August 13th, Transition Institute’s Weekly Roundup.

Good Morning. As usual the Transition Institute starts the Monday with our weekly round-up. Beyond a splendid fortnight of olympic news, we offer you the last week’s key stories around Spin Outs and new models of public service.

Hope all of you enjoy it!

Monday, 6^th of August 2012  

• Social Impact Bonds are a hot topic right now for those working in new models of public service delivery.  Not only had a big week in the U.S. with Goldman financing the Riker’s Island Scheme, but the Guardian Local Government Network inquiries if could be the answer to the council funding crisis.

• Contracting and commissioning models are one of the key challenges of the Coalition Government in supporting Social Enterprise and Public Service Mutuals. The past weekend the Guardian echoed how Social Enterprises and Charities lost the bid to run the big society spearhead initiative “National Citzien Service” (NCS) to Serco a leading private contractor. It escaped from our watch last week, but we include in this weekly update as can be of interest for our readers.

• Despite the growing political support for public service mutuals, it will not be possible to consolidate them without new forms of social investment. We need new sources of finance for new models of service delivery, argues Richard Todd and Ben Williams, from Social Finance, in his article published at Policy Network

• One way forward to impulse new sources of finance for  Social Value is to reflect it in the accounting principles and conventions, or so argues Jeremy Nichols, CEO of the SROI network, in Social Enterprise Live.

Tuesday, 7^th of August 2012

• How should the government outsource? It depends on the circumstances according  John Alford and Janine O’Flynn, authors of “Rethinking public Service Delivery: managing with external providers”. They go into more detail at the Guardian Public Leaders Network.

• Sir Stephen Bubb, chair of ACEVO, hopes that even with the involvement of private providers like SERCO, the NCS commissioning can be build into a collaborative approach between the government, business, the third sector and social enterprise. A model focused on the outcomes for clients, not shareholders.  Read in detail in Sir Stephen’s blog.

Wednesday, 8^st of August 2012

• But sometimes the collaboration between government, business and social enterprise does not work so well.  Collen Baldwin, writes at ClearySo, about the demise of Eco-Actif a CIC working along the welfare to work company A4e under the government Pay By Results Scheme.

• The Guardian Local Government Networks, initiated an enthralling debate this week. Should the Ombudsman cover the complaints regarding public services delivered by independent organisations? You can read it at his transparency hub.

Thursday, 9^th of August 2012

• “City Gateway” a Tower Hamlets’ charity set up by local people, trying to increase the opportunities of disadvantaged people through community events, youth clubs and apprenticeships, has won the Big Society award. Read about it at East London lines.

• Street Sports, part of the Anglia Community Leisure trust, is a social enterprise that faces social issues through sports.  Learn how they have collaborated with Mike Tyson and Ash Taylor, to tackle street crime and their causes.

• How can we generate more innovative public services? In order to embed innovation into his practice the Mounthmontshire Country Council, has set an “Intrepreunership School” among other projects within the Creative Councils programme, impulse by NESTA.  Is the second in a series of post about this project, in the Local Government Chronicle.

• While the Government is claiming £5.5 millions on efficiency savings, Colin Talbot demands  that the administration should be more careful while distinguishing between savings from efficiency measures and savings from service cuts. Interesting lecture.

Friday, 10^th of August 2012

• Following up the efficiency savings announcement from the Government, the Guardian reports the effects that they are having on public services, advising to look beyond applying market ethos to public service delivery.

We use this opportunity to recommend the two reports published this week by our strategic partner, the 2020 Public Service Hub at the RSA: “Risk and the Big Society” and “First Aid approaches to manage anti-social behavior: From concept to policy”.

Look forward to hearing from you soon. Don’t forget to follow us @Transition_Inst or email us at hello@transitioninstitute.org.uk