SELing social reformation

It's been quite a week; so much so that it's taken me until now to blog - so I've got a great many things that I want to share with you.

I'll start with the last half an hour and work my way back to the start of the week.

I have been watching the Twitter feed on Bigotgate and whatever you might think of what the PM said and how he and his team subsequently mishandled it, the one issue that is only just surfacing is that very little has been said in defence of the Eastern Europeans in the UK who work hard, pay taxes and nonetheless can't vote.

What's happening in social enterprise? I have to tell you it is frantic, behind the scenes SEL and our members are having a thousand conversations about the changing landscape and how social enterprise is going to deliver social reformation.  As a trained historian I keep coming back to that which went before. What social enterprise is proposing is a Reformation, we want to challenge conventional thinking that neatly divides the world up into business, government and charity. Top of the list are education, health, energy, regeneration and above all money. We can do this, but only with the support of a Government that carefully listens to the detail and helps us put into place the necessary investment.

Today 2000 charity leaders came out in defence of the Future Job Fund. I am not a charity leader but if they had asked me I would have joined them.  At SEL we put together London's Future 500 which is putting over 500 young, unemployed people into social enterprise jobs, and I have to tell you, it is going well.  The applicants are enthusiastic, the employers are being, as you would expect from social entrepreneurs, supportive and early findings show that the number of permenant job offers coming out of the scheme is high. Surely no government could contemplate ending a program like that? Not when all of us fear growing unemployment, particularly in the young.

That is the saddest thing about new governments; change for change's sake. They often think ending things will save money and on the face of it that can be true.  But then the social cost is felt and then they have to invest in a new program to address the problem which ends up being more costly than keeping what was originally there in place. I have seen it in further education, the FEFC becoming the LSC and that being abolished in favour of...well, what?

Last night I had the Tory local authority candidate, Paul Hodgins, on my door step.  I must have been one of the few people he spoke to that evening who had actually read his parties manifesto, as I have poured over all the major parties proposals (incidentally, in return, increasing numbers of candidates are looking at SEL's own manifesto; encouraging) I asked him if their commitment to enabling communities to run local schools would, if they won, lead to something being done about our local school. I have met our local MP Susan Kramer and she seems like a good egg, and yet Shene School remains an unacceptable choice for many local parents.  Having said that Paul didn't seem to share my fury over the shambles that is Richmond secondry education, so I'm not sure he's going to get it sorted either.

On Tuesday we had an amazing event on the crucial issue of social impact assesment.  Like it or not, and despite what anyone says to the contrary, in future there will be more counting.  If its jobs, contribution to GDP or energy consumtion savings there will be more counting and those who get on board with how to do it will be in the strongest position.  The event was held in conjuction with PricewaterhouseCoopers and the London Development Agency and attendees were social entrepreneurs and accountants.  One lot knew all about social impact and the other, measurement and assessment. Combining the thinking of the two is the challenge.  Having been involved in this field for over 4 years and with our resident expert Sabina Khan, SEL's Director of Policy and Research at the helm, we are doing a great deal on this. So if you are interested check out our website for more information.

Finally, a few quick gardening updates.  I have got in my beetroot, salad, chard and carrot seeds, and I am preparing my runner bean beds.  But the crops at the moment are the real highlight of the week.  We have had our first asparagus, delicious and sweet and my purple sprouting is, as you can see from the photo, outstanding!

Both of them have interesting effects on the colour of your wee, so eating them together can provide endless entertainment.  All good clean fun! Talking of which, I'm off now to watch the leadership debate.

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.