Belu launch their latest impact report

Charitable social enterprise and worker-owned co-op GLL have announced 2,830 athletes from across the UK will benefit from the 2025 intake of its GLL Sport Foundation (GSF) – the largest independent athlete award programme in the UK. Now in its 17th year the GLL Sport Foundation has so far contributed over £17m worth of athlete funding and support and distributed over 30,000 awards to young and talented athletes in 70 areas of the UK where GLL operate and across 117 different sports.  At a National Launch Event held in the London Borough of Newham on 25 April, athletes and partners gathered to hear how this year's athlete award fund of over £1.4m will help support talented athletes on their sporting journey.  GLL added Newham to its list of leisure partnerships in 2024, extending the opportunity of the GSF Awards to east London's sports stars of tomorrow.   The GSF supports athletes through financial bursaries, access to physical rehabilitation and mental wellbeing support and all athletes are also given access to over 250 sport and leisure facilities across the UK operated by GLL under its "BETTER" brand. Over 17 years, the GLL Sport Foundation (GSF) has continued to be at the forefront of developing local young athletic talent with the majority of athletes under the age of 21 and on average 88% of athletes receive no other funding or athlete support, which underlines the importance of the scheme to up and coming athletes.  GLL’s recent research shows that many talented athletes struggle to realise their dreams of sporting glory due to rising costs of equipment, training, physiotherapy, travel and nutrition. For them, a GSF Award can be the lifeline to staying in training and meeting their potential. Current GSF National Ambassadors include Joe Clarke, Kimberley Woods, Tulley Kearny, Louise Fiddes, Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson and amongst GSF Alumni are Tom Daley, Ellie Simmonds, Daryl Neita and Anthony Joshua. GSF Patron Sally Gunnell OBE said: “Now in its 17th year, the GLL Sport Foundation continues to make a difference, extending support for young athletes just at the time when they need it - keeping them in training and helping them realise their sporting dreams. "It's fantastic to see so many young sportsmen and women accessing the scheme this year and I wish them the very best of luck in their sporting careers." GSF Chair and GLL CEO Peter Bundey said: “GLL is a unique organisation that over 32 years has expanded its public service offer, bringing measurable benefit to local communities. “Our GLL Sport Foundation is a key part of our remit to widen and deepen our social impact by offering unique opportunities to talented young athletes and build a legacy through sport. “Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors and our own purposed business model we are delighted to announce a record 2,830 athletes will benefit from the programme this year. I want to wish them every success and we look forward to seeing them in competition here and abroad in years to come." GSF Legacy Ambassador and Athlete Representative on the GLL Sport Foundation Abdul Buhari said: “As an athlete that's had a career in sport, I know firsthand for the impact the GSF has in both a practical and financial sense. "The cost of training and preparation remains high, and I know many athletes will be able to succeed because these awards remove another barrier to competition. "The ability to do something you are passionate about with the help of GSF is priceless”.                                             The GSF Annual Report will be released shortly.  For more information visit www.gllsportfoundation.org The GLL Sport Foundation's Patron is Sally Gunnell, OBE and partners involved in the programme include; SportsAid, SportsAid Wales, Mary Peters Trust, sponsors from GLL's supply chain and local authority partners.

Social enterprises had plenty of ideas about the different ways they could significantly increase their positive social impact during the first evidence session of the Social, Cooperative and Community Economy All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG)’s inaugural inquiry into the government’s commitment to grow diverse business models this week. Co-op and social enterprise leaders also listed straightforward and low or no cost barriers that the government could remove.  Peter Bundey, CEO of GLL, which operates 254 of the UK’s leisure centres, explained how supporting social enterprises would help with the government’s economic growth ambitions. “A 10% increase in our company would get 100,000 people more active and create 1000 more jobs,” he said. In terms of productivity, this could help a lot with the £138bn lost to sick days, he added. Whilst acknowledging “commendable aspiration” around social value and procurement, Bundey said progress was being held back by “conservative legal restrictions on public service procurement” and asked that the guidance and legislation that surrounds public sector commissioning is clarified.  “We need clarification so that councils can be more agile, more innovative and more prescriptive about wanting civil society organisations rather than turning to lowest cost,” said Bundey.  Peter Westall, Chief Value Officer of the Midcounties Co-op (which runs travel and childcare services as well as the familiar local Co-op shops) told the inquiry “We could do more, but the biggest challenge we face is cost pressures.”   The inquiry heard that a more unified, strategic approach to supporting the social enterprise sector was needed, with greater support, legislative reform, better access to finance, and a greater understanding of the value social enterprises bring to the economy and society.  Legislation  With revenues of £850m, 650,000 members and 6000 employees, Mid Counties Co-op made a profit of £12.4m last year but faces an increased National Insurance bill of £9.3m following changes for employers introduced in April.  Westall thought the government could help by changing ‘one size fits all’ legislation that means Midcounties Co-op face similar business rates and taxes on plastic packaging for their shops as supermarkets that operate giant stores in retail parks. His view was echoed by Social Enterprise UK (SEUK) CEO Peter Holbrook, who asked the government to consider how tax could be used to incentivise good behaviour for businesses, particularly around business rates and corporation tax.   Grace Harrison, Organisational Development Lead at Kitty’s Launderette (pictured above), a coop and community hub in Liverpool, asked that community right to buy legislation be tightened up so social enterprises could find properties to operate from.   Harrison also introduced an idea she’d encountered in Italy, where legislation requires both public and private employers with more than 15 employees to hire a certain percentage of disabled people. Employers can also fulfil the quota by entering into agreements with social value organisations. “This has massively transformed the access to work opportunities for disadvantaged groups,” said Harrison.  Access to finance  Finding investment to grow remains an issue for social enterprises irrespective of size. Midcounties Co-op is one of the biggest UK childcare providers offering nearly 4000 places and Westall explained they’d like to expand this service but “as a co-op we are unable, as other business types are, to go to the city and raise funds. How do we get additional finance backing to enable us to do the things that we want to do?”. The government has established an advisory group to look at ways of mobilising social impact capital.   Jonathan Atkinson of Carbon Co-op also called for a bigger spectrum of finance options to be made available and described having limited options for using an overdraft from banks unable to assess their business risk as a social enterprise.  More grant-making startup funds were requested by Harrison, who cited a reduction in non-repayable early-stage funding sources.    Support  More awareness and practical support across the board was also requested – for local authority commissioners looking to contract social enterprises and for business support for social enterprises. Westall also suggested that more co-op development agencies were needed, but this was challenged by Baroness Glenys Thornton who thought something broader was needed who said “this isn't just about developing cooperatives, this is about developing social enterprises and social businesses writ large.”  Holbrook thought government officials should establish “a single vision for how cooperatives, mutuals, and social businesses can collectively recover our economy.” He suggested this might take the form of a Social Business Unit so that every government department could benefit from a level of expertise and knowledge about these diverse business models.  This was the first of four evidence sessions for the Inquiry. All the evidence presented will now be collated and incorporated into a report that will be delivered to government and other stakeholders later this year.  

Community Dental Services CIC (CDS) has partnered with Luton Borough Council to deliver a free pop-up dental clinic, at the Park Town Family Hub, for almost 100 local children under 10. The pop-up session combined oral health advice, information on healthy eating and a ‘lift the lip’ assessment by the dental team. Any children found to require further care were signposted to a general dental practitioner or offered appointments with CDS. Luton has above the national average number of children experiencing tooth decay and the initiative was designed to focus on helpful prevention advice for families around key oral health messages and awareness of healthy eating, combined with a dental assessment. Where appropriate an application of fluoride varnish was also offered – an important preventative treatment for many children. The timing, during the Easter holidays, ensured a busy day, and free toothbrushes and toothpaste were handed out for all the children to take home. Helen Paisley, CDS CEO, who also attended and carried out some of the assessments, said: “A pop-up clinic like this is a fantastic initiative and we were delighted to be involved and get out of our clinics and into the community. We know that many children, especially the ‘Covid Generation’ have struggled to access and see a dentist regularly. A pop-up clinic means we can share oral health information, explain and show toothbrushing techniques in a fun and engaging way and provide a simple ‘lift the lip’ assessment to see if any treatment is needed. It is also a really valuable way for children to become acclimatised to seeing the dentist as we know an increasing lack of acclimatisation is contributing to children being more dentally anxious when they do come to our clinics needing care.” About CDS Community Dental Services CIC (CDS) is a 100% employee-owned social enterprise providing community dental services to the NHS and oral health improvement programmes throughout Bedfordshire, Derbyshire, Essex, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk & Waveney, Nottinghamshire and Oxfordshire.  - Together we will enable our communities to enjoy a better quality of life - communitydentalservices.co.uk