Thought leadership

As we wrote earlier in the summer, HM Government is running a consultation on how the English portion of reclaimed dormant assets should be spent (dormant assets being a financial product, such as a bank account, which has not been used for many years, and which the provider has been unable to reunite with its owner despite efforts aligned with industry best practice)The last round of dormant assets helped to create Big Society Capital and laid the platform for the social investment market. It created the Access Foundation. It created Fair For All Finance and the Youth Endowment Fund. These are all significant investments and interventions. Dormant assets matter.The consultation lasts until 9th October (this Sunday) and as promised, Social Enterprise UK has put together a template which you can download and send to the consultation – saving you time whilst making sure your voice is heard What do you need to do in five easy steps Download the template response. Insert the name of your social enterprise (Q2), the sector you work in (Q6) and the geography that your social enterprise operates across (Q8). Check that you are happy with the template response and add in any additional points you would like to make. Email dormantassetsconsultation@almaeconomics.com with a copy of the template and cc our Director of External Affairs - andrew.obrien@socialenterprise.org.uk so we can track response rates. If you are super-keen, you can also tweet @DCMS to tell them you have taken part in the consultation and you want dormant assets to help grow the social enterprise sector. Something like: I’ve taken part in the Dormant Assets Consultation 2022 because I want @DCMS to use dormant assets to invest in #socialenterprise through social investment and Community Wealth Funds. Once you have hit send you’ve done your bit to help the sector! What we are calling for We have two simple asks. One is for more money for social investment to address the issues raised by the Adebowale Commission on Social Investment.The Commission found that whilst social investment had helped some social enterprises, it had not fulfilled its potential due to a lack of flexible capital which could be deployed to provide “enterprise-centric” finance. It also found geographical and racial inequalities in the distribution of social investment.The Commission made several recommendations to address these challenges including the creation of a £50m black-led social investment fund to tackle inequalities faced by black-led social enterprises, putting more investment into place-led infrastructure and creating a “Frontiers Fund” to provide capital to give flexible finance into social enterprises.We need dormant assets to resolve these issues, to reform the market and get social enterprises the access to finance they need. Our second ask is to support the development of Community Wealth Funds. These funds would distribute locally administered pots of money which would be used to provide patient funding for social infrastructure – the community spaces and social enterprises that we depend upon and bring us together. This proposal is being championed by the Community Wealth Fund Alliance which includes Social Enterprise UK. We need to invest in our communities and dormant assets can provide some of the resources to do that.Both of these can be funded through dormant assets and they compliment each other. Don't miss your chance to have your say Unfortunately, just reading this email and nodding along won’t be taken into consideration by DCMS.The only way to have your say is to fill in their survey or download our template response and email it in (which will be quicker, I promise!).At a time when social enterprises need help to grow and sustain themselves, you can do your bit to help our sector get access to £738m of dormant assets.Don’t miss your chance to influence the decision By Andrew O'Brien - Director of External Affairs at Social Enterprise UK

This week the Labour Party gathered in Liverpool to mobilise its supporters, discuss policy ideas and develop their pitch to voters. It isn’t a secret that the mood in the Labour Party was very confident with events in the City and the financial markets only strengthening the sense within Labour that they could be on the cusp of returning to government. But what would a Labour Government mean for social enterprise? Would this be a new dawn for the sector? Don’t frighten the horses If there was a theme for the conference (beyond the strapline: A Greener, Fairer Future) it was responsibility. Labour wants to be seen as responsible stewards of the public finances. They want to be seen as responsible custodians of the NHS and public services. They want to be seen to be responsible on climate change. This responsibility manifested itself as a desire to avoid doing anything that could spook the media or business. Yes, Labour would create a new energy company – Great British Energy. But it will not sell energy directly to customers, that will remain with the current market providers. It won’t be nationalising any existing companies, it will work in partnership with what is already there. Yes, Labour will create a new National Wealth Fund, taking stakes in the projects the state invests in. But this is not new money. It is essentially a sub-section of the £28bn Labour has already promised on net zero. Yes, there would be more money for the NHS – but it would be funded by reversing the scrapping of the 45p tax rate – worth around £2bn a year or 1.4% increase. This is not to say that these are bad ideas. Far from it. However, those expecting that a massive poll lead was going to unleash radicalism or significant investment in public services are misjudging the mood. At the moment, the closer that Labour feels to victory, the more cautious the party becomes. All business is good business? Social Enterprise UK attended a number of events and discussions at the Conference on business. The mood was generally positive. Labour wants to collaborate with business and businesses, seeing the way the wind is blowing, want to collaborate with Labour. Again and again the phrase “partnership with business” echoed throughout the meeting rooms. Labour would not “lecture” business. Labour believed that businesses want to do the “right thing”. But do they? Is all business good business? Business can be a powerful force for good, but that does not mean that all businesses are interested in unleashing that potential. This is where Labour needs to be more sceptical and look back on the performance of the British economy over the past forty years. If business as usual really worked, would we be in our current situation?  In parts of our sector, there is a view that given the alignment between the values of Labour and the values of social enterprises, a future Labour Government would naturally be a strong supporter of social enterprise. Investment and support will naturally flow from their electoral victory. The truth is more complicated. There was some good news at Conference. Social enterprises were referenced in Labour’s new industrial strategy, as was social value. The Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Angela Rayner, announced higher standards in public procurement – which we understand will include strengthening social value to help more SMEs and social enterprises. However, we still have work to do to convince Labour that talking about and investing in social enterprise is not rebuking the rest of the private sector, it is a pro-business measure. We have to remove that hesitation and get Labour to see social enterprise for what it is – the fastest growing form of business in Britain, firmly in the mainstream of our economy. Labour should not be worried about social enterprise, it should embrace it. If we can do this, we can get the investment and support our sector needs and make our economy fairer and greener for all. That will be Social Enterprise UK’s mission from now until the next election.   By Andrew O'Brien - Director of External Affairs at Social Enterprise UK

We are proud to partner with Social Enterprise UK on the Social Value 2032 programme, which we joined to raise awareness of the benefits social value can create and ultimately to encourage wider adoption of social value in procurement by both central and local government. Social value is an approach that considers the holistic impact of a product or service, looking not only at value for money but also at social and environmental benefits and consequences. We believe that wider adoption of social value can unlock billions of pounds’ worth of value for individuals and communities, and help to support an evolution of our economy that considers both people and planet. In Social Value 2032: Creating a Social Value Economy, we set out, along with fellow partners PwC, Siemens and Shaw Trust, a collective vision for social value over the coming decade. We include a case study about our work with Greater Manchester Combined Authority to develop a reuse hub for the city. The purpose of this was to bring reuse to Greater Manchester on a scale not seen before, through a hub for upcyling, repair and distribution that feeds a network of shops for pre-loved items. Together these provide work opportunities and prevent hundreds of thousands of items from being thrown away, conserving resources and cutting carbon emissions – all the while helping people in Manchester with the cost of living crisis and enabling them to access items that don’t cost the earth. This is the kind of exciting development that can happen through partnership between local authorities and service providers with a shared ambition for social value. Local and national government, as key investors in public services, have an important role to play in unlocking the benefits of social value. In the environmental services sector, we have seen a trend towards social value in procurement, with increased importance placed on outcomes for society and the environment in the competitive tender process by forward-looking authorities. Social and environmental issues typically used to account for around 2% of the weighting for supplier decisions. Now, in a growing number of Invitations To Tender, we see that figure at 10 or 15%. This puts an onus on all of us to respond to our customers’ changing needs to meet the growing public appetite for social value in the services they use. But this is only one way of thinking about social value. Social value is much more than a public sector issue, and should run far deeper within businesses than simply adapting to keep up with demand. At SUEZ, our adoption of a ‘triple bottom line’ approach – where we strive to consider and balance people, planet and profit throughout our business – has driven improvements that go beyond whether we can meet the brief for a given project. Our journey towards social value began about 13 years ago. At the time, the environmental services industry was dominated by landfill, with far less emphasis on reuse and recycling than today. We recognised this and were determined to take a leading role in addressing the wider impacts of the services we provide. Partly this stemmed from the personal convictions of our leadership team, who were committed to looking for ways to improve our business practices. Early forays into social value took a project-based approach, which revealed the potential impact we could have, but flagged to us the need to be more joined up and think about how we could make changes across the business. Our CEO, John Scanlon, took up his post in November 2019 and, having worked across many parts of the business, had seen first-hand how we could optimise the benefits arising from our work delivering essential services to local communities the length and breadth of the country, whilst remaining a profitable enterprise. He led efforts to develop a more strategic approach, putting together a team including leads for environment and sustainable development, and sustainability and social value. The resulting strategy, which is best summarised as our ‘triple bottom line’, is now embedded in all parts of the business and continues to evolve how we operate. The approach, while governed from the top of the organisation, is owned by everyone in the business. We have built social value into all our work. Our bonus structure requires senior colleagues to deliver on social and environmental success measures, and staff are closely involved with implementing the strategy in the most appropriate ways for their part of the business by developing local initiatives. We operate across about 280 sites and each of these has a sustainability champion, who is tasked with thinking about how we can make operational changes at ground level to benefit the environment and our local communities. This is guided by our ten Sustainability Principles, developed using staff feedback on where they see the greatest opportunities to make a difference at a local level.  Examples include one site where our staff repurposed a wind turbine to generate energy for the site, removed single use plastic cups and helped a local school with their biodiversity projects. We’ve found that these small changes add up to a big overall impact – for our environmental and social impact, and our bottom line. Social value is increasingly an area of interest for new recruits joining the business. We are much more frequently asked by candidates about what we are doing in this area. We recognise the importance to employee engagement of helping our people to live up to their personal values through the work they do. Our social value story points to a virtuous cycle. In building our strategy to maximise the social and environmental benefits of our work, we are helping to meet the demands of our employees and customers. This in turn makes us a better partner and strengthens our business. For more information about the Social Value 2032 programme click here. Social Value 2032 partners:

Loneliness, living alone and poor social connections are as bad for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Half a million older people go at least five or six days a week without seeing or speaking to anyone and since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, these problems have increased drastically. In society we are also faced with the ongoing cost of living rises, and younger people are being priced out of towns and villages when looking for an affordable place to live. In 2021 house prices rose again with the average house price in September 2021 at a record high of £270,000; £28,000 (11.8%) higher than September 2020, making it even harder for young people to save towards purchasing their first home. At Homeshare UK we are working with our network of providers to tackle these two key issues by bringing together people with spare rooms with people who are happy to chat and lend a hand around the house in return for accommodation. Together, householders and homesharers share home life, time, skills and experience. Typically, an older householder with a room to spare will be carefully matched with a younger person who will provide around 10 hours of support in exchange for affordable and sociable accommodation. Daily living tasks are part of this support, such as cooking, cleaning, shopping and providing companionship. “Due to the ongoing housing crisis in many locations across the UK, the majority of our homesharers are now aged between 26-35 (67%), including young professionals, university students as well as public sector workers, all of who need affordable accommodation and a place to call home.” – Deborah Fox, Head of Homeshare UK “Perfect catch, perfect match!” Each and every Homeshare match is very different from the next. For many people, it is their concerns about becoming isolated or lonely that lead them to Homeshare. For others, still socially connected and very much valuing their own space, it is the reassurance of having someone else around that is key to them welcoming someone new into their home. In Valerie’s case it is the latter; she is 84, friendly, sociable and values her independence and time alone. At the same time, she recognises that the presence of someone else in the house, particularly at night, is most reassuring, not just to herself but to her brother Bill, who lives a couple of hours drive away. Tomi, 24, a Film Studies Masters student from Slovenia, has been welcomed into Valerie’s home and is described by her as “the perfect catch!” Valerie says, “Tomi is such a lovely person to have around. I really enjoy our conversations. I actually see Homeshare as a way of keeping in touch with today’s fast-moving modern world too.” Reflecting on his Homeshare experience, Tomi describes Homeshare as being a way to learn as well as teach, to help and be helped; in short, an enriching reciprocity. “To be honest”, he says, “it’s like a dream come true. Living in a lovely home with a lovely person and within my limited budget. Being of help to someone is also a really important part of it for me”. Tomi and Valerie – Photo Courtesy of Homeshare Oxfordshire Bill, Valerie’s brother, continues to visit on a regular basis, but with a Homeshare arrangement in place he knows Tomi is there and is more than happy to help with the small things that inevitably crop up. “I don’t need to worry if I can’t get hold of Valerie on the phone. A quick call to Tomi puts my mind at rest”, Bill says. “Homeshare, to me, is reassurance”.   The expansion of Homeshare UK Homeshare UK is part of Shared Lives Plus – the UK membership charity for more than 6,000 Shared Lives carers, 150 Shared Lives programmes, and a growing network of over 20 Homeshare providers. Our vision is for a kinder, stronger society built around people sharing their lives, skills, and homes. We are currently driving forward an ambitious five-year growth strategy that will bring Homeshare to key towns and cities across the UK. “Gabby has been living with me for over a year and Homesharing is working really well. She is a super cook and great company. I enjoy our chats together over a meal in the evenings and she’s very helpful with things I can’t manage around the house.”– Margaret Householder, Novus Homeshare Your next business could change lives Working with socially-minded individuals, community and voluntary organisations as well as existing social care providers we are aiming to establish 40 new Homeshare franchise opportunities in locations currently not serviced. “To reflect our passion for growth, the cost of our social franchise is among the very lowest in the franchise sector. Our franchisees will be provided with the support, training, and resources to set up and operate a successful Homeshare social business.” – John Wilberforce, Homeshare UK Social Franchise Manager For more information on Homeshare UK and our franchising opportunities, visit  https://homeshareuk.org/

For so many of us, the pandemic was a chance to revisit our passions, ambitions and dreams for the future.  For me, it was also a chance to try starting my own enterprise – a social impact venture in the education sector.  Here are three things all early-stage social entrepreneurs should know. Uncertainty actually brings opportunity As entrepreneurs (and as humans!), we’re often not a fan of uncertainty.  We want to be sure about things, with our next steps planned out and a set of predictable consequences.  Life, of course, is never this simple – but the last year or so has delivered much more uncertainty than normal.  So, how should we respond?  How can we plan for all the possible eventualities of a pandemic year? The invitation for all entrepreneurs – and especially those starting new ventures during this time – is to see pandemic challenges as bringing new opportunities.  Every major industry has been impacted by the events of 2020-2021, and it’s clear that some are more willing to capitalise on this change than others.  As social impact entrepreneurs, we’re uniquely placed to listen carefully to the market, and respond with a solution that is timely, relevant and important.  We can ask ourselves: what’s the real need that I’m trying to address with my business solution?  How has this need been impacted by the pandemic?  And then, armed with the answer to those questions, we can craft a creative, relevant solution. The next normal awaits It’s clear that the theme of uncertainty will continue to be prominent as we move into the ‘next normal’, but there will also be a lot of other important themes coming into view.  For example, themes of innovation, or disruption, or creative rebuilding.  We’ve been given a unique opportunity to play a part in constructing the post-pandemic world, and it’s up to us – collectively – to decide what comes next. As entrepreneurs, we’re perfectly placed to think creatively about the systems, markets and industries we’re working within.  What will the ‘next normal’ look like for your particular sector?  How will behaviours and preferences change?  How can we shape our actions to create a world we actually want to live in? And on a personal level, as individual entrepreneurs, we’re given a chance to redefine our own working lives.  Many of us will have experienced remote work, and decided not to return to the office.  Perhaps you’re part of the ‘great resignation’ – the movement away from the work you previously did, and towards something different; more exciting.  Either way, we have the option to see ourselves as creators of our own working lives.  How do we want our days to be structured?  When are we most productive, and how can we support this with our schedules?  What do we most enjoy doing, and how can we do more of it?  These are questions about the ‘next normal’ that every entrepreneur has the ability to determine for themselves. It can be a lonely journey, but it doesn’t have to be One of the biggest things that struck me, shortly after leaving my corporate job, was the isolation of being a solo founder.  Without a network of colleagues, supervisors and mentors, entrepreneurs can end up feeling alone.  It can be difficult to explain your exact feelings about your business, or the challenges faced in a start-up, to someone who doesn’t have any knowledge of what you’re talking about. But it doesn’t have to be that way.  The shift to digital work has opened up endless opportunities for networking, connection and interaction.  Joining networks (like Social Enterprise UK) can be a huge support as you begin the process of building something new – use them to your advantage! And finally, as you go about your entrepreneurial journey – noticing the opportunities amongst the uncertainty, finding your feet in the ‘next normal’, and building up those connections around you – remember that you might just be part of a new wave of entrepreneurs who are stepping up during this time, to rebuild the world in a better way. AUTHOR BIO Eloise Skinner is a social impact entrepreneur, author and teacher.  She is the founder of The Purpose Workshop, a social impact consultancy, and One Typical Day, an ed-tech start-up.  Eloise’s book, The Purpose Handbook, was published in 2021.  You can find out more about Eloise on her website, or on LinkedIn. The Purpose Workshop The Purpose Workshop is a social impact consultancy, helping individuals and businesses navigate a sense of purpose, mission and values. We believe that purpose-focused work should be available to everyone, regardless of background or experience. As a business, our social mission is to channel profits into creating educational resources, shared with our network of schools free of charge. thepurposeworkshop.uk

Diversity and Ability is a pioneering social enterprise led by and for disabled people. It supports individuals and organisations to create inclusive cultures where diversity is celebrated and people can thrive. Based in Brighton, 85% of its team identify as neurodiverse and/or disabled. The social enterprise provides one-to-one support to people through the education system, runs training and workshops for workplaces and institutions and also runs an international programme which spreads its message of inclusivity and educates people on the practical means through which they can better understand and welcome disabled people. They work to redefine how society views disability, actively working to break down barriers that limit the opportunities and freedoms of disabled people to flourish through centering the importance of lived experience Reframing the discussion Two core modes of thinking run across the social enterprise’s work which inform all of its programmes – the idea of disablement and that of intersectionality. Far from being academic buzzwords these principles are used to both empower marginalised groups and shift attitudes amongst the wider population. The concept of disablement originates in the social model of disability and the disabling situations in which people are placed. Framing things this way shifts the emphasis away from how an individual can change to fit in, to addressing the social barriers which result in people being excluded. In the words of Chief Executive Atif Choudhury, Diversity and Ability’s model looks at “what is a disabling situation and how do we change it”. The second principle of intersectionality recognises the importance and diversity of lived experience respecting how different people live different lives. An understanding of how race, gender, class, sexuality and other aspects of identity interact with each other and with the social concept of ‘disability’ is core to their work allowing the social enterprise to better tailor support and create system wide change. Using the examples of epilepsy, muscular dystrophy or cerebral palsy, Atif highlighted that how individuals experience these conditions is heavily influenced by socio-economic status, their support networks, sense of shame and trauma. Having an intersectional lens allows you to look beyond medical diagnoses to look at how society creates situations of disablement. “Intersectionality is just about basic respect – respecting the idea that people have different experiences to share and that they have been categorised again and again for the convenience of others” What does this look like in practice? Diversity and Ability is underpinned by the desire to “pave the way for a future where everyone is welcomed and included” and all their work, be that with individuals or with organisations is undertaken with this in mind. The social enterprise runs one-to-one support sessions for young people facing disablement providing individualised peer support through further education, higher education and on into the workplace. These are delivered by trainers with shared lived experience of disablement themselves. Individuals are provided with assistive technology training, mental health mentoring, study skills tutoring and also workplace strategy support and coaching. Assistive technology is tech that can help remove a barrier that is presented to an individual, allowing people to fully participate. This can include things like screen readers, screen masks or software to speak into which writes copy. It can also in a wider context refer to items such as glasses or even apps like Google Maps which addresses barriers of access. Diversity and Ability partner with businesses and universities on their Diversity and Inclusion agendas, centering once again the lived experiences of disablement and intersectionality. This work is not just limited to the UK and the business works with grassroots organisations around the world to transform perceptions around disablement and create environments where difference is celebrated. They work to put in place disability needs assessments that are enabling for an individual and which take advantage of free open-source technology. The work with organisations is similar to that with individuals – focused on shifting the language used and how environments can be changed in order to create “an anticipatory welcome for everyone.” Work with students is funded by the Disabled Students Allowance and Access to Work schemes as well as earned income through organisational training programmes and the social enterprise’s international work. “if it’s not intersectional, how can it be relevant” The lens of disablement and intersectionality is applied throughout these three workstreams of individual support, organisational training and international work. Diversity and Ability deliberately challenge the habit of corporate diversity and inclusion work to break off conversations into silos of race, gender, sexuality and disability recognising that dividing lived experience into silos takes away from the full experiences of individuals. As senior communications officer Ellie Thompson puts it “that’s not how disablement is experienced, that’s not how life is experienced”. In this way when a workshop is run on understanding disability and celebrating neurodiversity an understanding is established that these are not universal experiences with each disabled or neurodiverse persons experience being set within their other lived experiences. Shifting the narrative Diversity and Ability is helping reframe the entire discussion on disability, shifting the narrative to one focused on the societal challenges which place people within a situation of disablement. Their commitment to this and to intersectionality has led them to not just work within the education systems and in EDI training but to partner with organisations such as Crisis, St Mungo’s and Homeless Link to tackle homelessness and digital exclusion through building digital literacy skills. Over the pandemic they worked with local and national charities to provide internet access to those in emergency accommodation in the Brighton area, providing 100 tablets and Wi-Fi dongles as well as delivering personalised digital skills training workshops to digitally excluded people throughout the country. Research carried out by UnLtd and the New Economics Foundation has proven the incredible impact the social enterprise is creating showing that for every £1 spent on Diversity and Ability’s services a return of £16.55 of social value is created. When expanded to look across their higher education work this translates to £9.48 million of social cost-benefit a year. Diversity and Ability’s work is helping broaden the conversation on what disablement means and the harm done when society prevents the meaningful participation of so many people. As Atif puts it “D&A isn’t really about assistive technology or disabilities, it’s about participation and what does it take to meet that participation. What are the barriers involved in preventing meaningful participation and what do we lose as a whole civil society when we lose that meaningful participation” With only around 53% of disabled people in work compared to 81% of other people[1],  the work done by Diversity and Ability also raises an important challenge for the social enterprise community – how can we do more to address barriers to participation and inclusion so difference is celebrated and lived experience is at the centre of our work? As businesses committed to social justice and reducing inequalities it is important that we challenge an economy and society which creates disabling situations in order to strive towards the fairer future we are working towards.  Based on an interview with Atif Choudhury and Ellie Thompson at Diversity and Ability diversityandability.com