Leading the World – what can UK social enterprises learn from the South East Asia perspective?

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.

GLL has been appointed by City of Lincoln Council as the interim operator for Yarborough and Birchwood Leisure Centres. This follows the immediate closure of both centres after the previous operator ceased trading on 3 April 2025.  GLL will manage the indoor and outdoor facilities at both leisure centres for an interim period of two years, ensuring the rapid restoration of vital leisure services for Lincoln residents. GLL is now working with the council to prepare both centres for reopening this summer.   Chris Hebblewhite, Director of Standards and Compliance at GLL said: "We look forward to working with City of Lincoln Council and the local community to reopen these facilities as quickly and safely as we can to deliver the best possible leisure services at Yarborough and Birchwood Leisure Centres.  "We'll be reaching out to customers this summer providing further details on programmes, memberships and the lessons & courses that will be available through our customer brand BETTER.  "Speaking as someone who was brought up in Lincoln and knows the city's leisure facilities well,  I greatly appreciate their importance to everyone’s health and wellbeing and therefore we are focused on preserving and enhancing that legacy. "Over the course of the next couple of months we’re replacing gym equipment and improving the look and feel of the facilities. There will also be employment opportunities with roles across fitness, customer services, lifeguarding and management." Cllr Naomi Tweddle, Leader of City of Lincoln Council, said:  "We are extremely pleased to confirm the appointment of GLL as our interim operator of these vital leisure centres.   “Their experience and proven capability will be essential in getting both Yarborough and Birchwood Leisure Centres back up and running for the community." GLL and City of Lincoln Council will work together to update residents as progress is made towards reopening both leisure centres.  gll.org