Addressing the funding gap of LGBTQ+ support organisations – can social investment be part of the solution?

This report addresses the structural barriers facing social enterprises delivering health and care services, sets out the interventions needed to embed provider pluralism, and makes the case for social enterprise as a central delivery partner in NHS reform. This report builds on our 2025 publication, Ahead of the Curve on Healthcare, which drew on independent data analysis by Baxendale and demonstrated that social enterprises are already delivering the shifts set out in the Government’s 10 Year Plan. Where that report showed that social enterprise models work, this report examines how the system is failing to support them - preventing them from scaling and, in many cases, actively undermining their ability to continue to operate successfully. It sets out targeted, non-legislative interventions to remove those barriers and unlock the contribution of social enterprises.

This report, published by the Social, Cooperative and Community Economy All-Party Parliamentary Group, examines why public procurement is still not consistently delivering social value, despite the legislative framework created by the Social Value Act, the Procurement Act 2023 and the National Procurement Policy Statement. Drawing on evidence from social enterprises, local authorities, the private sector and civil society, the report highlights the structural barriers that continue to lock social enterprises out of markets they are often best placed to serve. It concludes with a series of recommendations for government, including reforming how social value is measured, creating a social enterprise verification system, and simplifying access to procurement for mission-led organisations.

In 2016, Social Enterprise UK launched the Buy Social Corporate Challenge – a groundbreaking initiative working with a group of high-profile businesses to collectively spend £1 billion with social enterprises through their procurement. This report covers progress on the Challenge from 2016 - 2025. Find out more about the impact of this programme, the opportunities it's created and how it has transformed the way big businesses use their procurement function. You'll also find out how close we now are to reaching that ambitious £1 billion target!