It's just possible that long-time readers from the dark days of TR might recall the blog spending a bit of time poking fun at Stephen Bubb, at that time cheer-leader of the trade union for charity CEO's. As such he was a fervent supporter of probation privatisation and championed it as being very much a rewarding opportunity for the 'third' sector. Given his background as a Trade Unionist and Labour councillor this might seem surprising, but as his entry on Wikipedia confirms, he's always been able to ride a variety of horses:-
Sir Stephen John Limrick Bubb JP FRSA (born 5 November 1952) is Director of Charity Futures, and the Acting Director of the Oxford Institute of Charity. He was Chief Executive of the UK charity leaders representative body Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO) from 2000 to 2016. He received a knighthood in 2011 for his services to the voluntary sector. From March 2011 to June 2011, Bubb was seconded to the Department of Health, as part of the team leading Andrew Lansley's National Health Service (NHS) "listening exercise".
Bubb is regarded as influential within the Labour and Conservative Parties, with his longstanding advocacy of charities replacing public services chiming with both parties' policy of promoting competition and choice in areas such as healthcare. He has described criticisms of competition as belonging in the "last century".
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Another profile can be found here:-
Sir Stephen Bubb is founder-director of Charity Futures. He was formerly Chief Executive of ACEVO (Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations) until 2016. In this role he was highly influential in determining government policy on the third sector, particularly for its part delivering public services. He launched Charity Futures in July 2016.
For 10 years he also chaired the Social Investment Business, the UK’s largest social investor, and is a trustee of Helen and Douglas House Hospice, the world’s first children’s hospice. He is a public appointments assessor.
Stephen’s recent national roles have included reporting on choice and competition in the NHS for the Prime Minister in 2011, and writing a major report for the UK government in 2014, ‘Winterbourne View – time for action’, which called for radical reform in the way we care for people with learning disabilities in the twenty-first century.
He has been in national roles at TGWU, NUT and AMA, and was the Founding Personnel Director of the National Lottery Charities Board. He was a Councillor in Lambeth and an active member of the health authorities for Guys and St Thomas’ hospitals over two decades.
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Sir Stephen John Limrick Bubb JP FRSA (born 5 November 1952) is Director of Charity Futures, and the Acting Director of the Oxford Institute of Charity. He was Chief Executive of the UK charity leaders representative body Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO) from 2000 to 2016. He received a knighthood in 2011 for his services to the voluntary sector. From March 2011 to June 2011, Bubb was seconded to the Department of Health, as part of the team leading Andrew Lansley's National Health Service (NHS) "listening exercise".
Bubb is regarded as influential within the Labour and Conservative Parties, with his longstanding advocacy of charities replacing public services chiming with both parties' policy of promoting competition and choice in areas such as healthcare. He has described criticisms of competition as belonging in the "last century".
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Another profile can be found here:-
Sir Stephen Bubb is founder-director of Charity Futures. He was formerly Chief Executive of ACEVO (Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations) until 2016. In this role he was highly influential in determining government policy on the third sector, particularly for its part delivering public services. He launched Charity Futures in July 2016.
For 10 years he also chaired the Social Investment Business, the UK’s largest social investor, and is a trustee of Helen and Douglas House Hospice, the world’s first children’s hospice. He is a public appointments assessor.
Stephen’s recent national roles have included reporting on choice and competition in the NHS for the Prime Minister in 2011, and writing a major report for the UK government in 2014, ‘Winterbourne View – time for action’, which called for radical reform in the way we care for people with learning disabilities in the twenty-first century.
He has been in national roles at TGWU, NUT and AMA, and was the Founding Personnel Director of the National Lottery Charities Board. He was a Councillor in Lambeth and an active member of the health authorities for Guys and St Thomas’ hospitals over two decades.
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Anyway, I was pondering the other day what on earth had happened to the ambitious and ever upwardly-mobile Bubb since his heady days at ACEVO and having the ear of government. Had he achieved ermine yet or was he involved in some other project to further the cause of charities taking over public services? Well, he obviously had a plan and quickly set up a 'think tank' called Charity Futures in 2016, but its website is at pains to point out it's definitely not a charity:-
About Us - Organisation
Charity Futures is a community interest company, not a charity, which aims to promote discussion on how to safeguard and bolster the long-term prospects of the charitable sector. It is not itself a charity in order to promote that wider policy discussion. We do not and will not raise funds from the general public. We are known as Charity Futures and are registered as Third Sector Futures CIC, Company Number: 10730231
About Us - Organisation
Charity Futures is a community interest company, not a charity, which aims to promote discussion on how to safeguard and bolster the long-term prospects of the charitable sector. It is not itself a charity in order to promote that wider policy discussion. We do not and will not raise funds from the general public. We are known as Charity Futures and are registered as Third Sector Futures CIC, Company Number: 10730231
History
In addition, we ran a survey of charity trustees in collaboration with nfpSynergy and Third Sector magazine. The results are published here, an we held a seminar to discuss the governance learning points the exercise indicated in November. Sir Stephen continues to blog on his thoughts and experiences as we move through the process; some intermediate conclusions can be found here in our written submission to the House of Lords select committee on charities.
Throughout 2018 and 2019, we are undertaking a research consultation alongside Giving Evidence. Through hosting focus groups in London, Edinburgh, Manchester and Bradford, and also online surveys, we will find out what charities and donors wish to see researched to help them in their vital work. The findings will be published in mid-2019.
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This article from the thirdsector website in November 2017 gives a few more details:-
Sir Stephen Bubb sets sights on Institute for Philanthropy and Charity
Sir Stephen Bubb is in negotiations with the University of Oxford about setting up an Institute for Philanthropy and Charity.
Bubb, who last year set up Charity Futures, an initiative that is considering how the sector can be supported in the long term, said he was working with the charity the Oxford Centre for the Study of Philanthropy to finalise plans for the creation of an institute. He said he hoped to win the approval of the University of Oxford before the end of the year.
Bubb, an Oxford graduate, led the charity chief executives body Acevo for 15 years before leaving in 2016 to become chief executive of Charity Futures. Bubb revealed the plan for the institute at a conference in London last Thursday. Bubb told Third Sector:
"There are quite a few institutes of philanthropy, particularly in the US, but they’re largely about donors, as opposed to how do you philanthropy better. This will be research-based and will develop a digital laboratory and publications. We have big plans, but we’re still in discussions with the university."
Charity Futures is a community interest company funded through a £400,000 grant from the fund management firm Woodford Investment Management, but Bubb said the ambition was to build a dedicated centre in Oxford that would require millions of pounds from a range of sources. He said he hoped the building would open in 2021.
Bubb said that Charity Futures was also working in partnership with three sector organisations. He said it was developing an online tool for trustees in conjunction with the Clore Social Leadership programme and was undertaking a scoping exercise, with the Charity Finance Group, on collaboration and back-office sharing in the sector.
Charity Futures will also work with the Behavioural Insights Team, the Cabinet Office-backed behavioural science initiative, on core costs and why many funders refuse to pay them. "It will ask what behavioural change we can instigate to pay core costs," said Bubb.
Charity Futures is a community interest company funded through a £400,000 grant from the fund management firm Woodford Investment Management, but Bubb said the ambition was to build a dedicated centre in Oxford that would require millions of pounds from a range of sources. He said he hoped the building would open in 2021.
Bubb said that Charity Futures was also working in partnership with three sector organisations. He said it was developing an online tool for trustees in conjunction with the Clore Social Leadership programme and was undertaking a scoping exercise, with the Charity Finance Group, on collaboration and back-office sharing in the sector.
Charity Futures will also work with the Behavioural Insights Team, the Cabinet Office-backed behavioural science initiative, on core costs and why many funders refuse to pay them. "It will ask what behavioural change we can instigate to pay core costs," said Bubb.
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Eventually grand plans were announced with this from Civil Society News:-
Sir Stephen Bubb announces plans to build an Oxford Institute of Charity
Sir Stephen Bubb has announced plans to build an Oxford Institute of Charity after three years of discussions with the university. Charity Futures, the think tank set up by Bubb when he left Acevo, and New College, Oxford will collaborate on the new institute, which plans to open in the summer of 2022 once a new building has been constructed. The Oxford Institute for Charity is also seeking a single global endowment of £30m to deliver a sustainable income for the new body.
Its objectives will be to:
Bubb will continue in his role at Charity Futures, but also become acting director at the Oxford Institute for Charity. In this role he will commission the fundraising strategy, raise awareness of the body and work with the college to appoint an academic director.
Plans for a new academic hub were first mooted by Bubb when he set up Charity Futures. The think tank had begun working with the Oxford Centre for the Study of Philanthropy, but the two bodies parted ways last year. The Oxford Centre for the Study of Philanthropy has since filed an application to strike the organisation off of the register of companies.
Bubb said: “The research and study of charity will be of the highest intellectual order but aims to promote better, more sustainable, and effective performance of charity in the world. OIC will also serve as an authoritative source for views on the sector with government and the media, and in the development of policy generally.
“My role is to give the Institute a solid foundation from which it can thrive and prosper long into the future. In practical terms this means establishing a firm financial base and securing an inspirational academic leader. The institute will make a major contribution to the sector I love and have worked in for some three decades.”
Miles Young, warden of New College, said: “Charity’s important role in our society is often undervalued, and I believe that one cause of that is that it is surprisingly little studied in universities. What particularly attracts us is the opportunity to apply interdisciplinary scholarship to the subject, and in a way which reinforces our own – and Oxford’s expertise – in subjects as diverse as history and philosophy, politics and economics, law and government.”
Professor Michael Earl, Chair and Co-Founder of the Oxford Centre for the Study of Philanthropy introduced the new centre here in a podcast, but then there appeared to be a falling out with this reported by Civil Society News in May 2019:-
Charity Futures ends association with Oxford Centre for the Study of Philanthropy
Charity Futures, the think tank established by former Acevo chief executive Sir Stephen Bubb, has parted ways with the Oxford Centre for the Study of Philanthropy. Bubb, who co-founded Charity Futures in 2015 with Jonathan Smith, the head of corporate social responsibility at Woodford Investment Management, had previously announced that his organisation would be working to create a new research institute focused on philanthropy at the University of Oxford.
Scotland’s first research centre dedicated to the growing field of philanthropy studies. The Centre for the Study of Philanthropy & Public Good’s aim is to strengthen, enhance and challenge theory, practice and policy relating to philanthropy and its relationship to public good through high-quality, internationally recognised research and scholarship.
Aim & Objectives
Research
To carry out relevant, impactful, research that contributes to both theoretical understanding and applied knowledge on philanthropy and the public good, and that contributes to the growing field of philanthropy studies.
Outreach
To convene and serve as the intellectual forum for policy and practice thinking on philanthropy and the public good nationally, in Scotland and the UK, and internationally, by working with relevant individual and organisational stakeholders, and by providing an informed platform for the development and discussion of new ideas and thinking in the field.
Impact
To provide demonstrable societal benefits through sharing and exchanging knowledge and know how with academic and non-academic audiences, acting in advisory capacities, and generating awareness of issues relating to philanthropy and the public good.
Eventually grand plans were announced with this from Civil Society News:-
Sir Stephen Bubb announces plans to build an Oxford Institute of Charity
Sir Stephen Bubb has announced plans to build an Oxford Institute of Charity after three years of discussions with the university. Charity Futures, the think tank set up by Bubb when he left Acevo, and New College, Oxford will collaborate on the new institute, which plans to open in the summer of 2022 once a new building has been constructed. The Oxford Institute for Charity is also seeking a single global endowment of £30m to deliver a sustainable income for the new body.
Its objectives will be to:
- deliver high calibre academic research to be used by the global charity community
- promote the importance of research and study of charity, both at post-graduate and undergraduate level, in universities more generally
- develop networks and foster links internationally
- digitise charity records to assist with wider research and study
- organise conferences and summer schools for UK and global academics, philanthropists, corporate donors and leaders of civil society
Bubb will continue in his role at Charity Futures, but also become acting director at the Oxford Institute for Charity. In this role he will commission the fundraising strategy, raise awareness of the body and work with the college to appoint an academic director.
Plans for a new academic hub were first mooted by Bubb when he set up Charity Futures. The think tank had begun working with the Oxford Centre for the Study of Philanthropy, but the two bodies parted ways last year. The Oxford Centre for the Study of Philanthropy has since filed an application to strike the organisation off of the register of companies.
Bubb said: “The research and study of charity will be of the highest intellectual order but aims to promote better, more sustainable, and effective performance of charity in the world. OIC will also serve as an authoritative source for views on the sector with government and the media, and in the development of policy generally.
“My role is to give the Institute a solid foundation from which it can thrive and prosper long into the future. In practical terms this means establishing a firm financial base and securing an inspirational academic leader. The institute will make a major contribution to the sector I love and have worked in for some three decades.”
Miles Young, warden of New College, said: “Charity’s important role in our society is often undervalued, and I believe that one cause of that is that it is surprisingly little studied in universities. What particularly attracts us is the opportunity to apply interdisciplinary scholarship to the subject, and in a way which reinforces our own – and Oxford’s expertise – in subjects as diverse as history and philosophy, politics and economics, law and government.”
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Speaking in November 2017, a month after he and Smith had joined OCSP as directors and trustees, Bubb said that a building had already been identified to host the institute, as well as an academic to lead its research. However, the most recent OCSP annual report announced that both men had resigned their positions.
Writing in the introduction to the report, Professor Michael Earl, the OCSP chairman, said:
“At 30 June 2017 we were engaged with serious discussions with a potential benefactor, and with Charity Futures, a policy-oriented organisation working on charity governance, with an intention to merge and be placed at a particular Oxford College. A completion date of March 2018 for finalising these arrangements was envisioned originally.
“To help in planning and preparing for these new arrangements, Sir Stephen Bubb and Mr Jonathan Smith became directors and trustees on 23 October 2017. I regret to record that on 12 April 2018 Sir Stephen and Mr Smith resigned, withdrawing their support for the intended merger preferring to concentrate on charity governance and management, but hopefully still located at the aforementioned Oxford College.”
In May 2018 Charity Futures began a consultation to discover the sector's research priorities in partnership with consultancy Giving Evidence. Neither Charity Futures nor OCSP responded to requests for comment.
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The story was reported in the Times:-
New Oxford institute to study and strengthen charities
The world’s first academic institute to study charity is to be established in a new £2.5million 72ft high tower at the University of Oxford.
Plans for the Oxford Institute of Charity were prompted by the collapse in 2015 of the children’s charity Kids Company amid claims of mismanagement and questions about its performance. It will look at ways in which the leadership, governance and impact of charities can be strengthened. It will seek to become a global centre of research into charity and promote the study of charities at undergraduate and postgraduate level, both at Oxford and other universities. The institute will be housed in a modern stone tower within a quad at New College making it a striking addition to Oxford’s skyline.
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This from the Oxford Institute of Charity website:-
Charities today face greater challenge and more scrutiny. Yet despite their crucial role in society and the challenges they face, the academic study of charity, to date, has not been strong. The Oxford Institute of Charity is being established to address this problem. The Oxford Institute of Charity will work with others across the UK and internationally to strengthen understanding of the challenges that face the Third Sector, and the possible solutions that will help ensure charity remains a vivid and vital part of our society.
AIMS
The Oxford Institute of Charity, a collaboration between New College Oxford and Charity Futures, has been established to:
Organisation profile--oo00oo--
The story was reported in the Times:-
New Oxford institute to study and strengthen charities
The world’s first academic institute to study charity is to be established in a new £2.5million 72ft high tower at the University of Oxford.
Plans for the Oxford Institute of Charity were prompted by the collapse in 2015 of the children’s charity Kids Company amid claims of mismanagement and questions about its performance. It will look at ways in which the leadership, governance and impact of charities can be strengthened. It will seek to become a global centre of research into charity and promote the study of charities at undergraduate and postgraduate level, both at Oxford and other universities. The institute will be housed in a modern stone tower within a quad at New College making it a striking addition to Oxford’s skyline.
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This from the Oxford Institute of Charity website:-
Charities today face greater challenge and more scrutiny. Yet despite their crucial role in society and the challenges they face, the academic study of charity, to date, has not been strong. The Oxford Institute of Charity is being established to address this problem. The Oxford Institute of Charity will work with others across the UK and internationally to strengthen understanding of the challenges that face the Third Sector, and the possible solutions that will help ensure charity remains a vivid and vital part of our society.
AIMS
The Oxford Institute of Charity, a collaboration between New College Oxford and Charity Futures, has been established to:
- Provide high calibre, independent, contemporary research whose findings will be of practical use to the global charity community and policy-makers
- Establish a forum where foundations, not-for-profit leaders, academics and charity practitioners, can share insights and develop common agendas for research and action
- Engage students and academics in charity as an increasingly important area for study and scholarship, supporting the sustainability of the charity sector. Such study will be interdisciplinary, drawing on perspectives from history, law, philosophy, economics, psychology and business, amongst others
- Promote the importance of research and study of charity across Universities
- Develop networks and foster links internationally
- Offer learning opportunities through conferences and summer schools for UK and global academics, philanthropists, corporate donors and leaders of civil society
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So what ever happened to Bubb's former suitor, the Oxford Centre for the Study of Philanthropy? An internet search brings up no explanation as to the obvious rift, but takes us to:-
The Centre for the Study of Philanthropy & Public Good and Scotland’s first research centre dedicated to the growing field of philanthropy studies. School of Management, University of St Andrews
Scotland’s first research centre dedicated to the growing field of philanthropy studies. The Centre for the Study of Philanthropy & Public Good’s aim is to strengthen, enhance and challenge theory, practice and policy relating to philanthropy and its relationship to public good through high-quality, internationally recognised research and scholarship.
Aim & Objectives
The Centre for the Study of Philanthropy & Public Good’s aim is to strengthen, enhance and challenge theory, practice and policy relating to philanthropy and its relationship to public good through high-quality, internationally recognised research and scholarship.
To achieve this, our work has three objectives:
To achieve this, our work has three objectives:
Research
To carry out relevant, impactful, research that contributes to both theoretical understanding and applied knowledge on philanthropy and the public good, and that contributes to the growing field of philanthropy studies.
Outreach
To convene and serve as the intellectual forum for policy and practice thinking on philanthropy and the public good nationally, in Scotland and the UK, and internationally, by working with relevant individual and organisational stakeholders, and by providing an informed platform for the development and discussion of new ideas and thinking in the field.
Impact
To provide demonstrable societal benefits through sharing and exchanging knowledge and know how with academic and non-academic audiences, acting in advisory capacities, and generating awareness of issues relating to philanthropy and the public good.
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As with Bubb's Oxford outfit, judging by the illustrious benefactors wishing to be associated with charitable endeavour, charity is clearly big business indeed.
Companies House records show Bubb's THIRD SECTOR FUTURES C.I.C. lost 3 directors in July 2019 & 2 secretaries during the same year. That doesn't sound a happy ship.
ReplyDeleteCurrent directors are Bubb, Smith, a Leonard Stall & a Peter Young (describes himself as Warden of New College)
Leonard Stall - Wikipedia says: "In addition to his roles as both the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Philanthropy Age, a grantee project of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the How to do Good book and speaker tour, Stall has been leading the creation of an independent International Standard for the Charity Sector, now work in progress under the auspices of British Standards Institution (BSI). BSI will publish this international Code of Practice in 2020. It is co-sponsored by Philanthropy Age and Insaan Group, of which he is also a Board Member. Stall sits on the Editorial Advisory Board of international charity sector title, Alliance magazine, for philanthropy and social investment worldwide, and is an Advisory Board Member for Rosalynn Carter’s Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism in UAE.
DeleteHe is a consultant to the Norwegian Nobel Institute.
Stall is the chairman of Charity Futures, the UK third sector think-tank working with New College, Oxford University to launch the forthcoming Oxford Institute of Charity. This is scheduled to open in 2022 in a custom-built tower housed in the New College Quad.
He also sits on the Global Advisory Board of the Institute of Global Innovation at The University of Birmingham."
Charity Futures website says about Smith: "Jonathan Smith co-founded Charity Futures with Sir Stephen Bubb and now chairs the board.
Jonathan is a former Business Ambassador for HRH The Prince of Wales at Business in the Community and sits on Advisory Boards for a number of charities."
So that's two Chairs so far...
Peter Young is Peter Miles Young, preferring to be known as Miles Young:
"Miles Young was an undergraduate historian at New College from 1973 to 1976.
His business career has been spent in advertising and marketing, most recently as Chairman and CEO of Ogilvy and Mather, a leading global communications network. More than half of that was spent outside the UK, in China, and then in North America. He retains a strong interest in the issues facing developing countries, especially in Asia.
He returned from New York in September 2016 to take up his post.
Within the University, he has been Chair of Disability Sub-Group and Development Panel of the Conference of Colleges, and Chair of the Committee to Review Donations of the University. He is also Chair of the Voltaire Foundation.
He has been elected Chair of Conference of Colleges, his term of office commencing in Michaelmas 2019.
He is Chair of the Oxford Bach Soloists and a Trustee of Music at Oxford."
Stephen Barclay was a director of Third Sector Futures cic who resigned in 2018 - when Bubb & Smith resigned from OCSP.
DeleteBarclay (along with Prof Michael Earl & Dr Susan Dopson) was one of the founding directors of the OCSP in June 2015, a business which Companies House says was dissolved 18 June 2019.
Could it be that Bubb & Smith simply *used* the OCSP to gain access to the shiny new ivory tower at Oxford University? Might this, ultimately leading to the dissolution of OCSP in June 2019, be the reason behind three high profile directors (Othman Moqbel, Dr Ann Limb & Sir Stuart Etherington) all resigning from Bubb's organisation in July 2019?
Or this might have sent the directors running for cover:
Delete"Bubb confident troubled investment manager will continue to back Charity Futures
Sir Stephen Bubb's charity think tank has received hundreds of thousands of pounds from Neil Woodford, whose LF Woodford Equity Income Fund has suffered a substantial fall in value"
https://www.ftadviser.com/investments/2019/01/09/how-woodford-is-spending-a-36-5m-dividend/
DeleteWoodford Investment Management, the fundhouse founded by Neil Woodford, posted a profit of £41.7m for the year to the end of March 2018, despite the funds being in the midst of a torrid period of performance.
Accounts for Woodford Investment Management showed a dividend of £36.5m was paid out to Woodford Capital, which is the parent company.
This company is 65 per cent owned by Neil Woodford and 35 per cent by Craig Newman, the company’s chief executive, who is also a former employee of Invesco.
Woodford Capital is an unlimited company, which means it does not have to file accounts, though it is registered in the UK and pays UK corporation tax.
The dividend of £36.5m will be divided in four ways, to provide an income to Mr Woodford and Mr Newman, to be reinvested in the funds run by Woodford Investment Management, to make charitable donations, or retained as cash.
No information is disclosed as to the directors' renumeration.
The average assets under management for Woodford Investment Management for the year to March 2018 was £15.9bn.
The company warned that the funds have experienced significant outflows since then, and this is likely to impact profits for the year to March 2019.
"Significant sums (inclusive of Gift Aid) are provided personally by the directors... This money is held in, and distributed from, Charities Aid Foundation Trusts and includes helping to fund the creation of the Charity Futures programme, led by Sir Stephen Bubb that will help to provide an insight into what changes might help charity and philanthropy to deliver the maximum future impact."
The flagship Woodford Equity Income fund has dropped in size rom £10.1bn at its peak to below £5bn now. In performance terms the fund lost 16 per cent in 2018.
Money Thrives, Jan 11 2020 - "Almost 3,500 investors are preparing legal action in a battle to recover losses inflicted by the collapse of Neil Woodford’s investment empire."
DeleteFinancial News - "Almost 3,500 investors who were trapped in Neil Woodford’s flagship equity fund before the collapse of his eponymous investment empire last year are preparing to take legal action to recover losses.
Three law firms, Slater & Gordon, Leigh Day and Nelsons Solicitors, are in the process of gathering complaints from investors who were locked into Woodford’s £3bn Equity Income fund after it was suspended in June. The news was first reported by The Telegraph.
The fund, which at its peak in 2017 managed more than £10bn of assets, was closed on 3 June to enable Woodford to sell some of the fund’s largest unquoted holdings. This was necessary to raise enough money to pay back the thousands of investors who wanted to exit the fund at the time..."
https://www.fnlondon.com/articles/thousands-of-investors-plan-legal-action-against-woodford-20200110
With Bubb's major source of funding cut its no wonder there's no 'news' on the OIC website since July 2019... similarly nothing new on Charity Futures post-2019, with the exception of links to Bubb's own twitter feed.
DeleteTime to sell a house?
What progress for Bubb Towers?
Deletehttps://www.new.ox.ac.uk/our-new-heritage
The Gradel Quadrangles
New College is embarking on the fourth big expansion in its history.
To be named after Chris Gradel, an Old Member who has generously provided the core funding for the project, the Gradel Quadrangles received planning permission in June 2018 and will provide an additional 70 student rooms, as well as a flexible learning hub, and a performance base.
The development will take place on our site on the corner of Mansfield Road and Savile Road, which is currently underused and unattractive, though it includes some buildings of worth (1 Savile Road and parts of Savile House) which will be retained. Though just minutes from the College, there is a distinctive atmosphere of Edwardian North Oxford about the area, which it is important to keep.
Contribute
There is still a large amount of funding required for the project to be completed as planned.
Please view all opportunities which exist for sponsoring and naming parts of this glorious new set of buildings.
_____________
Chris Gradel
Co-Founder, Managing Partner and CIO
PAG Absolute Returns
PAG’s Absolute Returns business is led by Chris Gradel, who founded PAG in 2002.
Mr. Gradel has over 20 years of investment experience across Asia. Prior to founding PAG, Mr. Gradel led several investments for the Marmon Group in China and was an engagement manager for McKinsey & Co. based in Hong Kong.
Mr. Gradel has a master’s degree in engineering, economics and management from Oxford University. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Standards Board for Alternative Investments (SBAI), the hedge fund industry’s global standard-setting body. Mr. Gradel is also a member of the investment committee of Oxford University Endowment Management and a Wykeham Fellow of New College, Oxford.
Bizarrely Bubb's shiny PR seems to be claiming the development is entirely of his making and asking for donations, with no reference to the context of the college's development or the fact its Gradel's baby:
Delete"THE TOWER - We have already raised the capital cost of £2.5m for the new building which will house the Institute. Building works are due to begin circa end of 2019 and the tower due to be complete by the summer of 2022. We intend to be fully operational from start of academic year in October 2022."
https://www.charityfutures.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/OIC-DRAFT-FINAL.pdf
Wonder if David Kohn Architects are aware Bubb is using their drawings in his literature?
Delete"DKA has won planning consent for a new campus for New College, Oxford. The scheme, which will be called the Gradel Quadrangles after the principal donor, is the result of an invited competition won by the practice in 2015.
New College was the site of the first planned quad in 1403, a model that has influenced educational institutions globally for over six hundred years. The leafy semi-suburban site offers the opportunity to reimagine the quad as a model for a learning community for the twenty-first century - departing from the quad’s closed origins and seeking a contemporary interpretation that enjoys a fluid and open relationship with the surrounding city and nature.
Alongside new student accommodation, the project also contains a student study space, music hall and new facilities for the adjacent New College School, a boys’ preparatory school. A tower and gatehouse complete the composition that Historic England has described as ‘one of the very few instances where contemporary design can be considered genuinely outstanding’."
https://davidkohn.co.uk/projects/new-college
Bubb's twitter header: "Director - the Oxford Institute of Charity + Charity Futures. Former acevo CEO. Lives in Brixton, Charlbury and Casoli. Campaigning to make a difference."
ReplyDeleteThree homes? Must cost a few quid in council tax let alone having to travel between London, Oxfordshire & Italy.
To quote Jim: "charity is clearly big business indeed."
There's over 168,000 registered charities in the UK. To put that into some context, 168,000 is roughly the combined population of the City of Durham and the City of Lincoln together.
ReplyDeleteBetween them they handle nearly £80billion annually.
There are some great charities, and many great people doing charity work who get no recognition or reward, but like many of our social structures today they've become diverted from their original purpose and cause by those who see them as career opertuinties and vehicles of opportunity for their own personal advancement.
Bubb is one of those.
Charities adopt the same structures as big business and compete in the same markets as big business. They take Government contracts even when there's conflicts of interest, and like business they outsource vast swathes of what they do to the private sector.
Those at the top do very well, whilst those lower down the food chain get little more then a smile and a pat on the back.
However, like most organisations, it's those at the lower levels that do the hard work and expected to present the ethical and moral image needed to keep controversy at bay.
Those at the top screamed loud when the Government introduced the Lobbying Law, and yet argue about transparency in their own organisations at the same time.
(See 'Bubbs Blog' last posting in 2017).
Charities today is not places that support the needy, they also support the greedy.
With nearly £80b floating around the sector each year, it's like chum in the water and its going to attract sharks. Bubbs a predator, a Great White, he exploits the emotional sense of obligation and morality most people possess, and whispers words of Bubshite and Bubollocks to deflect and confuse, but Bubb is really only interested in one thing, and that's about just how much dinner he can get on his own plate.
Bubbs just as repulsive as Grayling in my opinion!
https://www.thirdsector.co.uk/charity-pay-study-2019-highest-earners/management/article/1579223
'Getafix
Just received this on facebook as I posted my comment.
DeleteSeems like charity really does begin at home???
https://www.facebook.com/1060680794105030/posts/1455726381267134/?sfnsn=scwspwa&extid=zexxWClMauO2gIUA
'Getafix
The story that facebook link refers to:
DeleteThe prime minister’s chief political adviser, Dominic Cummings, and a data scientist he worked with on the Vote Leave campaign for Brexit are on the secret scientific group advising the government on the coronavirus pandemic, according to a list leaked to the Guardian.
It reveals that both Cummings and Ben Warner were among 23 attendees present at a crucial convening of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) on 23 March, the day Boris Johnson announced a nationwide lockdown in a televised address.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/24/revealed-dominic-cummings-on-secret-scientific-advisory-group-for-covid-19
__________________________________________
Highly controversial contracts which allow ministers and senior health officials to mine confidential data from tens of thousands of COVID-19 hospital patients have been awarded to technology companies without being put out to competitive tender, NHS England has disclosed to Byline Times.
The system is now live and being used to inform senior health officials on the latest situation at the daily Downing Street briefings. The contracts involve five companies – Microsoft, Google, Amazon Web Services, Palantir Technology UK and Faculty.
Two of the contractors – Palantir and Faculty – are highly controversial either because of links to the CIA and the Donald Trump administration; or to Dominic Cummings, the Prime Minister’s chief advisor and the former head of the Vote Leave campaign during the 2016 EU Referendum, which was found to have breached UK electoral law by overspending.
Palantir is owned by Peter Thiel, a right-wing billionaire, who has set up ‘HHS Protect Now’ in the US, which – according to Forbes magazine – won a $17 million contract on 10 April from the US Department of Health and Human Services Program Support Center to provide detailed data from a wide range of organisations on the spread of COVID-19. Thiel is publicly backing Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign.
According to the Guardian, Faculty – which had a pre-existing contract with other companies to help build a £250 million artificial intelligence lab for the NHSX subsidiary – took on a leading role in the data response to the pandemic. It is run by Marc Warner, whose brother, Ben, was reported by the Sunday Times to have been recruited to Downing Street by Cummings after running the Conservative Party’s private election model.
Ben Warner, who used to be a principal at his brother’s AI company, is said to have worked closely with Cummings on the modelling programme used in the Vote Leave campaign.
https://bylinetimes.com/2020/04/22/palantir-coronavirus-contract-did-not-go-to-competitive-tender/
There are few more emotive subjects in the charity sector than senior
Deleteexecutive pay. People frequently cite high salaries as one of the main reasons for not giving. Some charity staff, especially those working for smaller organisations, also resent the six-figure salaries paid by some organisations, arguing that such bumper pay packets run counter to the sector’s values.
As for the national media, they’re only too happy to criticise perceived "fat-cat" charity salaries.
Since 2013, Third Sector has been tracking the highest salaries paid by the largest charities, publishing the findings every two years.
The top-100 list is drawn up by analysing the annual accounts of the largest 150 charities by annual income and those of a number of smaller charities known to pay high amounts.
Once again, the medical research funder the Wellcome Trust retained top spot, paying a member of its investment team almost £3.2m after its investment portfolio returned a profit of £2.2bn over the year. The trust declined to name its highest earner. Next was the charitable hospital the London Clinic. Its highest earner received just under £1.3m in 2018. The hospital declined to name the person.
The Consumers’ Association, the charity behind the Which? brand, was third, awarding former chief executive Peter Vicary-Smith a total of £825,000 in his final year at the charity.
Seven of the highest-paying charities featured in the top 10 two years ago. The new entrants to this top group were the Institution of Engineering and Technology, which paid £414,000, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, which paid about £330,000, and the Francis Crick Institute, which paid between £380,000 and £390,000. Fifteen of the top 100 paid their highest earners more than £300,000 a year, one more than in 2017, but three more than in 2015. Forty-one charities in the top 100 awarded pay packages of more than £200,000, which is four more than two years ago.
The lowest salary to feature in the top 100 was between £140,001 and £150,000: seven charities reported paying their highest earners in this salary bracket.
In terms of averages, the median high-earner’s salary across the top 100 remained at £185,000 – the same as in 2017 – while the mean high salary was £264,686, up from £255,000 two years ago.
To put that figure in context, the median pay of FTSE 100 chief executives was £3.9m last year, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and the think tank the High Pay Centre.
Staff earning more than £60,000
DeleteCharities are required to state in their accounts the number of employees who have been paid more than £60,000 a year.
The British Council had the highest number of employees earning more than this amount: 511 came into this category, which is 172 more than in 2015.
In second place was Save the Children International, which had 346 employees earning more than $75,000 (£58,000). The charity is based in the US so reports its figures in US dollars.
In third place was the health and fitness charity Nuffield Health. It paid 342 people more than £60,000 a year in 2017.
The mean number of people earning more than £60,000 a year among the top 100 charities was 68.
The charity in the top 100 with the lowest number of staff members earning more than £60,000 was the grant-maker the Leverhulme Trust, which employed only three staff on salaries over this amount. However, the highest earner at the charity, which had an average of 14 full-time-equivalent staff in 2017, was paid between £260,001 and £270,000 during the year, enough to place that person in 21st place on the list. The trust had an income of £99.4m in 2017.
Two charities known to pay their highest earners more than some of the UK’s largest charities made this year’s list. These were children’s charity Caudwell Children and the Thrombosis Research Institute (see "Small charities, big payers").
The charity Motability, which runs a government-backed scheme to provide cars to disabled people, hit the headlines last year when it emerged that Mike Betts, chief executive of the Motability Operations Group, a connected company, was paid £1.7m in the year to 30 September 2017, including a long-term incentive scheme payment of almost £727,000.
A report produced by backbench MPs last year described the executive pay levels at the company as "totally unacceptable".
Far lower
However, pay levels at the charity are far lower, with its high earner, director Declan O’Mahony, being paid £177,407 in 2017/18. He left the charity on 29 March 2018, two days before the end of its financial year.
One area where the top 100 charities appear to be falling down is in naming those who earn the highest amounts.
Five years ago, the National Council for Voluntary Organisations recommended that all charities with gross incomes of more than £500,000 a year should publish the names and job titles of their highest-paid employees. But our research indicates that the majority of the highest-paying charities are ignoring this call, with 54 of the top 100 charities not naming their highest earners in their annual accounts.
Reaction to the findings
Vicky Browning, chief executive of the charity leaders body Acevo, says it is important that charity chiefs are fairly remunerated for the skills, experience and responsibility involved in running a charity.
"Many large charities are hugely complex organisations operating in challenging circumstances, often with global remits and significant staffing levels," Browning (left) says. "Although the boards of very large charities need to consider whether the pay packets of their executive teams reflect the values and ethos of the organisations they run, they also need to ensure that chief executives are paid at a level that matches their role and responsibilities."
DeleteDavid Fielding, managing partner of the specialist charity executive search company Attenti, perceives a degree of reluctance among senior charity sector employees to change roles at present, which is contributing to average pay levels not changing since Third Sector conducted the last of its salary surveys two years ago.
Fielding puts this down to factors such as it taking longer for chief executives to implement changes in their existing roles and needing more persuasion to move if they enjoy a good relationship with the chair or board and have control and flexibility over how they work.
"Ten years ago, people said that once you had done two or three years it would be job done and you could move on," he says. "Now it is taking longer for organisations to transform and adapt, which means people are staying in these roles for four or five years."
Appropriate pay levels
A lot of charity trustees are also finding it difficult to set appropriate pay levels, according to Fielding.
"There is a tension for trustees when it comes to setting senior pay in that they want to be seen as attractive to candidates but equally they are aware that people will go rooting through their annual accounts looking for unreasonably large pay packages," he says. "There is more sensitivity among trustees about how they might justify high pay to the public."
Fielding says that rather than just looking at the amount a job pays, many top charity executives are putting increased value on the calibre of the chair, the board they will work with and perks such as flexible working or the ability to work from home.
Browning points out that the salaries paid by the largest charities do not give a full picture of pay in the sector. Research on salaries carried out by Acevo among its members has shown a general downward trend in charity chief executive pay in recent years.
Its figures show that in 2013 the median annual basic salary among those polled came out as £60,000, whereas it had fallen to £50,000 by 2017, where it remained last year.
"I personally would put that down much less to media coverage than to the financial pressures many organisations have faced over that period," she says.
Browning says she has no hard evidence to show charities have become more open about senior pay levels in recent years, but there are "certainly a lot more conversations being had at chief executive and board level about pay, accountability and transparency".
Politico Dec 2019
ReplyDelete"External expertise. Johnson’s government would hire external experts from business and other sectors, the paper reports. “There will be a lot of changes to the system of hiring, firing and training. We’ve got to shake up people, shake up structures, shake up management, shake up No 10. We have to get the right people in the right jobs across the board,” a senior source is quoted as saying.
This is likely to include Ben Warner, a data expert who ran the Conservatives’ private election computer model and played a crucial role in the modeling program used by Vote Leave’s EU referendum campaign in 2016. Brought in by Johnson’s senior adviser Dominic Cummings, Warner would be tasked with helping Whitehall in using data science to make decisions."
https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/sunday-crunch/politico-sunday-crunch-presented-by-bp-whitehall-shake-up-no-to-eu-alignment-labour-war/
Dr Marc Warner is the co-founder CEO of Faculty. He founded faculty Faculty in the belief that the benefits of AI should extend to everyone. Marc has overseen the growth of faculty to one of London’s premier AI companies. He has led over 50 data science projects, with clients ranging from multinational companies like EasyJet and Siemens to the UK Government and NHS. He advises the UK government on digital, data and artificial intelligence as a member of the Digital Economic Advisory Council.
DeletePreviously, Marc was a Marie Curie Fellow in Physics at Harvard University, specialising in quantum sensing. His PhD in Quantum Computing was awarded the Stoneham prize, published in Nature, and covered in the New York Times.
https://cogx.co/speakers/marc-warner/
Marc Warner seems to have a prominent voice in all sorts of media outlets
Deletehttps://www.cityam.com/dont-leave-it-up-to-the-eu-to-decide-how-we-regulate-ai/
[Feb 2020]:
"Fortunately, the latest developments in AI research — including some which we are pioneering at Faculty — allow for analysis of an algorithm’s performance across a range of important dimensions: accuracy (how good is an AI tool at doing its job?); fairness (does it have implicit biases?); privacy (does it leak people’s data?); robustness (does it fail unexpectedly?); and explainability (do we know how it is working?)."
MOJ and HMPPS seem to have escaped a media punishment outing by skillfully releasing the news of their planned apology to the family of Nicholas Churton, in such a way that it gets almost no focus - though yesterday the local paper did send me a message to say they have a new story due today
ReplyDeletethat is here - but seems to have little to say that was not said in the reports yesterday.
I see Carl Eve from Plymouth has also been active on twitter regarding the issue - but that seems about it.
https://www.leaderlive.co.uk/news/18407351.probation-service-apologise-family-murdered-wrexham-man-nicholas-churton/
Extract... Wales on line.
DeleteA copy of the study into how he was managed by Wales CRC has been seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Six areas relating to Davidson's management were highlighted for improvement in the report.
Assessment - Davidson should have been "risk assessed" six weeks after release on licence to see whether he should be looked after by the Probation Service rather than the privately-owned Wales CRC. It never took place. The report said: "This is highlighted in the case record but does not appear to have been communicated in any other way. Subsequently, we did not carry out this review and the case remained with the Wales Community Rehabilitation Company, under the supervision of a Probation Officer."
Sentence planning - This was another aspect of assessing risks with prisoners on licence and should have highlighted substance misuse issues with Davidson. The report stated: "Whilst Jordan Davidson did have a sentence plan, which was timely and in line with national directives, the quality of the plan and work undertaken with Mr Davidson could have been more focused."
Risk Management - This is undertaken while a prisoner is on licence and should respond to changing circumstances. The report said: "Reviews of the initial risk assessment did not occur and there were occasions when this was necessary. The initial risk management plan was not sufficiently robust enough to manage the risks that Mr Davidson posed and was therefore insufficient."
Multi-agency working - The report said: "It is expected that Wales CRC staff will work closely with other key partners in sharing information to manage risk and reduce re-offending. There were gaps in the multi-agency dimension to management of this case."
Enforcement - The report states: "Where regular compliance does not occur, it is sometimes necessary to enforce any missed appointments or concerning behaviour. Enforcement was insufficient and there were opportunities to take enforcement action that were missed in this case."
Transfer of the Case - The management of Davidson was handed over to another officer. The report said: "The internal handover of this case would have benefited from a more robust handover process."
Ian Lucas, the former Wrexham MP who had raised questions in Parliament about the circumstances that led to Mr Churton's death, told NorthWalesLive: "The report discloses a catalogue of failures by the private Community Rehabilitation Company, none of which have been communicated outside the probation system.
"It is difficult to see how there could be any accountability to the wider public in this set up. It is a licence to cover up mistakes.
"It seems to me that we have an entirely closed probation system. Even when things go wrong, there is no openness."
Wales CRC, a subsidiary of Working Links, went into administration in March 2019, along with its parent company.
The National Probation Service resumed offender management in Wales in December last year.
none of which have been communicated outside the probation system
DeleteSimply not true I know the combined Napo unison branches were in a long battle and safety risks posed by offenders to the public were reported. Indeed much if the branches ongoing reports were blogged here and also noted in the government audits. It was known to the grossley negligent messrs bell and Jones that their staff cutting cash theft bonanza would equate to a failing service. They did not care unless it meant money money money. Both despicable people. They should be on charges for defilictuon and gross recklessness of public safety.
Not wanting to crash your post, Andrew, but can I just point folks to this urgent health message released this morning:
ReplyDeleteNHS England & Paediatric Intensive Care Society: "In the last three weeks, there has been an apparent rise in the number of children of all ages presenting with a multi-system inflammatory state requiring intensive care across London and also in other regions of the UK... There is a growing concern that a [COVID-19] related inflammatory syndrome is emerging in children in the UK, or that there may be another, as yet unidentified, infectious pathogen associated with these cases.
The cases have in common overlapping features of toxic shock syndrome and atypical Kawasaki Disease with blood parameters consistent with severe COVID-19 in children.
Abdominal pain and gastrointestinal symptoms have been a common feature as has cardiac inflammation. Please refer children presenting with these symptoms as a matter of urgency."
Thanks for that - it is more important than what I posted - I had heard that - I just hope my grandchild is OK and especially the other children I know. The best I seem to be able to do is to keep self-isolating - I fear if I or my wife get it, we will be badly effected due to other health issues as well as our age. My fear is a painful death or passing it on to others. I feel a sense of frustration that I did not do more to campaign so that we had a government and our local councils better prepared and resourced.
DeleteWhen I was a parish councillor about 30 years ago - my local district council had a full-time emergency officer in post with systems to respond right down to parish level - I am fairly sure the county council was the lead authority. We had our parish divided up for monitoring, but fortunately we have never had a big local emergency and the system seems to have diminished to zero.
When we worked out the consequences to us of not leaving the house and trying to minimise the journeys our essential worker son does on our behalf - we found just how poor are our local services - mostly because we have not exclusively purchased from independent local businesses. Fortunately we have done enough for those local services to set up delivery schemes because the three supermarkets who serve our area and have effectively put out of business dozens of small shops – and now simply cannot even be contacted for an order - the milk deliverer - recently bought out by a large international concern can just about keep up and our GP & pharmacy have systems of delivering medicines and either doing routine blood tests in the car park - or taking patients into a room one at a time from the front-door so we are managing ok.
But it must be horrendous for folk with children indoors all the time, especially folk without any sort of garden or yard. the blog has not featured these issues much - which is understandable especially when face to face work in courts, probation and prisons seemed to be so badly prepared for such an emergency.
We need to vote and campaign with more care and determination in future - if we survive.
BBC website:-
ReplyDeleteThere will be a minute's silence across the UK at 11:00 BST on Tuesday to remember key workers who have lost their lives to coronavirus. Government workers will take part, and No 10 said it hoped others will too.
Boris Johnson has backed the plan, following a campaign by the Royal College of Midwives, the Royal College of Nursing, and Unison, the union.
At least 90 NHS staff have died since 25 March, as have many care and transport workers. The prime minister's official spokesman said the government supported the idea.
"We will be asking everybody who works in the government to take part and we would hope that others will take part nationwide as well," the spokesman said.
Speaking at the Scottish Government's daily coronavirus briefing, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon encouraged everyone "at home" to join the silence. Ms Sturgeon said the tribute will be "particularly, but not exclusively" for health and care workers. The silence will provide an opportunity to pay tribute to those who have died as a result of their work to serve, care for and save others and it will be a further reminder that of all the duties Government bares during a situation like this, the most vital is our obligation to keep care and health workers safe," she said.
The minute's silence is timed to coincide with International Workers' Memorial Day. Dame Donna Kinnair, chief executive and general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said the"moment "will bring together a sombre but grateful nation."
Dame Donna said, "Whether in nursing or driving buses, our heroes kept going to work when many had the luxury of staying at home. Nobody should go out to work and risk their life. This must not be the last time that sacrifice is recognised. The country and its leaders owe a tremendous debt to these key workers and the many more who are on shift again today."
Earlier, the prime minster spoke in Downing Street as he returned to work after recovering from coronavirus. The prime minister's spokesman said Mr Johnson is "back full-time" and "ready to get back to work".
https://www.google.com/amp/s/news.sky.com/story/amp/coronavirus-families-of-frontline-nhs-and-social-care-staff-who-die-with-covid-19-to-get-60k-11979573
Deletehttps://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-population-management-strategy-for-prisons
ReplyDeleteBriefing paper-interim assessment of impact of various population management strategies in prisons in response to COVID-19 pandemic in England.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/881565/hmpps-phe-addendum-270420.pdf