Crouching Tiger Conference
North East Equalities Coalition is a group of voluntary and community sector (VCS or CVS) organisations with an interest in equality and diversity issues in the North East.
We represent seven diversity groups: race, disability & deaf, religion & belief, gender, children & young people, older age, and lesbian/gay/bisexual & transgender; and we support organisations, networks, communities and individuals to develop, become stronger and raise our voices to fight discrimination.
April 20, 2010 10am - 1:30pm
Central Square, Forth st, Newcastle NE1 3PL (poster below)
conference@eqco.org.uk

The Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA) has reviewed the Party Manifestos on voluntary and third sector involvement in public life.
It is worth repeating here:

Labour Party extracts || Conservative Party extracts || Lib Dem extracts

  
Labour party manifesto 2010 - extracts
 
The early years
We want to strengthen parental engagement with Sure Start Children’s Centres. Some voluntary and third-sector organisations already run networks of Centres, and we will now pioneer mutual federations running groups of local Children’s Centres in the community interest.
 
Older age
The vast majority of older people are well and active, helping to strengthen our families, communities and wider society. Many charities, voluntary organisations and schools value and rely on the contribution of older people and we support the growing number of excellent initiatives creating greater understanding across the generations. We will continue to support older people in getting involved in their community by providing matched funding for community projects.
 
The challenge for Britain
To build on the renaissance that British sport, culture and the arts have enjoyed in the last decade in the new climate of financial restraint. The voluntary and community sector has a new lease of life, but needs its potential to be fully harnessed. The Tories have always neglected the arts and sport, regarding them as an easy target for cuts.
 
Protecting community life
We will extend the use of participatory budgeting to give local people a stronger say. Community Land Trusts enable local people to purchase and run local amenities and assets in their area such as youth facilities, parks and open spaces. We will promote the transfer of buildings and land to the ownership or control of voluntary and community groups.
 
Supporting social enterprise
The Social Investment Bank will make additional capital available to social enterprises with an initial endowment of £75 million funded by dormant accounts alongside existing funding streams. We will promote the creation of more social enterprise hubs in every community – helping more to get off the ground. We will extend the right of public-sector workers to request that they deliver frontline services through a social enterprise. Public-sector workers in the NHS currently enjoy this right. We will extend this to more public services, including social care, with greater community involvement in their governance.
 
The new mutualism
There is growing interest in co-operative and mutual organisations that people trust, and that have the capacity to unleash creativity and innovation, creating new jobs and services – particularly in disadvantaged neighbourhoods where traditional approaches have failed in the past. We want to see more local organisations run on cooperative principles with an expansion of Community Interest Companies and third sector mutual organisations that reinvest profits for the public good. We will promote this through the Co-operative Party, Business Link, enterprise education and the Regional Development Agencies. To give more people a stake in a highly valued national asset, British Waterways will be turned into a mutually owned co-operative. We will promote the use of community shares that support investment in football clubs, pubs, renewable energy and shops.
 
A vibrant voluntary sector
Britain has among the highest levels of voluntary membership in the world. We strongly value the independence of the voluntary and community sector, including its campaigning role, and will act to maintain it. There will be greater support for third-sector organisations in competing for public-sector contracts, ensuring there is a level playing field with the public and private sectors. We will consult on putting the Compact Commission – which sets guidelines for effective partnership working between government and the third sector in Britain – on a statutory footing, and ensure greater support for the Compact at local level.
 
All young people should be active and engaged in their communities, so that it becomes a normal part of growing up to undertake service in the community. We are taking forward plans for a National Youth Community Service, with the goal that all young people contribute at least 50 hours to their communities by the age of 19, building on citizenship education and community engagement in schools. 
 
Faith is enormously important to millions of people in Britain, shaping their values and the way they live. We respect the importance of belief and welcome the contribution that people of faith make to our communities and society more widely. We will actively combat extremist groups who promote fear, hatred and violence on the basis of faith or race.
 
Conservative party manifesto 2010 - extracts
 
Reduce welfare dependency
Our Work Programme to reduce welfare dependency will be delivered through private and voluntary sector providers, which will be rewarded on a payment by results basis for getting people into sustainable work.
 
Public service reform
Our public service reform programme will enable social enterprises, charities and voluntary groups to play a leading role in delivering public services and tackling deep-rooted social problems.
 
We will strengthen and support social enterprises to help deliver our public service reforms by creating a Big Society Bank, funded from unclaimed bank assets, to provide new finance for neighbourhood groups, charities, social enterprises and other nongovernmental bodies.
 
This will provide social enterprises with the start-up funding and support they need to bid for government contracts or work towards delivering services under a payment by results model.
 
Britain has a proud and long-standing charitable tradition, and we are convinced that the voluntary sector should play a major part in our civic renewal. We will introduce a fair deal on grants to give voluntary sector organisations more stability and allow them to earn a competitive return for providing public services. We will work with local authorities to promote the delivery of public services by social enterprises, charities and the voluntary sector.
 
The National Lottery
We will restore the National Lottery to its original purpose and, by cutting down on administration costs, make sure more money goes to good causes. The Big Lottery Fund will focus purely on supporting social action through the voluntary and community sector, instead of Ministers’ pet projects as at present. Sports, heritage and the arts will each see their original allocations of 20 percent of good cause money restored.
 
Give patients more choice
We will give every patient the power to choose any healthcare provider that meets NHS standards, within NHS prices. This includes independent, voluntary and community sector providers.
 
Fight back against crime
We will fight back against the crime and anti-social behaviour that blights our communities. We will take steps to reduce the causes of crime, like poverty and broken families. We will introduce honesty in sentencing and pay voluntary and private providers to reduce re-offending.
 
Build the Big Society
We will use the state to help stimulate social action, helping social enterprises to deliver public services and training new community organisers to help achieve our ambition of every adult citizen being a member of an active neighbourhood group. We will direct funding to those groups that strengthen communities in deprived areas, and we will introduce National Citizen Service, initially for 16 year olds, to help bring our country together.
 
Restore our civil liberties
We will scale back Labour’s database state and protect the privacy of the public’s information. We will introduce a balanced approach to the retention of people’s DNA and reform the criminal records system so it protects children without destroying trust.
 
Give citizens more power
We need to give people real control over how they are governed, so, with a Conservative government, any petition that secures 100,000 signatures will be eligible for formal debate in Parliament.
 
Give people more power and control over their lives
Our new ‘community right to buy’ scheme will give local people the power to protect any community assets that are threatened with closure.
 
We will implement fully the Sustainable Communities Act, and reintroduce the Sustainable Communities Act (Amendment) Bill as government legislation, to give people greater information on, and control over, what is being spent by each government agency in their area.
 
National Citizen Service
We will introduce new ways to increase philanthropy, and use the latest insights from behavioural economics to encourage people to make volunteering and community participation something they do on a regular basis.
 
Neighborhood groups
We will develop a measure of well-being that encapsulates the social value of state action.
 
Transform the civil service into a ‘civic service’ by making sure that participation in social action is recognised in civil servants’ appraisals;
 
Launch an annual Big Society Day to celebrate the work of neighbourhood groups and encourage more people to take part in social action;
  
Liberal Democrat party manifesto 2010 - extracts
 
Fair treatment at work for everyone
There are far too many barriers to work for people with disabilities. We will change this by giving disabled job seekers better practical help to get to work, using voluntary and private sector providers, as well as JobCentre Plus services. We will also reform Access to Work, so disabled people can apply for jobs with funding already in place for equipment and adaptation that they need.
 
Helping families stay strong
Every child deserves a happy life free from poverty and free from fear. Liberal Democrats will strengthen the Youth Service by making it a statutory service, and by encouraging local authorities to provide youth services in partnership with young people and the voluntary sector.
 
Supporting the voluntary sector
As Liberal Democrats, we are committed to handing power back to local communities. We believe that society is strengthened by communities coming together and engaging in voluntary activity, which sets people and neighbourhoods free to tackle local problems.
 
Liberal Democrats will support the voluntary sector by:
●                     Introducing ‘easy giving accounts’ at publicly-owned banks to allow people to operate charitable giving accounts alongside their current accounts.
●                     Reforming Gift Aid to operate at a single rate of 23 percent – giving more money to charity while closing down a loophole for higher rate tax payers.
●                     Reforming the process of criminal record checking so that volunteers need only one record that is portable, rather than multiple checks for each activity.

Supporting mutuals, co-ops and social enterprises
We believe that mutuals, co-operatives and social enterprises have an important role to play in the creation of a more balanced and mixed economy. Mutuals give people a proper stake in the places they work, spreading wealth through society, and bringing innovative and imaginative business ideas to bear on meeting local needs. We will:
●                     Give financial regulators a clear objective of maintaining a diversity of providers in the financial services industry.
●                     Seek to turn Northern Rock into a building society.
●                     Give both Royal Mail and post offices a long-term future, by separating Post Office Ltd from the Royal Mail and retaining Post Office Ltd in full public ownership. 49 percent of Royal Mail will be sold to create funds for investment. The ownership of the other 51 percent will be divided between an employee trust and the government.
●                     Encourage community-owned renewable energy schemes where local people benefit from the power produced.
●                     Pass a new Mutuals, Co-operatives and Social Enterprises Bill to bring the law up to date and give responsibility for mutuals to a specific minister.
 
Freeing schools for excellence
Liberal Democrats want an education system where all schools will have the freedom to innovate, not be dictated to by central government. Give all schools the freedom to innovate. We will ensure a level playing field for admissions and funding and replace Academies with our own model of ‘Sponsor-Managed Schools’. These schools will be commissioned by and accountable to local authorities and not Whitehall, and would allow other appropriate providers, such as educational charities and parent groups, to be involved in delivering state-funded education.
 
Restoring your freedoms
Liberal Democrats will protect and restore your freedoms. We will restore the right to protest by reforming the Public Order Act to safeguard non-violent protest even if it offends; and restrict the scope of injunctions issued by vested interests.
 
Access to culture and sport
Liberal Democrats will reform the National Lottery. We will change the way the National Lottery is taxed from a ticket tax to a gross profits tax, which is forecast to deliver more for good causes and the Exchequer.
 
 

Anyone planning or running a social enterprise or charity (or even commercial organisation with intent for social good) should read this book - it has so much useful information that I read it twice before I wrote this review.

Scofield writes about his experience creating, establishing and growing FINCA, an international micro-finance organisation, and writes from experience (sometimes joyful, sometimes bitter). This is not a book about "it ought to be like this", but it explains the unexpected and the unforseen - you learn so much from Scofield's experience and the experience he draws on from other organisations that you will make fewer mistakes and enjoy more success.

Is it only relevant to microfinance?

I built a Social Enterprise providing healthcare and I'm now setting up a charity for health awareness, and I found many if not all of the lessons fascinating and highly relevant. FOR EXAMPLE: How do I spot the wrong people to employ, the ones who sing beautifully at interview and either suck in money and deliver nothing, or change the culture in the wrong way? What about bringing in experts from the "dark side" (the commercial world) to help the business grow? Schofield has done all of this and more. How do I find celebrity endorsement? How do I maintain the organisation as autonomous units but keep to the founding principles? How do I keep in touch with my donors and retain their commitment, without driving them away? Again, Scofield can present real-life stories both of his clients and rivals, and of FINCA's internal politics.

We're setting up a charity to support people suffering from a particular medical condition, who aren't helped by the NHS.

But trying to set up a charity isn't for the faint-hearted - there are so many choices and so many decisions, each with long-running impact.

The first question is: do we want a non-profit organisation, or a genuine charity?  A non-profit organisation typically does work which is for social good, but receives an income in order to do this.  A charity doesn't make a connection between the work it does and the income it receives (except that it spends its income on delivering the work).  

Social Enterprise

I have already set up and run one Social Enterprise, a non-profit to deliver emergency and unscheduled health care, which delivers a specific service and receives payment to deliver that service.  This is a trading organisation, with salaried staff and commercial contracts in place, only we have decided not to take a profit but to invest any trading surplus for the good of its local community.  This falls under a different set of rules, as it does not have to register with or report to the Charities Commission, but it does have rules in place about how much people can be paid and what the organisation can do with its assets in the event of a failure (Urgent Care Ltd is an excellent example because it is so successful). I've go the paperwork in place to set up other Social Enterprises in the North East - Social Enterprises avoid arguments over how the profit will be distributed, commit those involved to focus their attention on the good of the community, and the rules make statutory bodies (such as NHS and local government) comfortable doing business.  Of course they still have to be stable financially, and to deliver a top quality service, but the decision to focus on social good has already been taken, and you can't decide to run off with the profits at some later date.

For Charity

This time it is different.  We need to deliver a service free of charge, and fund it out of donations freely given and not connected with the delivery of that service (though the idea came because so many recipients wanted to give something).

In this case, we need a Charity Registration number from the Charities Commission, so that we can claim tax refunds on donations and so that potential donors can see that the money will be guarded and scrutinised by the Charities Commission.

So I went over to the Charity Commission to see what is involved, and was stunned at what I saw - the choices, the questions that need answering, the "guidance" that leaves you more confused than ever before, and finally, when you've got through all of that, proof of income!  We haven't got any income because we haven't formed yet - Catch 22!

A good friend of mine, Martyn Hooper of the Pernicious Anaemia Society galloped in on his white charger and saved us at this point.  We need to set up an organisation first, to take the first donations which can then be used to register with the Charities Commission.  So what organisation do we need to set up?

Well one of the first questions is about logistics:

• if we form a typical "Unincorporated Association", then the members need to be able to meet and elect the Trustees.  This is great if we are all local, but if our membership is unrestricted (and we already have correspondence with and support from people all over the world) then holding meetings isn't easy.  Also if the membership elect the trustees, and the trustees have to meet in person at least once per year, then all of the Charity's funds and more could be taken in travel costs
• So we need to form some sort of Company with Charitable Aims, which gives us much more flexibility over what supporters have to be able to do (we can still invite people to do anything they want, but we don't have to organise meetings if it will prove too difficult), and the Company will be overseen by Directors who can be elected, appointed, serve for long periods or short periods.

So we are forming a Charitable Trust, because we don't expect any specific sources of income; the papers have gone to the Committee and we expect to form in the next few days.

Urgent Care Ltd is a social enterprise to bring together the valuable skills of Emergency Care Practitioners and Nurse Practitioners for first contact, and Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) need to get responsive clinicians providing care at the point of need.

Primary Care Trusts PCTs purchase care on behalf of their population. One of the most expensive ways to get urgent and unscheduled care (or emergency care) is the traditional form - ambulance 'scoops and runs' from the scene and delivers to the A&E department of hospital. Why is it so expensive? You pay for the ambulance, then for the A&E department, then for any care that follows. PCTs sought a lower cost alternative. For many patients, they simply don't need to attend hospital and would receive both the best care but also the most appropriate care with a suitably qualified and experienced first contact practitioner (see ECP). So PCTs sought to buy ECP teams to provide local unscheduled care. Emergency Care Practitioners, trained by Ambulance Trusts, were the ideal solution. When ambulance trust and PCT couldn't agree the Service Level Agreement, we sought to set up an employee-owned company to make the link, deliver the service, and satisfy the needs of the PCT and population in combination with the desire of ECPs to serve. this organisation is Urgent Care Limited, Social Enterprise. As founding chair, I ensured the right funding and cash flow and the initial contracts, the governance and structure of the company, and the Trustees. After 14 months I've stepped aside and the charitable organisation continues to develop.

Huffington Post published this beautifully presented business case for the true cost of oil.

If you can't see the video then please click on the link which should take you through to Huffington Post.

It explains clearly what makes up the price of a gallon of "gasoline", from the price at the pump, through the pollution with greenhouse gases (as cocker spaniel' weight blocks), pollution with other toxic gases, and so on all the way from a price to buy ($5) to a real cost ($15)

Which is better - private funding or public? Which gives a better outcome for the individual (* clinical outcome, * user experience, * cost-effective, * sustainable) and is there a clear picture?
One way to examine this question is to look at different countries in the world and see what works for them.  I tackle this in the latest blog on Technorati.

Which is better - private funding or public? Which gives a better outcome for the individual (* clinical outcome, * user experience, * cost-effective, * sustainable) and is there a clear picture?
The figures are clear:

At around $1800 Healthy Life Expectancy is pretty good, and by $3000 per head (£2000, €2200) it doesn't get any better (see colourful chart to the right - based on WHOSIS figures for 2001-2006).
You can spend more but you don't improve life expectancy.  Now many would argue that you get better healthcare - more comfortable, more convenient, better quality of life - I can't say (and nor can WHO) - Healthy Life Expectancy is a pretty good measure of health.  I wonder what happens to the extra money?
Lets look at this a different way - by % of GDP.
A lot of people think that we are now rich enough to kill ourselves.  We have enough spare money to eat too much, drink too much, smoke too much, never have to exercise, often not even to work, and of course to go hypochondriac on the internet, not only diagnosing all sorts of weird and wonderful diseases, but also to medicate them with medicine of dubious provenance.
So if we're richer, healthcare should naturally cost more?  It should cost more because it is more expensive to deliver (wages are higher, we use more expensive equipment, etc).  It would be fairer to look at healthcare compared to GDP (Gross Domestic Product).

Lower spend as a % gives lower life expectancy (I've had to exclude a lot of countries to make the graph simpler).  That's what is to be expected.  But look at some of the exceptions above the 7.5% mark.  Japan (relatively low % of GDP in this sample) has the best life expectancy at birth.  Diet? Stress? 
UK - although spend is relatively low, life expectancy is terrible compared with the group.  Alcohol? Smoking? Could it be a failure of healthcare? I doubt it, with all of the health tourism INTO the country.
The real anomaly is USA.  In 2006, a frightening 15% of GDP ($1 in every $6.5) was spent on healthcare.  Nowadays it is more like 17% ($1 in every $6).  Not to put it too crudely, healthcare is very important and the healthcare workers work very hard, but it doesn't create new wealth.  No, I tell a lie, in USA some people are getting very rich out of healthcare.
According to some estimates, 40% of all healthcare "spend" in USA goes to administration in the insurance companies that purchase healthcare on behalf of the public - they don't run hospitals (many hospitals are charities) they simply take the cream off the top.
No wonder so many people oppose Obama's proposed healthcare reforms - they don't want to give up their really rich sources of income!
For my next blog, I'm going a bit closer to home - look at the impact of numbers of primary care doctors (GPs) on A&E admissions in UK.  It could be interesting (I haven't done it yet!)