The Margaret Horn Big Conversation happened last week on Social Enterprise Day. We brought together a panel of great women who each brought their own take on the question at the heart of The Great Women’s Trade Off: Helping Women Succeed at Work. (Luckily, none of us wanted to become a woman bishop or we would have been stymied from the start.)

Interestingly Maria Miller, Minister for Women and Equalities, had announced only the day before that we needed to be more competitive, and not stifle the achievement and ambition of 50% of the population. She rejected quotas for Board Rooms, but set out the Think, Act and Report initiative to get businesses to promote gender equality in the workplace. She then blotted her copybook by announcing a £2m scheme to boost childcare by giving those wanting to set up a nursery access to £500 grant to cover set up costs! Clearly, she has not spoken to any of us in the sector who would have explained the real costs of setting up a childcare business.

The panel was chaired by the inimitable Associate Editor of the Sunday Times, Eleanor Mills, a woman unafraid to speak her mind.

Emma Stewart from Timewise focused on the issue of part time and flexible working. This week she and her partner Karen Mattison announced the inaugural Power Part Time Top 50 women (88%) and men who are proof that it’s possible to have very senior posts and work part time. It caught the eye of the press, as it is a good way of keeping women in the workplace while remaining cost effective for businesses. The aim is to have more women break the habit of long hours at the top by showing smart working is the way ahead, and in doing so then make it possible for women lower down the ranks to work part time too.

Naturally enough I covered childcare; a subject for which we are damned if we do and damned if we don’t! I will talk about this at length in future blog posts. Meanwhile Alice Weighman, a very elegant woman who runs Hanson Search, talked about her research among communication and marketing companies aiming to find out what they could do to help retain their best female staff who leave to have children.

Kate Bamford, a partner at Ernst and Young, was described by some of the audience as the woman to break the ‘EY mould’. She was certainly very positive and gave off a really agreeable vibe. She talked about mentoring and sponsorship – I only wish I had been mentored by someone like her twenty years ago, maybe then I would have ended up leading a FTSE 500 company wearing really smart clothes and Loboutins.

Our final panel member was Baroness Tina Stowell, the Government’s spokesman in the House of Lords for Women & Equalities as well as for Work & Pensions. She is a Government Whip for the Home Office and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, as well as the Conservative Party’s Deputy Chief Whip in the House of Lords. A very busy lady, but one still willing to give up an evening to support other women.

The evening raised many issues, from ambition to expectation, to changing work practices for all women and men. It challenged the narrowness of the work-life balance concept which could in itself be a strait-jacket. We also looked to the needs of ordinary women doing ordinary jobs with little power or influence in their workplace. Like any big subject, the discussion was wide-ranging, as it should be – after all we are trying to consider half the population aged from 18 to 70!

At the end of the evening Neil Fenton, LEYF Director of Finance & Social Enterprise (and one of the few men in the audience), bravely asked the question: “Well what do you women want?” I laughed at the idea there could be a simple, single answer. It reminded me of the chick flick PS I Love You, when that rather gorgeous Irish actor Gerard Butler asked Hilary Swank to share the sacred secret of what women want. She whispered in his ear… we do not know.

Perhaps ironically it was The Spice Girls who better summed up the breadth of the issue…

I’ll tell you what I want, what I really really want,

I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna really really really wanna zigazig ha.

Whether you were able to attend the event or not, if you have something you’d like to add to this timeless debate, let me know in the comments section below.

Every year on 15 November, we hold our Margaret Horn Lecture to celebrate Social Enterprise Day. This year I want to focus on the issues facing women who work. However, I am struggling with all the complex and contrasting arguments about the role of modern women. As someone who was a keen feminist in the 70s and an avid Spare Rib supporter, I feel really anxious that some of what we demanded has backfired and women are in a worst situation now. Women in the workplace is one area which needs to improve, especially as the majority of working women need to do so.

My anxiety about the whole sisterhood stuff was not helped by my going to see Anna Karenina last week on top of my re-reading Madame Bovary. Fact is I found it hard to like either of them, not least because of their responses to their maternal duties.  Maybe the theatrical representation and rather one dimensional interpretation of Anna Karenina did not help?  I am trying to excuse Emma Bovary by giving her post-natal depression!

I know very little about Margaret Horn but one thing I know was that she was a pupil of Octavia Hill, and that alone is a step in the right direction in my book.  Many years ago when I first discovered Octavia Hill I saw her as a role model: I loved her enterprise, energy and ambition. I did not agree with all she stood for; for one, she was not very keen on her Suffragette sisters and frankly I think we need the vote. However, she was a woman with a vision to improve the lot of us all and took her duty seriously, which included training up the next generation of women – not least of which Margaret Horn, who was key to founding Westminster Children’s Society, which we more recently re-shaped into the London Early Years Foundation to help build another element of the legacy.

So this year’s lecture hopes to look at how women who lead businesses can help shape the future for other women with children.  In particular, as someone running nurseries, I want to examine what more we can do to help women better balance their lives. Too many women feel guilty about working after they have children.  It’s crazy that we make them feel bad because they want and feel a need to use the skills, knowledge and achievements they have worked so hard to get.  However at least now we are beginning to agree that children also need their mothers. (And of course their fathers too, but right now we are focusing on women.)  What we have to do is find ways that we can offer a suitable compromise that meets the needs of all and is accepted by society as a good option. Much as I disliked Anna Karenina, I sympathised how, when making a decision that broke society rules, she faced being ostracised and held in contempt.  While we may not shower working women with that level of opprobrium, we can no longer continue the knee jerk reaction of the press and commentators that working mothers are to blame for society’s problem families. Instead we need to reach a point where we use what we know as good working practices to support a whole society response to the challenges of working mothers.

Therefore if women are to be agents of their own destinies, we must look at how we can support them.  My hope with this year’s Margaret Horn Lecture is that we begin one set of responses by engaging with women leaders and first see what they can do to help. The wider debate is often very focused on high flying professional women who may have more to lose and more to gain.  However, the majority of working women are ordinary women in ordinary jobs. To help give them the chance to become extraordinary we need to reduce a key hurdle, by influencing the Societal response to working mothers which aligns the needs of children and families and aims for a more positive legacy.

There has been so much for me to write about this week, it has been hard to choose! But as all blog guides say stick to one or two points, my views on the launch of the two year funding will have to wait for next week (sorry). In the meantime…

Global Enterprise Week kicked off with a youth-led event at the Westminster hub where we celebrated young entrepreneurs. I felt somewhat embarrassed to be on a panel of oldies, as most of the entrepreneurs were the same age as my children. I did however get an invitation to join a Chamber of Commerce, although could not be sure whether this was a compliment or reminder that I would never again be ‘down with the youth’!

On Tuesday I spoke at Understanding Social Enterprise in the very Christmassy Charing Cross Hotel; quite the Edwardian oasis in the busy forecourt of Charing Cross station. A great event, with so many people keen to change their business model to a social enterprise. It worries me though, just how many conversions and spin outs there are with only one customer. Social enterprises are businesses first and foremost and they need to know how they will survive in the market. Even more importantly, a social enterprise needs to be the best in the business, since any business operating from a social value is more open to criticism.

My constant advice is that you should:

• know your business
• know how it will make you a profit
• be able to explain your social value
• remember people choose you because you offer the highest standard in whatever sector you operate

Personally, I believe in social enterprises because the business is in itself the very means of reducing or dealing with a social problem.

The true purpose of business is to add value and make a difference – not just by providing useful services but also by adding value to the lives of employees, adding value to the life of the community, and adding value for the sake of future generations by treading as lightly as possible on the planet.”

Sinclair (2006)

Thursday was of course Social Enterprise Day when each year we give our Margaret Horn Lecture in celebration of a new and socially enterprising idea or issue relevant to Early Years.  I introduced this now annual event in 2006 to celebrate our first paid Director who gave 40 years of her life creating something special. As a pupil of Octavia Hill she learned that you could be a charity and still charge people, whilst being enterprising in your responses to local social and economic needs. This year I felt privileged to give the lecture, and better still as it was hosted by the RSA and chaired by Matthew Taylor.

June speaking at this year's Margaret Horn Lecture at the RSA

With the title ‘Child Poverty: why social franchising is a giant step in the right direction‘ this year’s lecture told the LEYF story, with a specific focus on the past 18 months.  During this time, we examined our model to see how effective it might be in helping many more children achieve their potential and then take on the challenges of a fast changing world. In particular, we took a close look at our actual delivery model to check if we had consistently woven all our good practice into an outstanding curriculum and organizational set of practices, knowledge and attitudes.  Working with the Centre for Enterprise and Economic Development Research at Middlesex University (supporting their work with Third Sector Research Centre at Birmingham University), we explored a number of approaches to growing the business; including a great deal of time looking at social franchising. As a key part of this project, we also spent a year measuring our Social Return on Investment.

We concluded that we have an almost moral obligation to scale up, with social franchising of the LEYF community nursery model a possible means of reducing child poverty whilst also adding more value by creating local social entrepreneurs.

Nearly every problem has been solved by someone, somewhere.  The challenge of the 21^st century is to find out what works and scale it up.”

President Bill Clinton

The event itself appeared to be well-received, and I hope it leads to us doing more research with the RSA.  I had been very nervous about being interviewed by Matthew Taylor, who often flexes his formidable intellect on the Moral Maze.  In a telephone call prior to the event Matthew reassured me that he is paid to be cantankerous on the radio programme, so far less likely to be the butt of his intellectual sophistication. Just in case, I went to bed reading Bertrand Russell. (Not quite TOWIE!)

On the very morning of the event, I was reminded how life is full of serendipitous moments, as Karen Buck (now Shadow Minister with responsibilities for Apprentices) came to meet our fantastic LEYF apprentices. Explaining that I had to leave to go to the RSA, she told me that she and Matthew Taylor were old friends.  I immediately relaxed.

We had invited Karen Buck to celebrate Social Enterprise Day with our apprentices and to hear their views about the LEYF Step into Learning induction programme, which we think is essential to a successful apprenticeship.  They were very pleased she was visiting; to such a degree that Wahid had a tie and Pedro a suit – and boy did they look smart!

Like any good politician, Karen asked questions that drew ideas and answers from them till they warmed up enough to gain in confidence. They talked about their experiences of work and learning, and the confidence that grew from both. It was best summed up in the Sun newspaper article last week.  Interviewing one of our apprentices, Alex Appleby based in Eastbury Children’s Centre Nursery in Dagenham, it headlined with “It’s a Neet idea”, a much better way of describing the many young people for whom school is a fairly unsuccessful experience.

The reason why we invest so much in our apprentices is quite simple: we consider youth unemployment the second entry point into poverty, and so having an apprenticeship programme is a critical aspect of the LEYF model (even though it is often a loss maker). For a young person, being out of education, employment or training can have major ramifications, including long-term reductions in wages and increased chances of unemployment later in life – not to mention social or psychological problems as a result of sustained unemployment.

The systems in place to support younger apprentices, especially those who have limited educational success, are woefully funded. It would not take too much more money; perhaps a more creative use of the unemployment benefit – currently being wasted keeping people out of work – might be worth considering. The number of young Neets is growing, so we need to do something positive and concrete. In London Neet rates are very high, with levels greater than 20% persisting in Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Westminster.

I believe we have a duty both as adults and employers. It’s great to see a growth in the number of apprentices, but to gain even more success we need to tweak the system. According to our own apprentices, we need better advertising using media that engages young people, together with face to face support and advice. Elsewhere, Mine Conkbayir who runs our programme wants greater incentives and reassurance for employers to ‘take a chance’ with an apprentice. This in effect means funding for pre apprenticeship modules (we call ours Step into Learning) with Key Skills woven directly into a well organized and logical programme.  Mine is also keen on much greater links with schools, so 16 year olds can step into an apprenticeship as soon as they graduate. We are nearly there: just a few more steps and we could have the best apprenticeships in Europe – and finally move away from the folly of believing everyone needs a degree to do their job – a folly which sees London with the highest level of unemployed graduates in the country (unemployed and laden with debt; those poor wretches).

To close Global Entrepreneurship Week in style, we took a stall on Saturday morning at the London Councils Summit 2011 in the Guildhall; a beautiful setting in the quiet of the City of London. (Bit tricky though, with the usual levels of engineering work going on across the tube network. I can only hope this will be improved before the Olympics.)

The reason we took a table at this event was to meet as many local councillors as possible and persuade them to have a conversation with us about the benefit of having LEYF work with them. I was also keen to say hello to local councillors from the five boroughs where we already have a presence.  Sadly these were in short supply – except for one councilor from Barking and Dagenham who appeared most bemused by me for some reason!

The main speech given by Ed Davey MP Minister for Employment was a bit lack lustre. Still, at least it did provoke a fair amount of energy from the floor about apprentices, when I was both heartened and disappointed to hear over and over about youth unemployment in London and the issues of giving apprentices some support at the early stages of their programme.  Ed Davey suggested alarm clocks and train tickets, all of which we do at LEYF – and pay for!  Soft skills were also a common theme and their importance born out by Vic Grimes of the National Apprenticeship Service. Frankly, I could have put Mine on the stage and she would have given them plenty of practical ideas to support apprentices!

Elsewhere, councillors raised the issue of graduates unable to get jobs. Given that many of them lack experience, maybe the re-introduction of a programme like Future Jobs Fund would be a good way of paying employers to give graduates six months in a work environment. This in turn may lead to a job, but if not would give them real experience to boost their confidence and skills base and so make them more employable. That said, there will still need to be jobs out there; at least this could be a bridge while they fix the Eurozone and squeeze a bit of extra cash out of the bankers.

Global Entrepreneurship Week kicks off on Monday. Who cares you say? Well, we do – particularly since every year we hold our Annual Margaret Horn Lecture on Social Enterprise Day, 18 November.  This free event, created four years ago to provoke debate around Early Years and Social Enterprise, was named to honour a woman who helped first establish and then gave 40 years of her life to our organisation.

During her lifetime, Margaret Horn achieved many things – and certainly did her bit for Big Society in a quiet, dignified and very community spirited way. If anything, this makes me thing that Big Society is very much like fashion; it comes around every ten years in a slightly re-shaped form, and those who were there the first time around may well recognise its form, only may be less certain how to wear its refashioned clothes.

At our event this year, we look forward to hearing Graham Allen MP expound his views on early intervention. I am glad that early intervention has not gone out of fashion, but equally hope it does not become just another cliché. At LEYF, early intervention has real meaning; as we watch children and young apprentices thrive in a place which supports and challenges them, introduces them to the new and extends their opportunities. Oh, I hear the cynics among you yawn, aren’t you marvellous! Touché.

Still, do come and hear him speak, then drown your cynicism in a glass of wine and a chat with us afterwards. If Big Society is to start anywhere, it may as well be at a bar with light refreshments.