‘No More Business as Usual - a Social Enterprise Manifesto'  

The Social Enterprise Coalition has urged the next government to support social enterprise to increase its contribution to the economy threefold by 2020.

The ambitious target forms the central plank of ‘No More Business as Usual - a Social Enterprise Manifesto' which was released on the 16th February.  

The manifesto aims to raise the profile of social enterprise in the run up to a general election and show how social enterprise can meet public demands for a more ethical approach to business.

Written by the Social Enterprise Coalition, the UK's national body for social enterprise, the manifesto was developed in collaboration with social enterprises across the UK, and it details ways in which certain key policy changes could help social enterprise maximise its impact.  Read it in full here.

Do you know of, or run, social enterprise post office or postal services?

Consumer Focus have commissioned us to construct a national inventory of social enterprises that offer post office and postal services. We are working with the Plunkett Foundation to develop this inventory, which will include data for urban and rural social enterprises.

Included within this will be:

• Social enterprises that have taken over post office services, especially following closures
• Social enterprises that have introduced post office services
• Social enterprises set up to run post office services
• Social enterprises offering mail services outside of a post office contract where people can buy stamps and post parcels or send things by Recorded / Special Delivery)

If your social enterprise fits into any of these categories, or you know those that do, please contact Jon Woolfson jon.woolfson@socialenterprise.org.uk with the details.  

Ministry of Justice Social Enterprise Conference

The Ministry of Justice is hosting a conference in London on 4th March to promote understanding of social enterprises and raise awareness of opportunities to staff across the criminal justice service.

The conference is free and open to anyone with an interest in this area of work.  If you wish to attend, please send an email to thirdsector@justice.gsi.gov.uk.

Social enterprises working with the National Offender Management Service

The Coalition and the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) have recently published a report mapping the existing NOMS involvement with the third sector. 

The report, written by Concilium, highlights where social enterprise are delivering services to offenders, identifes good practice and potential barriers, and discusses the opportunities available in an increasing role for social enterprise in the delivery of offender management services. The research aims to inform policy and lead to greater collaboration between NOMS and social enterprises and can be accessed here.

CIC Regulator Response

The CIC Regulator has published its Response and Impact Assessment to the Consultation on the Dividend and Interest Caps. In summary, the proposed changes remove the reference to the Bank of England base rate from the interest and dividend per share cap and increase the differential between these two caps by 10%.

These changes will come into force on 6 April 2010. As part of the review, likely to be in two to three years, the Regulator will gather evidence of the impact of these changes.

Please click here to go to the full published document.

Funding future jobs in social enterprises

 The Social Enterprise Coalition is interested to know more about the plans of social enterprises to create jobs over the coming months.  The Coalition is especially interested to know more about experiences in relation to the Government's Future Jobs Fund.  This very short survey should take up no more than five minutes of your time and will help us to inform our policy position.