Category Archives: Politics

Is Charles Clarke a social entrepreneur?

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Diving headfirst, if a little tardily, into the machinations of the Labour leadership, it was interesting to note that Charles Clarke, in between sideswipes, had said that the difference between Blairites and Brownites was the difference between ‘social entrepreneurs’ and ‘Fabians’. According to Demos, this is his way of saying that "The [Brownites] still believe the central state is the best way of securing
equity and improving lives. The [Blairites] think that local freedom and
engagement are the better route."

As well as raising the question of whether Tony Blair is a social entrepreneur, this also seems a bit too simplistic or binary. Gordon Brown’s proclamations + support for various organisations (including ourselves) doesn’t back up this view of him as an old-fashioned centrist. There is also an argument (which Demos make) that New Labour is more interested in new ways of delivering services, rather than full-on devolution/"true" social entrepreneurship.

More interestingly, it does raise the question of whether a government minister can ever be a social entrepreneur. Social entrepreneurs do cut across sectors, so they can work in the public sector. Politicians do challenge and change the status quo at times (particularly when newly in power) but do they take risks or have enough ownership of initiatives to warrant the name? Do they have the personal attachment to the mission? Who knows, but it’s an interesting development in the use of the term, whether you agree with it or not.

For a more ‘traditional’ vision (or version) of a social entrepreneur, you can download Ashoka-famed Bill Drayton’s "Everyone a Changemaker: the ultimate vision of social entrepreneurship" here.

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Unclaimed assets: social investment bank

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Seeing as every bit of research there has been puts forward funding as the major barrier for social entrepreneurs achieving what they might, new funding streams are always welcome. So the news that £400 million of unclaimed assets in UK bank accounts are possibly to be used to form a "social investment bank” to help finance
charitable and voluntary projects by "providing seed capital and loan
guarantees". At least that will be the recommendation today of The Commission on Unclaimed Assets…
[read the FT and Guardian take]

It’s not been fully clarified exactly what the fund’s main objectives are, though Ronald Cohen has chaired the commission (of Bridges Community Ventures, who we’ve mentioned a couple of times recently), and reports say it has been based on the US-based Local Initiative Support Corporation, which provides financial advice and funds to community groups and charities, and has invested over $6 billion in the last 25 years.

Incidentally, the £400 million figure is only for accounts that have been dormant for 15 years. The actual amount in unclaimed assets could be in the billions….

UPDATE: piece in Society Guardian by Matthew Pike on this….which talks excitingly of what the UK Social Investment Bank might do:

"Using unclaimed assets funds, the proposed SIB would capitalise and
co-ordinate the efforts of new and existing providers of funding,
finance and support to the sector – covering the full range of needs,
from grants to loans, lease financing, quasi-equity and equity. But it
would also act in the manner of a private investment bank, able to
package and guarantee investment opportunities for private capital as
well."

And there’s a website, UnclaimedAssets.org.uk, where you can respond to the consultation paper (pdf)

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The Acronym Buster

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There are a few voluntary sector, public sector, funding (pdf) and social enterprise jargon buster sites around. My personal favourite is this wiki-one that anyone can edit and add to.

One of the labyrinthine jargon challenges is the acronyms that pervade the sector, and all the different government departments. I realised this the other day when I was discussing the cabinet reshuffle with a colleague the other day, and there was a truly horrific sentence that went something along the lines of:

“so the VCGU has gone to the OTS; and so has the SEU, from the DTI; what about the ACU (or ACD)?: that’s moved from the Home Office, but has it gone to DCLG (previously ODPM) or also gone to the OTS?”

Well, quite. Now some of the sector specialists out there will simply nod sagely at this and understand every word. But new entrants to the sector, as many of our students are, find this an incomprehensible lingo-babble…and rightly so. So I’m thinking of an acronym buster for social entrepreneurs, that tells you your DWP from your DTI, your SEEDA from your SEEM, your GLA from your LEGI, and your LSP from your LSC.

So here’s a start:

ACEVO Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations

ACF Association of Charitable Foundations, and also Adventure Capital Fund

ACU Active Communities Unit (part of Active Communities Directorate, previously in Home Office)

ALM Action Learning for Managers

 

Bassac British Association of Settlements and Social Action Centres

BitC Business in the Community

BLF Big Lottery Fund (also Black Londoners’ Forum)

BME Black and Minority Ethnic

BURA British Urban Regeneration Association

 

CAF Charities Aid Foundation

CBI Confederation of Business Industry

CDF Community Development Foundation

CEMVO Council of Ethnic Minority Voluntary Organisations

CES Charities Evaluation Services

CIC Community Interest Company

CPD continuing professional development

CRT Coalfields Regeneration Trust

CRU Civil Renewal Unit

CSR Corporate Social Responsibility

CSV Community Service Volunteers

CVS Council for Voluntary Service

 

DCLG Department for Communities and Local Government
(was ODPM – Office of the Deputy Prime Minister)

DCMS Department for Culture, Media and Sport

DEFRA Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
(was MAFF / DETR)

DfES Department for Education and Skills
(was DfEE)

DfT Department for Transport

DoH / DH Department of Health

DSC Directory of Social Change

DTA Development Trusts Association

DTI Department for Trade and Industry

DWP Department for Work and Pensions

 

OK – for now, that’ll do. Will be updated in time….

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Public Service Delivery: Future Services Network

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Lots of stuff to link to, following the government’s shedload of announcements at the Future Services Network event last week. PM + four (count them) ministers in attendance, all bigging up the voluntary sector, and the role it can play in public service reform. Which is welcome (with caveats…see below).

Tony Blair said the government wants "to harness the energy, and potential, and creativity of the sector", and said it was a priority, pointing to Ed Miliband (not literally) as a sign of this commitment. See press notice and Q&A for more.

Obviously this got covered everywhere. Society Guardian gave a good overview and the trade mags will weigh in next week, methinks. Of particular interest to social entrepreneurs may be Ed Miliband’s speech about a public service innovation team (speech here), and the (formal) announcement of the setting up of the DoH’s Social Enterprise Unit to encourage "entrepreneurialism and innovation" in health and social care.

There was also representation from DCLG (previously ODPM!) about strengthening the sector’s relationship with local government.

And that’s the main beef/caveat really. That worthy words from ministers don’t translate into action at local level (in the commissioning and procurement process, for example). Hopefully, such a high profile event will filter down to help make that happen….

[with thanks to the mighty VolResource for several links]

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Living Values, Being Bold

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SSE attended the Living Values conference, organised by Community Links (and supported by Esmee Fairbairn Foundation). It launched a report, based on a collaborative enquiry, about the importance of values to the third sector, and how they are central to our work and thinking. The set of values the report says are common to 3rd sector organisations are:

– empowering people
– pursuing equality
– making voices heard
– transforming lives
– being responsible
– finding fulfilment
– doing a good job
– generating public wealth

In addition to these (which few people would find much to argue with, or indeed not be able to place their organisation within), the report says that these values are not unique to the sector, but the combination and prioritisation of them is.

A further key message was that values are not an abstract set of nouns at the top of a piece of paper, but are the basis for all activities, underpinning everything an organisation does. As David Robinson said in the final session, “Values are not separate from everything else we do; they underpin it all”.

It was an interesting day, particularly relevant to the world of social enterprise…because social entrepreneurs tend to face the mission drift challenge consistently, given their opportunistic nature and will to act. Understanding and communicating and measuring things against a clear set of values then becomes of increasing importance. If you are drifting or being pragmatic in the short term to achieve a longer term goal, at least know that that is what you are doing.

There was also some interesting discussion about how the founding entrepreneurs (who may be closest to the original values) can effectively capture those repliche orologi di lusso and communicate them to those who follow on from them. Something, incidentally, which I singularly failed to do at my previous organisation….

The other message was BE BOLD: make your values explicit in what you do….on the basis that those organisations that do so are most successful in the long run. It is about, as Matthew Smerdon put it, “being able to demonstrate our legitimacy” as a sector, showing our governance and activity is grounded in values. And to learn confidence from the public sector, not being timid or diffident.

Also much discussion around government contracts / commissioning processes, and how to influence those BEFORE the tenders emerge. And how, as it were, to put a value on our values (and how government tenders can provide space/opportunity for this to happen)….which seems key to me. As Craig Dearden-Phillips put it, ” we need to measure the added value that flows from our values”.

I could write more (on ethical dilemmas, value-led approaches to including users), but the report, which should be available via Community Links’ website soon, will cover much of this and more. No matter where your organisation is at, it makes important reading.

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