Family, friends and other animals

My Mother rang this morning with sad news. A very close member of the family, my Father's life long friend, John Hughes, died last night. John and his family were always a part of our lives and both he and his friendship with Dad were legendary. They were both characters that lived life to the full. John was the local vet, my dad the GP and their kindly ministries just about covered the needs of the village. When I was about Katie’s age, I remember them staying up all night to attend to my guinea pigs that had been attacked by the neighbour’s dog. This was, of course, the perfect excuse for them to drink all night, but when I awoke in the morning to news of Posy’s death (Rosie made it), having them both there made all the difference. Funnily enough I was thinking about John last night whilst listening to my friend Stephen Bubb, of acevo and Martin Brookes of New Pilanthropy Capital, slugging it out on Radio 4. Martin reckoned people should make moral judgements about how they give their money with children taking precedence, over say, ballet. Stephen talked of his 98 year old Auntie, fond of giving to animal charities, who would take a very dim view of being lectured to do otherwise. I thought of Val, John’s lovely wife who died 4 years ago and who requested that instead of flowers we all gave to her favourite donkey sanctuary. John and Val really loved animals, living in a veritable Noah’s Ark for most of their lives. Each to their own ehh?

The dreary thing about age is the accumulation of goodbye’s in contrast to the diminishing hello's. This process is supposed to make us wiser and kinder but it doesn’t alway work. Listening to people talk of the Big Society or the Good Society, I think of my upbringing. My father, Dr Bill Ogden dedicated his whole life to public service. As a GP he was not brilliantly well paid and worked extraordinarily long hours, doing night duty for the majority of his 50 year career. He was still doing visits on the day he died, aged 76. The services he provided included over 1000 homebirths, helping those less able to keep up with their paper work so that they could maintain independent lives, performing minor operations at the local cottage hospital and always, always taking responsibility. In retirement he moved to an urban London practice to teach, which he loved, but he did not agree with the increasingly risk averse culture that saw GP’s referring minor ops, like ingrown toenails, and felt that the move away from GP home visits increased the distance between doctor and patient.

I wonder what Dad would make of social enterprise in health care? I think he would like it as he preferred models that prioritised responsibility and enabled medical practitioners to make real connections to patients. Today we have a really good piece in Social Enterprise with Francis Maude Minister to the Cabinet Office visiting Central Surrey Health. They are a great social enterprise who have innovated health care and offer a cost effective service. Francis is quoted as saying he wants to see the majority of health services delivered in that way in 10 to 15 years time and if the Government can support the transition so that neither patients nor staff lose out, (pensions, commissioning etc) I think he may get his wish.

Our latest contribution to this debate is Transitions, which as Third Sector reports this week is flying out the door with over 4000 going out and agencies like the National Audit Office loading it up to their data base. I am off now to meet yet another local authority CEO, my 3rd this week, to look at Transitions and see where they can use it within the council strategy to meet the demands of austerity and outsourcing. Some think we are advocating privatisation and I am quite clear that we are not. At present local authorities have two stark choices, cut and kill or privatise. The social enterprise lobby are offering a third possibility, that of outsourcing to a staff led/owned entity that maximises social value, looks and feels like a public service but offers value for money and a significant degree of mutual independence. I think of Dad, pouring John a scotch just about now, and I think he’d approve.

Wakey wakey

Today I delivered my presentation to the UK Japan Social Entrepreneurship Symposium. Opening the symposium the stunningly charasmatic Professor Ikuyo Kaneko of the Keio Research Institute told the audience that the UK is, in his opinion the world leader of social enterprise. I spoke next and whittered on about the work SEL is doing with the corporate sector. To be honest the jet lag has really got to me this time. I have been waking at 4am since I arrived and this morning I couldn't get back to sleep. So being shattered and hilariously trotting up to the podium without my notes probably didn't lead to my best performance ever. Bless them our hosts are broadcasting the presentations live on a podcast, so if you've got nothing better to do you can see for yourself.

My questions were on whether I thought government contracts were a good thing and to define commissioning and full cost recovery. I immediately refered the FCR question to Stephen who is up later and clarified the other points, yes its a good thing as long as social enterprises can achieve scale and commissioning could be the most creative job in Government, but isn't. I told the audience about our education conference coming up in April and the social enterprise route map for local authorities we are working on.

Simon Tucker from the Young Foundation was next. I liked his take on innovation and we both agreed that future public sector contracts are an opportunity and also one we can exploit with investment and scale. He boldly told the Japanese that he thought the Social Enterprise Mark had failed, which was a sit up and take notice moment. Stephen is next and I can't wait. He has provided me with an audible monologue throughout the presentations which has been a hoot. Off for a diet coke now, must stay awake.

Stephen is up now. He's started with a story about Will Adams the first Englishman to arrive in Japan 410 years ago. He, Stephen told us, was shipwrecked and then went on to help establish the Japanese navy. Not the sort of social impact we are talking about today, but impact nonetheless. The audience loved it, so he's off to a strong start. He's telling the audience about his key role in persuading the UK Government in establishing the Office of the Third Sector and Acevo's role in lobbying Goverment. He explains the growing power of the 3rd sector by its growing economic power turning over £116 billion last year. All three of us have emphasised trust that comes with social enterprise, integrity and as Stephen has just said, energy. He's coming across as quite the ambassador for the UK, which will, I am sure go down well with our hosts the British Council, Keio University, and the Japan Foundation. They should have seen him at the Thai Seafood resturant we went to last night when we all had to wear these awful bibs!

I love Japan. Its elegant, ordered and so clean and the people are wonderfully hospitable. But I am really looking forward to going home in the morning. I haven't seen my boys for nearly 2 weeks as they were both on school trips last week. I heard from Sams guitar teacher while here that he has got Merit for his Grade III guitar exam which means that on top of a distinction for his piano and Joes merit for piano we have a lot to celebrate.

Back to Mr Bubb, he is getting folk to sign up to Jacevo the japanese wing of acevo and emphasising the work of the third sector in managing long term medical conditions, as an example. He has demonstrated our roles in innovation, lobbying, media, cost savings and professionalisation. We do come off rather well, all of us have represented the best Britain has to offer, but I do wonder what our hosts make of it all.

Turning Japanese, i really think so

So I am in Japan where the cherry blossom is out, and although its cold spring is very much in the air. Today I'm giving a presentation to the Japanese press on the current status of the social enterprise community in the UK.

Simon Tucker, Associate Director of the Young Foundation is also up and has given a really interesting talk on their support for social enterprise innovation. It has to be said the real interest seems to be in the Young Foundation investment support. The mighty buck and its innate ability to create change is so often the attractive part of what we do, and easier to get your head around. I like what Simon said about their work connecting the bees, described as social entrepreneurs with the trees, those with power, money and markets.

I am feeling a little rough after what must have been a dodgy prawn last night, but the Japanese enthusiasm for social enterprise really makes you put in your best effort. As always so many questions are around legal frameworks and investment funds, somehow the excitement around social innovation can get lost. I'll have to try harder to get the wonderful stories across tomorrow.

Off to Japan...

I'm out of the office until 12 April now. Speaking at a social enterprise symposium in Japan next week, then on holiday the week after. It feels odd to be out for so long, but strangely well timed. I have been hurtling around so much talking to every Tom, Dick and Harriet about social enterprise that I need to take stock.


Sometimes we can get so stuck on the doing we don't look up to check where we are going. Its good to refocus. A similar point was made in an interesting blog post I read today by David Floyd of SEL member Social Spider on the Social Enterprise Mark. SEL members are divided on the Mark. Some love it, others are not so keen. For my part I'm fond of those delivering it and think its a pretty thing, but I'm still not sure how and when it will make my members money. For me, improving the bottom line for social enterprise is all that counts.



As the Americans say you have to keep your eyes on the prize.