Say the name Simon Duffy to most people in our sector and they won't
know who you mean. That bloke who played Bobby Ewing in Dallas? Father
of that Welsh girl with a voice like Dusty Springfield?
However say `personalisation of public services' and people will know what you're on about. Well Simon is, as far as one can say these things, the person behind the story. And in this sense, he is a far bigger influence on the future of our nation than most of today's social entrepreneurs put together.
Yes, Simon Duffy is probably our lowest profile-highest impact social entrepreneur. Or, I should lowest profile in the select world of social entrepreneurship. In the wider world he's a big name, winner of the Albert Medal, an honour bestowed on, among others, Albert Einstein. He's credited with the intellectual spadework behind the creation of personal budgets for disabled people. His organisation, In Control, has been in the vanguard, enabling over 5000 people to take control of their own resources to shape a life of their own choosing.
Now Simons thinking is now spreading like brushfire through Government. The Darzi review speaks of patients with lon term conditions managing their own budgets. The Department of Work and Pension is looking at personal budgets for the long term unemployed. The rest of us are gasping to keep up.
A philospoher by background, Simon wrote 'Keys to Citizenship' a few years ago following time spent overseas as a Harkness Scholar. This became the template for his work, first, with Inclusion Glasgow and latterly with In Control. His approach is one based in his philosophical work which, broadly speaking, is libertarian but places the individual and the `good life' firmly in a social setting.
I met Simon at the RSA. I called the meeting to ask his views about a new service we are thinking of selling to councils to help more disabled people use personal budgets. Characteristically, he said yes (no blocking PAs or prima donna-ism that I have encountered, sadly, a few times of late from people with big views of themselves) and here he was.
Thankfully he liked our idea. This mattered. He understands the market and the way things are developing on the ground. There was one caveat. He doesn't like the idea of yet more superstructure adding to the costs of giving people with disabilities their lives back. Any additions would need to be more-than matched with reductions in the activity of the state at local level. To this end we agreed to partner with local authorities that needed to disinvest in care management as they ramped up the kind of informal `people-powered' support we are proposing to faciliate at local level.
We talked a lot about the social care sector. For me it was like coming home. Speaking to someone who shared most of my own deepest feelings. It was both a relief and somehow quite vindicating. I spend a lot of time feeling like a chorus of one, be it in my dealings with the social care establishment (councils etc) and even certain people in the advocacy sector.
Simon pointed to advocacy as a sector desperate to create a self-justifying theology out of what is, in essence, helping people to control their own lives. He expressed the view that many people in the advocacy business make things unnecessarily complex to cover their own lack of accountability for achieving things. Even though I run one, this was I view I could certainly understand. We do spend a lot of time coming up with all sorts of stuff about what our job is and isn't to do. Perhaps we need to stop and admit that its actually really simple.
I came away from our meeting feeling pretty good. I'd met in Simon a guy with strong values, unflinching drive and the intellectual self-confidence to cut through the bullshit. I'd also met someone who could give anyone a Masterclass in how to be influential.
He inspired me too. I have had some dark doubts in recent times about my level of motivation and my life-strategy of creating a big, strong business that could help a lot more people - but which is undoubtedly corporate and highly growth oriented. I know Simon prefers small scale and has eschewed this kind of approach but I somehow, in a weird way, felt better about what I was actually doing with my life. Day to day I often struggle knowing that I am making any real difference at all.
When I started it was idea today, action tomorrow. I could see the changes with my own eyes. Now the amount of co-ordinated effort, time and money to produce change seems to much greater, and more vulnerable to the needs of funders, the organisation, staff and so on.
Arrived home from London to pick up Ruby from her Nan's. She was very pleased to see me. Until the arrival of her fish and chips. Then I was very much secondary to proceedings. That girl knows where her priorities lie.
However say `personalisation of public services' and people will know what you're on about. Well Simon is, as far as one can say these things, the person behind the story. And in this sense, he is a far bigger influence on the future of our nation than most of today's social entrepreneurs put together.
Yes, Simon Duffy is probably our lowest profile-highest impact social entrepreneur. Or, I should lowest profile in the select world of social entrepreneurship. In the wider world he's a big name, winner of the Albert Medal, an honour bestowed on, among others, Albert Einstein. He's credited with the intellectual spadework behind the creation of personal budgets for disabled people. His organisation, In Control, has been in the vanguard, enabling over 5000 people to take control of their own resources to shape a life of their own choosing.
Now Simons thinking is now spreading like brushfire through Government. The Darzi review speaks of patients with lon term conditions managing their own budgets. The Department of Work and Pension is looking at personal budgets for the long term unemployed. The rest of us are gasping to keep up.
A philospoher by background, Simon wrote 'Keys to Citizenship' a few years ago following time spent overseas as a Harkness Scholar. This became the template for his work, first, with Inclusion Glasgow and latterly with In Control. His approach is one based in his philosophical work which, broadly speaking, is libertarian but places the individual and the `good life' firmly in a social setting.
I met Simon at the RSA. I called the meeting to ask his views about a new service we are thinking of selling to councils to help more disabled people use personal budgets. Characteristically, he said yes (no blocking PAs or prima donna-ism that I have encountered, sadly, a few times of late from people with big views of themselves) and here he was.
Thankfully he liked our idea. This mattered. He understands the market and the way things are developing on the ground. There was one caveat. He doesn't like the idea of yet more superstructure adding to the costs of giving people with disabilities their lives back. Any additions would need to be more-than matched with reductions in the activity of the state at local level. To this end we agreed to partner with local authorities that needed to disinvest in care management as they ramped up the kind of informal `people-powered' support we are proposing to faciliate at local level.
We talked a lot about the social care sector. For me it was like coming home. Speaking to someone who shared most of my own deepest feelings. It was both a relief and somehow quite vindicating. I spend a lot of time feeling like a chorus of one, be it in my dealings with the social care establishment (councils etc) and even certain people in the advocacy sector.
Simon pointed to advocacy as a sector desperate to create a self-justifying theology out of what is, in essence, helping people to control their own lives. He expressed the view that many people in the advocacy business make things unnecessarily complex to cover their own lack of accountability for achieving things. Even though I run one, this was I view I could certainly understand. We do spend a lot of time coming up with all sorts of stuff about what our job is and isn't to do. Perhaps we need to stop and admit that its actually really simple.
I came away from our meeting feeling pretty good. I'd met in Simon a guy with strong values, unflinching drive and the intellectual self-confidence to cut through the bullshit. I'd also met someone who could give anyone a Masterclass in how to be influential.
He inspired me too. I have had some dark doubts in recent times about my level of motivation and my life-strategy of creating a big, strong business that could help a lot more people - but which is undoubtedly corporate and highly growth oriented. I know Simon prefers small scale and has eschewed this kind of approach but I somehow, in a weird way, felt better about what I was actually doing with my life. Day to day I often struggle knowing that I am making any real difference at all.
When I started it was idea today, action tomorrow. I could see the changes with my own eyes. Now the amount of co-ordinated effort, time and money to produce change seems to much greater, and more vulnerable to the needs of funders, the organisation, staff and so on.
Arrived home from London to pick up Ruby from her Nan's. She was very pleased to see me. Until the arrival of her fish and chips. Then I was very much secondary to proceedings. That girl knows where her priorities lie.
Its been a week since I last blogged. Not been feeling that well.
Feeling ground-down by one of the million bugs I seem to pick up from
the kids. I used to get a cold a year. Now I feel lucky if I remain 100
percent for more than a week at a time.
Last week was one of those workaday-weeks when I struggle to remember a single thing I did. But straining hard, I recall a trip to Sheffield to meet commisssionerş, a meeting about strategy with Jon Sparkes (CEO of Scope) who is one of my Trustees and a day spent at the Social Enterprise East England conference at Newmarket where I was speaking.
First Sheffield. We run a few services up there. Like a lot of northern cities, there is a clannish element to the way Sheffield works. Not being local means you have to be very good indeed to stand a chance of being commissioned.
My take on the local market in advocacy services is that it is moribund and we should, by right, clean up. However, things are seldom that simple and I suspect we will make steady but slow progress. My big hope there is Josie Bennett who leads learning disability services up there. A proper leader she ain't scared to put her neck out and I sensed that out of the roomful of people we met she was the one who really engaged the most.
Sheffield a long day as my meeting with a Lincoln commisssioner cancelled once I arrived there. Diary bungle. They v v apologetic which assuaged my usual visible irritation-borderline rage.
Social Enterprise East conference held at the splendid Rowley Mile venue at Newmarket. For those not in the know, Newmarket is capital of the UK racing industry. Its green courses and 'gallops' dominate the town. Traffic stops here to let the horses - ridden by young stable lads and bedecked in the liveries of their stables
- cross the road.
I bought my first house in Newmarket and grew to like the place a lot. It brings to mind an older England. Its social structure is somehow behind the times. Lots of poor underpaid people who keep the racing scene going and a large group of wealthy people who employ them without much in the middle. As a young middle class non-horsey professional I felt v much a foreign coin in the social currency of Newmarket.
Onto the conference. I spoke quite badly I thought due to a cold and lack of adrenalin. People liked it though which was good.
The event had been very well planned by the excellent Michele Rigby and her young team. Michele brings something very fresh to the scene. Though now heading an infrastructure organisation, she is bloodied in the field having founded Pack-IT which was one of the pioneers of social enterprise in the nineties.
The event itself was populated by the usual eclectic mix at regional events. Quite a few older types - this sector seems to get people later somehow - a fair few mavericks and eccentrics and the odd brilliant person you can't believe isn't really well known.
Got to Friday with some relief. Met Jon Sparkes who, in effect, is a vice chair of Speaking Up. Jon is something of a superstar. Appointed Acting CEO of Scope at 38, he is now well into a massive turnaround there after the charity hit well publicised financial problems in 2005. Problems, of course, going back years.
Jon always good to talk to about people (he is ex HR) and strategy. His view is that we have the next two to three years to show that Speaking Up has potential to be successful in lots of locations. How well we manage to transplant ourselves from one to five places will tell us whether it can be done in fifty.
Our biggest strategic challenge, he says, is to be the organisation everyone thinks of (and naturally turns to) for services, advice and policy around Voice for excluded groups. That is the big prize. Quite right too. We feel a long way from that but it was good to have a trustee framing things so well.
My weekend dominated by Ruby and Wilf. I am feeling very close to both of them at the moment but particularly Wilf. Compared to Ruby, I have seen less of him and been a lot busier since his birth. For this reason, it has taken longer to feel close to him.
Decided recently that enough was enough and that I needed to spend more time with him. Which of course makes all the difference. Apparently, Dads in the 70s only spent 20m a day on average with their kids. Now its two hours. This has to be better for everyone.
Looking back, the time I spent going to football wth my Dad probably saved our future adult relationship, given the strains placed upon it by events. When I compare this to my brother - who didn't really have much one to one with Dad - and now barely speaks to him- I feel fortunate by comparison.
On Sunday my cold gets me an hour or two off where I catch up with the Observer and Speccie.
I always turn first to Andrew Rawnsley who writes so well and is not nearly so good on telly. Ditto Rod Liddle in the Spectator which is my 'guilty pleasure' at the weekend.
Liddle is one of funniest and most talented writers around today and never fails to make me laugh out loud. This weeks piece on 'How to Get Stabbed' was no exception.
The weekend lifted by the amazing men's final at Wimbledon which was a classic. My strongest Wimbledon memories are of listening to Borg McEnroe finals on the radio in my Dads car en route to Tenby or Great Yarmouth.
This final with its parallels of talent, tension, records-at-stake and mental head-to-head took me right back in time. But actually went one better. Sport doesn't get any more classic than this. And the young pretender won the mental battle.
Had the bleakest Monday for some time. Rain soaked the day. Energy levels lower than ever just as I sensed I had beaten my lurgy off. Went to the office and felt my grim mood was all too transparent. Just couldn't raise a smile.
Ended the day with a particularly dour meeting with my excellent COO Kathleen Cronin. I was all doom and gloom while she patiently listened to my angst about deficits and losing contracts in the future. She is a very stable and centred person compared to most I know in the sector. The only bad thing about being 'mercurial', as I am, is that the mercury is, now and then, very low in the glass.
Today woke up at four am and resolved to take a day off this Wed to try to recover from this lurgy. If possible it will be a day of fruit smoothies, Get Carter and an afternoon nap. Plus probably, my piece for 'Social Enterprise' this month. I am down to 350 words there now which is quite a discipline.
Going to speak to a load of commssioners today in Norwich. I have 15 mins on the main stage which makes it feel like a major schlepp.
Will wear my new dark suit to fit in with my mood. I have to be careful not to be too rude about public servants as they pay my staffs wages. But they wear bloody awful clothes, on the whole. Especially the men.
Just signed a letter to a major investor pledging to stay as CEO for two years. Though this definitely my plan, feel strangely empty and distressed having done so. Perhaps its the feeling that I now can't just walk away if I choose to. Or that entrepreneur thing about not wanting to feel owned.
Been thinking a lot about my options as 40 hurtles towards me. Broadly I have three. One is to make SU my lifes work. Fine if it continues to excite me and I can do other non Exec work on top plus writing. Downside is if it just doesn't develop as quickly as I need it to. Second is another business growth job. This would need to feel very special though. The third is to set up on my own as a consultant, writer, speaker etc. Occasionally this feels like the way its all going anyway - I am good at all three - but a lot of the reason I enjoy it all so much is the break it gives me from feeding the machine. Don't particularly want this fun stuff to become the machine.
Well its nearly time to get up. Half a nights sleep is better than none. A travail!
Last week was one of those workaday-weeks when I struggle to remember a single thing I did. But straining hard, I recall a trip to Sheffield to meet commisssionerş, a meeting about strategy with Jon Sparkes (CEO of Scope) who is one of my Trustees and a day spent at the Social Enterprise East England conference at Newmarket where I was speaking.
First Sheffield. We run a few services up there. Like a lot of northern cities, there is a clannish element to the way Sheffield works. Not being local means you have to be very good indeed to stand a chance of being commissioned.
My take on the local market in advocacy services is that it is moribund and we should, by right, clean up. However, things are seldom that simple and I suspect we will make steady but slow progress. My big hope there is Josie Bennett who leads learning disability services up there. A proper leader she ain't scared to put her neck out and I sensed that out of the roomful of people we met she was the one who really engaged the most.
Sheffield a long day as my meeting with a Lincoln commisssioner cancelled once I arrived there. Diary bungle. They v v apologetic which assuaged my usual visible irritation-borderline rage.
Social Enterprise East conference held at the splendid Rowley Mile venue at Newmarket. For those not in the know, Newmarket is capital of the UK racing industry. Its green courses and 'gallops' dominate the town. Traffic stops here to let the horses - ridden by young stable lads and bedecked in the liveries of their stables
- cross the road.
I bought my first house in Newmarket and grew to like the place a lot. It brings to mind an older England. Its social structure is somehow behind the times. Lots of poor underpaid people who keep the racing scene going and a large group of wealthy people who employ them without much in the middle. As a young middle class non-horsey professional I felt v much a foreign coin in the social currency of Newmarket.
Onto the conference. I spoke quite badly I thought due to a cold and lack of adrenalin. People liked it though which was good.
The event had been very well planned by the excellent Michele Rigby and her young team. Michele brings something very fresh to the scene. Though now heading an infrastructure organisation, she is bloodied in the field having founded Pack-IT which was one of the pioneers of social enterprise in the nineties.
The event itself was populated by the usual eclectic mix at regional events. Quite a few older types - this sector seems to get people later somehow - a fair few mavericks and eccentrics and the odd brilliant person you can't believe isn't really well known.
Got to Friday with some relief. Met Jon Sparkes who, in effect, is a vice chair of Speaking Up. Jon is something of a superstar. Appointed Acting CEO of Scope at 38, he is now well into a massive turnaround there after the charity hit well publicised financial problems in 2005. Problems, of course, going back years.
Jon always good to talk to about people (he is ex HR) and strategy. His view is that we have the next two to three years to show that Speaking Up has potential to be successful in lots of locations. How well we manage to transplant ourselves from one to five places will tell us whether it can be done in fifty.
Our biggest strategic challenge, he says, is to be the organisation everyone thinks of (and naturally turns to) for services, advice and policy around Voice for excluded groups. That is the big prize. Quite right too. We feel a long way from that but it was good to have a trustee framing things so well.
My weekend dominated by Ruby and Wilf. I am feeling very close to both of them at the moment but particularly Wilf. Compared to Ruby, I have seen less of him and been a lot busier since his birth. For this reason, it has taken longer to feel close to him.
Decided recently that enough was enough and that I needed to spend more time with him. Which of course makes all the difference. Apparently, Dads in the 70s only spent 20m a day on average with their kids. Now its two hours. This has to be better for everyone.
Looking back, the time I spent going to football wth my Dad probably saved our future adult relationship, given the strains placed upon it by events. When I compare this to my brother - who didn't really have much one to one with Dad - and now barely speaks to him- I feel fortunate by comparison.
On Sunday my cold gets me an hour or two off where I catch up with the Observer and Speccie.
I always turn first to Andrew Rawnsley who writes so well and is not nearly so good on telly. Ditto Rod Liddle in the Spectator which is my 'guilty pleasure' at the weekend.
Liddle is one of funniest and most talented writers around today and never fails to make me laugh out loud. This weeks piece on 'How to Get Stabbed' was no exception.
The weekend lifted by the amazing men's final at Wimbledon which was a classic. My strongest Wimbledon memories are of listening to Borg McEnroe finals on the radio in my Dads car en route to Tenby or Great Yarmouth.
This final with its parallels of talent, tension, records-at-stake and mental head-to-head took me right back in time. But actually went one better. Sport doesn't get any more classic than this. And the young pretender won the mental battle.
Had the bleakest Monday for some time. Rain soaked the day. Energy levels lower than ever just as I sensed I had beaten my lurgy off. Went to the office and felt my grim mood was all too transparent. Just couldn't raise a smile.
Ended the day with a particularly dour meeting with my excellent COO Kathleen Cronin. I was all doom and gloom while she patiently listened to my angst about deficits and losing contracts in the future. She is a very stable and centred person compared to most I know in the sector. The only bad thing about being 'mercurial', as I am, is that the mercury is, now and then, very low in the glass.
Today woke up at four am and resolved to take a day off this Wed to try to recover from this lurgy. If possible it will be a day of fruit smoothies, Get Carter and an afternoon nap. Plus probably, my piece for 'Social Enterprise' this month. I am down to 350 words there now which is quite a discipline.
Going to speak to a load of commssioners today in Norwich. I have 15 mins on the main stage which makes it feel like a major schlepp.
Will wear my new dark suit to fit in with my mood. I have to be careful not to be too rude about public servants as they pay my staffs wages. But they wear bloody awful clothes, on the whole. Especially the men.
Just signed a letter to a major investor pledging to stay as CEO for two years. Though this definitely my plan, feel strangely empty and distressed having done so. Perhaps its the feeling that I now can't just walk away if I choose to. Or that entrepreneur thing about not wanting to feel owned.
Been thinking a lot about my options as 40 hurtles towards me. Broadly I have three. One is to make SU my lifes work. Fine if it continues to excite me and I can do other non Exec work on top plus writing. Downside is if it just doesn't develop as quickly as I need it to. Second is another business growth job. This would need to feel very special though. The third is to set up on my own as a consultant, writer, speaker etc. Occasionally this feels like the way its all going anyway - I am good at all three - but a lot of the reason I enjoy it all so much is the break it gives me from feeding the machine. Don't particularly want this fun stuff to become the machine.
Well its nearly time to get up. Half a nights sleep is better than none. A travail!
For once, a proper weekend. You know, the ones that seem to last that
bit longer. Where you lose yourself, just for a while, in something
other than the mental Inbox.
Family has been the focus. Plus other people's families. Went to the wedding party of our friends, Keith and Judith. Keith is a former Trustee of mine. He was 65 on Saturday too, so it was a double celebration. Retirement and remarriage. Two fresh starts.
Seeing a guy so clearly happy in his later years, when so many blokes seem to struggle, was uplifting in its way. Clearly, sometimes, it is the best thing to just leave your life (and your wife) and start again, as he has done. We often forget that marriage was invented when we all died at 40 and that by our fifties and sixties we either need to reinvent our marriages (as my parents have done) or our lives by moving on. Keith was delightful with my daughter Ruby. `Mr Bubbles' (as he became) provided endless fun for her, enabling her Sad-Dad to talk shop with somebody from the sector.
I've been feeling my own age a little recently. A nerve was touched on Saturday morning when I heard a group of sixth formers in Cafe Nero, assuming I was out of earshot, saying I looked like Alan Bennett. It doesn't seem five minutes since I had people comparing me to Hugh Bloody Grant. Being 39 next month doesn't help. It feels like such a crap age. What's even more chilling is that a decade hence I will be 49. I just can't imagine liking it one bit. The fattened body, the lost hair, the sense of being yesterday's man. Women and even older gay men looking straight through you. The promise of life no longer sharp and fresh.
Mind you look at David Davis. There's man who's not going old without a fight. Andrew Rawnsley today was saying the guy is looking for his Enoch Powell moment, a place in the history books. I'm not so sure he'll get it. Most people, me included, are with Gordon on this one. We need to have more confidence in ourselves as a society. All the bleeding-hearts, led by the irritating and over-rated Shami Chakaravorty, present 42 days as the death of liberal Britain.
Come off it! Gordon is not Vladimir Putin. This is not Burma. If the police can get a judge to approve an extra couple of weeks to nail the next Tube-bombers (and they are coming, that is guaranteed) then a society confident in its liberal foundations needs to say `Given the special circumstances here, yes".
As for the radicalisation of the Muslim community, well, again, sorry, I don't buy that either. Every Muslim I know is praying, more than anything else, that there's never a repeat of what happened on 7/7. They know that would be far more harmful to community relations than 42 days.
Spent a surprisingly pleasant Saturday night leafing through the papers for my first Futurebuilders Investment Committee meeting. I have to say how impressed I was by how well everything was written and presented. It made for a really good couple of hours. A couple of themes emerging for me, just on the basis of this set of papers (so major health warning here!!).
One is that some of the investments in smaller organisations (and a couple of larger ones) appear to be going a bit pair-shaped. Low organisational capacity seems to crop up quite a bit, ranging from financial illiteracy to, now and again, a dodgy CEO nicking the dough. The assessment process looks pretty vigorous to me and exceeded my expectations, I had to say. The ones that, on the face of it, don't look so strong now are where several things all needed to come good all at once (CEO, new appointments, the market, a separate bit of the project) for the FBE investment to be effective. In my experience, you need to be a position where most areas are strong and you only need a couple of unknowns to go your way, not eight! Of the ones coming up as recommends to invest, I agreed with all except one that seemed to need too much to go right for it to be a success. And with a recession on the way, I can't see that happening for this particular concern.
The other frequent problem that I see is expectations of income from public sector contracts not being fulfilled. This isn't actually normally the organisation's fault. They've often just bought in, quite understandably, to Government promotions of increased contestability when in fact the public sector remains largely unreformed and highly skilled in serving its own interests. Labour's close ties to the public sector (shown by `Prezza''s achievement-claim in his book to have created a million public sector jobs) could be seen as preventing it from doing the necessary with public services.
Sunday has ended rather blissfully with a run through the fading light around the lanes of Bury St Edmunds. I saw a duck followed by a troop of about twelve tiny black ducklings, running across a road, cars stopping to let her pass. I was seized, momentarily by emotion before I pulled myself together and reminded myself of Rod Liddle's excellent article in the Spectator last week in which he highlighted the absurdity of our attitude to most animals.
Listen to the new Coldplay album on the way round. I am still undecided about it. However, what I do know is that Brian Eno has given it a feel and texture that I really love. Coldplay are a funny band. I always buy their albums, listen to them for about four months then never play them again. My wife, like a lot of women, tends to buy music she likes first time and doesn't get all geeky about the mix etc. She loved the others but thinks this one won't do very well `because the tunes aren't very good'.
However, I am finding myself liking it, partly because I am loving Eno's touches and ideas. That man could turn me singing the Smiths in the bath into art and so he has, clearly had good subjects in Coldplay. The band, themselves, however, have a strange kind of identity. They often morph the popular acts of the day (Arcade Fire for example) into their sound. I wonder, at times, whether they are in fact just really talented pop-marketeers who can also write and play.
Like all bands, and people, they are at their best when they are being themselves. On a couple of tracks - not the ones that sound like out-takes from the Joshua Tree - they achieve this. And it is nice. Listen to `Exile on Main Street' for the last two miles. This is not Coldplay's `Exile' or `Joshua Tree'. That much I do know.
Family has been the focus. Plus other people's families. Went to the wedding party of our friends, Keith and Judith. Keith is a former Trustee of mine. He was 65 on Saturday too, so it was a double celebration. Retirement and remarriage. Two fresh starts.
Seeing a guy so clearly happy in his later years, when so many blokes seem to struggle, was uplifting in its way. Clearly, sometimes, it is the best thing to just leave your life (and your wife) and start again, as he has done. We often forget that marriage was invented when we all died at 40 and that by our fifties and sixties we either need to reinvent our marriages (as my parents have done) or our lives by moving on. Keith was delightful with my daughter Ruby. `Mr Bubbles' (as he became) provided endless fun for her, enabling her Sad-Dad to talk shop with somebody from the sector.
I've been feeling my own age a little recently. A nerve was touched on Saturday morning when I heard a group of sixth formers in Cafe Nero, assuming I was out of earshot, saying I looked like Alan Bennett. It doesn't seem five minutes since I had people comparing me to Hugh Bloody Grant. Being 39 next month doesn't help. It feels like such a crap age. What's even more chilling is that a decade hence I will be 49. I just can't imagine liking it one bit. The fattened body, the lost hair, the sense of being yesterday's man. Women and even older gay men looking straight through you. The promise of life no longer sharp and fresh.
Mind you look at David Davis. There's man who's not going old without a fight. Andrew Rawnsley today was saying the guy is looking for his Enoch Powell moment, a place in the history books. I'm not so sure he'll get it. Most people, me included, are with Gordon on this one. We need to have more confidence in ourselves as a society. All the bleeding-hearts, led by the irritating and over-rated Shami Chakaravorty, present 42 days as the death of liberal Britain.
Come off it! Gordon is not Vladimir Putin. This is not Burma. If the police can get a judge to approve an extra couple of weeks to nail the next Tube-bombers (and they are coming, that is guaranteed) then a society confident in its liberal foundations needs to say `Given the special circumstances here, yes".
As for the radicalisation of the Muslim community, well, again, sorry, I don't buy that either. Every Muslim I know is praying, more than anything else, that there's never a repeat of what happened on 7/7. They know that would be far more harmful to community relations than 42 days.
Spent a surprisingly pleasant Saturday night leafing through the papers for my first Futurebuilders Investment Committee meeting. I have to say how impressed I was by how well everything was written and presented. It made for a really good couple of hours. A couple of themes emerging for me, just on the basis of this set of papers (so major health warning here!!).
One is that some of the investments in smaller organisations (and a couple of larger ones) appear to be going a bit pair-shaped. Low organisational capacity seems to crop up quite a bit, ranging from financial illiteracy to, now and again, a dodgy CEO nicking the dough. The assessment process looks pretty vigorous to me and exceeded my expectations, I had to say. The ones that, on the face of it, don't look so strong now are where several things all needed to come good all at once (CEO, new appointments, the market, a separate bit of the project) for the FBE investment to be effective. In my experience, you need to be a position where most areas are strong and you only need a couple of unknowns to go your way, not eight! Of the ones coming up as recommends to invest, I agreed with all except one that seemed to need too much to go right for it to be a success. And with a recession on the way, I can't see that happening for this particular concern.
The other frequent problem that I see is expectations of income from public sector contracts not being fulfilled. This isn't actually normally the organisation's fault. They've often just bought in, quite understandably, to Government promotions of increased contestability when in fact the public sector remains largely unreformed and highly skilled in serving its own interests. Labour's close ties to the public sector (shown by `Prezza''s achievement-claim in his book to have created a million public sector jobs) could be seen as preventing it from doing the necessary with public services.
Sunday has ended rather blissfully with a run through the fading light around the lanes of Bury St Edmunds. I saw a duck followed by a troop of about twelve tiny black ducklings, running across a road, cars stopping to let her pass. I was seized, momentarily by emotion before I pulled myself together and reminded myself of Rod Liddle's excellent article in the Spectator last week in which he highlighted the absurdity of our attitude to most animals.
Listen to the new Coldplay album on the way round. I am still undecided about it. However, what I do know is that Brian Eno has given it a feel and texture that I really love. Coldplay are a funny band. I always buy their albums, listen to them for about four months then never play them again. My wife, like a lot of women, tends to buy music she likes first time and doesn't get all geeky about the mix etc. She loved the others but thinks this one won't do very well `because the tunes aren't very good'.
However, I am finding myself liking it, partly because I am loving Eno's touches and ideas. That man could turn me singing the Smiths in the bath into art and so he has, clearly had good subjects in Coldplay. The band, themselves, however, have a strange kind of identity. They often morph the popular acts of the day (Arcade Fire for example) into their sound. I wonder, at times, whether they are in fact just really talented pop-marketeers who can also write and play.
Like all bands, and people, they are at their best when they are being themselves. On a couple of tracks - not the ones that sound like out-takes from the Joshua Tree - they achieve this. And it is nice. Listen to `Exile on Main Street' for the last two miles. This is not Coldplay's `Exile' or `Joshua Tree'. That much I do know.
Whatever you think of Tesco, they run their business around the things
that matter to their customers: Full shelves, clear aisles, good value,
helpful staff.
The whole thing, from top to bottom, is built around these four basic customer-pleasing ideas. But how many charities and social enterprises can claim to be run around customers or users? Can yours?
Mine can’t. Well not 100% anyway. The truth is that we, like most charities put a massive proportion of our efforts into pleasing not our end-customer but the Gods of Commissioning. Because that who provide the financial life-blood of our organisations' work.
The Gods of Commissioning are, of course, not real Gods. Typically they are very committed blokes and women in local government whose job is to `shop’ for services on behalf of thousands of disabled people.
Needless to say (and there are always exceptions) they aren’t that good at it. The state is a notoriously poor shopper. Things always go wrong, a bit like when you used to send your Dad out to Top Shop for a pair of skintight jeans - the chances were he’d return with a XL fleece from Matalan and a Carpenters CD.
For disabled people, however, the Gods of Commissioning are no joke. Their bad decision is your care home-from-hell.
But a quiet revolution is underway. `Personal Budgets’ are the brainchild of Simon Duffy, a social entrepreneur. His idea was to take the money from the Gods of Commissioning and put it straight into the pockets of disabled people. Because they know best what is right for them.
Simon’s ideas have swept across Government like a brushfire in recent years. I predict we’ll see personal budgets in education, healthcare and welfare services too.
What is wonderful about personal budgets is that the market is doing what years of exhortation about `listening to users’ never achieved. Going forward, providers will increasingly have to listen – or go bust.
And instead of looking upwards to the Gods of Commissioning provider will have to turn their loving gaze to the disabled customer and come up with our own versions of `clear aisles, full shelves, good value and helpful staff’.
All this will take years. There is a certain view that this will accelerate rapidly and all be over by the Olympics. I predict a slower path following the Early Adapter through to Mass Market cycle with a tipping point coming in about five to seven years time.
For while, certain Councils will blag that they have `personalised' services by pretending people have choice and control when none have been actually offered except the social care equivalent of a view through a shop window as you pass on the bus.
These councils will play a numbers game in the first few year to hit ambitious central targets while the real work will go on with smaller numbers that slowly build.
It is my belief that it will be people-power not council-power that will prove the most effective delivery method for personal budgets. The really smart councils know this and instead of just doing the numbers game are already building partnerships with community-connected organisations like ours. I sense these are a minority. But they won't be for long.
The whole thing, from top to bottom, is built around these four basic customer-pleasing ideas. But how many charities and social enterprises can claim to be run around customers or users? Can yours?
Mine can’t. Well not 100% anyway. The truth is that we, like most charities put a massive proportion of our efforts into pleasing not our end-customer but the Gods of Commissioning. Because that who provide the financial life-blood of our organisations' work.
The Gods of Commissioning are, of course, not real Gods. Typically they are very committed blokes and women in local government whose job is to `shop’ for services on behalf of thousands of disabled people.
Needless to say (and there are always exceptions) they aren’t that good at it. The state is a notoriously poor shopper. Things always go wrong, a bit like when you used to send your Dad out to Top Shop for a pair of skintight jeans - the chances were he’d return with a XL fleece from Matalan and a Carpenters CD.
For disabled people, however, the Gods of Commissioning are no joke. Their bad decision is your care home-from-hell.
But a quiet revolution is underway. `Personal Budgets’ are the brainchild of Simon Duffy, a social entrepreneur. His idea was to take the money from the Gods of Commissioning and put it straight into the pockets of disabled people. Because they know best what is right for them.
Simon’s ideas have swept across Government like a brushfire in recent years. I predict we’ll see personal budgets in education, healthcare and welfare services too.
What is wonderful about personal budgets is that the market is doing what years of exhortation about `listening to users’ never achieved. Going forward, providers will increasingly have to listen – or go bust.
And instead of looking upwards to the Gods of Commissioning provider will have to turn their loving gaze to the disabled customer and come up with our own versions of `clear aisles, full shelves, good value and helpful staff’.
All this will take years. There is a certain view that this will accelerate rapidly and all be over by the Olympics. I predict a slower path following the Early Adapter through to Mass Market cycle with a tipping point coming in about five to seven years time.
For while, certain Councils will blag that they have `personalised' services by pretending people have choice and control when none have been actually offered except the social care equivalent of a view through a shop window as you pass on the bus.
These councils will play a numbers game in the first few year to hit ambitious central targets while the real work will go on with smaller numbers that slowly build.
It is my belief that it will be people-power not council-power that will prove the most effective delivery method for personal budgets. The really smart councils know this and instead of just doing the numbers game are already building partnerships with community-connected organisations like ours. I sense these are a minority. But they won't be for long.
It is that sort of week in some respects. Two major `pitches' to
potential social investors will determine how much of a success 2008
will be for me as CEO. Sometimes things really are that simple. Get the
money and and we can develop Speaking Up to double what it is now in
the next four years. Fail and I could be losing certain posts by the
end of the financial year.
One of the tricksy things about having a bit of `success' and the accompanying PR is that the world assumes you're in clover when you're actually just as near the stinging nettles as everyone else. Nearer in fact because when you're growing you are exposed to a lot more risk and `unknowns'.
Also, funders and investors can occasionally pass over you, assuming you don't really need them any more. This happened sort-of recently, from the most unlikely source. Truth was never has our need been greater. But unfortunately I couldn't get physically in front of people to tell them this.
The Tories have launched an excellent policy paper on the `Civil Society' sector as they are calling it. It is crisp, well-argued and perhaps most surprisingly quite centrist in tone with references to strange fruit such as `Conservative Co-operatives'. Can't quite imagine what Sir Keith Joseph would have made of it. But I think that's the idea. Its about them convincing the sector that it is viewed as a serious player, that the Conservatives have a social vision and heart.
Overall I think the public sector may have more to fear than our sector were there to be a change of government. The Tories see us as part of the `society-led' solution to social problems, as opposed to what they see as Labour's more centralist approach. I can identify a bit with this as our own big tranche of Government funding comes with a wodge of paperwork and agreements that match any used in a public agency.
So, yes I am impressed that the party of the Right has bothered to do this. It shows we probably have little to fear from them and that they are serious about tackling social problems. But the cynic in me remembers similar promises from opposition parties in the past.
Events. Its been a busy week outside pitch-preparation. Highlights have been a Masterclass delivered for 12 eager people at DSCs Charity Fair. Did a mock up of Dragons Den which people absolutely loved. Especially the judges. Its quite a trip having someone pitch to you, even in make-believe.
Also met my mentee Matt Stevenson-Dodd who is now CEO of Young Enterprise North West having just moved on from Unique social enterprise which he founded. Myself and Matt hold a lot in common and we connected very quickly when we met on the first day of the Ambassador programme last year. He's inherited an organisation in mid-life (it was founded in the 1960s) with all the inherent strengths and weaknesses.
He's got a big change agenda and he's making all the right moves. Half-believe he doesn't really need me that much but he's really satisfying to work with on issues. His style is to be open and very matter of fact with people - but he has an integrity which is what enables him to still take people with him. I have no doubt that Matt will be one of the leading lights in the sector in less than 10-15 years time.
Yesterday saw me leave the house at 7am not to return till 10pm after a work dinner at which one of my senior team gently reminded me that I need to remember to take care what I say about individuals and orgs on my blog (having trashed the business model of one of our large customers last week). Missed the kids both ends of the day. Often this does my head in but, for once, I felt OK about it. Relieved to not be leaving today till 9am. The ritual of getting them up, making their breakfasts and dressing them is part of a Good Day for me and I am looking forward to the cries from next door that will come in exactly 41 minutes time.
We are tossing around whether or not to move to a quieter area while the market is still low and spent part of the weekend looking at houses. Suffolk, unlike most of Essex, Herts and Cambs, still has large areas of rural tranquility only three or four miles from its main towns.
While this is all under threat from the crazy idea that we should cover S England in concrete and `Eco-Towns, it is something I'd like to enjoy while it lasts. Although I am as far from a hippy as it is possible to be, I find trees and greenery incredibly soothing and spirit-enhancing. I want to live in the seasons and walk out of my house onto muddy paths, not an A road.
One of the tricksy things about having a bit of `success' and the accompanying PR is that the world assumes you're in clover when you're actually just as near the stinging nettles as everyone else. Nearer in fact because when you're growing you are exposed to a lot more risk and `unknowns'.
Also, funders and investors can occasionally pass over you, assuming you don't really need them any more. This happened sort-of recently, from the most unlikely source. Truth was never has our need been greater. But unfortunately I couldn't get physically in front of people to tell them this.
The Tories have launched an excellent policy paper on the `Civil Society' sector as they are calling it. It is crisp, well-argued and perhaps most surprisingly quite centrist in tone with references to strange fruit such as `Conservative Co-operatives'. Can't quite imagine what Sir Keith Joseph would have made of it. But I think that's the idea. Its about them convincing the sector that it is viewed as a serious player, that the Conservatives have a social vision and heart.
Overall I think the public sector may have more to fear than our sector were there to be a change of government. The Tories see us as part of the `society-led' solution to social problems, as opposed to what they see as Labour's more centralist approach. I can identify a bit with this as our own big tranche of Government funding comes with a wodge of paperwork and agreements that match any used in a public agency.
So, yes I am impressed that the party of the Right has bothered to do this. It shows we probably have little to fear from them and that they are serious about tackling social problems. But the cynic in me remembers similar promises from opposition parties in the past.
Events. Its been a busy week outside pitch-preparation. Highlights have been a Masterclass delivered for 12 eager people at DSCs Charity Fair. Did a mock up of Dragons Den which people absolutely loved. Especially the judges. Its quite a trip having someone pitch to you, even in make-believe.
Also met my mentee Matt Stevenson-Dodd who is now CEO of Young Enterprise North West having just moved on from Unique social enterprise which he founded. Myself and Matt hold a lot in common and we connected very quickly when we met on the first day of the Ambassador programme last year. He's inherited an organisation in mid-life (it was founded in the 1960s) with all the inherent strengths and weaknesses.
He's got a big change agenda and he's making all the right moves. Half-believe he doesn't really need me that much but he's really satisfying to work with on issues. His style is to be open and very matter of fact with people - but he has an integrity which is what enables him to still take people with him. I have no doubt that Matt will be one of the leading lights in the sector in less than 10-15 years time.
Yesterday saw me leave the house at 7am not to return till 10pm after a work dinner at which one of my senior team gently reminded me that I need to remember to take care what I say about individuals and orgs on my blog (having trashed the business model of one of our large customers last week). Missed the kids both ends of the day. Often this does my head in but, for once, I felt OK about it. Relieved to not be leaving today till 9am. The ritual of getting them up, making their breakfasts and dressing them is part of a Good Day for me and I am looking forward to the cries from next door that will come in exactly 41 minutes time.
We are tossing around whether or not to move to a quieter area while the market is still low and spent part of the weekend looking at houses. Suffolk, unlike most of Essex, Herts and Cambs, still has large areas of rural tranquility only three or four miles from its main towns.
While this is all under threat from the crazy idea that we should cover S England in concrete and `Eco-Towns, it is something I'd like to enjoy while it lasts. Although I am as far from a hippy as it is possible to be, I find trees and greenery incredibly soothing and spirit-enhancing. I want to live in the seasons and walk out of my house onto muddy paths, not an A road.
Cambridge. Nottingham. Bury St Eds. Barnsley. York. Bury St Eds.
Nottingham. This has been my week. Blatted from one point on the map to
another. And back again. Needless to say the effect on my head has not
been great. While I owe a lot to the inventors of mobile wireless
technology, there are limits to this, as I sit here at nearly one am
trying to catch up with what happened at work while I was pinging
around the country. What I want to know is `Who is the Wizard?'
However, it has been an interesting enough week. Visit to our operation in South Yorkshire on Wed was a success. We have a very turned-on, ambitious leader there who was refreshing to hear from. So often when I visit places I get bombarded with woe and leave feeling like I need a couple of fast pints. Not that day though. Took all the team to lunch and before the grub arrived did a Q & A in which people were forthcoming - but in the right way. Wetherspoons in Barnsley also delivered surprisingly good food. I may even go there again.
My Barnsley afternoon continued with a trip to see the CEO of Barnsley and two of his senior team, the lead on adult social care and their partnerships lead. I could register their disinterest on the Richter scale at the beginning but this soon seemed to evaporate.
We met in this amazing glass goldfish bowl of a room which looked out over the town. The council here is very keen to put itself in the limelight which they have done with their stunning performance getting people onto personal budgets. Being next door to Leeds and Sheffield seems to be a big motivation for these guys.
Learned that Barnsley is fairly `tight' in terms of existing voluntary sector partnerships but that there is probably room for Speaking Up if we show ourselves to be useful in pulling in new resources.
The strategic agenda here, like all councils, is on personalisation. This means, in effect, an end to public sector Stalinism. I wonder how councils will really do this as it means, in time, them kissing goodbye to their own provider role - if this is done properly. But I don't sense that is quite on the cards yet. Not in Barnsley anyway.
The afternoon ended with a quick meeting with super-blogger Rob Greenland, a social entrepreneur from Leeds. I enjoyed meeting Rob as much as I have relished his blogs. He brings a lightness of touch to the serious business of social enterprise - and a much needed realism to the discussion.
He deliberately works at the pointier end of the sector and provides frequent reality-checks to a movement which, frankly, can see a bit up itself at times. We discussed doing a Barnsley event in September which I found myself feeling quite bright about.
Stayed overnight in Hull with my friend Rob from University days. Like many people I know with extremely high intelligence, Rob has struggled to find his way in life and at 38 is still `at sea' - working for some dreadful Government quango but hating it, living alone, not particularly fulfilled.
He's wonderful company however and as the years slip by I feel increasingly the comfort of old friends. I like new ones but they are harder to find and it is somehow harder to get to the points of intimacy one managed quickly and easily as a 21 year old.
Today I visited one of our services in a secure unit near Hull. These places are pretty awful, you wouldn't want to be banged up there I can tell you. While newly built, like some new estate, they are understaffed and sort-of built on the idea that if you did something wrong in 1998, you need two seven foot skinheads following you around all day and jumping on you if you get a bit arsey. Of course, I am being frivolous but `overkill' does, now and again in these places, actually kill people. If the food doesn't first.
Our staff are in a funny position here. Inside but not part of the Machine. Its a strange role being an advocate here. I don't envy them. And I'm not sure how good it is to do the job for too long as there's a basic unhealthiness to the place that you need a skin of iron not to be touched by somehow. I am always glad to be in my car and away.
The final slam of the ball today and I am back in Bury St Edmunds. Ruby is glad to see me despite a 48 hour absence and gives me a fantastic hug and makes me carry her for the next half an hour till my arm drops off. Wilf smiles too and I give him his tea. These moments are all the sweeter when I've been away.
Once they are in bed and I've cooked the tea I settle down to work. There's all sorts of semi-stressful stuff to think about and I do OK until I realise its half past bloody twelve and I need to be fresh for a talk to a group of CAB managers tomorrow morning in Nottingham.
PING!
However, it has been an interesting enough week. Visit to our operation in South Yorkshire on Wed was a success. We have a very turned-on, ambitious leader there who was refreshing to hear from. So often when I visit places I get bombarded with woe and leave feeling like I need a couple of fast pints. Not that day though. Took all the team to lunch and before the grub arrived did a Q & A in which people were forthcoming - but in the right way. Wetherspoons in Barnsley also delivered surprisingly good food. I may even go there again.
My Barnsley afternoon continued with a trip to see the CEO of Barnsley and two of his senior team, the lead on adult social care and their partnerships lead. I could register their disinterest on the Richter scale at the beginning but this soon seemed to evaporate.
We met in this amazing glass goldfish bowl of a room which looked out over the town. The council here is very keen to put itself in the limelight which they have done with their stunning performance getting people onto personal budgets. Being next door to Leeds and Sheffield seems to be a big motivation for these guys.
Learned that Barnsley is fairly `tight' in terms of existing voluntary sector partnerships but that there is probably room for Speaking Up if we show ourselves to be useful in pulling in new resources.
The strategic agenda here, like all councils, is on personalisation. This means, in effect, an end to public sector Stalinism. I wonder how councils will really do this as it means, in time, them kissing goodbye to their own provider role - if this is done properly. But I don't sense that is quite on the cards yet. Not in Barnsley anyway.
The afternoon ended with a quick meeting with super-blogger Rob Greenland, a social entrepreneur from Leeds. I enjoyed meeting Rob as much as I have relished his blogs. He brings a lightness of touch to the serious business of social enterprise - and a much needed realism to the discussion.
He deliberately works at the pointier end of the sector and provides frequent reality-checks to a movement which, frankly, can see a bit up itself at times. We discussed doing a Barnsley event in September which I found myself feeling quite bright about.
Stayed overnight in Hull with my friend Rob from University days. Like many people I know with extremely high intelligence, Rob has struggled to find his way in life and at 38 is still `at sea' - working for some dreadful Government quango but hating it, living alone, not particularly fulfilled.
He's wonderful company however and as the years slip by I feel increasingly the comfort of old friends. I like new ones but they are harder to find and it is somehow harder to get to the points of intimacy one managed quickly and easily as a 21 year old.
Today I visited one of our services in a secure unit near Hull. These places are pretty awful, you wouldn't want to be banged up there I can tell you. While newly built, like some new estate, they are understaffed and sort-of built on the idea that if you did something wrong in 1998, you need two seven foot skinheads following you around all day and jumping on you if you get a bit arsey. Of course, I am being frivolous but `overkill' does, now and again in these places, actually kill people. If the food doesn't first.
Our staff are in a funny position here. Inside but not part of the Machine. Its a strange role being an advocate here. I don't envy them. And I'm not sure how good it is to do the job for too long as there's a basic unhealthiness to the place that you need a skin of iron not to be touched by somehow. I am always glad to be in my car and away.
The final slam of the ball today and I am back in Bury St Edmunds. Ruby is glad to see me despite a 48 hour absence and gives me a fantastic hug and makes me carry her for the next half an hour till my arm drops off. Wilf smiles too and I give him his tea. These moments are all the sweeter when I've been away.
Once they are in bed and I've cooked the tea I settle down to work. There's all sorts of semi-stressful stuff to think about and I do OK until I realise its half past bloody twelve and I need to be fresh for a talk to a group of CAB managers tomorrow morning in Nottingham.
PING!
My Blackberry buzzed on the short walk from Bury St Edmunds station to
my home. The message said `Futurebuilders'. Ah, the email rebuff, I
thought. But no, they want me for their Investment Committee, just what
I wanted too. I felt as elated as I have for a while, a bit like when a
major deal comes in. I so want to be near the action in social
investment and, after all I have learned from the Impetus experience, I
have something very real to offer.
Got home, heard all about how Ruby had done her first business on the potty and my good news was lost amid the family `high' about this key milestone in the life of my two year old. Lost to me too, I have to say. That's the wonderful thing about coming home to young children. Win, lose or draw, their world is bigger than yours.
The day started with a check-in call with Mark Griffiths, one of my mentors. Mark runs Ideal Word, a brand consultancy and his power with words and ideas helped shape the message of Speaking Up and, later, my book.
As usual he was juggling several projects, from a new brand of powder for bodybuilders to a new product for the gay market (he wasn't specific). And as ever, he was reassuring and resourceful about the loss of 75k of venture funding which, by this morning was hanging over my head like a tequila-hangover.
The 0856 train to Liverpool Street from Bury is, I believe, one of the better train journeys to be taken in the UK in 2008. You get on when the train is virtually empty and thus have your choice of seats. It is clean, calm and nearly always on time. People join down the line but the carriage only gets full near to London when the loud hordes of Essex (with their unbearable accents) all pile on and ask if the seat next you is free - or demand you move, as happened today. The mobile phone signal is good all the way and there are no tunnels to chop up your call. You arrive in London at half-ten feeling almost human.
My morning meeting was with Matthew Smerdon, who is an extremely bright lad who I first met doing the Living Values project in 05. He's now working for David Cutler at Barings, running a grants programme ranging from global warming through to parents with disabilities. We spent some time discussing the debate about the third sector and public services (the more I talk to people, the more I believe that most sensible people think the same thing) and then I pitched some ideas for Barings' latest programme on strengthening the sector.
Our kids are about the same age so we finished off comparing how outragiously early our children rouse us in the morning and swopping tricks on how to keep them in bed as long as possible. For the chicken-clock trick, Matthew, THANK-YOU.
Lunch with Helen Warrell from Third Sector Magazine... Helen is expanding their social enterprise news coverage and is very sensibly building contacts and getting a sense for where the stories are coming from.
She made the very good point that there is very little critical reflection about anything to do with social enterprise at the moment and that this cannot be a good thing. I agreed with her saying that there has probably been a reluctance in the sector to `talk ourselves down' after waiting so long to receive the political backing we have. Now, I agree, its time for a bit more in the way of real investigation of what's good and what's not in the sector - for its own good really.
Like all of the sector journalists I have met, Helen is very well informed, has superb contacts and is actually very positive about the sector and its potential. Its easy, I find, to trust her and open up. We will, I think, be working together on a few things this year, which I know I will enjoy...
The train back was the reverse journey in every sense. We were relieved of Essex within the hour and I could get down to some proper work for the remainder of the trip. Had a very useful call with Vik Anderson of CAF (Charities Aid Foundation) who has this amazing network that spans all the sectors. We discussed how she might be able to help us to address any gaps left by the venture-fund-that-wasn't which was incredibly helpful.
At Stowmarket I get switch trains and phone the office. My part-time PA who also does admin has gone on the sick and sounds like she won't be coming back. She was a temp so we're getting another in tomorrow.
I briefly mourn the loss of my old PA, Anna, who moved to another part of the UK. With a Board meeting next week, I try to avoid thinking about what isn't being sent out in good time to our Trustees.
A bright Suffolk sun cheers me as I step onto the local train for the final leg home.
Got home, heard all about how Ruby had done her first business on the potty and my good news was lost amid the family `high' about this key milestone in the life of my two year old. Lost to me too, I have to say. That's the wonderful thing about coming home to young children. Win, lose or draw, their world is bigger than yours.
The day started with a check-in call with Mark Griffiths, one of my mentors. Mark runs Ideal Word, a brand consultancy and his power with words and ideas helped shape the message of Speaking Up and, later, my book.
As usual he was juggling several projects, from a new brand of powder for bodybuilders to a new product for the gay market (he wasn't specific). And as ever, he was reassuring and resourceful about the loss of 75k of venture funding which, by this morning was hanging over my head like a tequila-hangover.
The 0856 train to Liverpool Street from Bury is, I believe, one of the better train journeys to be taken in the UK in 2008. You get on when the train is virtually empty and thus have your choice of seats. It is clean, calm and nearly always on time. People join down the line but the carriage only gets full near to London when the loud hordes of Essex (with their unbearable accents) all pile on and ask if the seat next you is free - or demand you move, as happened today. The mobile phone signal is good all the way and there are no tunnels to chop up your call. You arrive in London at half-ten feeling almost human.
My morning meeting was with Matthew Smerdon, who is an extremely bright lad who I first met doing the Living Values project in 05. He's now working for David Cutler at Barings, running a grants programme ranging from global warming through to parents with disabilities. We spent some time discussing the debate about the third sector and public services (the more I talk to people, the more I believe that most sensible people think the same thing) and then I pitched some ideas for Barings' latest programme on strengthening the sector.
Our kids are about the same age so we finished off comparing how outragiously early our children rouse us in the morning and swopping tricks on how to keep them in bed as long as possible. For the chicken-clock trick, Matthew, THANK-YOU.
Lunch with Helen Warrell from Third Sector Magazine... Helen is expanding their social enterprise news coverage and is very sensibly building contacts and getting a sense for where the stories are coming from.
She made the very good point that there is very little critical reflection about anything to do with social enterprise at the moment and that this cannot be a good thing. I agreed with her saying that there has probably been a reluctance in the sector to `talk ourselves down' after waiting so long to receive the political backing we have. Now, I agree, its time for a bit more in the way of real investigation of what's good and what's not in the sector - for its own good really.
Like all of the sector journalists I have met, Helen is very well informed, has superb contacts and is actually very positive about the sector and its potential. Its easy, I find, to trust her and open up. We will, I think, be working together on a few things this year, which I know I will enjoy...
The train back was the reverse journey in every sense. We were relieved of Essex within the hour and I could get down to some proper work for the remainder of the trip. Had a very useful call with Vik Anderson of CAF (Charities Aid Foundation) who has this amazing network that spans all the sectors. We discussed how she might be able to help us to address any gaps left by the venture-fund-that-wasn't which was incredibly helpful.
At Stowmarket I get switch trains and phone the office. My part-time PA who also does admin has gone on the sick and sounds like she won't be coming back. She was a temp so we're getting another in tomorrow.
I briefly mourn the loss of my old PA, Anna, who moved to another part of the UK. With a Board meeting next week, I try to avoid thinking about what isn't being sent out in good time to our Trustees.
A bright Suffolk sun cheers me as I step onto the local train for the final leg home.
He stood out a mile did Vlado Krystovski. He was one of two hundred or
so people at a conference in Brussels all about reducing social
isolation for disabled people. As the Eurostar pulled in, I knew an
interesting time awaited me an event that included Beyond Welfare of
Iowa, the Finnish Association for Disabilities and the Bulgarian
Stammerers Association.
At lunch, I met Vlado, a young social entrepreneur from Macedonia. After running refugee camps in the Balkan civil war he studied social work. Today, his organisation – Poraka – or MESSAGE in English – helps young disabled people and their families plan for the future. Vlado is working with big numbers with little money, a dodgy government and a society that kept disabled people banged up till a few years ago. Yet here he was: eager, keen to share and learn. Not bitter. No sense of entitlement. In sharp contrast in fact to the po-faced miserabIists I frequently encounter in the UK third sector (and, now and again, in my own organisation).
This event was interesting for me personally as it brought disability-inclusion and social enterprise together. This is only just starting in the UK, where people like me are a bit of an oddity next to the recycling businesses, eateries and employment specialists. By contrast, in Eastern and Southern Europe, everyone in the disability rights sector is a social entrepreneur. They have to be. If they don’t act entrepreneurially, they can’t survive.
One effect of not being spoon-fed by the state is that people get creative. Some of the work Vlado is doing is streets ahead of many UK organisations I know with big grants and well-paid staff. What the guy lacks in money he makes up for in his openness to learning, his amazing networks and his ability to inspire support locally and globally.
Which brings me onto sustainability. In this country, we think of sustainability mainly in financial terms. Vlado’s story shows us that sustainability is principally about resilience. Which you build by being entrepreneurial, clear on your values and close to your supporters. Indeed, UK social enterprises at risk often lack Poraka’s type of resilience as much as they lack hard cash.
So the next time you’re facing a `crisis’, don’t just look at the figures. Think resilience. And ask yourself what Vlado would do…
At lunch, I met Vlado, a young social entrepreneur from Macedonia. After running refugee camps in the Balkan civil war he studied social work. Today, his organisation – Poraka – or MESSAGE in English – helps young disabled people and their families plan for the future. Vlado is working with big numbers with little money, a dodgy government and a society that kept disabled people banged up till a few years ago. Yet here he was: eager, keen to share and learn. Not bitter. No sense of entitlement. In sharp contrast in fact to the po-faced miserabIists I frequently encounter in the UK third sector (and, now and again, in my own organisation).
This event was interesting for me personally as it brought disability-inclusion and social enterprise together. This is only just starting in the UK, where people like me are a bit of an oddity next to the recycling businesses, eateries and employment specialists. By contrast, in Eastern and Southern Europe, everyone in the disability rights sector is a social entrepreneur. They have to be. If they don’t act entrepreneurially, they can’t survive.
One effect of not being spoon-fed by the state is that people get creative. Some of the work Vlado is doing is streets ahead of many UK organisations I know with big grants and well-paid staff. What the guy lacks in money he makes up for in his openness to learning, his amazing networks and his ability to inspire support locally and globally.
Which brings me onto sustainability. In this country, we think of sustainability mainly in financial terms. Vlado’s story shows us that sustainability is principally about resilience. Which you build by being entrepreneurial, clear on your values and close to your supporters. Indeed, UK social enterprises at risk often lack Poraka’s type of resilience as much as they lack hard cash.
So the next time you’re facing a `crisis’, don’t just look at the figures. Think resilience. And ask yourself what Vlado would do…
`Entrepreneurship is the last refuge of the trouble-making individual.'
- Natalie Clifford Barney
Are
you a Trouble-Maker? I always have been – ask my Mum! Not in a nasty
way, you understand. But always challenging, wanting to do things my
own way..
I started my own journey as a social entrepreneur 15 years ago when I worked in care homes for disabled people.
I
noticed how much good money was being spent on a really bad system. I
saw abuse and suffering. I also noticed how well people did once they
had found their voice and made their own choices.
So I quit my
job and set up Speaking Up. It was that simple. A year or two without
money and sleep. The best and worse of times. Thankfully it came off
and Speaking Up now works with thousands of people each year.
But
I am still angry. Angry at the way public sector bodies stuffed full of
cash simply can’t deliver decent services to disabled people.
Angry at process-obsession I encounter in agencies that have forgotten what it means to make a difference.
That
is why I am a social entrepreneur. I believe in a very different world.
One in which citizens not bureaucrats put the world to rights. One in
which social entrepreneurs are centre-stage not on the edges.
And
this is no pipe-dream. History has produced an amazing number of social
entrepreneurs who have helped shape our world. Cecily Saunders. Joseph
Rowntree. Muhammed Yunus.
And there exciting new names coming
through. Like Reed Paget, Schwab Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2007
and a fellow Social Enterprise Ambassador.
Reed used to make
documentaries about environmental degradation. Then he decided to
actually do something about it and founded Belu.
Belu sells mineral water in bio-degradable corn bottles and gives its profits to water projects.
You can now buy Belu at Waitrose and satisfy your thirst knowing that, through your purchase, someone else can do the same.
Reed
is amazing but he isn’t some kind of superhuman or trust-fund
millionaire. He’s just an ordinary bloke who was angry and did
something about it. A Trouble-Maker if ever there was one!
If you’re still searching for a New Year resolution try this one. `Make Trouble in 2008!’
