Margaret Elliott is a veteran of the social enterprise movement, having launched two co-ops in the 1970s - the Little Women shop and nursery and Little Women Household Services.

In 1994 she set up Sunderland Home Care Associates (SHCA) which has grown into a massive success (Social Enterprise Of The Year at the 2006 Enterprising Solutions Awards), finding work for almost 200 disadvantaged local residents while supplying care to over 500 elderly and disabled people.

The company has a turnover of 1.75 million pounds and is fully employee-owned, with staff receiving above market pay and conditions as well as having a say in all major decisions. Though many lacked formal education before joining, more than 150 employees have now gained NVQ Care and Business qualifications and all the others are currently undergoing courses.

This commitment to their employee-owners has helped the company achieve very low levels of staff turnover, better relationships with clients and a higher quality of care overall, evidenced in consistently high scores from the Commission for Social Care Inspection.

Margaret spoke to the Coalition about how and why she became a social enterprise leader: "In 1973 I was 23 with a five-week old baby and a little girl as well - and then my mum died just before Christmas. It really knocked me senseless, I don't know if you can imagine. It took me a year to pull myself round and the thing that really got me through it was finding out about co-operatives - a type of social enterprise - and how they really change peoples lives, and it gave me this idea to start a shop.

"So I got a group of women friends together who were in the same boat as myself with no qualifications, hardly any money and all of us with small bairns. We began to meet and share ideas and we decided to start a food shop that would have a little nursery upstairs to put the bairns and it just developed from there. "It took us two years to get the money together and get the social enterprise started but then it took off.

Over time I really noticed a positive change in the women involved and in myself and it had a massive effect on me. We were just ordinary women but we were managing to run a successful business. We were earning money and standing on our own two feet and it made us stand taller. I've been absolutely enmeshed in social enterprise ever since.

"Most of the people who come into the SHCA offices have a couple of bairns, they might be single parents - or not, but they'll have no qualifications, no self-confidence, no job. Theyll start getting their training and that lifts them up a bit. Then they get their NVQ and the change is amazing. They really start to feel better about themselves as they feel valued and you can see the result in how hard they work. They feel like theyve got a real stake in the company. You can see it at the AGM when we announce the shares and what the value is and how much we can afford to give out and everybodys like 'wahey!'.

Helping these people lift themselves up to this level of confidence - its the same buzz as when I was 25.

"I was in Hong Kong last year and a group of Chinese people kept asking me 'why didnt you just do it all for yourself and become a millionaire?' and I said that's just not what its about. I dont think 'd have as much passion if it was just about making money. You do get paid of course, we all have to live, but thats not why you do it. You go into it for totally different reasons, because its the right thing to do, because you're changing people's lives.

"But to start one up you have to have staying power because you can so easily be knocked back, you just have to be, not ruthless, but really, really tenacious. You also have to be willing to take a leap of faith, just take a risk and go for it. In Sunderland we grew the business because we wanted to show people that social enterprise is not about playing around the edges, it can be big and still help people change their lives.

"You also need to be married to the ideals because it changes your life. My daughter says Ive got a bug because Ive never considered giving up And its true Ive never thought of doing anything else - why would I?"