The amazing, and yes, pretty radical Lily Lapenna who believed and then proved that kids can manage money

Social enterprises did stunning well in this week's Observer Britain's 50 New Radicals. As Geoff Mulgan, the CEO at Nesta writes, radicalism is "as British as tea and cakes", and so I would add is social enterprise. The joint venture between Nesta, the innovation agency, and the Guardian Group to find Britain's new radical innovators has sparked some lively debate, mostly about the meaning of radicalism. I'm not sure that was the point or do I think that calling these clever people working to make our society a better place radical is the most interesting thing about them.

Why Social Value Ethos and its doers matter

Introducing Sir Stephen Bubb and Nick Hurd. Photos Max Miansarow

Published by the Transition Institute

This week the Transition Institute (TI), which I have the privilege to chair, launched its first research document, Social value ethos. This piece comes firmly from the TI philosophy that it is possible to increase social value in the implementation of new forms of public service.

Working in partnership with Nesta, the champion of innovation, and many other leading organisations active in the space of public service outsourcing or spin-outs, the TI is providing the framework to debate and produce evidence such as we see in Social value ethos. Key players in the TI are those that share the view that social value can be optimised in public service through such means as employee ownership, social entrepreneurialism and mutualism. They are Co-ops UK, the Employee Ownership Association, Local Partnerships, Social Enterprise UK, 2020 Public Service Hub the Office for Public Management, our old friends, ACEVO, and many, many more.

This well-organised event (thanks to the wonderful TI team member Jillian Oxenham), was held in the successful spin-out GLL, in fact, ironically in one of their spinning rooms, where we had some stunning contributions from our expert panel, ably orchestrated by TI interim Director, Dominic Potter. Our panel all featured in the case studies in Social value ethos; they are Siobhan Clarke  of Your Healthcare, Andrew Burnell, City Health Care Partnership CIC and Brendan O'Keefe from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Youth Services, supported by Sabina Khan, Director of Policy and Research at SEL and the lead author of the research. The panel described the way in which they tackled the challenge of change, the importance of staff engagement, the added social value they had achieved and why that was important, and the need they all had for more support and information at the time of transformation. The report has been well received with some great comments from, among other social commentators, Cause4, read here.

Another successful public sector spin-out, NAViGO led by Kevin Bond, was also featured as a case study in the research and I am delighted to say subsequently won the Guardian Public Service overall award later on in the week at the Gala dinner held at the InterContinental and which I attended.

Andrew and Brendan tell it like it is

At the launch we heard from Sir Stephen Bubb of ACEVO, and the famous Bubb Blog, who made some really interesting points about the current imperative for new forms of public sector delivery. One thing he remarked on which really struck me was the contrast between the approaches of Blair and Cameron. Blair really liked the idea of independent service delivery, to the point of introducing well funded programmes like the Social Enterprise Investment Fund to support their growth, for him it remained all about improving standards of management. While for Cameron, it is all about community engagement and making a more meaningful connection between service providers and consumers. This really rang true for me and made me wonder what we could achieve if that second vision was underpinned by the kind of investment that systemic change received from the last government.

Then Minister Nick Hurd arrived to swing the proverbial champagne bottle at Social value ethos and in launching it he declared his support for the TI and all who sailed in her. He said some very nice things about me, which modesty dictates I may not repeat, but I liked the bit about being a doer.

When I was a little girl I agreed with my Mum to clear out a corner cabinet in our playroom. Coming home and finding I had done no such thing she wasn't cross, just aghast. She explained her reaction by saying, "But you always do what you say you're going to!" And so it has always been, a doer like our valiant public sector trailblazers, nice of Nick to notice.

Social value ethos delegates including the fantastic Siobhan Clarke (centre)

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.

This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. Become a Public Leaders Network member to get our weekly update direct to your inbox.

Getting "whizzy" about public services

There are two things we need to do to dig our way out of recession, one is spend less but the other is make more. It often occurs to me that whilst most of my time is taken up deliberating over the first part of that equation very little is spent on the latter. Yet social enterprises are manufacturing, against the odds, and some like Divine chocolate are breaking into International markets where the big gains for the UK economy need to be made. This is important stuff and although a demonstration against unfair International trade agreements or the effects of the rapacious money markets on those who trade Internationally is unlikely to need policing, these issues should be of consuming interest to all of us.

What does resonate is the effect of spending cuts on public services. On Tuesday I was speaking at a Guardian newspaper event for the public sector and following Lord Wei for what must be the third time in recent weeks. We exchanged a laugh about that and although Nat had to go as soon as he had done his bit on Big Society, he has since contacted me to set up a meeting for a more in-depth conversation. I will be able to report on SEL member's views and experience around the Big Society, if any of you have specific observations or issues you want me to raise please let me know. It was a good debate with some great contributions from such respected bodies as the National College and recorded for Radio 4 to be broadcast on January 8th. I hope my views are represented in the round. Whilst I think the need for a new narrative on Big Society and its role in the public sector is pressing, talk of volunteering in that context is particularly unhelpful, the central message of empowering staff and consumers to work together to redesign services and deliver them as independent providers is timely and one we can build on.

On Thursday I participated in one of the most interesting meetings I've ever been to. Our hosts were NESTA and the subject was the future of public services and routes that will maximise social value. Contributions from the Innovation Unit, the Office for Public Management, Local Partnerships the fabulous Paul Corrigan dubbed "the quiet revolutionary" by the Guardian, Ben Lucas Director of 2020 Public Services Trust and NESTA led to some electric brainstorming and some really nifty ideas or "whizzy" as Paul had it. More, much more on that later.