Category Archives: Politics

Public service delivery over Demos breakfast

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Having returned from Estonia (of which more soon), SSE launched straight back into the deep end with a breakfast roundtable discussion at Demos on ambition, social enterprise, the third sector and public service delivery. Luminaries attending included senior policy people of NCVO and ACEVO (Nick Aldridge, soon off to be CEO of MissionFish), Ben Metz from Ashoka, Cliff Prior from UnLtd, and Stephen Sears from ECT.

Once coffees were downed, people clicked into gear and the debate began, albeit with relatively few sparks flying. In fact, reading between the lines, there was significant agreement between those present. Diversity, and government understanding of, was one key theme: that it is impossible to decide whether "the sector" should a) aim to deliver a greater percentage of public services or b) transform capitalism or c) innovate at the grassroots or, indeed, d) all of the above…..rather, each organisation decides what it does to achieve its goals, giving a complex, diverse, rich picture.

There was also significant agreement about the need for more thought-through commissioning (an old and well-worn chestnut…if you can have a well-worn chestnut), that it should be outcome- not sector-based. This is very much in line with our feeling that, increasingly, the boundaries between sectors are becoming blurred and what matters is the quality/value/impact of activity, and how transparent an organisation is about the way it operates (and in how it communicates).

A social enterprise or charitable structure doesn’t guarantee quality, particularly if what differentiates them (aka the values/mission at their heart/inception) is no longer there…which is a possibility if organisations are formed to respond to sector-based commissions. The powerhouse that is ECT started as a small voluntary community transport organisation by people passionate to see that need to be met.

There were some interesting points about innovation too: I made the point that social enterprise was meant to be about new solutions, risk, innovation etc, but that it was difficult to commission innovation or procure entrepreneurship. And that social entrepreneurs, particularly in their early years of activity, are responding to what is NOT being met, rather than aiming to deliver a public service that is already recognised. The ramifications for funding, support, devolving power and money are clear. Nick A. added that research had shown that the sector was involved in more incremental innovation now, rather than "disruptive" innovation, and that this was to be welcomed.

Further interesting points came around user-led services, whether it will make a difference if Cameron/Brown get in (general feeling: not really, though we won’t know until either of them do, and they’ll both have less money to work with…), and how Ben/Ashoka will bring down capitalism. Or something. ;0)

Best of all, a roundtable discussion that didn’t attempt to define social enterprise or the third sector once: marvellous.

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Defining deprivation and disadvantage

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SSE sites its centres (try saying that in a hurry) in areas of ‘social deprivation’ or ‘disadvantage’, although we are probably as guilty as others at times at bandying around those terms without fully understanding what we mean by them. There are, of course, areas of deprivation in need of regeneration pretty much everywhere, and sometimes in different ways to what you expect. I was recently in Cornwall discussing the potential for an SSE down there, and there was much discussion about how the model and methodology had worked in rural as well as urban areas, and the various challenges that brought (transport, access, buildings, infrastructure). Then, towards the end of the conversation, one person mentioned that one of the biggest/most troubled estates (block, rather than land!) was also in the area; so actually, our work on inner city London estates had as much relevance as our work in the former coal-mining areas in East Midlands or Fife.

Speaking of Fife, the Fife SSE is based in Lochgelly whose Wikipedia page describes it as follows: "It was originally a mining town, but with the industry now dead the
town has slipped into economic and social deprivation as with other
former mining towns. Lochgelly is now classed as a town in need of
regeneration "economically and socially". Good to know that Wikipedia agrees with us. Anyway, I was reminded about Lochgelly because it has long been reported as the place with the cheapest house prices in the UK, but this week we were told that its average house price went above £100,000 for the first time (£104,738 to be precise). One indicator of deprivation/need for regeneration need, perhaps, but merely one of many (and one fraught with many complexities). Still, I don’t think there will be an SSE Kensington and Chelsea anytime soon.

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Public sector and new technology: oil and water?

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It’s interesting to compare two approaches to using new technology in the public sector which were both covered in the paper on Wednesday. On the one hand, you have SSE Fellow Paul Hodgkin whose Patient Opinion organisation has successfully used blog/RSS/web 2.0 technology to, as he puts it, create a new citizen-state dialogue. He has some great examples of how hospitals and patients are starting to communicate through the web, through the Patient Opinion interface, and how a new language is emerging to help move us "towards a more nuanced public discussion of the thousands of micro
issues that arise in a complex and networked information society where
voice has been democratised".

Compare that to Labourvision (or for that matter, Webcameron) which is basically like having a selection of excerpts from speeches or interviews, and shows no understanding of the interaction which is key to new technology working (see a pithy take on it here). Or, to paraphrase Hugh at GapingVoid, an understanding of the continuity, authority and passion needed for blogs, podcasts and online videos to work. One of the few who seem to get this, in fairness to Labour, is David Miliband, whose blog is authored by him and, although he doesn’t often post comments, he clearly reads and replies to them where appropriate; and writes posts regularly: most of those reading the blog and commenting clearly view it as useful/value for money.

But, largely, he’s an exception, and perhaps this is a macro/micro issue: perhaps the top-down, large-scale nature of central government doesn’t lend itself well to these types of technology (see also the online petition fiasco), at least in terms of ongoing interaction. On a micro level, though, or for smaller constituencies (be they thematic or geographic), the kind of tools Patient Opinion is using are showing how real changes and differences can be made, and better communication emerge.

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Little red branding hood

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Hazel Blears, prospective Labour deputy leader, has released a range of branded goods to support her campaign. I confess that, if this had appeared nearer the start of the week, I would have assumed it was an April Fool.

The comment on the post above that suggests "Hilary Benn start wearing a bear suit and market himself as Gentle Benn" is also a stroke of genius….

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The Third Sector budget…

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Not much to report in the budget (well, obviously lots to report: a cut in income tax, inheritcan tax threshold raised, an Environmental Transformation fund, and, shock of all shocks, the tax on cigarettes has gone up….) as far as the third sector is concerned.

  • No decision on unclaimed assets, though the emphasis seems very much on youth services on financial capability/inclusion.
  • Social enterprise action plan gets a mention, including the Community Investment Tax Relief model for encouraging investment; the change there is that CDFIs will have more flexibility in how they can use funds raised under CITR (see below for the technicalities)
  • Futurebuilders will be open to ALL third sector organisations from spring 2008; i.e. they’ve widened the criteria to cover all areas of service delivery…
  • The biggest new thing, as far as I can see, is the £80 million to promote "community action and voice" through core-funding for grassroots community organisations; this looks genuinely interesting, and should get a mighty hooray by the looks of it: exactly the kind of devolved-to-the-grassroots-grants-are-needed-as-well-as-loans type funding that SSE (amongst others) has been calling for. It will be administered by the Office of the Third Sector, and "channelled through third sector partners at a local level, such as Community Foundations"

The OTS has a press release about it with more info, along with the Futurebuilders and CITR developments in more detail…

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