I defected from the public sector in 1999 and started up Unique Coffee Bar because I thought there was a better way to work with young people than the Youth Service – although I have to say if the Youth Service hadn’t given me a secondment and kept my old job open for three years, Unique probably wouldn’t be here now.
Unique was 100% grant reliant at first which I soon realised wouldn’t be sustainable. We created an Alternative Education course which we sold to local schools and that put us on the road to becoming a social enterprise. We never looked back.
So, a BIG thanks to Nottinghamshire County Council for the secondment opportunity. It gave me a safety net to try out different things at Unique without worrying about my job, like trading rather than relying on grants.
I reckon there are loads of social entrepreneurs in the public sector – someone once described us as ‘misfits’ – people who just don’t quite fit in the public sector and just need a trigger.
My trigger was a secondment offer and a desire to help a group of young people do something amazing in a small market town in Nottinghamshire.
Perhaps a few more secondment opportunities would help public sector misfits break free...
