The Guest List

This week Gill and I participated in a stakeholder interview for the Wigan Deal refresh, a £90,000 six month contract won by Collaborate CIC and IPPR. I’d like say I feel hopeful about the process, and at the same time it’s difficult to feel hopeful when you feel the tight clutch of the Council on process and narrative. 

Firstly, we had to make ourselves known to the process, invite ourselves in. We weren’t on the list. Apparently the men who are in charge of creating and picking the people who will form part of a dispersed leadership model for the VSCE sector, (without involvement of existing networks – or maybe just us), said they put us forward, but our names obviously didn’t make the guest list.

Secondly there’s an insight / sense making group that’s been appointed that no one knows the process for selection. It hasn’t been advertised, but handed to the consultants by the Council. In fact, there’s been no information at all about this work through any of the Council or VSCE networks, so I imagine focus groups are selected too. I tell a lie, there was a presentation, with no detail about how to contribute at a community event were way more than 80% of attendees were public servants. The only serious detail there’s been was a post recruiting consultants via Linked In. I could probably write the names of the people who make it to the groups.  I mean, this isn’t peculiar to Wigan. Its most definitely a theme that’s emerged within GM System Changer spaces too.

As I said to the consultant, who really listened to what we had to say. ‘If the Deal was so good, why do we need you to do this work? Why aren’t we able to do this ourselves? 

In my view, it’s an easy option to bring in consultants. Short time frames, little context and hand fed the voices the commissioners wants to be heard. I’d emailed the Council to suggest another way of spending the money. I remember winning a contract for a piece of evaluation for a North West Council back in 2016 when I set up RIPEN, a training and development company. I was really naive and didn’t realise they didn’t want me to actually tell the truth.

In my opinion it would take real courage to convene a group of people with differing views, some close to partnership processes, some distant. It would have been courageous to open this out widely and see what emerges rather than control it with a firm grip. Instead I imagine Gill and I will once again look like the lone voice, which is easy to discount as complainers and confine to one line in a report.

In truth, we’re only saying things that many people have shared in confidence, but don’t have the courage or independence to say out loud. Those firmly rooted in paternalistic relationships and stuck in saviour patterns, might hold a different view. Some say they like small wins and prefer to let the big institution think they run the show and come up with all the ideas. Personally I prefer to step outside of the adult / child relationship. 

Let’s wait for the report and recommendations. Even though the consultants are good eggs I still feel that it’s better not to hold my breath. I imagine the language of the Deal will be dumped, and there might be less centring of  the Council and obligating people to say they are proud to work with them whenever they receive a tiny amount of cash, with a Council logo, that usually a overpowers and overshadows the groups logo. So at least our nagging and jestering at the edge has had some impact. And to be fair, we’re making some good relationship ground with some teams. Perhaps that’s the best place for us to sit, given how weak scrutiny is in the borough. It feels like there’s no room or place for dissent. Maybe we’re like the kid that discloses the familys more toxic secrets.