I know you want to know what it’s about, and now that I have finished the 20,000 words and sent it in to my tutor, I am in a position to tell you……but I won’t yet. I will give you the full story later, at the slight risk of my Stephen Fry / Barack  Obama  levels of  blog readers falling off a touch.

Guess what – EVEN my brother now reads this blog…and tells me that I have more readers than President Sarkozy…but I think there’s joke somewhere there.

However, I would not want you to think I had been idle on my week off, and so on the birthday 4 May I took a call at Kew from Surrey CC who have asked me to do some “honest broker” work over a particular issue they face with a member organisation of ours, and, at the risk of entering the lions den I have said I will.

(SEE you skeptics…spelt correctly by the way….I always knew there was a place for Theology….”lions den” ….Book of Daniel..geddit?? Please keep up!)

Then on Saturday 5 May (yes a Saturday) we had a very good staff/trustees awayday working on our 3 year strategy. Suffice to say, that we cannot sustain more deficit budgets, so we have a cunning plan for the 3 year development of SYF. “Failing to plan is planning to fail”.

Then whilst on leave (just thought I’d get that in) I went to Surrey University to meet with a brilliant group of students in SIFE, which stands for Students in Free Enterprise – A heart for business. A Head for the world is the strapline. I went to canvass their views about our Surrey Youth Enterprise project, for which we are about to bid fro funding. The students were very quick to comment (positively) were challenging, and hugely impressive. Many thanks to them for their ideas.

So..then back to work on Monday this week (my wife thinks I never left it) but with a filthy cold acquired after 4 year old grandson’s Superheroes Birthday Party with about 20 children, and noo immunity to children’s germs.

So I was missing, but am now back- more blogging this Friday..and LOTS to say..much better than The Voice, Britain’s Got Talent, Man City (boo), Sarkozy…et al.

Mike

I’ve met with two organisations that have won Surrey CC youth work contracts as the result of the commissioning /tendering process. Raven Housing will be running 5 youth centres in Reigate and Banstead, and as social housing landlords are very well tapped into these areas and are already doing good work with young people. Working Links have won the youth engagement contract and have 4 sub- contractor colleague companies. I am very impressed indeed with the creativity and professionalism of this outfit…the bar has been raised for youth work in this county. I note with interest that the Government’s Public Services (Socail Value) Act is passed embedding social value into public sector thinking, though the outworking of this in the tendering/contracting stage will reamin controversial in terms of how it adds to/subtracts from Localism and the Big Society.

The setting up of our social enterprise is moving on apace, and so too our proposed “Surrey Youth Enterprises” website and support service for young people about  self – employment and social enterprise. One of our trustees is entrepreneur in residence at Surrey University and is being enormously helpful with both projects. So..an enterprising week!

Mike

The theme of the week has definitely been about commissioning and contracting. I am in London this afternoon speaking at a Children England leadership course for local authority managers about the VCFS perspective on commissioning. Last night I was away from Surrey at a focus group discussion led by Capita with about 10 voluntary sector directors/CEOs about commissioning. My colleagues were an impressive bunch with many running social enterprises. The core issues were: difficulty in measuring outcomes in social policy, and the difficulty of matching a commissioning/contracting policy with the Localism/ Big Society agenda. Open competitive tendering takes you to large scale,  whilst localism is about valuing local community organisations.

However on Wednesday, I also met with one of Surrey County Council’s new sub- contractors for the youth engagement work – Rolling Sound - based in London, and with very impressive, innovative approaches to engaging with NEET young people, so one can see benefits to commissioning in terms of raising the performance bar.

The social enterprise we have been working on for a while to provide jobs to unemployed young people is now happening, and I have to find offices, write job descriptions and move things on. I met with Guildford College this week about how we might work together to secure training for these young people, possibly through apprenticeships. We have also discussed their involvement with our forthcoming “Surrey Youth Enterprises” work – being a website giving information, advice to young people on self–employment and social enterprise and running “how to” workshops off it on a chargeable basis, and so it could also become a social enterprise.

All these developments are in our new Business Plan fro 2012/13 which will  be discussed at next week’s Trustees meeting and on Monday we were visited by a new independent (as opposed to Member) Trustee – Martin Gerrard DL who has a strong strategic and operational  background as a Commissioner in the Met Police, and outstanding work with the Scouts in Epsom. He will bring considerable skills to the Board.

 So – a good week, especially as my university tutor liked my rough draft of my MA Theology dissertation (on pastoral care since you ask) ..will finish at the end of May.

Up in London with all the family on Sunday to support middle son running in the London Marathon.

Have fun!

Mike

The PM launched Big Society Bank and I watched Sir Ronald Cohen (Chairman) on the tv talking about it. I sat next to him by chance at the Social Finance conference in London about a year ago. I am quietly pleased that I having been banging on about social finance and social enterprise for the last 2 years. Sir Ronald was the inventor of venture capitalism and is a world stage figure; he will give social finance a maojor profile. I repeat Surrey ought to be the national leader on this given its financial expertise and wealth. We in SYF are doing our bit in framing our bid for Surrey Youth Enterprise, about which more later.

Other Government policy statements are important: Positive for Youth, the s507 obligation on local authorities to secure positive activities for young people, and most recently the Youth Contract.

Just agreed with Surrey Chambers that the next round of our “4×4 project” will be on 14 June…I already have 6 member organisations lined up to participate.

I am impressed with The Challenge Network who came to see me last Friday; with Catch 22 they are the contractors for the National Citizenship Scheme in Surrey and already have 570 young people signed up for this summer’s programme. Impressive. I hope The Challenge Network will become members of ours.

I am meeting with Garath Symonds of Surrey CC (Assistant Director Young People) later this (Thursday) morning and we have a long list of issues and topics to discuss. I see this as part of our Representation and Advocacy role….accessing Surrey CC’s senior manager commissioning services for young people. And I know that some of the issues will need to morph into a “honest broker” role, bridge-building between parties. We also provide support services to our members. Whether we have the right balance of time between these three roles and other related matters is what we’ll be discussing at our awayday in May, with a facilitator who is just about to join me now to plan the event. She has already provided us with some training on social media, and will be great at this.

I am on leave for most of next week (writing MA dissertation) so no blog now until Friday 20 April- so Happy Easter!

Mike

On Monday evening, I went to Raven Housing Trust’s own celebration of the achievements of the young people that they’ve encouraged to take responsibility for the estates where they live. The event was held at the (rather too large) Harlequin Theatre, Redhill, but  I was impressed by Raven Chief Executive’s talk. Whereas Surrey Youth Consortium have won 27/31 youth centre contracts,   Raven have won the remaining 4 in the Redhill area, and I could  see why.

I have helped RAISE Chief Executive conduct interviews for new staff, and have offered to someone who I am sure will be outstandingly good, and also another candidate who though not appointed may be going down the self-employment path as someone with 10 years training in  fund raising and related matters. Great potential for the voluntary youth sector..I will be getting in touch with him again.

I spent an afternoon at Horsham as a speaker /facilitator with my colleagues in West Sussex Council for Voluntary Youth Services. Interestingly West Sussex CC are using a commissioning process to invite the voluntary sector to state what they can offer against their own “Service delivery Framework” (needs analysis) and will then in pursuit of localism give grants to reliable partners to deliver that locally. My colleagues in WSCVYS are being paid by WSCC to facilitate this discussion. West Sussex CC have a highly differentiated approach  – meeting local needs locally. Meanwhile back in Surrey the Surrey Youth Consortium are signing off today on the contracts they won some weeks ago, but which have since been subject to lengthy post- award discussions. Interesting to compare/ contrast approaches. I think I will be getting some follow up consultancy work in the Sussex area about consortia and mergers.

However, my high spot this week was in London on Wednesday afternoon at a Business in the Community (BitC) launch of the United Futures project. This links big corporates – the lead speaker was the CEO of O2 (Telefonica) – to voluntary sector youth organisations, through UK Youth, and National Children’s Bureau with backing also from NCVYS.  I was invited because of our “4×4 Project”, and after meeting a few weeks ago in Guildford with BitC’s  national director of the programme. I have lots of follow up contacts to make.

A good week… just don’t mention petrol to me….soon be Easter break though.

Mike

Last night was the annual High Sheriff’s Youth Awards presentations to seven organisations, most of whom are members of ours. It was hosted by Exxon Mobil at Leatherhead and was a useful networking opportunity.

Earlier on Thursday I had attended my first Surrey Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) Board at which it was disclosed that there are some 8 different providers and pathways in the medical world alone for young people with ADHD; this was somewhat ironic as I had been with Nancy Williams at The Studio (ADHD Centre) the day before discussing business plan options, and regretting the complexity of the system. I also had a good meeting with Business in the Community on Thursday (busy day) building links and actions between us.

Earlier in the week was more about internal mechanics – a team meeting to discuss our draft business plan for 2012/13, and my Chairman and Vice-Chairman conducting my appraisal; it does make a huge difference to feel supported as a CEO.

On the national scene, I have only just come across the important “Outcomes Framework for Young people’s Services” published by NCVYS/NYA/Young Foundation, which is now up on our website, and am watching developments about the Youth Contract which is one of a series of initiatives aimed at providing opportunities to young people- like the Work Programme, Apprenticeship Scheme, and, in a different way the National Citizenship Scheme , which is being extended into Surrey this Summer.

Tomorrow, Saturday  is our big performance event  – The Celebration of Youth – at Esher High School with an exhibition at  3.00pm and the performance at 4.00pm until 6.00pm – it’s free and all are welcome! 

Mike

On Monday we embarked on a process of reviewing and updating our website, recognizing that it is our “shop window” and needs constant improvement.

That evening I went to Banstead Youth Centre to meet my co-presenter at the Celebration of Youth. She is a youth leader at the centre, and has given endless hours of volunteering, and is keen to study film at university. Come and see us in action on Sat 24 March at 4.00pm at the Celebration of Youth at Esher High School !

I have been drafting our Business Plan for next year to go to Trustees on 24 April, and prior to that for discussion with the team on Monday. It will then form the basis for discussion at my own annual appraisal by my Chairman and Vice–Chairman next week. The key theme I am suggesting is one of “Keep Going!”. There are of course lots of pitfalls, but we have to move forward and focus on what we can control, and not on what might happen.

I had a really exciting discussion with a colleague from Oxfordshire Council for Voluntary Youth Services, who is doing brilliant things on a nominal 3 days a week of time, including having great success in recruiting able (graduate level) volunteers into working at OCVYS, and brilliant work with social enterprises. Very impressive.  I do think that time spent in finding out other people’s good ideas (“networking”) is time well spent if at least one good idea comes across. 

The National Citizenship Scheme is coming into Surrey this summer, piloted by the Government funded organisation called “The Challenge” who have been in touch this week.  It will be interesting to see if this has an impact on DoE numbers.

I am looking forward to a late afternoon discussion today about a social finance project which I hope can be moved forward now.

Enjoy the last rugby match of the Six Nations (5.00pm Saturday), and of course Mothering Sunday!

Mike

I have now met up with the new interim CEO of Surrey Community Action who are engaged in the difficult process of reshaping themselves. One of SCA’s successes is the Surrey Minority Ethnic Forum (meeting on Tuesday) which has accelerated its progress of helping BME groups to a point where there is now a sufficient number of viable organisations representing minority groups for SMEF to be re-constituted, and people like me to drop out.

I had a Surrey Sports Partnership Board meeting in mid-week and its focus was also on re-constituting as a company limited by guarantee, as a step towards becoming independent of Surrey CC. We talked about Surrey’s preparation for the London 2012 Games and its legacy , including a new initiative called Community Games, and Sports-makers, the latter being volunteers who undergo a short 2 hour training course and undertake to get other people involved in sporting activity – mates playing football in the park, cycling group and so on. Active Surrey are the experts.

I attended Surrey Chambers open evening at the impressive GLive in Guildford (reminded me that my first visit to the former Civic Hall was to see the Pentangle..anyone remember them – folk group?). I made 3 useful contacts which I have followed up – the power of networking, but regretted having given up alcohol for Lent… Finally today I’ve had an invaluable  mentoring session that arose from our first “4×4 “ session – many thanks to PKF, Guildford !

And finally..of course a rugby week-end … England could win on Sunday against France , but I fear the French will be too powerful and experienced. Is Lionel Messi the greatest footballer ever? First person ever to score 5 goals in the European Cup – only 24 and I think 5’ 8 tall – technique and skill over size and physicality…just like the voluntary sector!!
Have fun.

Mike

Slightly more seriously, I gave a presentation to a Children England SE Families Network about social finance, pointing out that historically social philanthropy pre-dated the welfare state and was not new, and then one of the participants sent me the Prime Minister’s recent speech to Business in the Community (which I had NOT seen) which had an identical theme and the same examples. I have since been accused of being Dave’s speech writer!! Both my powerpoint and the PM’s speech are on our website.

I met last week with great people from BitC and in consequence this week we already being offered links to major companies looking for volunteering projects.

I met with colleagues from West Sussex Council for Voluntary Youth Services and East Sussex CVYS in a network session facilitated by our national umbrella body (NCVYS). The sharing of practice, funding levels, challenges /opportunities is invaluable.

My big theme this week, and I think a continuing concern, is about the implications of commissioning/contracting for the voluntary sector. The issue turns on whether you think best value is achieved by competition in the market place with a mix of suppliers (and consequent barriers to sharing data/practice/IPR) or to a more partnership/collaborative approach…..grant giving approach. This is I fear inevitably highly political, and we see the issue being played out now in the current NHS Health Bill.

My own approach is to hedge my bets….assume that Commissioning is here for good….but to challenge the (unproductive) cost of the commissioning/ procurement / outcomes / performance management process (“you don’t fatten the pig by weighing it”), to point out the impossibility of measuring outcomes in the complex world of social policy…where I would argue there is no straight line between Action A and Consequence B….and the loss of collaboration that will ensue as contractors compete to hold on to what they have won. I know it’s heresy, but I still think there’s scope for collaboration/partnership…and grants (in a rigorous way).

It is a CRUCIAL issue, for the commissioning/contracting model will transform and marketise a great chunk of the sector, and, importantly, I don’t see how the economies of scale/ reduced transaction costs of large scale commissioning are reconciled with The Big Society, Volunteering, and Localism…that apart I don’t have much to say!

Regular readers will (not) be absolutely fascinated to know that I had a good session with my MA Theology tutor this week, and my dissertation is progressing – 20,000 words by end May – done half so far.  No rugby this week-end, but my church is entertaining the outgoing Bishop of Chichester at Evensong on Saturday. Well… it takes all sorts.

Mike

 As any regular readers will know, one of my constant themes is that the voluntary sector needs to link more closely with businesses and corporates, and vice versa, to fill the gap caused by the (irreversible) decline in central and local government spending.

Well, Monday evening saw the launch of our “4×4 Project” whereby in collaboration with Surrey Chambers we have tried to link four businesses to four of our member organisations. The evening was hosted by The Co-operative Bank, and was a very good start to the development of wider links to business. Specific follow up actions are happening, and particular thanks to PKF, who have been brilliant.

I then met with someone from BiS to carry on the discussion, and on Wednesday with two managers from Business in the Community (BitC). One is running the national programme called “United Futures” encouraging “top down” links between corporates and youth organisations. It is a collaboration between the DfE, UK Youth, National Childrens Bureau and our own national umbrella body the National Council for Voluntary Youth Services, and her colleague has responsibility for Surrey/Sussex. It was a really positive meeting, and again follow up action happening. So we have both top down, and bottom up approaches. Yesterday I was privileged to be introduced to the CEO of Surrey Satellite Technology and be shown round the massively impressive site. The possibility of links between SST and specific member organisations was discussed.

One telling point made to me was that competition (for contracts) was a fact of life, and that the voluntary sector needs to get much better at defining income streams (selling goods and services) rather than looking for government grants. There are of course voluntary organisations (Scouts, Guides) who have eschewed grants/contracts and have a different business model, but the point was well made….I am brewing up a Lottery bid…more later.

And finally, and most important – Lancaster has selected the same England team as me…but I admit to being more than a little apprehensive about the Welsh game on Saturday, and having given up alcohol for Lent , don’t even have the prospect of a consoling pint. BUT winning is all in the mind! We’ll see! (Any new readers -  I am a BIG England rugby fan.)

Mike