SNI Awards, Citizen Hub and St Neots development

26 Aug SNI Awards, Citizen Hub and St Neots development

 Interview held by Ste Greenall from Blackcat Radio and Alex Hughes from St Neots Initiative

Transcript generated by AI, please excuse any mistakes:

Interviewer: I wonder whether Alex Hughes would want to turn back the clock regarding what’s happening at the Citizen Hub at the moment. Let’s just recap. Good morning, Alex, by the way, and thank you for the coffee.

Alex Hughes: You’re very welcome. It’s nice when people bring me a coffee. It’s even nicer when they send a message asking what I’d like, so thank you very much for that. Anyway, I recall having Naomi Watts, who opened the building that was the old Electric Lounge. They did amazing bread there; it was just a lovely place, but sadly, they couldn’t make it work. COVID didn’t help, and the building was shuttered up before it was taken over by the St. Neots Initiative and became the Citizen Hub. Sadly, the doors have closed. Before we talk about why, just tell us a little bit about the background and what was being achieved before you had to close.

Alex Hughes: Yes, brilliant, thank you, and thanks for asking. Essentially, the Citizen Hub was a response to us not having a job centre in St. Neots. For many years, we’ve all been calling for it. In fact, that very unit used to be the job centre 18 years ago, and it was to address a fundamental need for access to employment. Another issue it was addressing was skills. St. Neots is a further education cold spot. For 16 to 19-year-olds, apart from Longsands Sixth Form, there’s no vocational learning available here.

That was the need. When we tried to get a job centre here, it wasn’t going to happen, which is fine. So, we thought, let’s reinvent it. Let’s look at a new model with community at its core. Let’s create psychological safety for people locally because, once they feel safe, we can start to guide them into skills development, whether it be digital skills, employability, maths and English, English as a second language—whatever skills are needed. And then, once ready, we help them into employment. That’s what the Citizen Hub was achieving.

Interviewer: I suppose some people assume that if they’re in work, anyone who wants a job can just go online and find something. But it doesn’t always work that way, does it? Sometimes, you just need a forum where employers and potential employees can meet, and that’s what the Hub was providing.

Alex Hughes: Exactly. And, you know, something I’ve come to appreciate in my time in business is that 30% of jobs are created, not found. What I mean by that is, if I put talent in front of you, you’ll create a job for them, you’ll create opportunities for them. The relationship that St. Neots Initiative has with local businesses—29 years of existence—and my own relationship with businesses in Huntingdonshire and Cambridgeshire meant we could quite literally pick up the phone to directors and say, “Hey, we’ve got talent here, and you should get to know them.”

If you look at the demographic of people using the Hub, they’re actually people closest to work. They’re not coming to the Citizen Hub for the same reasons someone might go to a job centre—they’re there because they want to adjust their career. We had people earning £60,000 to £70,000 in London as software engineers who just wanted to find something local. They didn’t realise we had some amazing tech companies in Huntingdonshire that they could connect with because, if you search online, it’s just a massive jumble of words.

It’s been a wonderful service, and we’ve had, in terms of headline numbers, over 700 people socially prescribed or put into skills training. Socially prescribed might mean they needed help with money advice, so we had money advisors there every Thursday. They might have been struggling with their mental health, so we were triaging and signposting them to appropriate services. In terms of jobs, we had over 135 job applications within the local economy, which is a phenomenal success. The biggest headline is that the job centre in Huntingdon was referring their clients to us for skills and jobs on a weekly basis, which is ironic, but we welcomed it.

Interviewer: Yet the doors have closed. What’s the situation?

Alex Hughes: The provider we partnered with for this project was great. They’re a national provider, they’ve done amazing things, and it’s been a good relationship. They’ve done well in this first year, but they couldn’t continue past August. That was something we learned over the last few months. We’ve been working tirelessly to find a new partnership to bring it back as soon as possible. We were hoping for a seamless transition, but unfortunately, we didn’t get much notice and had just two or three days to vacate.

But I can say that we’re in advanced talks with the landlord and other partners. Everyone sees the social impact that was being made here. We just need a new business model that can sustain itself. That’s key.

Interviewer: So, not closed for good—closed temporarily? Is that fair to say?

Alex Hughes: I have to say it’s officially closed, but I’m very positive that the Citizen Hub, as a brand and a project, has so much energy behind it. The community has been incredibly supportive. Honestly, the reaction to us closing has been overwhelming. I’ve had messages from nearly everyone who owns a space in town, saying, “Come and use our place; we’ll take you in.” So, we’re very confident that the need is there.

We may have been a little early, though. If you look at the bigger picture, with a new government coming in and all the devolution happening within the country, one of the things up for devolution is job centres. Quite frankly, and I’ll be bold here, they’re not working. They’re not providing the service that people in this country need. So, there’s an opportunity to look at a new model, and the Citizen Hub is that model. It’s been cited nationally as a place to look at for inspiration. It was mentioned in the recent Cold Spots Further Education Fund report, done by the Combined Authority, to address the further education cold spot that is St. Neots.

Everything you read about any part of this project, if you look at it from a social value perspective, is nothing short of a success. Unfortunately, when you try to do something new and different, it’s not always straightforward. You have to be agile and entrepreneurial to navigate these challenges. But we’ll find a way, I’m confident of that.

Interviewer: Alex Hughes, I’m sure you’ll find a way. It’s Black Cat Radio, it’s 8:14 on this Bank Holiday morning. Alex isn’t just here to talk about the Citizen Hub because the Initiative has launched the annual awards scheme, and we’ll be finding out how you can enter, how you can nominate someone, and the different categories available.

Interviewer: Last year, I was rather flattered and surprised to attend the St. Neots Initiative Awards as a guest, only to be tapped on the shoulder because I had my back to the stage. Someone said, “Your name just came up on the wall,” and I thought, “What?” But along with Steve Whitney, my good friend, we were nominated alongside Liz Davies for the Community Award. As soon as I saw the nominees, I thought, “Well, Liz is retiring, and she’s contributed far more to this town than I could ever hope to.” I was delighted that she won; I wasn’t in the least bit surprised. I was shocked and stunned to be nominated, in fact. I don’t know who it came from, and I don’t really care, but it was just sweet to be nominated. It’s one of many things I’ve got at home—the certificate I received. If you’re going to be a runner-up to anyone, be a runner-up to Liz Davies.

Alex Hughes: Absolutely, absolutely. And it was much tighter than you thought, actually. The fact that both you and Steve were runners-up shows how incredible all three of you are. From my perspective, as someone who’s only been involved in the community for the last five or six years, I look up to you all tremendously. And then you think about someone like Jeff Watts, who I’d never met before I interviewed him for the Your Voice series. What an astonishing guy he is.

The number of people I’ve subsequently met who still call him “Mr. Watts” because he taught them—it’s incredible. Did you ever manage to cross that divide with any of your teachers, where you started using their first names after you left school, or did you do it anyway?

Interviewer: Well, funny enough, Mr. Watts—and I’m still calling him Mr. Watts—was my neighbour when I was growing up. He lived on my street in Eaton Socon. Yes, I got a few verbal clip-around-the-ears from Mr. Watts as I was growing up. It was really good to see his name come forward at the awards. I was so happy to see him because he’s so well respected in the community. And he still plays hockey—it’s absolutely crazy. It’s always nice when you come across teachers you may have been taught by. I was never taught by Mr. Watts because I never made it to sixth form, and he was teaching there at that time.

Alex Hughes: But you mentioned the word “respect” because it’s written in his DNA.

Interviewer: Oh, 100%. He’s a very respected man, and did you know how much he loves his music as well?

Alex Hughes: Exactly. He just has that energy, that aura about him. Seeing his face at the awards, much like seeing your face—just that lovely surprise for people—it’s wonderful. We were talking about awards and recognition off-air, and I think it’s really important that we acknowledge people. That’s why we call it the Unsung Heroes Awards.

We don’t do this work, and I’m sure Mr. Watts never did his work, in the hope of winning an award one day. I think he did it out of some inner drive and fulfilment. So, it’s really important that we, as a town, celebrate these people.

Interviewer: Recognition is everything. I’m not going to lie for one moment; the award I got last year for what I do here—it still feels surreal. Every now and again, I look at that award on the shelf, and I think, no one can ever take that away from me. There will be a new award winner this year, but for 2023, that was me, and I’ve got my award. I’m going to own it, man. Own it.

Alex Hughes: Exactly. So, tell us a little bit about the award categories. We’ll discuss this more over the next half hour, but could you give us a summary of the five categories that people can nominate for?

Alex Hughes: Yes, of course. We’ve introduced two new categories this year, so I’ll run through them quickly. We have the Sue Jarrett Award for services to the community. Sue was a valued member of the St. Neots Initiative’s promotion and tourism group and vice-chair there. She was very active in the community and well-known. This award is for nominees from the voluntary sector who are unpaid. The criteria include commitment, personal responsibility, demonstrability to give back to their community, and recognised achievements.

Next is the John Davies Award for services to business in the community. Sir John has been a member of the St. Neots Initiative for as long as it has existed. He was the chair for 16 years. This award is about contribution to the business sector, whether it’s a leader within local business or someone who drives local economic growth. The criteria include commitment, personal responsibility, and demonstrating an ability to give back to the community through business.

Then, there’s the John McDonnell Award, which Jeff Watts won last year—sorry, Mr. Watts. This award is aimed at those supporting the sports arena, such as background staff and unpaid administrators. Our sports clubs are run by some of the most incredible people who rarely get a shout-out, so this is a really good one.

We’ve also introduced a manufacturing award, which is for local organisations, considering that 45% of our employment in St. Neots is in manufacturing. This award recognises a positive societal impact as a result of their practices or products. It’s aimed at the employees of these businesses—those who are doing great things for the community.

Lastly, we have the Young Person’s Award, recognising young people aged 17 to 25. This award celebrates their learning, skills, and experiences gained outside of formal education, which are highly valued by employers, colleges, and universities. The criteria include commitment, personal responsibility, and recognised achievements, as well as the ability to challenge themselves. We want to celebrate young talent—those apprentices, those young people who always go the extra mile for their community.

Interviewer: In terms of nominations, anyone can nominate, right?

Alex Hughes: Absolutely, yes. We have physical forms available, which people like Steve are distributing around town. But the easiest way is to go to the St. Neots Initiative website—stneotsinitiative.org.uk—and on the latest article, there are links to a simple Google form where you can submit multiple nominations in one place. You can take 15 minutes out of your day, think about sport, young people, community volunteers, and start putting down names. The deadline is the 14th of September. Once we get the nominations in, each category has been assigned to a subcommittee of the Initiative, who will go through them and have those challenging conversations to determine the winners.

Interviewer: And the whole point is the recognition of individuals, right?

Alex Hughes: Yes, absolutely. We want to make people happy; we want to celebrate those individuals so they can continue their work for another year, and another year after that. How many times do we say, “I’ll do one more year”? So, this is about pausing for a moment to do that. I must say a massive thank you to our sponsors. Urban&Civic and Co-op Care have sponsored this year, which means we can have a little celebration—a hybrid celebration somewhere in town to honour these individuals, with the sponsors and some invited guests. It will be a hybrid online and in-person event—not quite the grand 200+ people event we had last year, but we’re hoping to do something bigger next year. We’re still awaiting our charity status and all the other drama that comes with trying to transition a partnership like the St. Neots Initiative.

Interviewer: If you’ve been listening to what Alex has had to say over the last few minutes, and you know someone who lives in this town or in any of the surrounding villages who might be worthy of one of these awards, you can find all the details on the St. Neots Initiative website. We will certainly be promoting this on our socials and on your socials. You might know someone and want to put it on your Facebook group to say, “Hey Fred, what about this?” You never know who might win. It’s 8:33, we’ll get the news headlines and the weather, then we’ll be chatting to Alex all the way up to nine o’clock.

Interviewer: Michael Jackson, it’s never black and white with you though, Alex, is it?

Alex Hughes: No, never black and white. There’s always a grey area.

Interviewer: The enthusiasm you show for the Citizen Hub, and we’ve been talking off-air about the possibilities, I remain quite confident that something will happen because it’s important to create community spaces.

Alex Hughes: Yes, the latest data shows that in every study done in the UK right now, especially around youth unemployment, which the latest ONS data from Friday highlighted, case studies show that if you’ve got psychological safety, a safe space where you feel comfortable, it allows you to feel better and do more for yourself. From a positioning perspective, we’ve always been the same. I’ve volunteered at the Hub at least two days a week for over a year. When people come in, and I’m there, the space is pretty, and they come in like this bloke who just moved up from London, the best bloke, proper geezer. He came in speaking to me like I was providing a service. Some people see it as a service rather than something to help themselves. He was saying how great it was that we were there to help, but the space is for you to help yourself. If you need access to the network, great. If you need support, whatever you need. But ultimately, this space is for you to help yourself, not as a service.

Interviewer: And that’s something we were really good at—just providing a space for people to come in, have a cup of tea, read a book, and go home if that’s what they wanted. If that’s the service they wanted from this space, then that’s what it was there for. So yes, I’m very positive about what I see happening nationally that gives us hope that this is what was needed, and they will come in different forms. If you look at it in other parts of the UK, there’s a big retail theme around hubs—whether it’s retail hubs, food hubs, innovation hubs, creative hubs. Look at Cambridge with Together Culture; they’ve set up a little hub just outside the Grafton Centre to address some needs there. That’s much more focused on creative industries. I think as long as the community does it for themselves, the hub will sustain. It’s as simple as that.

Interviewer: Something you mentioned earlier, because as you know, I live in Hartford on the outskirts of Huntingdon, and you were talking about the lack of further education options for 16 to 18-year-olds. I was thinking, well, we’ve got Huntingdon Regional College, and they always say that St. Neots is a bigger town now than Huntingdon. Does St. Neots need its own regional college?

Alex Hughes: I think, so something I’m very passionate about is education and youth empowerment. Over the last couple of years, we’ve worked with at least 50% of the schools across Cambridgeshire, so we’ve got good scope. My response to that is I think St. Neots as a town should be confident in saying to any young person that we have something here for you, whether it be in education, in their free time, or in their leisure. We should have things here for people to call their own and engage with. So, if sixth form doesn’t work out for you, fine. There should be an alternative option. The alternative option does not currently exist. I don’t think we’re in a situation where we need to build new colleges. I think there’s enough space in empty units and within the employment base here where we can create education embedded within our environment. That’s my view. I don’t think we need to be building more fancy new buildings when there are already many empty ones. I think we should use what we have and spread out the learning rather than constructing another big fancy college. I just don’t think we’re there yet.

Interviewer: Alex Hughes from the St. Neots Initiative, among many other hats he wears in this town. It’s Black Cat Radio on this Bank Holiday Monday morning. Alex Hughes knows lots of things. Are you familiar with that song?

Alex Hughes: I don’t think I’ve heard it, if I’m honest.

Interviewer: It was huge in the late 70s, early 80s. That song was taken from a film called Breaking Glass. The saxophone solo in it is right up there with Baker Street. It’s beautiful.

Interviewer: In 1987—no, no, it wasn’t 1987—2007 was it? No, do you know what, it was 2017. My life is flashing by before me. Myself and four other people in Huntingdon decided we wanted to bring good live music to the town because it was bereft of it compared to St. Neots. So, we sat around a table in the King of the Belgians and put £500 each of our own money to bring some top-quality music to the town. We organised a concert for Hazel O’Connor in the church in Huntingdon.

Alex Hughes: Wow.

Interviewer: It sold out. We had a couple who came over from France to see it. We had a couple who were holidaying from Florida, staying in London, who heard about it and drove up to watch it. Seeing that saxophone solo being played, we all looked at one another and said, “We did this.” It was one of those astonishing moments. I think we all have thoughts about what we would like to do and when we would like to do it. You have lots of thoughts about how you would like to see the centre of the town develop because there’s been so much conjecture about why they’re spending all this money on the Market Square. What are they doing with it? Will it look nice when it’s done? What’s the Falcon going to look like when it gets refurbished?

Alex Hughes: Blimey, that’s a big question. We’ve only got nine minutes. I think I’m often lauding St. Neots as the most entrepreneurial town in the country, and it’s the centre of the universe, and we’re the fastest-growing town in Cambridgeshire. The excitement around the development of the town is huge. For those who know, you can see the development, you can see the money being spent, you can look at the headlines, and you can see development, development, growth, growth, growth. If Universal Studios happens in Bedford—boom! If the A428 goes well—boom! If Wintringham keeps expanding—boom! Like it or not, growth is happening. So, for me, if I’m in that situation, I’m looking at the Market Square and saying, “What’s the opportunity to get businesses along on that journey with us?” That’s the most important thing for me. Are we being engaged with? You’ve got all the skills and all the expertise, let’s be honest, right? Having spent a lot of time working with the authorities in many different capacities, with many different hats, as you alluded to earlier, I engage at a director level and a council level with every layer of our government in some form, whether it be with youth, with the work I do with the St. Neots Initiative, the Citizen Hub, whatever.

If you look at it, they’re not massive teams. They don’t have huge teams with loads of expertise inside. They have to go out and get consultation, they have to get other experts in. Well, you’ve got a lot of experts right here in St. Neots. Look at what James Long and his team have done with Behemian. Look at Ian McLaughlin, going from running a flooring shop in the Market Square to nearly seven figures in turnover, which is just unheard of. Yes, that comes with challenges because, when you’re doing work on the square, you’ve got to get the lorry in, and Ian’s been quite vocal about those issues. It comes with a lot of issues. I think, while we absolutely have massive issues with business rates—rates need to be looked at; they just need to be overhauled—business rates are a problem not just here but across the country. We need to start engaging with the landlords.

Ultimately, the council can’t control much of what’s happening on the high street because they don’t own anything anymore, quite frankly. HDC owns the Rowley Arts Centre—talk to them about that. But the Market Square and all the properties around it are owned by private landlords. Who’s speaking to them? Who’s having those conversations? Who’s having meaningful discussions with them as a collective, with the businesses? Once you’ve got that view, you can start to layer it on. That’s why we hold citizen gatherings, as you know, from the St. Neots Initiative. We’ve had over 1,000 people through citizen gatherings and business leaders’ gatherings because we’re taking the voice and the opinion of citizens—what they want—and then giving businesses the opportunity, because they have the agency, to react and work together.

So, the long answer to what would I do: I would go into deep co-design with our businesses and entrepreneurs in the area to support and layer in the support of the local authorities. The challenges that come with that right now are: who’s in charge? Who’s making the decisions? Who’s bringing all these parties together? I haven’t been invited, so I don’t know if it’s happening, but I haven’t seen a strategy. I’d like to see a strategy.

Interviewer: Alex Hughes from the St. Neots Initiative, before we let you go, just give us a recap once again, if you would, of the categories for the awards. When will they be? You mentioned this hybrid event—have you got a date for it yet?

Alex Hughes: Yes, it’ll be in October. The date slips my mind, but I’ll make sure it’s on the social media posts that we can share later. I appreciate you doing that. It’s mid-October when we’ll have the celebration. I’m sure Debbie will probably text us both now if she’s listening. But the nominations need to be done by the 14th of September, and anyone listening to this right now just needs to get online or get on the St. Neots Initiative website, or if you want to drop by the studio, I can give you a piece of paper, an A4 sheet with all the categories on it.

Interviewer: What are the five categories up for grabs, Alex?

Alex Hughes: Yes, so we’ve got the Sue Jarrett Award for services to the community—this is about someone doing work as a volunteer, unpaid, showing commitment, personal responsibility, and giving back to the community with recognised achievements. Then there’s the John Davies Award for services to business in the community—someone in our business community going above and beyond, really focused on social impact in the town. We’re looking for a real placemaker. Then, the John McDonnell Award, which is the Sports Award. This is all about commitment and personal responsibility when it comes to developing the sports arena, which, by the way, is booming in St. Neots. I won’t talk about the Sports Collective now, but if you’re interested in sport and want to see it grow, you need to join the St. Neots Initiative and join Tanya and Michael, who are heading up the Sports Collective. What they’re doing is just profound.

We’ve also got the Manufacturing Award, which is for someone who works in the manufacturing sector—it could be an apprentice, a long-serving member of staff who’s done great things when it comes to societal impact through that business. And last, but certainly not least, is the Young Person Award—this is for a young person who has shown a commitment, personal responsibility, challenges themselves, always wanting to learn, and develop their skills, mostly through experiences outside of formal education. These are the people we want to celebrate.

Alex Hughes: Just to recap, the deadline for nominations is the 14th of September. You can get forms from Steve, from me, or by messaging the St. Neots Initiative on Instagram and Facebook. Let’s get these award nominations in by the 14th of September, and then we look forward to celebrating with everyone in October.

Interviewer: Thanks very much for joining me this morning. You get off to the park, and I’m going to get off to the back garden to have my poached egg and avocado on toast. I’ll be back here on the Full English Breakfast Show tomorrow morning. Ta-da!