“Neither a borrower nor a lender be.” Not so, says SIB

Phil Knibb overseas a church convertion to a skills training
 centre for Alt Valley Community Trust

“Neither a borrower nor a lender be,” Shakespeare tells us, but the Social Investment Business (SIB) say otherwise. At this week’s 10-year celebration of lending to social enterprises and other civil society organisations, SIB was toasting its brave and brilliant borrowers, many gathered in the room to testify to the largess of lending.

Proceedings were opened by my ebullient friend Sir Stephen Bubb, who lamented the absence of Pol Roger, but nonetheless asked us to raise our glasses of austerity wine to SIB and all it had achieved.

Stephen talked about the history of lending in the Third Sector and its growing importance and how risk-taking had not only saved some great community-based organisations, but importantly helped them to grow and compete. He introduced Phil Knibb, Director of Alt Valley Community Trust in Liverpool, where his inspiring community organisation had, through borrowing a staggering 13 times from SIB, grown to provide an astonishing range of services that included skills training and commercial farming.   

Phil gave us a growingly improbable list of community services that Alt Valley had been able to provide by borrowing, buying and building. It was a real success story and we heard about so many others all worth checking out here, in Above and beyond, a SIB publication about those investees that have successfully taken over the delivery of public services and thrived through social investment lending.

Jonathan Jenkins, CEO of SIB, followed Stephen, not an easy thing to do as he pointed out, and made reference to the recent UK Trade Mission to the US on social lending. This was picked up later by the Rt Hon Nick Hurd, Minister for Civil Society, who shared his enthusiasm and pride for the UK’s world-beating lead on social lending and its potential role to do much more. He congratulated SIB on behalf of the government and even “gave credit where credit was due” to “the other lot” for providing the funding that set it up.

I don’t think there is much doubt that investment through lending is quickly becoming the most inspired finance available to community services. For those of us promoting independent public service provision delivered by community-based organisations, at the Transition Institute, the presence in the market place of players like SIB is one of the most important conditions for success, and one I celebrate. I was delighted to bump into Heather Sim, CEO of The National Migraine Centre at the event, which was a recipient of a SIB loan that has been vital to its objective to increase medical services and achieve financial sustainability. These things are a must if we are to help those with acute suffering such as migrainers.

Congratulations to SIB and all who sail in her.

Looking back with pride at 2011

Magic Breakfast working to feed London"s hungry kids wins the Big Society Award in 2011 

Looking back on an extraordinary year I can hardly believe that our small organisation could have achieved so much and made such a difference! That is, of course, down to our members, networks, clients, supporters, co-chairs Mark Sesnan and Sophi Tranchell and board, all of whom enabled the fantastic SEL team to really pick up the pace for social enterprise in 2011.

The year started for us by hosting the world’s largest 2012 Olympic social enterprise conference at the London Film Museum where hundreds of delegates met to discuss and plan a successful games that will establish a worthwhile and long-lasting legacy for the wider community.

SEL also held a conference, put together by our own local government expert Mei Hui, especially for London’s local authorities with the support of London Councils. This was the 5^th LAConnects conference and the most successful yet. Bringing together representatives of all 32 boroughs and the City, we took a good hard look at their social enterprise strategies and ways in which boroughs could do more with social enterprise. This was an important conversation to have, especially in such difficult economic times because social enterprises are working with some of society's most vulnerable citizens who are always the hardest hit by economic decline.

A big breakthrough came in 2011 with another seminal partnership, this time with NESTA, the leading innovation agency, with which we worked to established the ground-breaking Transition Institute. The organisation, led by Director and policy supremo Dominic Potter and supported by the dedicated Jillian Oxenham, gained its full institute status from the government - no mean feat, because it provides a unique and vital platform for the discussion and promotion of public sector reform that maximises social value.

I am privileged to Chair the Institute, which has as its board members luminaries like Sir Stephen Bubb, Lord Micheal Bichard, Ed Mayo, Philip Colligan, Sue Bruce, Helen Bailey, Andrew Burnell, Sophia Looney, Mark Sesnan and Ben Lucas.

The Institute has attracted real media attention and as a result been contacted by an ever-growing number of public sector workers looking for information and support in the pursuit of their plans for a new approach to service delivery.

Launching its first publication in 2011, Social Value Ethos the Instutute offers strategic support to the Public Services (Social Value) Bill which, thanks to Chris White MP and Minister Nick Hurd’s tenacious campaigning, has made it to the House of Lords. We hope it gets through and is passed in 2012.

Our international work continued to be a significant part of the 2011 story with SEL consultants working in Croatia, South Korea and Copenhagen led by our chief boffin, Director of Policy and Research, Sabina Khan who has also started a series of tele-events for the Chinese government with partners, the British Council.

SEL’s work with local authorities continued to blossom and, over the year, we trained over 400 local authority officers in how they might approach becoming independent service deliverers. Building on their challenges and experiences and those of the 10 local authorities we worked through our consultancy team, we published Spin Out and Deliver from the Guardian as part of our Social Enterprise Day celebrations, which has since been downloaded from the SEL site many thousands of times.

We also continued to work with the Department of Health researching the challenges faced by health sector spin-out services through our research hub and consultancy. 

Our links with the corporate world also defined 2011 in that we delivered eight oversubscribed events for social entrepreneurs sponsored by our partners KPMG and PwC. These events have become astonishingly popular and offer real evidence of the way in which the larger City-based firms have valuable expertise to offer social enterprises that our members, in turn, are delighted to benefit from. 

Thanks to our Membership Team, Emma Hodson and Clare Sharpen, the SEL family has risen in number steadily all year and means that despite the battles we have fought and, I have to say, not always won for social enterprise, we are clearly doing something right. Offering programmes like ERDF Winning Contracts headed up by our own powerhouse Sue Potter, we know has really helped members. This programme saw us train over 580 social enterprises in improving their performance in securing and delivering quality public sector contracts. Independent assessment showed that our training resulted in over £4 million of new business being won by clients who specified the training they had from SEL was key to their subsequent success. 

I was a judge for the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year, the Guardian Public Sector, the Third Sector and Social Enterprise Photography awards all in 2011. These competitions might not change the world but they give us an unparalleled opportunity to make sure that social enterprises like Livity in Brixton and the Acton African Well Woman Centre get the recognition they deserve.

Our membership goes from strength to strength and is about to top 3,000, which is fantastic and makes us the largest social enterprise community in Europe. It seems that as things get tougher, social enterprises are looking for more information and support and SEL is the obvious go-to choice. 

Having the design and techno wizard, Surbhi Bahl sorting out our front end has, I hope you agree, made a real difference to the impact and clarity of our message. Surbhi has made sure that the success of members like Magic Breakfast, which joined SEL members GLL and Central Surrey Health when they bagged a Big Society Award in 2011, was shared by the whole network and SEL’s now significant global audience. 

Astonishingly 2011 saw SEL get our members covered in at least 43 pieces of national media and countless more sector-specific and local media sources. We also continued to do well in the world of social media with a combined (SEL, Transition Institute and aogdennewton) Twitter following of over 6,000 and consistently high Google ratings. If you search social enterprise from anywhere in the world, SEL will not be far from the top of any search engines suggested links.

But what is my highlight of 2011? It has to be the successful conclusion of our London Future 500 programme in which we got 500 young people jobs in social enterprise, 69% of whom are no longer on benefits.

Social enterprise is all about making a difference, and that certainly is making a very big difference indeed.

I wish you all the very best for the holidays and a prosperous 2012, whatever it brings SEL will be there working tirelessly and creatively for you,

All the very best

Allison

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.

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.

Wimbeldon, whittering and what next for us?

I am really enjoying the twitter feed on the piece I got into the Guardian Public yesterday on social impact assesment. It is gratifying when people describe your work as spot on especially if they are leading lights in the social enterprise world. I will continue to bang on about social impact assesment as I truly believe it is the only way to ensure the most vulnerable in our society are not left behind as everything changes. I believe we are in a transition phase and managing the risks and maximising the opportunities will all come down to measuring and valuing social impact.

Last night having popped home early to take my daughter and her rabbit to the vet, my husband suggested making the most of my rare early appearance at home to pop out to Wimbledon and see if we could get in. We took the boys who love their tennis, our Joe is the top seed in his year at school, and literally swaned in.  At 7pm there is still 2 and a half hours of play and for £14 cash you can literally just walk in.  We didn't even have to queue!  Its the gate near Car park 10 for those who want to give that a go. We saw Clement and the boys got to see Jovovich on Centre Court as some kind soul gave Sam two centre court tickets.  Sam does have a wonderfully smiley face and lovely things do seem to happen to him. Long may that last.

This morning we had our joint event with PWC and the LDA on Governance and Risk. We had a full room of leading social entrepreneurs and the discussion was fascinating.  I particularly enjoyed the horror shown by the PWC risk experts to the notion of starting to deliver contracts before they are signed.  Such a different culture to ours where such things are common place.  If social enterprise is to deliver more contracts not only will we have to behave differently but the public sector will need to treat us differently.  No more expecting us to start contracts at risk and no more protracted negotiations followed by unrealistic deadlines. Keep an eye out for the next event, there have been three so far in the series and they have gone down a storm. I was almost told off by one CEO as she left for not telling people how good the program is as having not attended the first 2, she felt she had missed out. So I am telling you, these sessions are top notch and you well worth your time. For more info contact the SEL offices (020 702201920).

During the event I had an interesting chat with Steve Wyler from the DTA about how we can get the most out of Big Society which we agreed has presented us with an unparalleled opportunity.  I will reflect some of that conversation tonight when I respond to Nick Hurd's speech at the Acevo reception for new MP's.

I will also need to comment on the budget, as indeed will we all. I do hope amidst the doom and gloom there remains enough investment for us to, in the immortal words of  the sports commentator David Coleman at the '76 Olympics, open (our) legs and show (our) class.

More or less of the heroics?

The Tory Summit organised by Acevo on Thursday was great. We had an impressive procession of shadow ministers over the course of the day including George Osborne, Francis Maude, Oliver Letwin and Nick Hurd. They each highlighted different areas of consuming interest to us in the third sector, particularly around procurement, payment by results, right to request and social impact measurement and reporting. I didn’t agree with everything said but I did manage to blog most of it as it was happening.

Getting important public statements out onto a public platform in real time felt new and exciting, even if my right hand did ache with the frenetic typing. I was therefore chuffed when my efforts were described as 'heroic' in the Guardian blog the next day.

In the session I participated in I was asked to comment on social impact measurement which I hope I did coherently. It’s such a complex field to deliver in sound bites, and I think Phillip Hammond got the wrong end of the stick when he came back on my point, with a sense that what social enterprises need are two forms of contract, one for the things they make and sell (their economic return) and another for the jobs, training and opportunities they create (their social impact). No Phillip, two forms of procurement? I don’t think so. What is required are effective and clear social impact clauses in all contracts. Perhaps they should all come to a SEL event on same to bottom out the principles?

Still I thought it went well. They seemed keen, and more to the point they seemed organised and briefed which makes for altogether a better conversation.

Since then I have had some really interesting discussions with Asheem Singh, Deputy Director at ResPublica, Phillip Blond's think tank about new horizons for social enterprise. We both agreed that education will be the brave new frontier and that the SEL conference on education is well timed. The event should be a real groundbreaker. It’s on April 15th at RBS Headquarters on Bishopsgate. Speakers include Sir Michael Wilshaw the remarkable head of one of the UK’s leading schools, Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney, and Paul Mason, who runs the Parent Promoted Foundation. If social enterprise in the education context is on your agenda then do come along. Tickets are available through the SEL website in the usual way. Or you can email me direct.

I should apologise for my unusual quietness on the blog front. I have been spending all my spare minutes painting my house. I started in the hall, but it’s turning out a bit like the Forth Bridge: each freshly painted room makes the one next to it look rather shabby. I will put up some more before and after shots when I have a moment. Now that piece of work is turning out to be heroic. I just hope I can get the house back to some kind of order before I head off to Tokyo on Friday to talk to a symposium about social enterprise.

I must sign off, I’m due at the House of Commons to meet with Vince Cable in 30 minutes. I am looking forward to it. He was so lovely when we shared a podium in November and seemed to have a real interest in social enterprise, not least because, as he explained, his son is a social entrepreneur.

Condoms and chocolate

Last night was ‘Vote Social Enterprise 2010’ (as well as our AGM), and quite a night it was. We held it at the lovely SEL members, Coin Street Community Builders landmark neighbourhood centre on the Southbank. To illustrate how diverse social enterprise is, and to get the evening off with a bang, so to speak, we handed everyone social enterprise condoms from One and some yummy Divine chocolate.

Being SEL’s first public intervention in the build up to the general election, we had managed to persuade Third Sector Minister Angela Smith and her Lib Dem and Tory shadows Jenny Willott and Nick Hurd to share a platform with myself and the magnificent June O’Sullivan of London Early Years Foundation. The aim was to get a bit of meat onto the three party’s plans for social enterprise.

With Third Sector Minister Angela Smith yesterday evening 

Angela kicked off by saying that government should “lead by example in buying from and working with social enterprises”. Music to the ears of the massed social entrepreneurs in the audience. She also exclusively revealed that a regular meeting of Cabinet Ministers examining the barriers to third sector organisations accessing contracts is “soon to be established”. She also said she’d have to shoot anyone who mentioned it outside the room – do you think that includes you?

I liked Nick's opening comments as he held up his packet of condoms and chocolate bar and wondered out loud whether he had to put them in the House of Commons Gifts Register? It got the best laugh of the evening.

One headline was the assurance from all three that the Office of the Third Sector will remain – something which will no doubt be met with sighs of relief from OTS staffers, and those of us who acknowledge how strong a contribution the OTS has made to social enterprise development not least in funding the Coalition's Social Enterprise Ambassadors Program and supporting our award winning work on Winning with social enterprise at 2012.

I was particulalry over the moon when Loona Hazarika from Silverback Works asked our panel what they were planning to do to safeguard the future of vital support organisations like SEL if Regional Development Agencies are to be threatened. All the candidates responded really positively culminating in Nick Hurd going so far as to say he, for one "would not like to tell Allison she isn't getting her money", sensible chap.

John Charles of Catering2Order, who I’m delighted to say has just been elected to the SEL board, provoked thoughtful responses to his excellent question on the potential of a social enterprise hub at the 2012 Games. Angela said she would raise it with Tessa Jowell, the Olympic Minister and Nick made clear that it was something that he would raise with Boris – watch this space.

Jenny made an important point on the Lib Dems policy of promoting community land trusts and offering disused public sector space to social enterprises at peppercorn rent – sure to go down well with our sylish hosts at Coin Street and over at the Development Trust Association.

Dai Powell of HCT Group mentioned the elephant in the room, with a question on plans to extend the right to request to all public services. This was particularly pertinent as the Government's own Competition Panel, set up to look at the Department of Health's u-turn on this, was itself banjaxed that very afternoon. In the light of which we got some interesting responses, particularly from Angela, who told us that Labour would examine the case to "expand the right to request, but we need to invest in the process and make sure that the private sector doesn’t just move in” and from Nick, who positively blasted Andy Burnham for "turning his back" on the policy – Tories, he said, are right behind the right to request “in principle, as we want to inspire people“. He even hinted that Mr Burnam's position on right to request was possibly, a potential leadership gambit. A thrilling moment, when the gloves came off.

June, who’s comments were nothing short of a tour-de-force, pressed harder on right to request. Looking for firmer commitments, she spoke on behalf of the room when she said, pointedly staring at our Minister, that she was not satisfied that either her question or Dai's had been answered. We didn't get any more but safe to say, the point had been made.

The whole thing was communicated through Twitter (which even a couple of years ago would have been unthinkable), under the tag #VoteSocEnt10. There were some strong contributions on there from the room, especially from Cliff Prior of UnLtd, who also asked a great question on engaging and supporting entrepreneurs.

All in we were delighted with the whole night, lovely comments from members – many of whom stayed with us to do justice to the wine. One of the things I love about social entrepreneurs is their enthusiasm for the big picture, they are, all in all, a very well informed lot. The room was animated as people talked into the night about what they had heard and who they would vote for. Roll on the election.

For full details have a look at David Ainsworth's quick off the mark piece in Third Sector this morning, and Chrisanthi Giotis's lovely article in Social Enterprise Magazine this afternoon.

Making a believer out of Boris...

London Mayor, Boris Johnson started to follow me on Twitter yesterday. I was able to welcome him and say how pleased I am when later on in the evening I bumped into him at the London Voluntary Service Council's 100th anniversary celebration at the Mansion House. It was a super evening with a great many familiar faces, including Drew Stevenson who was Chair when I was on LVSC’s board, John O’Brien (CEO at London Councils), Peter Lewis (CEO at LVSC), my old friend Stephen Bubb, CEO at acevo and of course Boris.

I always enjoy Boris’s speeches. As you travel with him to the destination of the point he wants to make, it often feels like a ramble, but it always turns out to be the route with views. He told us how incensed he was by the story during the snowy winter of the chap who was told not to clear snow from the path in front of his house in case anyone slipped on it, in which case he would be liable. Our mayor lamented a culture where people are put off taking responsibility. I thought of the heroic initiative taken by social entrepreneurs like those running the Parent Promoted Foundation, which was hinted at in Michael Gove’s interview with the BBC this morning, who are really willing to do something about my local, shambolic school.

Picking up Boris’s theme and that of schools I am very aware that we are entering the 'school trip' season. I hate school trips. I do not understand how schools that do not feel able to examine children for head lice feel confident in taking them abroad. Nor do I accept the ridiculous expense of these trips. To put it into perspective the state pays roughly £3000 per head for each child to attend a primary school per annum and yet parents at my school are asked to stump up a whopping £550 for each child to go to the Dordogne where they won’t speak French, eat French food or study French history. Instead they will bounce on French trampolines and jump out of French canoes.

In my day it was a day trip to Kew Gardens or memorably Southampton Docks to look at the cargo ships. I am particularly anti as my eldest Joe, an otherwise fit and healthy boy with manageable asthma has been hospitalised twice in his life, both times upon return from school trips. The last time I remember standing in a hospital ward watching Joe, oxygen mask on his face, fighting for every breath whilst I talked on my mobile to the Head teacher who explained that they had not been able to take him to a doctor in France, when he failed to respond to his medication, because she didn’t have sufficient staff. This is not in loco parentis but it is consistent with a society where teachers don’t feel they can put sun cream on kids on a sunny day, and need a signed parental permission slip to lead a class to the post box in front of the school to post a letter!

The number of parents struggling to make ends meet is rising in our neck of the woods, as the recession continues to bite and yet the cost of these mad trips is rising. The pressure on parents not to stigmatise their children by failing to come up with the goods is immense and yet seems of no consideration. As these jamborees occur during term time, children not on the trips have to go to school, by themselves. I think all such ventures in primary schools should be limited to day trips and while we are at it teachers should be able to put on sun cream, and every school should have a 'nit nurse' to stem the rising plague. Then and only then I might trust them to get as far as Southampton docks but would only want to sign up if the cost was affordable for everyone, and I mean everyone.

Tonight is the big night. We have our AGM and hustings. The line up includes our minister, Angela Smith and her Conservative and Liberal Democrat counterparts Nick Hurd and Jenny Willott. We have over 150 social enterprise leaders coming and chocolate and condoms to pass out. Thanks to Divine and Global Ethics for sponsoring the event and illustrating the fabulously diverse world of social enterprise. I hope to see you there, but if you can't make it you can follow the whole thing on Twitter under #VoteSocEnt10.

Allison in wonderland and mad March hares

Hare's are reportedly mad in March because its their mating season and the promise of some hare on hare action makes them silly.  My frenetic behaviour can not be attributed to anything so interesting but I am even busier than usual. The spring brings with it tendering, planting and of course the election, so its all go.

We are going to consolidate our work with young people and so have put together proposals to develop our successful Future Jobs Fund programme, and add a new initiative with the Youth Sector Development Fund that will get young people on to the path of success through the door marked 'social enterprise'. Too many young people are struggling to find an opportunity and at the same time social enterprises are really committed to giving them a helping hand. The feedback we have had from employees and employers participating in our London Future's 500 program is wonderful, so we know we're on the right track.

I've been working with the team on our Investors in People award, a quality kite mark SEL has had since 2002. It seems our Assessor is happy to recommend us yet again. I particularly enjoyed his assessment feedback yesterday which told us staff regard working at SEL as rewarding and fun. Whilst I'm often wary of the use of the word fun; have you noticed that things billed as 'fun' never are? Nonetheless for staff to describe working in the SEL team as fun is a description I'll happily take to the bank. Folk having fun enjoy what they do and people who enjoy what they do tend to do it well, in my view.  

I am concerned that this election seems to lack the will to really get to grips with the issues. I can't work out if its politicians pulling their punches waiting for the opposition to slip up, or maybe they are all just badly briefed?  I have been doing my bit running round talking to anyone involved in the electoral process about social enterprise and what we see as the main issues. Namely:

• The right for public sector workers to request to deliver services as social enterprises must be reaffirmed within the Department of Health and extended to all Government departments
• Business support must address the needs of social enterprises, be they start-ups or public sector spin-offs.
• Government must promote a strategy for social enterprise development that provides expert advice and guidance to would-be social entrepreneurs, exisiting public sector workers, local authorities and public sector procurers.
• The new world where cuts are not always a disaster because social enterprise can create savings without compromising on quality can only happen if we mean it to happen. That demands leadership and investment.  
• Government needs to understand that achieving a meaningful legacy around the 2012 Games cannot happen without social enterprise.  
• Money, there still isn't enough in the system to achieve the growth social enterprise is capable of. We know what we need and where it can come from, high street banks encouraged to become community lenders, the Social Investment Bank, private investors and government lending. More in the system will yield more growth, its that simple.

These measures will decide whether social entrepreneurs become Mock Turtles or Cheshire Cats. To that end I am looking forward immensly to putting our Minister, Angela Smith and her Conservative and Liberal Democrat conterparts, Nick Hurd and Jenny Willott on the spot tomorrow at our Annual General Meeting.  At SEL we try to make our AGMs memorable and this year will be no exception.  We have arranged a hustings where members can ask their questions, I'll do my best to make sure they get some answers.