Here are photos of my gorgeous cottage in Charlbury in the snow. Just right for Christmas!
I do enjoy the snow. And the Hound loves it!
I'm just off for a meeting with Greg Clark MP to talk about the Localism Bill and the opportunities for the sector. I'm interested particularly in the chance for local and large charities to work together on the " right to challenge" over the delivery of services in the new Bill. In the delivery of disability , education , jobs and children's services ...more
Unemployment at 2.5m: running at 7.9%. Major job losses in the public sector. And unemployment among young people rising significantly. Women are doing worse than men. And the worst hit areas are Yorkshire and the North East(areas that also took the biggest hits in the Council cuts).
This is not good news.
Predictions are that another 100,000 jobs in the public sector will go over the next few months. Worrying is the fact that long term unemployment is rising, with all the damaging and scarring effects that has. The number of people out of work for a year or more has reached a 13 year high.
We don't know exactly how many jobs have been lost in the third sector. There will have been many. And many more to come. We are beginning to collect the statistics because we need to know. For those in the sector who have seen the damage that unemployment can do to individuals, families and communities this is deeply worrying. Members tell me there major concern is the ...more
Funny that, I thought on seeing the report of the NCVO Funding Commission. Where have I heard that before? And of course it was the title of the famous ACEVO report on core costs and full cost recovery. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery as they say!
And perhaps not surprising as Richard Gutch, the Secretary of it, was a former ACEVO Chair when he led Arthritis Care. So none the worse for that.
This is a valuable report; clear recommendations and mapping future needs and developments. Also a thorough mapping of past trends and useful information about sector financing.
The stress on a major expansion of social capital is right. I would have given this more prominence and frankly I ...more
"Prison works" is one of those mindless slogans that sounds good if you are a keen fan of flogging people but are patently not supported by any facts.
Hardly surprising Michael Howard is at it again but disappointing Theresa May (whose recent Mac is a sensation) has joined in this attack on the entirely sensible plans of Ken Clarke and the MoJ.
If prison works how come 50% of prisoners are back in jail in a year and 70% in two years?
Unless of course you mean it works 'cos you can't burgle homes if you are in the Clink in which case we better lock up all criminals for life. Treble the MoJ budget and let's fill the land with prisons.
Having served 20 years on the Youth Court Magistrates Bench I know of few colleagues who felt that prison worked. Indeed the opposite was so often true.
That is why the work of our third sector is so crucial. Supporting rehabilitation. Work on addiction and mental health. On employing ex-offenders. Yet ...more
One of the great strengths of ACEVO as a membership body is the great diversity of its membership. Perhaps the image you would pick up from the sector media is of an organisation that represents traditional charities but, of course, we range across social enterprise, learned societies, membership organisations, faith groups, trade unions, political parties and community organisations.
Yesterday I was meeting with a number of members whose work is particularly fascinating and important, though not perhaps well known in the wider sector.
I met up with Wilf Stevenson, now Lord Stevenson, who has just been appointed as Chair of the Consumer Credit Counselling Service. This is an incredibly important charity working in Leeds who provide debt restructuring for people whose credit card bills have become a serious problem. They take on the restructuring of these bills and provide an affordable way to repay debt to avoid bailiffs and all the horrors that can sometimes attend ...more
A great start to the week! Lunch with Allison Ogden-Newton and hatching plans about transitional leadership development - much needed as leaders in local Councils look at change and opt-outs. We even managed a toast to Robin Bogg who we decided is a national treasure!
Then it was off to celebrate my sister Lucy's birthday (a significant one!) At tea in the Langham Hotel; all most agreeable, especially the scones. Here she is with her "birthday cake" ...
And here are gorgeous nieces;
The localism bill is published today. A landmark piece of legislation in two ways. First it gives more power to local Councils to determine policy and practice in line with local wishes not central direction, and second, it gives more power to local communities.
This measure is long overdue and welcome. It provides huge opportunities for our third sector; for charities, for social enterprises and community groups. It could form the basis for productive new partnerships between Councils and the third sector. It will lead to more innovative ways of delivering services through the third sector.
But all this takes place against a background of the most savage cuts in Council grants. So as well as opportunity there is danger as many of my ACEVO members have already found.
I remember one local Council CEO saying that of course they will cut grants to the local voluntary sector as they can get more volunteers and fund raise!
My message to members is not to wait ...more
Salaries are of such great interest. Our own and, of course, other people's!
Will Hutton's recent interim report on fair pay in the public sector makes fascinating reading. He makes a crucial point about the public sector which applies in spades and buckets to the third sector.
He warns that super salaries in the private sector are in danger of strangling our public services. Britain "following the US, has created a super class of manager share - owners who are being offered unparalleled scale of compensation to do what used to be considered their job". It has led to a "pay arms race where collectively CEO pay has become increasingly detached from performance".
Attention is being focused on what are supposedly outrageous salaries in the public sector. Yet apparently no one in Government seems to find the really outrageous salaries in the private sector a matter of as much as a moment's notice.
I have strong sympathy with Eric Pickles ...more
Well the current temperature is minus 11! So its bracing! A magnificent day though; the sun and blue sky contrasting with the deep snow newly refreshed by an overnight fall!
But not without problems - the car has now come off the road three times, the last requiring the assistance of some lovely Scots in a Land Rover!
Ballater is coping well, as they do in Scotland in contrast to us London wimps, and looks stunning.
The Queen's Bakers
Ballater Church
...more
Lord Rennard, former Chief Executive of the Liberal Democrats, (and also a former ACEVO member!) is to Chair a Commission on Big Society bringing together high profile political and civil society thinkers.
It's an interesting group which will come together to define and analyse the "Big Society" concept from the point of view of civil society. It includes; The Bishop of London, Philip Collins (Chair of Demos and leader writer for The Times), Nick Boles MP (PPS to Minister of State for Schools, Nick Gibbs MP), Paul Boateng (former Chief Secretary to the Treasury and former High Commissioner to South Africa, Louise Casey, the Victims Commissioner and Michael Quicke, CEO of CCLA.
Those from the sector have been chosen to reflect the range of the sector from large charities to small, delivery and campaigning and advocacy; Dame Clare Tickell, Action for Children; Matt Hyde, Chief Executive, National Union of Students; Jane Slowey, Chief Executive, Foyer ...more
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