that when they buy Quaker oats they are contributing to a free breakfast for a hungry child. We are a movement and to gather the critical mass to our cause we have to be punchy, positive as well as passionate.

2012, it isn't all just Games

Elegantly hosted by the Guardian newspaper, SEL held a roundtable on 2012 this morning.  Jane Dudman, Editor of Guardian Public was our Chair and kept everyone in line, drawing out the discussion as only a journalist can. Lord Wei kicked us off with some thought provoking comments about Big Society and how 2012 was a unique showcase for social action, and then we got stuck in.


You can read all about it in a feature to be published by the Guardian soon, together with pictures. As we spoke we had our pictures taken, which I have to say makes me quite self conscious. I suddenly became very aware of just how much I wave my hands about when I speak. You will also see that I wore large hoops in my ears, as it was the Olympics.  I point that out in case you miss the reference, it's very subtle.

Some real eye openers for me were comments made from senior colleges about just how much Government prefers to commission the private sector, seeing social enterprise as a risk, and how even some of the biggest firms in the UK, CISCO and GE Corporate represented at the meeting by their senior directors, find Government procurement almost prohibitive.

On a more upbeat note I was delighted to hear from GLL Managing Director and SEL Co-Chair, Mark Sesnan that GLL now employed over 5000 people and has a turnover of nearly £100 million. That settled a late night argument I had with a colleague in Korea, who maintained you could never have a social enterprise topping a £100 million turnover in a developed country. It seems I was right, because it turns out that you can.

I thought contributions from CISCO were particularly erudite, Neil Crockett their Managing Director for the Public Sector gave us both some great challenges and opportunities and I look forward to talking to him soon about how CISCO can work with social enterprise to achieve their extremely ambitious goals for social impact.

Lord Andrew Mawson famous for his work at Bromley by Bow, John Charles of Catering to Order and a successful 2012 contractor like Dai Powell, Managing Director of HCT, all battled on behalf of social enterprise delivering Olympic contracts and Legacy. They argued that we can build jobs and ensure local investment that will transform the East End. This was reiterated by Sophie Tranchell, Managing Director of Divine Chocolate and SEL co-Chair who made the last point which was that surely if we wanted to keep investment in London then companies that had a commitment to reinvest their profit into their social mission were an effective way of achieving just that.

I threw in my lines about Government being a notoriously bad shopper and that we should build the Social Enterprise Square Mile on the 2012 site (a brilliant idea from our friends at Calverts) and that having just returned from Seoul, a city which is still showing all the signs of being an Olympic venue, I have an immediate sense that there is a lot at stake.

We have all had an eye on the World Cup, and even if you didn’t care much for the football, the social commentary about how it has raised the economic well being, vision and pride of an already fiercely proud country is a lesson we should learn very quickly. It isn’t about the fireworks, fancy stadia and ceremonial flourishes, it’s about the people.

The world over, people are the same, they all want to be inspired by bravery, generosity and vision and Brits can do that in spades. It struck me this morning that Korea is a country hungry to learn from the UK experience of social enterprise and replicate it post games, they even expressed to me their regret that they had not discovered social enterprise before hand, and here we were with little time left to plan, but still with the games ahead and not behind us. Those in the driving seat, encouraged by us all, have an historical opportunity to embed social enterprise in our Games and their Legacy and show how Government and private investment in a very public affair can deliver excellence and world class social transformation.

SEL, with we hope, LOCOG, will be launching its vision for the Games, Legacy and social enterprise very soon, and lets hope there is still time to make this not only the best Games ever, but also the most inspiring.