I attended an interesting ACEVO dinner for ‘Young CEOs’ a couple of weeks ago. Phil Hope, Minister for the Third Sector, gave an excellent account of himself and shower himself to be just as well informed and insightful as his predecessor.
Discussion inevitably turned to commissioning and the challenges facing those of us trying to [...]

Opportunities have never been better for social enterprises to really make a difference in primary and social care for people who find it difficult to access services. The DOH has just published the first stage of the Darzi review of the NHS. They are particularly  interested in new models of primary care to address health [...]

When people speak about this topic (and I’ll skip merrily past any attempted definitions of “excluded” or “youth”), they often refer to the lack of activities / centres for young people to get involved in. Not just politicians, but people at the grassroots who live and work across the UK.
So what is needed? Are youth [...]

Social enterprise is at its best when its focus is the people working for it. That, in my book, was the common theme at this year’s Enterprising Solutions awards. Amongst the award-winners and nominees – Divine Chocolate, who offer a fair deal for cocoa farmers whilst successfully building a business in such a highly competitive [...]

The chancellor announced the government’s spending plans for the next three years recently, and many people in central or local government seem to have responded to the smaller increases (or cuts) by turning their back on innovation and getting on with protecting their existing service provision and creating cost savings. Surely this is not the [...]