Policy + Research
Commentary
Comprehensive Spending Review: Review of the role of the Third Sector
in social and economic regeneration
Consultation with the Third Sector
Background
Social Enterprise London (SEL) was established in 1998 as the regional
agency tasked with the job of promoting social enterprise in London.
SEL works with individuals, enterprises, organisations, government and
other statutory bodies to provide enterprising solutions to social and
environmental challenges and to create new ways of doing business. Our
mission is to grow or cultivate social enterprise in London.
We are led by a Board that brings together some of the country’s
leading social entrepreneurs including Greenwich Leisure Limited, Day
Chocolate Company, Coin Street Community Builders, ECT Group and Hackney
Co-operative Developments.
We are the social enterprise strategic partner to organisations including
the London Development Agency, the Association for London Government
and the Government Office for London.
SEL works with third sector organisations seeking to increase their
sustainability and commerciality. Our mission is to increase the size
and scale of social enterprise in London. We aim to achieve this by working
with communities, organisations and individuals to help them achieve
their social and commercial objectives.
As a representative for London’s social enterprises, SEL is pleased
to submit this response to highlight the role that third sector organisations,
including social enterprise, can play in economic and social regeneration.
Key Points
This paper highlights responses to the key themes and questions raised
by the HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office in the Consultation (see Appendix
1).
Theme A: Cohesive communities and building voices for citizens
Social enterprises are embedded in their local communities and can tailor
service delivery to the needs of the community thereby enabling social
inclusion and empowerment. They not only renew and anchor communities
by mobilising the creativity, compassion, and collectiveness of the ordinary
people, they also engage and empower them. In doing so social enterprises
provide systematic solutions that can help to sustain regeneration in
communities.
Some of the key issues include:
- In addition to empowering communities by providing them with skills
and training, it is also critical for the government to examine models
of empowerment and engagement that are perhaps not ‘typical’ i.e.
examine some models where for example communities have set up and developed
a social enterprise despite facing language and cultural barriers.
These businesses have often evolved from utilising skills that existed
within the community but were untapped. Examples include a business
that employs women living in Council housing to provide them with training
and professional cleaning contracts, another which has developed an
ironing service, another which is providing catering services etc
- While in the long-run in order to ensure a cohesive community it
is important to have a common language, in the short term in order
to engage with diverse communities we should promote and facilitate
the use of community languages.
- Develop links with local communities and national networks in order
to make sure that the change that is being led from the ground level
feeds into local and central government policies.
- Develop the skills of people that are working in the sector in terms
of engaging with other sections of the economy.
- Need to get organisations together and form clusters. There are lots
of networks out there but some are more useful than others e.g. Hackney
has HTEN, HCVS, HCD, Hackney voluntary action etc.
- Use the networks that exist properly to pass on information, do joint
bids and reduce the number of meetings which might help engage people
more.
Question to LSEN members: Are there any other ways
in which you feel social enterprise can contribute to developing cohesive
communities and building voices for citizens
Theme B: Partnership working to deliver a shared agenda
Third sector organisations should be working in partnership with the
public and private sector in a constructive engagement and one that recognises
the unique capabilities and skills within each. The third sector including
social enterprises could benefit from engaging with the public sector
in delivering public sector contracts, additionally they could benefit
from the skills and experience of the private sector. Outlined below
are some of the specific issues:
- In ten years the compact should be invisible, having done its job
in fostering clear and open lines of communication between the sector
and government
- Relationships between the public/private sector and the third sector
should look to be more committed and useful. Parties should avoid following
trends and only enter into working relationships with proven potential
for the benefit of various stakeholders. Joint collaborations between
the three stakeholders should be promoted.
- As it now stands, we see many links between the public and the third
sector but not as many with the private sector. This should be developed
further. The private sector should be recognised as a resource that
should be utilised. Government agencies can create a neutral umbrella
for the third sector to meet with the private sector to find ways in
they can collaborate on different community initiatives.
- The private sector can provide training and support to third sector
organisations. The government can look to recognise this assistance
in the form of tax-relief for non-financial donations.
- The private sector can be viewed not only as a source of philanthropy,
skills and experience, but also as a business engagement opportunity
for social enterprises. Social enterprises can be competitive suppliers
to the private sector, with subsequent social and local engagement
benefits. Such relationships are not currently commonplace, as there
is a dislocation in large private sector companies between their CSR
Policy and their Procurement objectives. Such supply chain initiatives
should be encouraged and promoted to the private sector as fulfilling
part of the CSR mission.
- The government can foster a climate whereby private business is motivated
by the positive contributions it can make to the economy and society
as a whole, as oppose to concentrating on maximising private gain as
a main aim.
- In order to help people compete more effectively there is need to
reduce the amount of paperwork required. For example, ESF funding requires
people to keep paperwork for over 20 years. This is both timely and
costly.
Question to LSEN members: Are there any other particular
issues that social enterprises can face in working in partnership with
the public and private sector?
Theme C: Promoting innovation and enterprise
Social enterprises are innovative because of how quickly and creatively
they respond to social issues. The emergence of social enterprise is
often seen as a solution to various emerging problems in the community.
Some examples of the variety and the scope of social enterprise include:
Affordable childcare - Precious Kids
Day Nursery operates as workers co-operative and provides nursery facilities
for children up to five years. Westminster Children’s Society with
over 16 nurseries in Westminster provides affordable childcare and is
a major consulting stakeholder for new childcare developments
Affordable housing - Coin Street Community
Builders was established by local residents in 1984 and has worked to
revitalize London’s South Bank. They also have social housing,
which is subsidized by income generating businesses. Another example
includes Peter Bedford a housing association that provides social housing
to mental health tenants and to those with learning difficulties
Recycling and waste treatment -
London Remade, London Community Recycling Network, Greenworks work to
provide solutions to recycling and waste
Transportation - Hackney
Community Transport which operates Mainline bus routes recently merged
with Southwark and Lambeth Community Transport and will become one the
largest social enterprises in London
Health care - South East London Doctor’s
Co-operative working to promote cost effective quality healthcare with
real community involvement, and
Leisure-based regeneration -
GLL delivering leisure contracts for several boroughs with an unparalleled
track record in training and personal development for local communities.
Given the variety of areas where social enterprises exist, there are
some key issues relating to innovation and enterprise.
- The Government can embed and mainstream enterprise and innovation
in the sector by increasing its support to social enterprise – not
in general but through specific and targeted interventions. In March
2006 Senscot and Communities Scotland published the results of a survey
of 111 social enterprises. The report ‘Support Needs in the Social
Enterprise sector: one size doesn’t fit all’ led with the
finding that “Social enterprises mainly want support from experienced
social enterprise practitioners who understand the sector but who have
the necessary skills to provide quality advice. Providing this support
should be funded.” (Haldane Associates, p.3, March 2006). This
finding is consistent with all previous research.
- Different social enterprises in different sectors using different
legal structures at different stages of growth need differentiated
types of support. There is a need to provide support ‘up the
growth path’ but in particular there is a need to recognise the
higher level of resource required to support start-up social enterprises.
- The culture of benefits and the social housing system often creates
a state of inertia which prevents various members of the community
from seeking skills, training and employment. The benefits of being
on welfare sometimes outweighs the benefits from employment leading
to people unemployment and social exclusion. The government should
look to the welfare-to-work models in the U.S. to examine and pilot
changes in the benefits system which will encourage and motivate people
to engage in employment and also enterprise.
- Local authorities and other public service bodies can build in social
and environmental criteria by properly assessing their impacts, both
positive and negative, on a regular basis. The government should look
to incorporate these outcomes within public sector contracts e.g. through
Social Return on Investment, social accounting, Balanced Scorecard
etc
- The government can reduce the risk averse culture by communicating
the specific and relevant benefits of becoming more innovative and
enterprising.
Social enterprises in the London region will, in future, look just
like conventional businesses. They will be professional businesses
that are delivering public and private sector contracts.
- The Government can value and recognise social benefits, in a theoretical
way by placing more importance on the community rather than the individual,
and in a practical way by investing in research into long term impact
assessment.
- Think about setting up an innovation fund for people to tap into
for research and development of new products and services.
Question to LSEN members: Are there any other specific
ways in which you feel social enterprise promotes innovation and enterprise?
Theme D: Creating a culture of volunteering and mentoring
Some of the key issues include:
- The business world has a lot to offer in the way of skills transfers,
however this is only on a specialist basis and requires both careful
needs assessments, and medium to long term commitment by volunteers
to specific projects or objectives. There is no need to attract more
corporate volunteers, rather to attract the right kind of corporate
volunteer
- There are also opportunities for linking volunteers to enterprise,
for example providing training and mentoring for the volunteers to
produce goods and services which can then be traded. The proceeds could
then be re-invested to develop the training for the volunteers and
also back into the community.
- Need to work with organisations like Primetimers and others who encourage
the older workforce to get involved and find projects where collaboration
works well.
Question to LSEN members: Can you think of any other
way in which social enterprises can contribute to developing volunteering
and mentoring?
Theme E: Future role of the sector in shaping and delivering public
services
Social enterprise serves as an innovative solution to issues of social
exclusion by combining a public service ethos at community level with
an entrepreneurial approach. Changes to healthcare can be driven by communities
and the providers embedded within them.
Some of the key issues include:
- Public services such as childcare, healthcare and leisure are being
delivered by democratically owned social enterprises. These are models
that need to be examined as they are providing quality services with
added social benefits.
- Public sector procurement tends to be bureaucratic, therefore does
not favour organisations with limited funds and time to tender. This
could be streamlined.
- Training on public procurement procedures should be widely available
to sectors under-represented in the government's supply base.
The new forum "Supply2.gov" intended to open up opportunities
to all potential suppliers to tender for low value contracts should
become mandatory for all public procurement falling below the monetary
threshold of European Union Procurement Directives.
- The European Parliament has passed a new Consolidated Directive,
coming into effect in 2006, which includes a change to enable consideration
of social and environmental issues in public procurement contracts.
Such criteria should now commonly be used as part of the competitive
tender award criteria.
- Showing best practice to others, encourage local authorities to use
social enterprises, lobby for more people to think social enterprise
when purchasing, encourage growth of social enterprises.
Question to LSEN members: What do you think is the
role of social enterprise in shaping and delivering public services?
Theme F: Creating a sustainable resource base
Some of the key issues include:
- There is need for co-ordination between funders and supporters to
ensure that projects and programmes can manage long term sustainability
through a variety of funding streams.
- In terms of skills development we also need to look at the developing
the capacity and capabilities of third sector organisations to bid
for public sector contracts. This will be very important in order to
help these organisations be sustainable in the long-term.
- Another key issue is the financial skills of people trying to set
up a business, and particularly social enterprise are quite low and
this is something that needs to be addressed.
- In terms of asset development, communities are already using assets
to develop a sustainable resource base. Examples include Walworth Garden
Farms which is a social enterprise that has transformed a former derelict
site into a farm. The Farm provides horticultural training for the
long term unemployed residents of Southwark and employment to carry
out maintenance jobs. Models such as this provide examples of how social
enterprise has and can contribute to social and environmental sustainability.
Question to LSEN members: Are there other ways in which
you think is social enterprise can play a role in creating a sustainable
resource base?
Role of SEL
SEL believes that immediate priorities are to:
- Work with the HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office to provide a voice
for the London Social Enterprise Network members.
- Liase with the HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office to provide them
with detailed information about the sectors and industries where social
enterprises exist in London
- Provide links to local authorities through the LA Connects programme,
and to other stakeholders via the London Social Economy Taskforce for
which SEL serves as the secretariat.
Social Enterprise London
September 2006
Appendix 1
Consultation review questions from the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury
Theme A: Cohesive communities and building voices for citizens
- What more needs to be done at local level with individuals in diverse
communities to empower themselves and make their voices heard?
- How can the sector be best supported to reflect the communities they
serve?
- What skills development do individuals working in the sector need?
- What national, regional and local structures do we need to support
the development of skills in the sector?
- How can participation structures be flexible to allow a variety of
participation across the communities, ranging from those who sit on
committees to those who want to get involved in one-off events?
- How can Government work with the sector to encourage diverse communities
in urban and rural areas to improve participation and engagement in
the democratic process?
- What more needs to be done to ensure that faith communities play
their full part in the third sector?
- What more needs to be done to ensure that other diverse communities,
particularly black and minority ethnic groups, lesbian, gay, bi-sexual
and transgender groups, and disabled people, are properly represented
in the third sector?
- How can diverse groups maintain their identity and at the same time
play a part in community cohesion?
Theme B: Partnership working to deliver a shared agenda
- What do we want the national compact to look like locally in ten
years time?
- What will the future relationship between the public/private and
third sector look like in your region? What specific action does government
need to take to aid effective future relationship in your area?
- Specifically, how can the private sector assist the third sector
in achieving its goals (e.g. philanthropy; sustained volunteering/mentoring
including through lending skills such as financial skills to the organisation,
volunteering within schemes administered by the organisation and assistance
to the organisation itself)
- What can Government do to facilitate/encourage third sector/private
sector partnership?
- What specifically can Government do to reduce unnecessary demands
made on you and ensure that regulation helps rather than hinders you?
- What more can we do to foster effective partnerships between third
sector organisations, Government (local, regional and national) and
local bodies such as Primary Care Trusts, so that they reflect diversity
of communities and interests?
- What prevents partnership working at the local level; what hinders
black, minority ethnic groups, disabled people, lesbian, gay, trans
sexual and transgender groups and faith groups from working together
and working with other groups?
Theme C: Promoting innovation and enterprise
- How can Government help to embed and mainstream innovation and enterprise
locally, regionally and nationally?
- How can Local Authorities and other public service bodies build in
social and environmental criteria to fulfil their duty of well being?
- What more can Government do to reduce risk adverse culture locally
and regionally?
- What will social enterprises in your region look like in the future?
- How can Government value and recognise social benefits?
- What will the national, regional, local system of incentives look
like for social enterprises?
Theme D: Creating a culture of volunteering and mentoring
- What more can Government do to support all types of volunteering
in the local community? In what areas should we be expecting people
to volunteer and mentor in ten years time?
- What are the main drivers/barriers to volunteering (e.g. financial,
institutional, perception, time), and are any of them perceived rather
than real?
- What can Government do to address these issues (e.g. maximise the
benefits and tackle the barriers)?
- How can Government help you to harness the benefits of demographic
change to attract older volunteers? Are older volunteers interested
in intergenerational volunteering (i.e. are they keen to work with
young people?)?
- How can we increase the diversity of volunteers?
- What does the business world have to offer, and how can we attract
more corporate volunteers?
Theme E: Future role of the sector in shaping and delivering public
services
- What would your ideal model for public services look like in ten
years time?
- How can you help to shape and design and deliver the new model of
public services in your area?
- How can you help to access or deliver the new model of public services
in your area?
- In what areas will the third sector be delivering services and where
they will not wish to be?
- What transformation is needed in public service procurement at local
level to achieve flexibility and meet the duty of well being placed
on Local Government?
- What role do you think diverse communities will play in the delivery
of services? What more does the government need to do to make this
happen?
- What can Government do to help you build the evidence base for what
works on the ground especially with respect to preventative services?
- What more can Government do so that your effective activities can
be scaled and/or replicated to benefit more people?
Theme F: Creating a sustainable resource base
- What will the structure, staff and funding for the sector look like
in the region in ten years time?
- What skills will the third sector workforce and volunteers need and
how can we ensure that they get them?
- What will small community based organisations in your area look like
in ten years time? What more can government do to make your vision
a reality?
- How can communities own assets and use them to develop a sustainable
resource base?
- What needs to be done to increase individual giving?
- Are there resources in diverse communities, which be resources for
the wider community? Are there barriers to the use of resources in
diverse communities?
