News and views

Our Head of Public Affairs, Jovan Owusu-Nepaul, looks into what the latest government reshuffle might mean for social enterprises. Since the Labour government came into office, we have begun to see formal and informal realignments within our democracy and politics. Unquestionably, this will have an impact on the direction of our sector, its future and how social enterprises - with government support - respond to the challenges of today. To anyone interested in the affairs of Whitehall, it won’t have gone amiss that the government has focused on growth throughout the last 14 months. However, with the seemingly unstoppable rise of Reform UK, the public conversation has quickly shifted to the topic of immigration.    Reshuffles are a fact of political life and it’s tempting to speculate about the reasons for the comings and goings of ministers.  At SEUK, our role hasn’t changed: how we can best advocate for our sector? How do we ensure that social enterprises continue to grow? How can they command political support from those in local and national government? And how can we ensure that the broader policy environment recognises the contributions our sector makes to the British economy?    Since the general election, we have strengthened our relationship with Georgia Gould MP, who has now moved from working on public procurement and social value in the Cabinet Office to a new role in the Department of Education. We have collaborated with Alex Norris MP, who is now in the Home Office, and look forward to continuing our work with Department of Culture, Media and Sport Ministers Lisa Nandy MP and Stephanie Peacock MP, whilst warmly welcoming Ian Murray MP to the team. Whilst our work will not change, the same cannot be said for the direction of travel for the government.    This reshuffle provides a deeper insight into the political thinking behind Starmer’s vision for the country. The Birmingham Ladywood MP, Shabana Mahmood has been promoted to Home Secretary, and she has already suggested she’ll do whatever it takes to grip the crisis of boat landings on the English coast.   As the new chief secretary to the Prime Minister, Darren Jones MP is now Starmer’s right-hand man in No10, which should only aid our social enterprise cause, given SEUK met with him before the summer recess. After citing Dame Anita Roddick, founder of ethical business The Body Shop as an inspiration in announcing his new role as the Business Secretary, we’re also optimistic that Peter Kyle MP will prove warm to our sector. Roddick’s widower Gordon has strong social enterprise ties, having helped start The Big Issue and later Divine Chocolate.    Rather like a game of chess, with this reshuffle the government is attempting to be more strategic towards its vision of growth, its command of the borders and its agility in the face of tough opposition. Social enterprises are a readymade key to unlock growth across our country, doing so equitably, with community and with purpose. In the coming months, SEUK will face the political changes coming and continue to leverage our network and relationships, building on the advocacy work of the last year. 

Social Enterprise UK's Director of Research and Policy, Emily Darko, looks at the government's consultation on procurement and social value, what its proposed changes may mean for social enterprises and how they can be improved, arguing that key to everything is a change in culture. At Social Enterprise UK, we’ve long pushed for a public procurement landscape that can better benefit from the wide and deep value that social enterprise delivery brings. In the face of ever-growing complexity and need, it has felt for some time that every step forward in social value or progressive commissioning is countered by lack of capacity, understanding, risk appetite or appropriate investment, and confusion of measurement or tracking. Government’s consultation on procurement and social value, led by Georgia Gould MP, closed on Friday 5 September. It's nice to have a consultation, but I pity the civil servants on the receiving end of this latest approach to improving procurement! What needs to change in commissioning and procurement is culture. Existing legislation broadly allows for all the good practice this consultation implies. The main caveat to this being social value – social value legislation needs more teeth. It needs to cover works and goods. It needs to be mandated.    Reporting, transparency and accountability could help government actors create space to understand and engage with voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations (VCSE’s) beyond the often ‘add-on’ approach at the moment. More is needed to help this work – oversight and scrutiny, training and capacity building, peer learning and best practice sharing. Building on the Contract Readiness Fund commissioned by DCMS in 2022 would be a step in the right direction. And mandating minimum VCSE spend and minimum social value weighting in tenders, alone, is insufficient. But does set a higher minimum bar to start from. The consultation alludes to, but doesn’t clearly set out a vision for change. Better commissioning approaches need co-production, trust, risk-taking and learning. Minimum standards are a start. Options around reserved contracts are a useful move towards commissioners identifying best solutions. But in a context of stretched budgets and stretched staff, improved practice requiring headspace and brains coming together for solutions is key. In more detail, this is how we see the government’s current consultation on procurement can add value: Mandating targets and accountability: a step in the right direction To ensure true accountability and drive meaningful change, government’s proposal to mandate large contracting authorities with a spend of over £100m to set and publish three-year targets for spending with SMEs and VCSEs  should also apply to large suppliers who are recipients of major contracts. 50% of government spend with SMEs is indirect, so it feels a huge missed opportunity (assuming similar demographics within VCSEs) to only focus on direct spend. Targets and reporting alone are not enough. They must be accompanied by a comprehensive strategy to support the sustained growth of VCSE and SME provision. This includes pre-commissioning collaboration, long-term contracting to provide stability, and reserved contracts to open up opportunities. A co-designed social value framework, developed in partnership with social enterprises and sector representatives, is also crucial to ensure that targets are meaningful and deliver genuine public benefit. Transparency as a foundation for change We strongly support the push for greater transparency in the procurement process. Extending the requirements of Section 70 of the Procurement Act to publish information on all payments, including those on below-threshold contracts, can help VCSEs understand where opportunities lie, both as direct suppliers and within larger supply chains. It would also allow external stakeholders to scrutinise data, providing insights into the representation and impact of different suppliers. For this data to be truly useful, it must be accompanied by a clear data framework and methodology, particularly for identifying and tracking social enterprises. Additionally, without meaningful mandates or repercussions for non-compliance, there is a risk that this transparency requirement could become purely a burden on contracting authorities, rather than a tool for positive change. Beyond competition: prioritising quality in people-focused services We agree that there should be flexibility to award contracts for "people-focused services" without competition – as we see the potential of collaborative commissioning through the pioneering work of local government in places such as Greater Manchester, working with social enterprises and coops to overcome profiteering and declining quality of provision in children’s residential services. Current procurement frameworks often fail to deliver cost-effective, high-quality service provision, marginalising VCSEs that are best placed to deliver on these needs. However, simply allowing for this flexibility is not enough to change culture and practice. Clear guidance for commissioners, helping them to adapt to less rigid approaches and to effectively identify and retain the best service providers is needed. How this permissive framework will be used and external regulation to prevent an ongoing cycle of poor-quality provision must be embedded. Flexibility should extend beyond social care to other critical areas such as education and training, health care, and employment support. Strengthening social value: mandating and broadening scope The Social Value Act needs refreshing to mandate social value weighting and delivery, and to expand it to include works and goods, not just services. The consultation’s focus is on a minimum 10% weighting and specific measurement metrics for social value criteria. From our freedom of information work last year, we know that many local authorities don’t consistently achieve this at present. But it is a narrow interpretation of social value's full potential. A holistic measurement approach is needed, one that recognises the deep and embedded social value that social enterprises deliver as part of their core mission. For example, a social enterprise that employs individuals who are furthest from the job market may be incorrectly scored lower than a large for-profit company offering a short-term apprenticeship scheme, if the framework is not carefully designed. Mandatory social value audits for public bodies and large businesses every three years, along with the appointment of an accountable officer for social value in every public body could help. National and local government spend billions each year buying goods and services – and their choices of provider affect whether or not our waterways have raw sewage in them, whether we live in safe housing, our children’s education, support for those of us with disabilities, and care for our most vulnerable friends and family members. Who delivers these services matters. Government can’t do it all. But government can facilitate collaborative, productive ways to ensure that those who do provide public services do so well. And that we get beyond binary arguments about insourcing vs outsourcing to consider new models and approaches that deliver the best possible public services. We welcomed Georgia Gould’s progressive approach and proactive engagement to hear from us and others on what’s needed - and look forward to working with her newly-appointed successor. A consultation is a welcome step. But it needs to sit within the context of a vision for public service delivery that understands and embeds VCSE suppliers as a vital value add. A vision that facilitates all involved to collaborate towards better outcomes for all of us in our daily lives. You can read our full response to the consultation here.

We're delighted to announce the shortlist for the UK Social Enterprise Awards! The Awards are a celebration of everything that makes the social enterprise sector so special, and this year's shortlist really does show the strength, impact and diversity of the social enterprise movement up and down the country. The current shortlist will be joined by some of the winners from the Northern Irish Social Enterprise Awards, the Social Enterprise Awards Scotland, and the Social Business Wales Awards. Here's who's made the shortlist this year: UK Social Enterprise of the Year Sponsored by Keegan & Pennykid The overall award for a social enterprise that has a clear vision, excellence in impact, and that has demonstrated and promoted social enterprise beyond the sector. Centre for Information Resilience CIC Change Please London Early Years Foundation (LEYF) Platfform Tarem Services Limited Useful Simple Trust One to Watch Award Sponsored by PwC The One to Watch Award is for a start-up social enterprise. Key to winning this award is an ability to clearly articulate their future vision and how they are going to achieve it. BALDILOCKS Circular Design Forests With Impact Little Green Change Remade Worcestershire CIO Prove It: Social Impact Award Sponsored by Linklaters For a social enterprise that can truly demonstrate and communicate their impact with their stakeholders. ChangeKitchen CIC Change Please Community Shop The Skill Mill Turning Point Waste to Wonder Worldwide ‘Buy Social’ Market Builder Award Sponsored by Corps Security For a social enterprise, public sector body or private sector organisation that has demonstrably made efforts within its own organisation and remit to create more opportunities to buy from social enterprises. BDO LLP CBRE Global Workplace Solutions Ernst & Young LLP Foodbuy National Highways Siemens Plc Social Investment Deal of the Year Sponsored by Good Finance For an organisation that has been part of a great investment deal in the last 12 months that has helped the social enterprise to grow or the movement as a whole to develop and flourish. Big Issue Invest - Great Oaks College Charities Aid Foundation - Oaks Rise CIC  Firstport - Farmer Jones Academy CIC Livv Investment - Make CIC Resonance - Community Ventures Ltd Middlesborough   Social and Sustainable Capital (SASC) - Social adVentures Wales Council for Voluntary Action - The Community Impact Initiative CIC and Tai Heulwen CIC Public Services Social Enterprise of the Year Sponsored by GLL For a social enterprise for whom the majority of their income comes from the public sector and which delivers public services (for central or local government, NHS, criminal justice or other statutory body). Cumbria Health East Coast Community Healthcare FCMS (NW) Peninsula Dental Social Enterprise Platfform The National House Project (NHP) Consumer Facing Social Enterprise of the Year Available to sponsor For a social enterprise that delivers a retail product or service to the general public. Community Shop Oakhaven Care Tea People Ltd The Dusty Knuckle Bakery Y.O.U Underwear Zaytoun Education, Training & Jobs Social Enterprise of the Year Available to sponsor For a social enterprise in the education, training or employment sectors that can demonstrate excellence in vision and strategic direction, and clearly evidence their social, environmental and community impact. Britain's Bravest Manufacturing Company ICENA LTD Social Enterprise Kent CIC The Community Impact Initiative CIC Well Grounded Jobs CIC WYK Digital Environmental Social Enterprise of the Year Sponsored by Landmarc For a social enterprise in the green and environmental sector with a clear evidenced environmental impact. ChangeKitchen CIC Seagulls Re-Use Ltd The Skill Mill Useful Simple Trust Waste to Wonder Worldwide Y.O.U Underwear Social Enterprise Building Diversity, Inclusion, Equity & Justice Award Available to sponsor Social justice is fundamental to the social enterprise movement. This category is open to all social enterprises who are addressing issues around diversity, inclusion and equity. Growing Well Hatch Enterprise Nemi Teas QueerAF CIC Signalise Co-op Wonder Women CIC Social Enterprise Women’s Champion of the Year Available to sponsor For a woman working in the senior leadership team of a social enterprise who represents excellence in her field of work. Felicia Mattis-Rome - Business Launchpad/Tooting Works Dawn Hewitt - CHUMS CIC Anna Lane - Women in Banking and Finance Camilla Rigby and Rachel Mostyn - Women's Work Lab Ria Hebden - Wonder Women CIC Hannah Oyewole - Young Ladies Club International Impact Award Available to sponsor For a social enterprise working internationally, and which are having a big impact in their field. This award is open to UK-based organisations only with existing international operations. Change Please Stand4 Socks Tea People Ltd The Centre for Information Resilience CIC UK Starfish Project WildHearts Office Ltd Community-Based Social Enterprise of the Year Sponsored by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation This award is for a social enterprise that trades for the benefit of their community, making a real local impact. Bath Spa University Social adVentures Social Enterprise Kent CIC Spark York CIC Tap Social Movement Therapeutic Activities Group CIC Social Enterprise Innovation of the Year Sponsored by Fusion21 A new award is recognising a social enterprise that has brought something truly innovative to market in the past year. Amplify Goods CHUMS CIC City Health Care Partnership CIC GLL Tarem Services Limited WYK Digital Tech for Good: Technology Social Enterprise of the Year Sponsored by Mitie For a social enterprise that uses technology to achieve social impact. Beam Up Ltd Digital Boost Nimbus Disability Pocket Power Signalise Co-op Talent People We are pleased to be working with Cwmpas, Social Enterprise Northern Ireland and Social Enterprise Scotland to deliver the Awards. Awards Sponsors If you're interested in sponsoring the Awards read through our sponsor pack or contact christopher.morgan@socialenterprise.org.uk.

North Northamptonshire has been officially named a Social Enterprise Place by Social Enterprise UK - marking it as a national hub for businesses tackling social and environmental issues through enterprise. This status – awarded to just 35 places across the UK - brings national recognition to the area’s thriving network of social enterprises – organisations that reinvest profits to benefit local people and the planet. Social enterprises are businesses that reinvest their profits to tackle social or environmental issues. In North Northamptonshire, they include community cafés, ethical retailers, arts organisations, employment services and transport schemes – all delivering local impact while supporting the economy. Alison Holland, Chair of North Northamptonshire Social Enterprise Network (NNSE) and founder of social enterprise Brightwayz, co-ordinated the bid to become a Social Enterprise Place. “This is a major step forward for North Northamptonshire,” said Alison. “Being recognised as a Social Enterprise Place gives our local businesses a stronger voice and a platform to grow their impact. “Social enterprises are amazing at addressing social and environmental issues in nimble, creative, ethical, effective ways. We know there is strength in numbers and that by being better connected to other Social Enterprise Places we will be able to learn a lot - and share a lot too. This award is not just about local social enterprises but also about those partners around us such as North Northamptonshire Council who collaborate with and support us”. Peter Holbrook, Chief Executive of Social Enterprise UK, said: “Congratulations to North Northants on being named a Social Enterprise Place. Social enterprises make a huge contribution to the county - from providing community energy and affordable housing to running leisure centres, creative projects, workspaces, credit unions and social care. “Of course, this isn’t possible without the strong resilient network of purpose-led businesses in the area, and North Northants’ social enterprises are already playing an incredibly important role in supporting communities, providing critical services to the public, improving the environment, and helping to grow the local economy. “We hope that getting Social Enterprise Place status will help act as a lightning rod to galvanise the social enterprise community, supercharge the sector's growth and deliver the economic transformation needed for the communities of North Northants so that they can realise their full potential.” Cllr Jan O’Hara, Executive Member for Planning and Economic Growth at North Northamptonshire Council, highlighted the importance of social enterprises in the local economy: “It’s great to see how our local social enterprises are coming together and thriving. Congratulations for achieving this status and we are proud to be supporting this. The newly published North Northants Economic Strategy recognises the importance of local social enterprises for the future growth of the county alongside all the community benefits and added social value these businesses bring.” The NNSE network connects, supports and promotes social enterprises in the county. The group currently has more than 40 social enterprises and welcomes new members from across the area. Its aim is to ensure these organisations have the financial, practical and collaborative support they need to grow and deliver real social and environmental benefit. NNSE is also one of six Aspire NN partner organisations. Aspire NN, funded by North Northamptonshire for three years, supports the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector across North Northamptonshire. Membership of the NNSE network is free to local social enterprises. See www.nnse.org.uk for more information.

To reduce the severe pressure facing children’s services, the government must find alternatives to private equity profiteering, reform procurement for public benefit, and support partnerships between local authorities and social enterprises and cooperatives, MPs were told last week. Speaking at the first roundtable of the Social, Cooperative and Community Economy All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on public service provision, parliamentarians, local authority commissioners, and social enterprise providers explored the systemic barriers hampering effective care for society’s most vulnerable children and heard how mission-led providers could be better supported to deliver it. Challenges facing children’s residential services Provision for children needing an alternative to remaining within their immediate family is stretched across local authorities due to rising demand, funding cuts, procurement and commissioning limitations. Not enough children stay with extended family, foster care supply is limited – in part due to issues around access to appropriate properties. And residential care provision is too often in the hands of expensive, out-of-area, profiteering providers who don’t provide holistic and joined-up care.   Local authorities are struggling. The roundtable heard that 46% of councils are overspending their budgets by 20% or more, with many citing children’s services as the primary cause. The dominance of private equity was repeatedly identified as a structural issue. In Greater Manchester alone, 50% of children’s care providers are controlled by private equity firms, many of which are offshoring profits. “Private equity extracting profit and offshoring needs to stop” said one attendee. Barriers to positive children’s social care provision Social enterprise, co-op and charity provision offers cost-effective solutions – cost-effective not only because they aren’t off-shoring high profits, but because provision is child-centred, trauma-informed, locally-based and – increasingly – co-designed with local authorities around need and capacity. What is stopping this being the norm everywhere? Funding and finance Accessing suitable finance remains one of the greatest barriers to expanding mission-driven businesses’ children’s residential care provision. The upfront cost of setting up residential care - from property to compliance - was highlighted by attendees as prohibitive. One provider described “£100,000 runway costs” before a home can begin accepting children. Sourcing the right type of finance takes time, finance can be expensive, and grant funding is often too short-term or restrictive. A social investor told the roundtable: “We need more patient, impact-aligned capital and government funding can act as a catalyst for social investment.” Commissioning and regulatory constraints The procurement framework within local authorities, designed originally for large-scale goods provision, isn’t fit for the purpose of securing quality services at a local level – and as such often biases towards provision by profiteering firms.   Variations in planning regulations between local authorities mean mission-led providers face very different commissioning and regulatory issues depending on geography. Differences in commissioning culture, for example, mean that some councils are seen as risk-averse and less likely to facilitate mission-led provision. Similarly, in some areas, residential homes can be set up with minimal bureaucracy but elsewhere regulatory loopholes around approval of buildings and scale of provision can be prohibitive. Workforce challenges and high churn The absence of a professionalised workforce, including a lack of recognised qualifications or progression pathways, was cited as a major issue for provision. Low pay, lack of professional development, and poor status in the sector all contribute to workforce churn. One attendee described this as “entirely inappropriate,” given the responsibility care workers hold. Turnover of managers is particularly disruptive, as care homes must be reinspected by Ofsted even if managers move between sites within the same organisation. The lack of a “passport” system for staff was flagged as a fixable bottleneck. Social enterprise solutions: building local, trauma-informed care Despite these barriers, social enterprises, cooperatives, and other diverse mission-led businesses identified how they can provide more stable, child-focused, and community-rooted models of care. Finance and investment The UK’s social investment market now stands at £10 billion, creating new opportunities for blended finance. Social AdVentures, a Salford-based social enterprise, was held up as an example of how social investment and combined authority support can enable new models though convening multiple actors remains a complex task. Mission-led alternatives to private equity Social enterprises reinvest surpluses into services, enabling them to focus on long-term, trauma-informed care. They are well placed to support children with complex needs and prioritise relationships and wellbeing over short-term profit. Mandating open-book accounting and capping profits - currently up to 40% for some private equity firms - were floated as policy options to level the playing field. Localised, values-led commissioning Reserving contracts for public benefit organisations is already happening in parts of the UK, and speakers suggested this approach could inform wider policy. Ministers were urged to embed social value more directly into commissioning decisions. Roundtable attendees highlighted examples of small-scale provisions to address the acute needs of children with complex care requirements, as well as the value of long-term partnerships between providers and local authorities to ensure sustainable care solutions. Regional Care Cooperatives (RCCs), being developed through the Department for Education with the intention they will allow local authorities to partner with providers in a more integrated way, were discussed as a promising structure, potentially offering a single point of contact and shared vision for care. Professionalising and empowering the workforce Several solutions focused on improving staff conditions and morale. Social enterprises were praised for involving staff in business planning, providing training, and minimising reliance on agency staff – which can be a runaway cost in children’s services provision. Attendees called for structured training programmes and better career pathways, noting that 22% of children’s homes currently have no registered manager. Professionalising care roles and offering qualifications would improve retention, stability, and ultimately, outcomes for children. Asks and ambitions for reform As the government launches consultations into procurement reform, parliamentarians present, including Georgia Gould MP (the Cabinet Office Minister responsible for public sector reform) and Josh MacAlister MP, heard clear evidence that social enterprises are already delivering, but need the right support to sustain and scale. The current system is not built with social enterprises in mind; new legislation and guidance must explicitly create space for mission-led providers to flourish, providing cost-effective solutions with quality service outcomes. Attendees stressed that this will require bravery among commissioners, and for local authorities to be supported in taking creative, child-centred risks. Speakers also called for a fundamental shake-up of the care model, moving away from crisis-driven residential placements toward more flexible and therapeutic alternatives. Attendees called for the NHS to take a more direct role, one noting that “health sits on a lot of money and they are responsible for these children.” Greater alignment between social care and Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAHMS) was seen as essential to building joined-up, trauma-informed support. Ultimately, the ambition of roundtable participants was clear: to build a children’s care system that starts with the child, not the contract. That will require longer-term funding, shared purpose, and a willingness to put public value above private gain.

The 10 Year Plan feels like it's taken a lot of lessons from social enterprise models. But the Plan still seems blind to the significant contribution social enterprises make in delivering services, writes Social Enterprise UK Associate Director, Dan Gregory. Today (3 July) saw the much-heralded launch of the Government’s 10 Year Health Plan for England. It tells us three important things about the thinking in Wes Streeting’s department. First, this is a 10-year plan. Yet this Government has been elected for a 5-year term. So, this is ambitious, it’s aspirational. And perhaps a little detached from reality. Second, they see the launch of a document as significant. From all the recent invitations Social Enterprise UK has received from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), they are very keen that we read the output of what they’ve been doing for nearly a year. Even if they remain less keen to listen to what we have to say. Third, this is the Plan that will lead to delivery. To change. To the future of the NHS. What's in the Plan? But how? What is in the Plan? What does it say? The plan is long (166 pages) as we might expect. But is remarkably short on how. It helps to have ambitions before you set off, of course. But this isn’t really a complete plan. More of a direction. Perhaps this is wise, and Streeting understands that dictating everything from the top down or centre out is not the answer. The department is directing whilst not directing – the Plan is “tight on what, loose on how”. It’s less of a plan and more a series of bets, trials, pilots and avenues to explore. Change will be slow. New Foundation Trusts (FTs) and Neighbourhood Health Centres will be gradually rolled out through programmes. Various other whizzes – a Choice Charter and Patient Power Payments - will be trialled and “rolled out progressively". On the money side, "in the next 3 years we will make a start on the journey to establishing a new financial foundation." New tariff models will be slowly phased in. New "year of care" payments will be trialled in pioneering areas. Later this year they will "publish a 10-Year Workforce Plan". Of course, this may be quite sensible. But it’s clear that much of the plan is still to be designed and delivered. The new operating model will be "devolved and diverse". This means more messiness in the medium term for sure. But what’s the direction then? Well, the ambition is great. And it’s very much aligned with the ethos and experience of our social enterprise members working in health and care. The ambitions are around prevention and community. Empowered staff, with agile and autonomous models embedded in the local community. Financial incentives to break even and reinvest. Some of this is even quite explicit: "more money towards areas with disproportionate economic and health challenges". Great. No more bailing out FTs in deficit. Good. Hospitals will be expected to “do more as anchor institutions to support wider societal and economic goals. Through their procurement, supply chains and role as an employer, they have significant influence over social and economic development in their communities.” Also good. FTs will have more freedoms to retain surpluses, reinvest them and borrow for capital investment”. Indeed, they will be more like social enterprises. Then of course, there is a lot on the NHS app, on AI and other innovations which I won’t attempt to summarise here, even if I understood them. But some of the detail is rather more troubling. The big new idea is the Neighbourhood Health Centres which will “co-locate NHS, local authority and voluntary sector services, to help create an offer that meets population need holistically” a good idea, for sure. But who is going to tell local charities and social enterprises they are going to have to relocate - is that what this means!? Meanwhile, the financing of new Neighbourhood Health Centres looks a lot like a new wave of Private Finance Initiatives. Then the Plan also seems to effectively nationalise Healthwatch, which was a social enterprise experiment that will now be forgotten and airbrushed away. What about social enterprises? What does it say about social enterprise? There are (phew!) a few mentions. So, we have the recognition we wanted as a baseline – the flag in the sand. Indeed, there are also two case studies - Primary Care Sheffield and Live Well Manchester, which are built around social enterprise. But unhelpfully, the Plan refers to social enterprise at one point as "outside the NHS", which is infuriating. Perhaps, this is partly our fault for reinforcing this idea? I am often annoying our members by asking them to say, “We span out of the public sector” rather than “out of the NHS”. We are part of the NHS! This is indicative of the wider problem here. Large parts of the Plan don’t recognise at all that significant chunks of NHS services are not delivered by the public sector. Where it says - "every NHS provider should be an FT" - it clearly means every public sector provider, not every social enterprise, hospice or GP practice. This blind spot is maddening and doesn't seem to want to go away. Social enterprises deliver several billion of pounds’ worth of NHS services but still we are forgotten and fall between the cracks when it comes to the backlog bonus, access to digital and capital investment, CPD resources, international nurse recruitment, and the list goes on. At Social Enterprise UK, we keep fighting to be included and not forgotten and pull all the advocacy levers we can lean on. Sometimes we win! Some parts of DHSC and NHSE listen. But others don’t. We are currently working with some very engaged NHSE officials on equal access to digital investment, which will be even more critical as these pots of money grow. We are talking to NHSE about how their new structures within DHSC might replicate the old Social Enterprise Unit. But the next day we meet a senior strategist who doesn’t even know that in West Yorks, Plymouth, Bristol, Nottingham. Grimsby, Medway and beyond, we are the NHS outside of hospital. We provide urgent out of hours care to 2/3 of the population. Yet we are nearly invisible to some system leaders. Maybe they don’t like us. Maybe we are too awkward. Maybe we don’t fit and they know it, and hope we go away. Or maybe they know we aren’t where the problems are, and they are mainly focused on the problems. Maybe NHSE and DHSC are just a mess and half the staff are facing redundancy. Or maybe the NHS is simply a massive, complex system equivalent in size to the Hungarian or Moroccan economies. Influencing a system of that scale is a Sisyphean task. We keep on regardless! The Plan ends with a Wes Streeting afterword entitled "Be the Change", which many will know is the well-established motto of the social entrepreneur. While the system largely ignores us, and even puts barriers in our path, it also seems to be moving our way, and trying to build an NHS more like us. While we aren't winning (though also maybe not losing) the battle of ideas and policy, across the country we are winning in practice, through the daily work of our members and their staff, leading the way. Health and care social enterprises will carry on delivering the future, whatever the plan. To see a few examples of how social enterprises are already transforming the delivery of health and social care across the country, read our series of case studies produced in partnership with King's Fund and Baxendale.

For impact to work, it can’t exist in a silo. Most profit-focused businesses are beholden to their shareholders and owners to generate as much revenue as they can, with no real obligation to give back. That is not the focus of social enterprise. Our business model centres purpose, and the best way to purposely serve your community is to work with the community. Cooperation is the name of the game. A strong role model of purpose-led community activity can be found in Ashford, named a Social Enterprise Place thanks to its collaborative ecosystem. “Collaboration throughout the social enterprise sector in Kent is really important,” said Rebecca Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Social Enterprise Kent (SEK). “We find through networking and bringing people together at conferences, events and training sessions, it creates a touchpoint to spark ideas and raise issues. It’s about bringing people together as a team and not working in silos is what makes the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector stronger.” Our member SEK have nurtured this impact community as they have done for the past 40 years. To find out more, we visited them at their new, volunteer-run SE Kitchen, now their second social supermarket in the county after Ramsgate. Ashford MP Sojan Joseph visiting the SE Kitchen They transformed this former art supply shop into a real community space, providing affordable and healthy grocery options from food charity FareShare as well as other suppliers working closely with local farmers (it is the garden of England after all). Of course, this work wouldn’t be possible without vital partnerships. In fact, they work with more than 100 partners, consistently delivering at least £1 millon a year in funding, allowing them to support great projects like the Social Impact Gateway or Thanet Social Enterprise Boost. From working with East Kent Health Care Partnership to highlight health inequalities to partnering with corporate organisations such as Amey for their Elevate programme creating apprenticeship opportunities for care leavers, they demonstrate how these conversations across organisations form a lynchpin of positive influence. After a delicious lunch provided by Lily’s Social Kitchen, we visited more of the local social enterprises which make up the rich network of organisations in our Places programme. These were some of the businesses championing the movement: Chatting with the volunteers at The Beehive Ashford The Beehive Ashford - a shop which not only sells second-hand clothes, but also provides skills workshops, a volunteer-run café, and hosts several clubs including knitting and a book club. It also offers women referred by local services a place to access free clothing. Made in Ashford - a vibrant and popular gift shop which started its life as a pop-up ten years ago. It houses the handmade craftworks of more than 70 artists from across Kent in-store and online. The Coachworks - a trendy, repurposed multi-use space by the train station hosting street food, live music and entertainment events, and workspaces. Going back to the central theme of collaboration, it shows there’s a concerted effort for social entrepreneurs in the area to pool their resources, doing much more for the community, local economy and environment than they could on their own. A spirit of camaraderie which helps deliver a better, holistic service. As a Social Enterprise Place, Ashford proves its status as a hot spot for social impact activity thanks to this ethos. Browsing the crafts at Made in Ashford Rebecca added: “It’s been fantastic having Social Enterprise UK down here to see our work. The theme has really been about collaboration across the board with other social enterprises and charities, the wider business community and our public sector partners. It makes our programmes better, allowing our entrepreneurs to be given the right tools and funding to solve the specific problems they are facing in their local community.” As our flagship data shows, there are more than 131,000 social enterprise businesses in the UK, all working towards benefitting people and planet in their own ways. Imagine the possibilities of replicating the collaborative efforts of the impact community we’ve seen here in Ashford across the whole country? This is why we do what we do, and we’re proud to see it going from strength to strength.

If the government was in any doubt about the challenges facing those starting social enterprises, a mixed group of stakeholders presented it with a vivid picture this week.   It was the most recent evidence delivered to the second roundtable of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on the Social, Cooperative and Community as part of their ongoing inquiry into growing diverse business models.   The highs and lows of social enterprise  Give Your Best (pictured above) was a side hustle that grew into a business for founder Sol Escobar and was supported by ‘tech for good’ grants from organisations such as Innovate UK. Escobar told the inquiry she didn’t know what a social enterprise was as her initiative first began to flourish and described how vital the support ecosystem was.   “I did every single incubator and accelerator I could possibly find, because … I didn't know how to grow this organisation, and they really have just taken me from step to step and taught me how to run this organisation and scale it to become revenue-generating,” Escobar said.  Now 800 to 2000 items of donated clothing are chosen by people in clothing poverty every week through the social enterprise, helping to tackle the £140m worth of clothing that is thrown away annually.   Starting a social enterprise might be an option if you have certain advantages, but what if you don’t? The financial implications for those in this situation were made stark by Bayo Adelaja, founder and CEO of Do it Now Now, which annually supports approximately 150 Black leaders of organisations with business training and grant funding. "Most of the people in our community are earning under £18,000 a year and 27% of them didn't attend university, but they remain pillars of their society and are leaders and changemakers within their community," Adelaja said. "The income they're receiving each year is approximately £32,000 and around 40% of that comes from the salary sacrifice of the directors themselves. The vast majority of them are working full-time jobs and about 40% of them have never received grant funding.”  Adelaja asked the APPG to consider how the government could put in places systems and processes that empower people who don't have the access, schooling or business training of others, but are creating social enterprises in response to communities that need services delivered annually. In particular, she recommended that funding not be project-based, with multi-year funding schemes introduced instead.   “We’ve limped our way through”  Escobar had earlier credited School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) as being instrumental in her development as a business founder. Whilst acknowledging that the “nudge economics” of SSE’s match trading grants and bringing social entrepreneurs together in supportive cohorts to bolster confidence had both worked well, SSE CEO Alistair Wilson was less optimistic about the support ecosystem in general.  "It is interesting to reflect that second-tier support organisations in this country are hanging by a thread. We've limped our way through the last 15 years, and many organisations have gone bust. If the government wants to see this sector thrive, they've got to get behind it in a more serious way," Wilson told the inquiry.  He went on to say that he thought the UK had slipped from being world-leading in social enterprise to “being in tenth place, if you’re lucky” and that he hoped the government would consider how to get the UK’s leading status back. Wilson was backed by Louise Cannon, Director of Social Entrepreneur Support at UnLtd, who also asked that long-term ecosystem building be considered by the government.   Matt Smith, CEO of social investor Key Fund made the point that support organisations like SSE were crucial for equipping passionate social entrepreneurs with the skills and experience to run a business. Like Wilson, he expressed concern at the lack of support organisations that existed now compared to 15 years ago.   Smith also thought that more grant funding could level the playing field in areas of unequal opportunity such as those described earlier in the session by Adelaja. “There's a gap where grants should be playing the role that friends and family would in more affluent communities,” he said.  Fellow social investor Seb Elsworth, CEO of Access called for more mainstream providers to participate in social investment, particularly the state-owned British Business Bank, which manages loan guarantee schemes aimed at SMEs and targets a rate of return of 1.5% for its overall portfolio. “We know most social enterprises are looking for relatively small-scale, flexible, patient, unsecured lending. Providing that kind of finance is difficult to do on a purely commercial basis,” said Elsworth.  Two further evidence-gathering sessions will be conducted before the APPG delivers a report to the government later this year.