Interesting series of three articles in Third Sector by John Tizard on the “anger, helplessness, and deep frustration” shared with him by top charity chief execs “…it is clear that the attitude and behaviour of public sector policy makers, commissioners and procurers are exacerbating the situation that they find themselves in and creating really serious problems.”  I hear that Surrey CC staff are claiming credit for Surrey Community Action’s successful Transforming Local Infrastructure bid…I am (almost) speechless.

John Tizard’s advice to chief execs is (as ever) to go where the energy is, and seek out opportunities.

SO, with that in mind I had a useful all day meeting of the South East Youth Partnership (SEYP) on Tuesday and heard about how other local authorities in the SE are simply transferring youth centres to be managed by local organisations (Bucks, West Sussex ) and their NEET figures are also going down. I met with our sports organisations on Wednesday evening at the Riverside Centre in Guildford – the base of the Wey Kayak Club that has 4 members of the GB Olympic Team, and over 450 members, and 50 coaches. Very impressive, and the voluntary sector at its best.

Thursday was a training day here with a skilled trainer from NCVO taking us through the Valuing Infrastructure Programme, and although I think it’s quite complex, it does have real application for us, and indeed I’ll be using it for a forthcoming awayday with Trustees. I had seen it before, and have already used it in a modified form to structure our service offer to members, and we now have the highest number of members ever!

Enjoy the week-end.

Mike

So practical, that on Monday we had an office clear out / de-cluttering day, which we do every year to avoid the geological layers of files and unread, but “must keep” papers.

My more fundamental concern is that we seem to be getting to a point of stasis – where competing pressures cancel out, resulting in us all standing still, or in an alternative metaphor the blood circulating around the body politic more slowly. “The Big Society” seems moribund and no longer the subject of much public comment, whilst there is a risk of localism being overpowered by commissioning which leaves power strongly in the hands of government, whether central or local. Clearly the more substantial debate is in the NHS about the outworking of commissioning and a mixed economy of public, private and charity sector including social enterprise.

I mention all this as it was the main topic of discussion at the Surrey Voluntary Sector Chief Executives Group last Friday, at which widespread concerns were voiced about the commissioning /contracting process generally, and with particular examples across all services. This was not the sector being defensive, but an expression of deep concern about contract implementation, and impact on clients.

I gave a presentation to the Rotary Club of Guildford District at lunchtime on Wednesday about the work of Surrey Youth Focus and its members, in return for my (very nice) roast pork and sticky toffee pudding.  This has since prompted some useful follow up contacts. I  also spoke to one Rotarian who has prostate cancer and is walking with two friends and a back – up support team the 1,000 miles from John 0’Groats to Land’s End to fund raise for an expanded urology unit at Guildford hospital. How wonderful! Meanwhile the group of young parents we are supporting to set up their own charity to support, train and advise new young (teenage) parents are themselves making good progress.

So maybe this is the big society….just people getting on and making things happen…regardless.

Enjoy Italy v. England but I am at the Old Vic in London watching Comedy of Errors. Have fun.

Mike

Congratulations to Surrey Community Action for leading a successful Transforming Local Infrastructure bid and winning the maximum grant of £600,000. This will oil the wheels of a transformative change between SCA and the local Councils for Voluntary Services (CVS), and, in my view see them all morphing into a new single organisation.

The Government (DCLG – Mr Pickles) announced a new £10 mill grant to  a grouping of uniformed organisations enabling them to train up new volunteers and expand membership by 10,000. BUT NOT in Surrey. So I met with the Chairman of the Combined Cadet Forces and we discussed and agreed on the need to campaign and lobby for similar funding for all Surrey ’s successful uniformed organisations..so successful that they have huge waiting lists.

I also had a very positive meeting with the businessman in Woking through whom we are setting up a social enterprise, and we now have new impetus, premises identified and the final legal documents being sorted out, and a start date. Though small in scale it does link two factors together- unemployment with job opportunity/enterprise for young people, and if we can make it work it can then be extended elsewhere. Incidentally, the Surrey youth unemployment figure has just increased slightly – to 2,960, but those out of work for more than 6 or 12 months are going up, so the business is much needed as it will specifically recruit and train unemployed young people.

I hope my health will improve over the weekend…inspired by Scotland v. England rugby on Saturday….inspired by an England win of course, though they are definitely the underdogs this season.

Mike

We had a brief training session with a social media consultant (Nicky Kriel – recommended) on Tuesday morning that gave us practical ideas for marketing Surrey Youth Focus better in future. This was followed by our Trustees meeting in the evening which approved our budget for 2012/13, aided by some unexpected but very welcome additional income. We have several new Trustees and this is a very strong and effective Board. Investment of time in good governance is really worthwhile.  The main theme for the meeting was about “Positive for Youth” the Government’s policy paper on young people, which is on our website, as is my powerpoint summarising it. My only real criticism of it is that it’s weak on workforce development.

I stood down as a Board member of RAISE at its AGM on Wednesday..and it was good to catch up there with Jean Roberts–Jones former CX of Surrey Community Action who is  enjoying her new job at Eastleigh.

I went to Guildford FE College on Thursday. The college has a budget of £40 mill and does great work with its students- they are becoming Partner members of ours and we were exploring complementary activities. I’m looking forward to receiving the College students’ DVD of the “Young people and society” debate in Guildford, which they filmed, and is now ready. I am sure there is much that can be done to benefit the College and Surrey Youth Focus members. Also heard on Thursday that we are to be receiving £500 from County Councillor Frost towards the cost of Surrey Youth News, which is much appreciated.

Then last night I went to a performance by the amazing and very gifted young actors of Peer Productions (Knaphill, Woking ) who put on a brilliant performance of their Alcohol Project. This is a 90 minute long musical drama that has a narrative about the experiences of young people who end up in A&E after a drunken Friday night. Importantly the drama is founded on real facts and researched experiences about the impact of alcohol on young people. It is a powerful bitter/sweet drama. It can be delivered to schools, colleges at a cost of £600 (plus travel costs). Highly recommended.

I found it difficult to know how to respond as an audience member, knowing that every bit of hilarity would be followed by some personal tragedy…..and almost too real…for the youth development worker in my team also works part – time for a Borough Council, running a youth centre where recently she had to deal with two drunken (as in “totally wasted”) and violent 14/15 year old girls at 6.00pm. Very challenging.  Drama and reality become as one.

And finally, I am off this afternoon to visit a mother and toddler group formed by teenage parents with support from a County Council youth worker, who now want to become a voluntary organisation to help other teenage mums. Isn’t that great?!! 

Mike.

This led on to a meeting that I chaired on Wednesday with Sanctuary Housing, Epsom BC and Surrey CC about Sanctuary’s brilliant scheme to redevelop an office site they own as a new youth hostel (foyer) for homeless young people, and to run all sorts of youth activities from there – drug and alcohol advice, support to NEETs and so on. Great support for the project, and a good example of Surrey Youth Focus in a brokerage role.

We have set the budget for next year and although it’s in operating deficit, we have stronger reserves already thanks to some additional income this year, so I am hoping that Trustees will be ok with this at the formal meeting next week.

We are meeting with Anne Milton MP who is visiting us this morning on the back of our public debates on “Young People and Society” which we held last year in Guildford (her patch) and Epsom. I’ll report back next week.

Have fun!
Mike

Then I met with businessman with whom we’ve been working for two years to set up a social enterprise in Woking to provide work opportunities for those struggling to get employment or work experience. I think the pathway is now clear to get started. The problem with any start up is how to fund the initial costs, and address the cash flow issues before sales and income occurs, but I think this is now overcome. IF we can get this going it should have great potential as a social enterprise model.

I have also been building links with our members and business, partly through our “4×4” scheme but also by direct approaches to companies that are being facilitated by our trustees with business links, so last week was P&G, and this week Allianz. The Government policy paper “Positive for youth” promotes links between youth organisations and business, and at national level NCVYS, UK Youth, Business in the Community and others have all  combined to promote links at national, regional and local level.  I am trying to get in touch with BitC Surrey and Sussex to discuss this. 

Finally, I met with our uniformed organisations last night, including the new Surrey Scout Commissioner, Roxanna Bostock to hear that Scout and Guide numbers are still rising strongly, and with people on the waiting list….names are apparently put down at birth to join Beavers and Brownies. There are still the problems of getting volunteers, but my briefing flagged up the new Community Improvement Fund (£750,000) the Leader of the County council has launched to fund local community infrastructure projects, and this was very well received indeed. So – a good week!

Best wishes,
Mike

Clearly 2012 will be a year of challenge with issues about the eurozone and its impact on banking, sovereign debt….growth… unemployment …can’t see private sector growing fast enough to replace public sector cutbacks. But also a year of change as colleagues in Surrey Community Action and the Councils for Voluntary Services consolidate in some way to prepare for being commissioned in 2013/14.

For our part, we will “stick to core business”, remain small, innovative and focused on our member organisations.

In regard to the latter,  we had a useful meeting with Proctor and Gamble this week who are sponsoring our Celebration of Youth again this year (Sat 24 March pm) and may also help us in other ways.

I do think that voluntary sector/ business links are crucial. Interesting therefore to see that just before Christmas the Government announced two things: its new “Positive for Youth” policy, and also the promotion of work by Business in the Community and Youth Charities (including NCVYS) to work more closely together. We are promoting our “4×4” programme, linking 4 member organisations to 4 businesses. Launching with Surrey Chambers at the end of this month…..off to see Allianz next week.

All the best
Mike

The final stage of the lengthy commissioning process for services to young people looks likely resulting in Surrey Youth Consortium being likely to win some, but not all, of the contracts available – see Cabinet report for 20 Dec. on our website.

Surrey CC is moving to a commissioning process for voluntary sector support service bodies like the district/borough Councils for Voluntary Services (CVS) and Surrey Community Action (SCA) with effect from April 2013, and reducing grants to them all in 2012/13. My colleagues are also experiencing the imminent ending of a variety of government grants and in consequence SCA has just given 3 months notice of the likelihood of redundancy to a large group of staff. Whilst unavoidable now, it is a great pity that this is happening. My colleagues are pinning hopes of some offset by the prospect of a successful Transforming Local Infrastructure bid to the Lottery (£600,000 sought). Restructuring, mergers and, I fear, redundancies will be in evidence regardless of the success of the bid, but it’s tough on those likely to be losing their jobs in March. Happily our own core grant for next year is being maintained, though we are experiencing cuts elsewhere.

A sub -group of Trustees met this week to consider the budget for next year, and whilst this will be a second year of deficit budget,  our reserves are strong enough at present to see us through 2012/13. I am grateful for the trust and flexibility being exercised by Trustees. Fundraising is crucial for next year as it is for every other organisation, and we are preparing bids; the pity is that whilst we have to prioritise this, we can’t be delivering to our members so easily.

However, we are progressing some things. Our “4X4” project links 4 member charities to 4 businesses, and we are now actively engaged with the Chamber of Commerce in “match- making” the first group at the end of January. On the governance front we are strengthening the Board of Trustees/ Directors and will shortly have an outstandingly able Board. We are bringing together (brokering) some key stakeholders interested in the redevelopment of a site in Epsom owned by Sanctuary Housing that will become a new build supported housing hostel for homeless young people.

My perception is that there are two worrying issues amongst young people in Surrey : youth homelessness, and anxiety/depression. I am joining the Board of CAMHS so hopefully can contribute to the debate on the latter issue.

My Chairman and I had a very good meeting with the Leader of the County Council last week who intimated that he would have an important announcement at Tuesday’s County Council meeting, and indeed he then announced a £750,000 community grants programme for infrastructure projects and a commitment to partnership with the sector. Good news!

I think 2012 will be a year in which to read up about chaos theory; I think some organisation structures will break up, and be re-formed in a different shape. Whilst the background of financial pressures will continue, I also think there will be more opportunities for those who hold their nerve to access new targeted programmes from Government (who cannot run with 3 mill people unemployed and expect to be re- elected in May 2015) and from social finance/ philanthropy. 

Surrey Youth Focus is clear about what it’s doing, and our place in the scheme of things (stay small, low cost, innovative, risk – taking, and high profile for our members’ sake).

And finally, my thanks to my small team of very big people – Kate Peters (Members Services), Karen Moore (social media) and Marie Silvester (Youth Development worker) – I think we all deliver way more at lower cost than could reasonably be expected from just 2.5 FTEs worth of staff, and we go into next year with confidence.

Happy Christmas, and an enterprising New Year!

Mike

I attended (as Chair) the South East Youth Partnership on Wednesday and it’s always useful for catching up on news from other authorities. Bucks CC have transferred their youth centres straight to local community organisations to run, with a dowry….

The Government’s new policy on “Positive for Youth” is due out shortly – you can check progress at: http://www.education.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/youngpeople/Positive%20for%20Youth/b0077531/positive-for-youth-discussion-papers

Excellent meeting with Louise Puntner from Surrey Chambers, and facilitated by our trustee Nigel Biggs, about our 4X4 Scheme (title invented by Yvonne Hignell of HALOW) whereby we link 4 charities to 4 businesses in a long term mentoring type relationship – skills transfer, support and advice, and perhaps funding, but that is a secondary aim. We will have this up and running with the first 4 by the end of January.

I seem to have been at County hall a lot this week. First, on Monday my Chairman, David Hypher and I met with David Hodge (Surrey CC Leader) and Kay Hammond (Cabinet member – young people) about various issues, and were able to mention the prospective development of a new youth hostel in the centre of Epsom for homeless young people, which will trigger some reorganization of youth centres in the area, and be of great benefit. We are acting in a brokerage capacity with the key stakeholders.

Then on Thursday morning I participated in a discussion about how Surrey CC might respond to the Localism Act. There was some muddled thinking around about commissioning,  and I thought a failure to recognize that adoption of the principle of subsidiarity (correctly) needed to be preceded by being clear about what standards or norms need first to be done centrally. I also discerned a wariness about losing entrenched roles (amongst councilors of both county and district) and an unwillingness to address Surrey’s in built high cost structure of three tiers (county, district, parish),  but will taxpayers put up with this in future?

And finally a lovely Christmas Reception at County Hall last night hosted by the Chairman (Lavinia Sealy) and at last I’m beginning to feel in the Christmas mood!

Greetings,
Mike

If anyone thinks these international events are not relevant, you are mistaken; Surrey CC is facing another round of spending cuts already in addition to those already made, and this will impact on the voluntary, community and faith sector in due course.

My concern is for the impact of all this on young people, and I am checking on statistics in two areas: youth homelessness, and on the mental health/wellbeing of young people. In regard to the after I am replacing Pete Brayne (Guildford YMCA) on the CAMHS board. Surprisingly, the latest statistics for unemployment amongst young people aged under 25 (in October) have gone down – no obvious explanation other than the resilience of the Surrey economy. Last Friday’s “Young people and society” public meeting at NESCOT FE college in Epsom went ok – 45 people or so, including a group of students for whom the key issue was how to get work experience placements as part of their course.

We had a Keeping in Touch meeting with Surrey CC’s Assistant Director for Young People (Garath Symonds) on Wednesday, and it seems that the Surrey Youth Consortium has done ok in the bidding process for contracts but no formal announcements are yet made. Quiet satisfaction.

I was then at County Hall again on Thursday giving evidence to a Select C’tee about the cuts in grants to voluntary infrastructure bodies and its intention to move to a commissioning model. The SCC officers have been very open and collaborative in their working and this was acknowledged. I then has a Sports Partnership in the afternoon, working on the action plan to implement the Sports Strategy.

My mood for the week has not been helped by being stuck on the A3 yesterday for over an hour because of an overturned lorry, then spending an hour getting out of Guildford in the evening,  and hearing rather discouraging news from the Lottery about a grant bid, though I am pressing on with it, but to a different funding stream. The good news is that a further grant payment is being paid by Surrey CC that enables us to retain our youth development worker during 2011/12.

Off now to the Children and Young People’s Assembly – more next week.
Mike