The Office of the Third Sector

We are a strategic partner of the Office of the Third Sector (OTS).

The OTS leads the work across Government to foster a supportive environment for a thriving third sector - social enterprises, cooperatives, mutuals, charities, voluntary and community groups - thus enabling the sector to campaign for change, deliver public services, promote social enterprise, and strengthen communities.

The OTS was created in May 2006, incorporating the responsibilities of the 'active communities' directorate in the Home Office, and the social enterprise unit in the Department for Trade and Industry.

Phil Hope MP is the Minister for the Third Sector and regularly speaks at events hosted by the Coalition.

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Equal - a European social fund initiative

Equal was part of the European Union's strategy for more and better jobs, ensuring that no-one is denied access to them. Between 2001 and early 2008, the initiative tested new ways of tackling discrimination and inequality experienced by those in work and those looking for a job.

Equal was structured around nine key themes, one of which was the ‘social economy' (third sector). Though the programme has come to an end the outcomes, outputs and lessons learned will continue to shape the third sector - particularly social enterprise - in years to come.

The programme invested circa £20m and a further £20m levered in match funding across 17 social economy projects in Britain. (Northern Ireland had a separate programme fund). Programme delivery was structured around ‘development partnerships' (DPs). DPs comprised a range of local and regional organisations from the third sector, as well as the public and private sectors. Social economy projects were incredibly diverse and included activities in social franchising, performance improvement, business support, public procurement, employment and training, healthcare commissioning, access to finance and social return on investment (SROI).

Equal and the Social Enterprise Coalition

The Coalition was involved in Equal in both the first and second rounds of the programme. In round one, the Coalition was a partner in the Social Enterprise Partnership (SEP) project. SEP was a national project which focused on two key strands of activity: (i) quality and impact measurement, and (ii) business development and support.

In round two, the Coalition was awarded a contract to manage a national mainstreaming programme. The Coalition was working with all social economy DPs to increase awareness amongst national policymakers and opinion formers of key issues affecting social enterprises.

Also in round two, the Coalition was part of the Equal 'invest' programme which aimed to prepare a selection of social enterprises for growth investment through structured mentoring, with additional consultant support.

There is no Equal initiative in the next round of EU structural funds, but the Coalition is keen to integrate some of the findings and lessons from Equal into the new ESF and ERDF programmes (2007-2013). The Coalition currently sits on the ESF programme monitoring committee and its sub-committee on innovation, mainstreaming and transnationality.

Useful links

Social Economy DPs and their outputs (Equal-Works)

Social Enterprise Partnership (Round One)

Equal Invest

SEC National Mainstreaming Programme - Final Report