The recent Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Conference – Delivering through Partnerships – shone the spotlight on the breadth of partnership work making communities safer.
A focus on gangs and vulnerability, community safety and diversionary programmes provided hard-hitting insight for the more than 200 delegates attending.
The PFCC for Essex, Roger Hirst, told emergency service personnel, MPs and representatives from local authorities, town and parish councils, health, education, voluntary, the business sector and community organisations that by working together on intervention programmes, they are making a difference.
Exhibition stands, and an array of lightning talks introduced a number of partnership interventions taking place; The Essex Centre for Data Analytics; The Horizon Project by Phoenix Futures; Challenging Myths / Changing Attitudes in Thurrock; Street, Rail, School Pastors; Sensory Services; and Safe, Well and Secure by Essex County Fire and Rescue Service.
Delegates had the opportunity to take part in a programme of workshops, including a Designing Out Crime session – delivered in partnership by Essex Police and Essex Partners as part of the Essex Communities programme. Delegates were challenged to take a whole system view to the decisions made as part of the planning process now, that would reduce crime for future generations.
The next Essex Assembly will take place on Tuesday 17 September 2019.
We’ll be exploring how together the Essex system can unite behind a sense of identity and strengthen communities through participation.
Citizens from across Essex will share their views on; how they identity with Essex; relationships within their communities; and building trust with the public sector. Their views will be captured by the ‘in conversation with…’ programme that is taking place this Summer when senior leaders will be out and about in Essex talking to citizens.
Attendees at the September Essex Assembly will also shape plans to celebrate the county’s rich history of achievement through the lens of Essex 2020 and engage citizens in the Future of Essex narrative.
Hold the date 17 September, 12-4.30pm Chelmsford City Racecourse. Invitations will be issued shortly. For more information email essex.partners@essex.gov.uk
The Essex Centre for Data Analytics (ecda) launched on Wednesday 26 June, providing public services in the county with a data sharing platform, sustainable data infrastructure and the expertise to safely share and analyse data to better understand the challenges we face.
Essex County Council, Essex Police and the University of Essex have successfully driven the delivery of Essex Data over the past three years. This pilot programme paved the way for ecda by establishing collaboration between data experts, elected members, decision makers and communities to share data to create powerful insight on some of our most challenging issues, such as escalating domestic abuse, school readiness, gangs, violence and vulnerability.
The insight has provided compelling evidence enabling us to make decisions together with communities about how we plan, design and deliver services to achieve maximum impact and action.
With a focus on prevention, ECC, Essex Police and the University of Essex have agreed a series of shared projects for ecda for 19-20 that will deliver actionable insight on issues such as homelessness, mental health, avoidable A&E attendance and physical inactivity. The potential to integrate intelligence within policy decisions across a range of economic and social issues is significant and ecda is encouraging partners to get involved in existing and future projects by contacting ecda@essex.gov.uk
Sign up to MediaTrust’s free online Volunteer Platform to gain access to media and creative industry volunteers. Once registered you can request a volunteer to support your charity with your specific marketing and communications needs.
You can check out what other charities are seeking help with by visiting the MediaTrust current opportunities webpage.
In a county the size of Essex, it is easy to find ourselves operating in isolation. Even when we are working with our partners we can simply be operating in a slightly larger silo.
That is where the Essex Strategic Coordination Group (ESCG), which I am pleased to chair, can be a great help to partners across Essex.
The group provides a forum for connecting key pieces of work across partnerships, organisations and geographical boundaries.
It aims to cut through some of the complexity of the various boards and groups in Essex and to help transform partnership strategy into local delivery.
Last year we played a key role in the linking the Future of Essex projects with each other and identifying and overseeing a series of deep dives into strategic needs.
However, I believe the biggest achievement of the group was the role it played in the development of the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy. By connecting partners from across the system including those outside a health and care setting we were able to create a strategy that sets out a shared approach to improving the lives of people in Essex. It was a real demonstration of the benefits of breaking down silos.
The challenge for the year ahead is to drive forward delivery of work such as this, and support local action to achieve our shared ambitions for Essex.
Ian Davidson, CEO Tendring District Council, Chair of ESCG.
Over the next few months ESCG will focus on:
Improving partnership working – building on what works, sharing best practice and identifying the gaps
Supporting the delivery of the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy
Supporting the priorities of the Essex Chief Executives Association including
Reducing Violence and Vulnerability
Growth and Infrastructure
Tackling Inequality
If you would like to bring any items for discussion to the meeting or just attend and hear what partners across Essex are doing, please contact essex.partners@essex.gov.uk
From saving lives to building communities, the 46 leaders from across Essex public services who make up the latest cohort of Leading Greater Essex already have a wealth of learning among them.
Setting aside ballot boxes, care plans and myriad calls for their attention, the new group met for the first time on Tuesday 7 May to form a new Leading Greater Essex community (#LGE2019). Exploring their shared experiences they considered how learning can help leadership in complex organisations and further ignited their shared curiosity about how they can think and do differently as part of their #LGE2019 learning journey.
Gavin Jones, Chief Executive of Essex County Council welcomed the new #LGE2019 cohort to the complex world of whole systems leadership, and encouraged them to challenge themselves, their organisations, and the senior leaders they work with, by “holding up a mirror to us all”, as they embark upon a year of learning together.
The Buy Social Corporate Challenge is a simple initiative with a bold ambition to collectively spend £1 billion with social enterprises as part of the Challenge.
Read their most recent Impact Report here. The report shows that £65.2 million has been spent with social enterprises by corporate partners and the Challenge has created 637 jobs at social enterprises.
When we think of social enterprise, The Big Issue, fair trade chocolate, or even our reliable Co-op might spring to mind. But in recent years there has been a “hidden revolution” in the way business is being done in the UK and we have seen an impressive growth surge in the third sector. The third sector encompasses charities, social enterprises, community interest companies (CICs), and any other organisations with a social soul. According to Social Enterprise UK (2017), there are now over 80,000 social enterprises contributing £24 billion to the UK economy, employing around a million people. “The UK is viewed by many other countries as a pioneer of social enterprise” says the report.
Social enterprises can be defined as organisations that have at their heart a social mission. They make products or provide services that benefit their local communities, provide employment for disadvantaged or disaffected groups, or have as their main purpose the goal of investing their profits into good causes. In turn, customers of social enterprises are also on the increase – those who actively seek to buy local, sustainable and fairly traded are adding ‘socially aware’ to their portfolio.
Possibly the most exciting thing about this growing sector is that social enterprises are run by a far more diverse range of people than mainstream businesses – often by those disaffected by or disinterested in getting involved with the rat-race. They are set up by young, dynamic, forward-thinking entrepreneurs with an inventive take on the business world, and who as a necessity think creatively to make their ventures work.
Often the inspiration for a social enterprise comes from a requirement to meet a specific need, often in and for the communities in which they operate. Over one-third of social enterprises has a director with a disability, nearly all have a female director (over 40 percent are entirely female-led), and over a third has black Asian minority ethnic (BAME) representation. Two-thirds of social enterprises support people from disadvantaged groups, with 44 percent employing them. “A large proportion are also supporting and creating opportunities for groups that most other businesses ignore; often, in places where other businesses do not operate” (Social Enterprise UK, 2018).
Make no mistake – this is not a sector purely for hippie do-gooders. There are significant successes and actual profits to be made here. Social enterprise has proved itself to be commercially resilient, outperforming mainstream small and medium enterprises (SMEs) against a range of business metrics: turnover, innovation, start-up rates, diversity in leadership and more. Over 70 percent made a profit or broke even in the last year – the bottom line is that social innovation makes business sense. “Social enterprises have put reality to the rhetoric of the late 90s and mid-2000s: financially sustainable, commercially competitive, profitable (and reinvesting to achieve their social goals), and creating jobs and opportunities, often for those who need it most” (Social Enterprise UK, 2018).
Most (around three-quarters) of social enterprises earn the majority of their income from selling products to an increasingly socially aware general public, open to shifting their buying habits. And in this sense they are more innovative – 50 percent of social enterprises introduced a new product or service in the last twelve months compared with just 33 percent (and falling) by SMEs. For big ticket items, the public sector is the main source of income for the 20 percent of social enterprises with high (over £5m) turnover.
Despite all this, and however promising the statistics look, social enterprises remain “finance-hungry”, and access to finance remains a struggle for social enterprises. As Social Enterprise UK says, “The social enterprise sector is a powerful part of the UK economy and has been significantly underestimated”. With no signs of the sector letting up in the near future, and with growth continuing to prove resilient, canny investors would be wise to look in their direction.
Maldon and District CVS is looking to review its organisational strategy reflecting its priorities for 2019 onwards. To do this they are keen to hear from a range of their members, partners and other stakeholders. If you are able to complete a short survey about their services, your priorities and what you need from your local CVS they would be grateful.
Please circulate this link to anyone who you think might be interested in feeding in and if you have any questions please contact Sarah on 01621 851891 or sarah@maldoncvs.org.uk.
Please complete your feedback by Friday 10th May 2019
